Cuthbert's letter also relates a five-line poem in the vernacular that Bede composed on his deathbed, known as " Bede's Death Song ".

Bede relates the story of Augustine's mission from Rome, and tells how the British clergy refused to assist Augustine in the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons.

Whereas Adomnán just tells us that Columba visited Bridei, Bede relates a later, perhaps Pictish tradition, whereby the saint actually converts the Pictish king.

Bede relates that Paulinus told Edwin that the birth of his and Æthelburg's daughter at Easter 626 was because of Paulinus ' prayers.

On the other hand, if Coenred went willingly, as Bede relates, then the apparently friendly relationship between Offa and Coenred, his overlord, makes it clear that the relationship between an overlord and his underking was not hostile in every case.

Bede relates the death story as that of a man who was already regarded as a saint.

Bede relates how Sigeberht had become a pious king practising Christian forgiveness, but was soon murdered for his new attitude.

The Venerable Bede ( IV. 1 ) took notice of an anecdote concerning Ebroin in 668.

Because of his widespread correspondence with others throughout the British Isles, and due to the fact that many of the letters imply that Bede had met his correspondents, it is likely that Bede travelled to some other places, although nothing further about timing or locations can be guessed.

This, combined with Gildas's negative assessment of the British church at the time of the Anglo-Saxon invasions, led Bede to a very critical view of the native church.

However, Bede ignores the fact that at the time of Augustine's mission, the history between the two was one of warfare and conquest, which, in the words of Barbara Yorke, would have naturally " curbed any missionary impulses towards the Anglo-Saxons from the British clergy.

The story as reported in such sources as the Historia Brittonum and Gildas indicates that the British king Vortigern allowed the Germanic warlords, later named as Hengist and Horsa by Bede, to settle their people on the Isle of Thanet in exchange for their service as mercenaries.

The only surviving account of Augustine's meetings with the British clergy is that in the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum of the Northumbrian writer Bede.

Bede reports that Augustine is said to have then delivered a prophecy that the British church's failure to proselytize the Saxons would bring them war and death at their hands.

Bede implies that in the time of Augustine of Canterbury, British churches used a baptismal rite that was in some way at variance with the Roman practice.

According to Bede, the British Christians ' failure to " complete " the sacrament of Baptism was one of the three specific issues with British practice that Augustine could not overlook.

Bede explains how each of the four Evangelists was represented by their own symbol: Matthew was the man, representing the human Christ, Mark was the lion, symbolizing the triumphant Christ of the Resurrection, Luke was the calf, symbolizing the sacrificial victim of the Crucifixion, and John was the eagle, symbolizing Christ ’ s second coming ( The British Library Board ).

A plague in the British Isles, according to Bede, did the same there in 664.

Another significant detail which Bede added to Gildas ' account is to call Vortigern the king of the British people.

A few important Anglian centres in Bernicia bear names of British origin or are known by British names elsewhere: Bamburgh is called Din Guaire in the Historia Brittonum ; Dunbar ( where Saint Wilfrid was once imprisoned ) represents Dinbaer ; and the name of Coldingham is given by Bede as Coludi urbs (" town of Colud "), where Colud seems to represent the British form, possibly for the hill-fort of St Abb's Head.

The Historia Brittonum contradicts Bede regarding the treasure, saying that Penda distributed it among his British allies, which would presumably mean that he accepted it.

In early British Methodism, a number of women served as Local Preachers ( the heroine of George Eliot's Adam Bede is represented as one ).

Bede indicates that he was the son of Hengest, and came to Britain with him, with the permission of the British king Vortigern.

*" Power and prosperity in the Age of Bede and Beowulf ", Proceedings of the British Academy.

The eighth-century monk and chronicler Bede lists both Oswald and Oswiu as having held imperium, or overlordship, over the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms ; in Oswiu's case his dominance extended beyond the Anglo-Saxons to the Picts, the Gaels of Dál Riata, and the many obscure and nameless native British kingdoms in what are now North West England and southern Scotland.

An alternative theory is that Aust is the place where in 603, as the Venerable Bede records, Archbishop St. Augustine of Canterbury ( d. 604 ) ( not to be confused with St. Augustine of Hippo, d. 430 ) held a conference with the British bishops.

This theme was developed from Gildas ' work, which denounced the sins of the native rulers during the invasions, with the elaboration by Bede that the invasion and settlement of the British Isles by the Angles and Saxons was God's punishment for the lack of missionary effort and the refusal to accept the Roman date for celebrating Easter.

According to Bede, some bishops and other representatives of the nearest province of the Britons met Augustine at a location at the border of the Kingdom of Kent, which was thereafter known as Augustine's Oak.

The lack of evidence should not obscure the fact that Bede, who was after all a contemporary chronicler, summarized the situation of England in 731 by listing the bishops in office in southern England, and adding that " all these provinces, together with the others south of the river Humber and their kings, are subject to Æthelbald, King of the Mercians.

West Saxon occupation of the area did not last long, however, and may have ended as early as 584, the date of the battle of Fethanleag, according to the A. S. C., in which Cutha was killed and Ceawlin returned home in anger, and certainly by 603 when, according to Bede, Saint Augustine attended a conference of Welsh bishops " at St. Augustine's Oak on the borders of the Hwicce and the West Saxons ".

Bede places Egbert, and therefore Chad, among an influx of English scholars who arrived in Ireland while Finan and Colmán were bishops at Lindisfarne.

Bede generally uses ethnic, not geographical, designations for Chad and other early Anglo-Saxon bishops.

Nevertheless, Bede cannot conceal that Oswiu and Chad had broken significantly with Roman practice in many ways and that the Church in Northumbria had been divided by the ordination of rival bishops.

Sydney's first archbishop, John Bede Polding, was influential in the preparation of the Australian bishops ' pastoral letter on Aborigines in 1869 which advocated for Aboriginal rights and dignity.

Likewise, in his treatment of the conversion of the invaders, any native involvement is minimized, such as when discussing Chad of Mercia's first consecration, when Bede mentions that two British bishops took part in the consecration, thus invalidating it.

Whitby became known as a school for bishops, and produced five during Hilda ’ s supremacy, according to the Historia of Bede.

Bede also mentions that Berhtwald consecrated a number of bishops, including Tobias as Bishop of Rochester.

Writing in the eighth century, the Venerable Bede comments that King Æthelberht, " beside all other benefits that he of wise policy bestowed upon his subjects, appointed them, with his council of wise men, judicial dooms according to the examples of the Romans.

In writing of one miracle associated with Oswald, Bede gives some indication of how Oswald was regarded in conquered lands: years later, when his niece Osthryth moved his bones to Bardney Abbey in Lindsey, its inmates initially refused to accept them, " though they knew him to be a holy man ", because " he was originally of another province, and had reigned over them as a foreign king ", and thus " they retained their ancient aversion to him, even after death ".

* Bede writes On the reckoning of time ( De temporum ratione ) explaining how to calculate medieval Easter.

Nonetheless, it is important to observe that the authors, despite their relatively good access to sources concerning the synod, still wrote at a considerable distance, and the accounts, especially the quotations attributed to the participants, are more likely to be summaries of how Bede and Stephen understood the issue rather than something like true quotations.

658-680 AD., and Bede tells us that he was an illiterate herdsman to a monastery who one night in a dream learned how to sing beautiful Christian verses praising God's name.

Bede tells how after her death, Æthelthryth's bones were disinterred by her sister and successor, Abbess Seaxburh of Ely, and buried in a white, marble coffin from Cambridge.

Bede gives a long account of how Egbert fell dangerously ill in Ireland in 664 and vowed to follow a lifelong pattern of great austerity so that he might live to make amends for the follies of his youth.

According to Farmer, Bede took this idea from Gregory the Great, and illustrates it in his work by showing how Christianity brought together the native and invading races into one church.

However, as there are no surviving documents to indicate how these people described themselves, the most that can be said is that by the time Bede was writing ( early 8th century ), the phrase " West Saxons " had come into use by scholars.