"Wyclif does not give Bede as his direct source for the idea that there had existed a state akin to the primitive Church in the English Church before the Conquest. However, it is clear that Bede's entire Historia Ecclesiastica put forth this point of view. Specifically, in his description of the life of St. Augustine and his followers after their arrival in Kent, Bede said that as they began their apostolate, they imitated "the life of the primitive Church"... It seems that Bede had a concept of a distinct English ecclesiastical tradition. Even the title Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum suggests this. In his epistle to archbishop Egbert, Bede complained about the Church he saw at the end of his own life as having departed from its earlier purity. It seems evident that Wyclif was influenced by Bede in his own development of a similar point of view and the resultant remarkably similar criticisms of his own ecclesiastical contemporaries."

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Theologians from EnglandScience authorsSaintsDoctors of the ChurchMonks
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Theologians from EnglandScience authorsSaintsDoctors of the ChurchMonks

Bede

Bede (c. 672/673–26 May 735) was an Anglo-Saxon historian, theologian and scientific writer; often called the Venerable Bede. His best-known work, the Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People) was completed in 731.

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