But it must never be forgotten that in its origin it is wholly Roman, and not at all Anglo-Saxon.

Our people showed themselves singularly apt at embracing it, like the modern Polynesians, and unlike the American Indians; but they did not invent it for themselves.

Our existing culture is not home-bred at all; it is simply the inherited and widened culture of Greece and Italy.
The most perfect picture of the monastic life and of early English Christianity which we possess is that drawn for us in the life and works of Baeda.

Before giving any account, however, of the sketch which he has left us, it will be necessary to follow briefly the course of events in the English church during the few intervening years.
The Church of England in its existing form owes its organisation to a Greek monk.

In 667, Oswiu of Northumbria and Ecgberht of Kent, in order to bring their dominions into closer connection with Rome, united in sending Wigheard the priest to the pope, that he might be hallowed Archbishop of Canterbury.