se, originally,
than a kind of chronological table of events, with a few
genealogies, and notices of the death and succession of kings and
other distinguished personages. But it is evident from the
preface of Bede and from many passages in his work, that he
received considerable assistance from Saxon bishops, abbots, and
others; who not only communicated certain traditionary facts
"viva voce", but also transmitted to him many written documents.
These, therefore, must have been the early chronicles of Wessex,
of Kent, and of the other provinces of the Heptarchy; which
formed together the ground-work of his history. With greater
honesty than most of his followers, he has given us the names of
those learned persons who assisted him with this local
information. The first is Alcuinus or Albinus, an abbot of
Canterbury, at whose instigation he undertook the work; who sent
by Nothelm, afterwards archbishop of that province, a full
account of all ecclesiastical transactions in Kent, and in the
contiguous districts, from the first conversion of the Saxons.
From the same source he partly derived his information respecting
the provinces of Essex, Wessex, East Anglia, and Northumbria.
Bishop Daniel communicated to him by letter many particulars
concerning Wessex, Sussex, and the Isle of Wight. He
acknowledges assistance more than once "ex scriptis priorum"; and
there is every reason to believe that some of these preceding
records were the "Anglo-Saxon Annals"; for we have already seen
that such records were in existence before the age of Nennius.
In proof of this we may observe, that even the phraseology
sometimes partakes more of the Saxon idiom than the Latin. If,
therefore, it be admitted, as there is every reason to conclude
from the foregoing remarks, that certain succinct and
chronological arrangements of historical facts had taken place in
several provinces of the Heptarchy before the time of Bede, let
us inquire by whom they were likely to have been made.

In the province of Kent, the first person on record, who is
celebrated for his learning, is Tobias, the ninth bishop of
Rochester, who succeeded to that see in 693. He is noticed by
Bede as not only furnished with an ample store of Greek and Latin
literature, but skilled also in the Saxon language and erudition
(26). It is probable, therefore, that he left some proofs of
this attention to his native language and as he died within a few
years of Bede, the latter