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 would naturally avail himself of his
labours. It is worthy also of remark, that Bertwald, who
succeeded to the illustrious Theodore of Tarsus in 690, was the
first English or Saxon archbishop of Canterbury. From this
period, consequently, we may date that cultivation of the
vernacular tongue which would lead to the composition of brief
chronicles (27), and other vehicles of instruction, necessary for