In the Lateran synod of 679, Wilfred, an Anglo-Saxon bishop, subscribed
pro omni Aquilonari parte
Britanniae et Hiberniae, quae ab Anglorum et Britonum,
necnon Scotorum et Pictorum gentibus colebantur (Eddius, in
Vit. St. Wilfrid. c. 31, apud Pagi, Critica, tom. iii. p.
88.) .
Theodore (magnae insulae Britanniae archiepiscopus et philosophus) was long expected at Rome, (Concil. tom. vii. p. 714,) but he contented himself with holding (A.D. 680) his provincial synod of Hatfield, in which he received the decrees of Pope Martin and the first Lateran council against the Monothelites (Concil. tom. vii. p. 597, etc.). Theodore, a monk of Tarsus in Cilicia, had been named to the primacy of Britain by Pope Vitalian (A.D. 688; see Baronius and Pagi), whose esteem for his learning and piety was tainted by some distrust of his national character
- ne quid contrarium veritati fidei, Graecorum more, in ecclesiam cui
praeesset introduceret.
The Cilician was sent from Rome to Canterbury under the tuition of an African guide (Bedae Hist. Eccles. Anglorum. l. iv. c. 1.). He adhered to the Roman doctrine; and the same creed of the incarnation has been uniformly transmitted from Theodore to the modern primates, whose sound understanding is perhaps seldom engaged with that abstruse mystery.