Note 108
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, &c.) 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.]
The History Of The Decline And
Fall Of The Roman Empire
—Fall In The East
—Chapter 47