ABSTRACT
"Anglo-Saxon" was most likely coined by King Alfred in the ninth century to distinguish members of the Angle and Saxon tribes from other Germanic islanders in Britain. According to St. Gildas, God decreed the "Saxon" revolt in direct retribution for the sins of the Britons—thus, in its first incarnation, the term "Saxon" served as heathen foil to the inconstant Briton. Gildas viewed the past as a guide to the present via Biblical revelation of divine providence working itself out in the life of the Christian and the world, past and present. Unlike Gildas, Venerable Bede is arguably the first historian to position the Anglo-Saxons within a positive nationalistic ideology. The popularity of Bede's Historia during its time and after arose from the fact that it detailed a successful conversion of a heathen people and, further, stood as testimony to the new culture that incorporates these tribes.
