Anonymous Life was organised into four books; though this was not common in the literature of the day, it followed the organization of the metrical Vita Sancti Martini of Venantius Fortunatus, Gregory of Tours' De Virtutibus Sancti Martini and the Dialogi of Gregory the Great (containing an account of the life of Benedict of Nursia). This may be an indication that the author regarded Cuthbert as a saint of stature comparable with Benedict and Martin. The Anonymous Life's biggest literary influence was the Christian Scriptures, though it also borrowed some of the stories contained in Gregory's Dialogi, Sulpicius Severus' Vita Sancti Martini and the Vita Sancti Antonii, Evagrius' Latin translation of Athanasius' biography of Anthony the Great. This influence extends to long verbatim extracts, such as those from the Sulpicius Severus at book i chapter 2 and book iv chapter 1. The author was also familiar with Victor of Aquitaine's Epistola ad Hilarium and the Actus Silvestri. The primary source used however was the oral tradition of the Lindisfarne monks. Many of the men the author consulted were unnamed priests, deacons and other men respected in their communities, though some are named directly, namely Ælfflaed, Æthilwald, Plecgils, Tydi and Walhstod. Date and authorship The Anonymous Life was complete somewhere between 699 and 705. The posthumous miracles set after Cuthbert's translation in 698 make 699 the earliest possible date for a completed text. As the text also says that King Aldfrith "is now reigning peacefully", it must have been written before the latter's death in 705. The author of the Life of St Cuthbert has not been identified. Heinrich Hahn in 1883 put a case for Herefrith, the abbot of Lindisfarne mentioned as a source by Bede in his own Vita of the saint. Bertram Colgrave, the Anonymous Life's most recent editor, has roundly rejected Hahn's argument. While offering Baldhelm and Cynemund (two other sources of Bede) as better candidates, Colgrave did not endorse either and declared that "it must always be a matter of conjecture". From the text itself, and from the writings of Bede, it can be deduced that it was written by a monk of Lindisfarne. Bede, in his introduction to his Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, is almost certainly referring to this work when he wrote that What I have written concerning the most holy father and bishop Cuthbert, whether in this volume or in my little book