 Bede is somewhat reticent about the career of Wilfrid , a contemporary and one of the most prominent clerics of his day . This may be because Wilfrid 's opulent lifestyle was uncongenial to Bede 's monastic mind ; it may also be that the events of Wilfrid 's life , divisive and controversial as they were , simply did not fit with Bede 's theme of the progression to a unified and harmonious church . 
