 The Historia Ecclesiastica has given Bede a high reputation , but his concerns were different from those of a modern writer of history . His focus on the history of the organisation of the English church , and on heresies and the efforts made to root them out , led him to exclude the secular history of kings and kingdoms except where a moral lesson could be drawn or where they illuminated events in the church . Besides the Anglo @-@ Saxon Chronicle , the medieval writers William of Malmesbury , Henry of Huntingdon , and Geoffrey of Monmouth used his works as sources and inspirations . Early modern writers , such as Polydore Vergil and Matthew Parker , the Elizabethan Archbishop of Canterbury , also utilised the Historia , and his works were used by both Protestant and Catholic sides in the Wars of Religion . 
