 Wilfrid had spent most of his career in exile having quarrelled with various kings and bishops.He arrived in the kingdom of the South Saxons in 681 and remained there for five years evangelising and baptising the people.The account given by Wilfrid's biographer Stephen in his "Life of Wilfrid" infers that all of the South Saxons were pagan, whereas Bede's "Ecclesiastical History" contradicts this