 Bede described Aldfrith as a scholar, and his interest in learning distinguishes him from the earlier Anglo-Saxon warrior kings, such as Penda. Irish sources describe him as a sapiens, a term from the Latin for wise that refers to a scholar not usually associated with a particular church. It implies a degree of learning and wisdom that led historian Peter Hunter Blair to compare Aldfrith to the Platonic ideal of the philosopher king. Bede also makes it clear that the church in Aldfrith's day was less subject to lay control of monasteries, a practice he dated from the time of Aldfrith's death.
