Bede explained Saracen violence as caused by their religious error

Evidence

Their punishment seems to be more for their religious error than for their devastating raids on Christian Gaul; indeed, for Bede, the brutality of the Saracens is probably the direct consequence of their perfidia. After all, his Ecclesiastical History tells of other groups of perfidi who wage violent war until they are converted: the Kentish before the arrival of Augustine of Canterbury, the Angles, Picts, and others. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 445

Categorization

• XREF: Complicates the vault’s genealogical claims: at this early 8th-century stage Saracens were lumped with pagans/Vikings/Magyars as generic perfidi, not yet singled out as unique enemy — the differentiation comes later.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 445