Bede : We, therefore, mindful of the salt which we have eaten in the palace, etc. The Samaritans eat salt in the palace, when heretics are educated with the flavor of worldly philosophy, with the sweetness of rhetoric, and with the cleverness of dialectical art. They also consider it impious to see the king's injuries completed, when they cannot endure if anyone tries to attack the kingdom of the devil with pious faith or action, and they fear wars stirred up in the Church, lest their heresies and deceptions, along with the doctrines of the Gentiles, are defeated by its defenders, led undoubtedly by Him who said: "I have not come to bring peace, but a sword" (Matthew 10). And again: "I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled" (Luke 12)? Namely, the sword of His word, with which He strikes down adversaries; and the fire of charity, with which, by kindling the hearts of His own, He burns away all the arms and shields of the opposing faction. — Commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah