Bede : And Saul said to Samuel: "Rather, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord," etc. How much this response of Saul suits the stubbornness of the rebellious proud ones is very easily evident from what was previously explained. For there are those who, convicted either by the reading of the Holy Scripture or by the speech of teachers, and reproved for their committed faults, prefer to seek an increase of their sins by excusing themselves rather than humbly seeking remedy. — Commentary on Samuel Gregory the Dialogist : 19. For as if concealing his own hidden faults while bringing forth the exposed faults of others, the slippery teacher commends himself on the success of his preaching, saying: I ought not to be rebuked for the fault of my subjects, but rather praised, since I have destroyed it in the offenders by preaching. I struck Amalek: because the spirit of fornication fell by the sword of my tongue in the hearts of my hearers. The king, even if he lives, has been brought captive: because even if the sense of the flesh, as long as we are in the flesh, cannot be entirely destroyed, it has been captured, as it could be captured, because it cannot prevail over reason. Eager to show that his subjects themselves have been corrected and are confessing their sins, he added, saying: (Verse 21.) But the people took from the spoil sheep and oxen, the firstfruits of those things which were slain, to sacrifice to the Lord their God in Gilgal. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 6, Chapter 2