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Alfred was solicitous. His discernment could detect and reward intellectual promise even in the very humblest, as is attested by the tale, true or false, that he had a swineherd, named Denewulf, with whose mental ability he was struck during his Athelney wanderings, duly educated for the ministry, and ultimately preferred him to the bishopric of Winchester. But never suffered he an unlettered man to hold any ecclesiastical dignity whatsoever.' It is attested also by the anxiety shown by the annalists of every notable place of education in England to connect their foundation in some way with Alfred.

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$5. In the case of Cambridge it is just possible that the University may really be able to trace a very remote and indirect descent from his exertions through the little College of priests which he is said, with some plausibility, to have set up at Ely. But in that of Oxford, though the claim is supported by an elaborate story inserted into the chronicle of Asser, it is scarcely possible that even so much as this thread can be conceded. For in Alfred's day the superior convenience of the passage over the Thames at Oxford, which afterwards gave the city its special importance, both commercial and military, and thus led to its educational preeminence, does not seem to have been known. The great crossing point of the river was then the old British ford, Wallingford; near which, accordingly, we find both the chief ecclesiastical centre of the period, Dorchester, the seat of the 'bishop-stool' (afterwards transferred to Lincoln) of the immense diocese which (until 1840) stretched from the Thames to the Humber, and also the chief military centre, the now utterly obscure village of Bensington.

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§ 6. Fictions such as these University legends are based upon the solid historical fact that Alfred was indeed the first to formulate the aspiration which actually did in due time bring Oxford and Cambridge into being-that an English clergyman should be a man of culture. Never suffered he an unlettered man' to hold office in the Church; and he everywhere revived the monastic life, which had all but perished amid the Danish troubles, and which dotted the land thickly in every direction with establishments bound by

the very law of their being each to prove a centre of culture for its neighbourhood. 'Plain living and high thinking' was the rule of their cloisters, and a rule, for the most part, well kept down to the very end of their existence, making them for many a long century the salt of the earth in England, the influence which preserved for us religion, literature, art, and science, all that shines out most brightly in the personality of Alfred. It may well be that to Alfred we owe the principle which was formally embodied in the laws of his successors, and which still differentiates the Anglican Church from every other religious body, that every English clergyman should be entitled to ex officio rank as a gentleman. Every parish priest was reckoned a 'thane,' a word which, originally signifying the attendant on a military chief, early became equivalent to 'gentleman,' as the word 'esquire,' by precisely the same development, has done since.

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§ 7. And, while thus providing for the education of his people, Alfred was eaten up by anxiety for his own mental progress. Ever would he complain... that he was ignorant in Divine wisdom and in the liberal Arts,' and even declare himself unable to read (ie., in the scholarly sense of the word), though he had gained some knowledge of almost every book in the world.' And, as lights to lighten him onwards,' he gathered round him a galaxy of the best intellects of the day, not only from his own dominions, but from neighbouring lands. Amongst these was Asser, a monk of St. David's, who somewhat unwillingly was brought to leave his native land for Saxony,' but who, when once under Alfred's spell, became the most devoted of adherents, and who has left us the most vivid picture of his hero and ours. The King rewarded his devotion by preferment after preferment, giving him at twilight one Christmas Eve' the two monasteries of Amesbury and Banwell, 'with a silken pall of great price, and as much incense as a strong man might carry'; and finally making him Bishop of Exeter.

§ 8. It was in 885 that Asser first became an inmate of Alfred's Court, and in 893 he wrote his biography. He has all the charm of a Boswell in his naïve simplicity, and the

straightforward self-satisfaction which mingles with his heroworship. Take, for example, the following anecdote:

§ 9. In this year [887] did Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons, first begin, by Divine inspiration, on one and the self-same day, the venerable feast of St. Martin, both to read1 and to interpret. But that I may explain this more fully . . . I

will relate the cause. It came to pass on a certain day we were both sitting in the King's chamber, conversing on all kinds of subjects, as was our wont. And it chanced that I recited to him a quotation [testimonium] from a certain book. He heard it attentively with both his ears, and pondered it deeply in his heart. Then suddenly showing me a book which he carried in his bosom, wherein were written the Daily Courses and Psalms and Prayers which he had read from his youth up, he bade me write therein that same quotation. Hearing this, and perceiving his willing wit and his devout eagerness for Divine wisdom, then gave I (though silently) boundless thanks to Almighty God, raising my hands towards heaven, that He had implanted in my King's heart such devotion to wisdom.

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§ 10. But I could not find any empty space in the book wherein to write the quotation, for it was already quite full of many a matter; wherefore I made some small tarrying, chiefly thereby to stir up the bright intelligence of the King. . . . And when he urged me to make haste and write it speedily, I said unto him, "Wilt thou that I should write it on a separate leaf? For it is not certain but that we may yet find another such extract, or even more, that may please you. And should that so be, we shall be glad to have kept them separate." "Try that plan," he replied. Then gladly did I haste to make ready a fresh sheet [quarternio] at the beginning, whereon I wrote the extract even as he bade. And that self-same day I wrote also on that sheet no less than three more quotations at his bidding, even as I had foretold. And every day after, as we talked, did we find other like passages, till the sheet grew wholly full. . . .

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§ 11. Even as a busy bee rangeth far and wide, searching through the wilds [gronnios], even so did he ever eagerly get

1 I.e., as a scholar.

together many a flower of the Divine Scriptures, with which he filled to overflowing the cells of his heart... and set them in one book, as he might, one with another, by no regular plan, till it grew by degrees to the size of a Psalter. And this volume he called his Encheiridion, or Manual, or Handbook, because he kept it hard at hand both night and day, and drew therefrom, as he would say, no small comfort.'

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Alfred's publications-The Consolations of Boethius'-Bede's 'History of the Anglican Church'-Orosius' 'History of the World'Its purpose-'Flowrets from St. Augustine'-Gregory's Pastoral Care.'

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OR did Alfred keep the comfort of his gathered learning to himself. His 'Handbook' itself seems to have been published, as we learn from William of Malmesbury, though, unhappily, no copy of it is now known. And the amount of literary work which he produced is truly marvellous. He was continually bringing out book after book, and the above-named authority tells us that when he died he was engaged on yet another-a translation into English of the Psalter. In theology he translated and edited St. Gregory's Pastoral Care,' and a selection which he called 'Flowrets from St. Augustine'; in philosophy, 'The Consolations of Boethius'; in history, Orosius and Bede, the two leading authorities of the day on the subject in its general and English aspects respectively; besides re-editing the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, with amplifications which turn it from a mere dry record of names and dates to a living historical work.

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§ 2. This way of dealing with his subject-matter is characteristic of Alfred. He invariably, even in his translations, made the work his own. As he says in his preface to Boethius, 'Sometimes he set word by word, sometimes meaning by meaning,' this latter phrase including exceedingly free handling of his author, to whose moralizings (especially in

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