She confirmed the promise, and put the book into his hands; and he applied so steadily to his task that the book became

Whilst literature was progressing at home, the Anglo-Saxon princes and clergy were not unmindful of their countrymen, whom religious motives had impelled to end their days at Rome. About the year 728,† Ina, king of the West-Saxons, who was tenacious of power, by a stratagem of his queen, was induced to follow in the footsteps of many of the Anglo-Saxon kings; he resigned his crown to his kinsman, and, imitating what all ranks were then emulous to do, he travelled to Rome. There he founded a Saxon school, for the instruction of his countrymen, who chose to be educated at Rome; and he added a church for their service, and for the convenience of their burial. To support this, and to provide a subsistence to the English who should dwell there, he imposed the payment of a penny on every family, which was called Romescot. It was sent to the papal see. This school was much encouraged by the Anglo-Saxon nobles and sovereigns. The payment of Romescot at first included only the kingdom of Wessex. It was next extended to Mercia, in the reign of Offa, and eventually over all England, and so continued until the Reformation, when it was abolished by Henry VIII.§

In 855, Ethelwulph, of Wessex, accompanied by his son Alfred, then entering on his seventh year, with presents of great value and splendour, undertook a journey to Rome. He continued there a year, and rebuilt the Saxon school which Ina had founded. By the carelessness of its English inhabitants, it had been set on fire the preceding year, and

* Palgrave's Hist. Anglo-Saxons, p. 162.

† In dates, I have generally followed the "Summaries of Anglo-Saxon History," in the second volume of Sir F. Palgrave's Rise and Progress of the Anglo-Saxon Commonwealth; which with great care were verified by Mr. Allen, the learned author of an Inquiry into the Rise and Growth of the Royal Prerogative in England," 8vo, 1830, and other valuable works.

66

Offa, king of Mercia, went to Rome before his death, and extended to his own dominions the liberality of Ina called Romescot. Turner, vol. i. 420. § Vide Statutes of the Realm, 25 Hen. VIII., c. 21.

burnt to ashes. It is described as an habitation, and the place where it was situated was called the Saxon street.*

In the eighth century, the age of Bede, England was distinguished for learning and learned men. Besides those already mentioned, the names of Claudius, Rabanus, and Erigena, pupils of Bede, may be adduced as having, by their talents in after life, done honour to their instructor. Boniface, the Anglo-Saxon missionary, who was "born and nourished in the nation of the English," was a man of great learning. His letters to some of the Anglo-Saxon kings; to Nothelm, archbishop of Canterbury; to the Anglo-Saxon bishops, Daniel and Ecberth; and to several abbots and abbesses, are still preserved.† He was a native of Devonshire.

When Alfred ascended the throne of Wessex, the ravages of the Danes had already produced a rapid decline in learning and civilization. Churches and monasteries, the only libraries and schools which then existed, seem particularly to have been the objects of their attacks. Many of these were by them burnt and destroyed, and the clergy, from the absence of books and instructors, fell into such a state of deplorable ignorance as to be unfitted for the sacred office. "South of the Humber," says Alfred, "there were few priests indeed when I

* Turner, i. 496, whose authority is Anastasius Bibliothecarius de Vitis Pontif. Ed. Rome, 1718. In the fifth publication of the Camden Society, "Anecdotes and Traditions illustrative of Early English History and Literature," edited by Mr. Thoms, at page 117 will be found extracts from the common-place book of a Mr. John Collet, [Additional MSS. British Museum, No. 3890.] "No. CLXXXVIII. Peter-pence. Peter-pence was an alms granted to the Pope, viz. a peny upon every hearth or chimney, payable at the Feast of St. Peter ad Vincula. This alms was granted only by the King, ex regali munificentia, out of his own demesnes, and it issued only out of such houses as yielded thirty pence rent, viva pecuniæ. This grant passed at first under the lowly title of an almes, but afterwards it was called Romescot, or Romesfeogh, or heord-penny, and the whole summe of it annually amounted but to L.200, 06s. 08d.-Collet, p. 9."—" Much curious information relative to the origin of this tax, and its supposed connection with the celebrated Schola Saxonum,' as well as to the foundation of that institution, will be found in Dr. Lappenberg's valuable Geschichte von England,' i. 199, a work which, as it is understood to have found a very able translator in the learned editor of Cadmon, it is to be hoped will ere long be made accessible to the English student."--Note of the Editor.

In the Bib. Mag. Pat., vol. xvi. and in his works.

began my reign, who could understand the meaning of their common prayer, or translate a line of Latin into English; so few that in Wessex there was not one." But few persons had written in the vernacular tongue before his reign. The poems of Cadmon; a translation of St. John's Gospel by Bede; a version of the Psalter, and one or two other works, are nearly the whole of native literature, to the period of Alfred's accession, that has descended to us.

From a circular letter which Alfred addressed to his bishops, we learn that it was his earnest desire that useful books should be translated "into a language we all understand, so that all the youth of England, but especially those of gentle kind, and at ease in their circumstances, may be grounded in letters, for they cannot profit in any pursuit until they are able to read English."† His biographer, Asser, also informs us, that, in the school which he established for the education of his nobles, Ethelweard, his youngest son, was committed to the diligent care of proper instructors, with almost all the noble children of the province, together with many of inferior rank. Thus displaying an attention to the intellectual wants of his people which would do honour to a sovereign even in our own time. In this school they were taught Latin, and Saxon, and the art of writing. Instruction was principally oral. The absence of any grammar by which the Anglo-Saxon language was taught, and the method of dialogue which appears to have been the general form of instruction used, sufficiently prove this. Before the time of Alfred, it is supposed that English was not taught in the schools. Yet there is a passage in his preface to Gregory's Pastorale which indicates the contrary.‡

* Alfred's Preface to Gregory's Pastorale, ed. Parker, 1574. Palgrave's Anglo-Saxons, i. 162-3.

† Palgrave's Anglo-Saxons, i. 171.

"When I remember how the learning of the Latin tongue before this was fallen through the English nation, and yet many could read English, then began I, among much other manifold business, to turn into English the book named Pastoralis," &c. Alfred's Preface to Gregory's Pastorale, ed. Parker, 1574. Turner's Anglo-Saxons, ii. 20. Much information on the method of instruction amongst the Anglo-Saxons may be found in Wright's Essay on their Literature and Learning; and in the Third Volume of Turner's History.

Although we cannot accurately trace the progress of Alfred's intellectual career, yet we are made acquainted with his first efforts. He was twelve years old before he learned to read. His acquisition of Latin was some years after this; because, as he tells us, he found no one who was able to teach him, when he had leisure in his youth to learn. Then he began to translate texts and passages from the sacred writings; these he inserted in a little manual which he always carried about with him. Afterwards he translated Boethius de Consolatione Philosophiæ, in doing which, he amplified the text by additions of his own, so that in the Anglo-Saxon version of this once popular book, we have almost a new and distinct work. A selection from the Confessions of St. Augustin was also the production of his pen. To the translation which Werfrith, bishop of Worcester, made of the Dialogues of St. Gregory, he added a preface. He translated the Pastoral Instructions of St. Gregory for the use of his clergy. In his English version of the ancient history of Orosius, he enlarged the text by additions of great curiosity, partly derived from the knowledge which he had acquired by study, and partly from the relations of other persons. The narrative of the voyage of Ohthere towards the North Pole, and that of Wulstan in the Baltic, are detailed in that work, as these travellers related them to the king. Not to be unmindful of the domestic peace of his people, he compiled a code of laws, by the assistance of his Witan, from those of his predecessors, rejecting some, and altering others, and incorporating with them the precepts of the decalogue; thus teaching his countrymen, that to keep the commandments of God was as requisite to their security and happiness as the obeying the laws of man. Although we must admit that all the merit which these works deserve is not to be attributed to the king, because he acknowledges the assistance which he derived from his "archbishop, Plegmund, his bishop, Asser, his mass priests, Grimbald and John."* Yet there is much due to him, who, amidst the difficulties, and labour, and suffering which would, in thousands of cases, have extinguished the spark of knowledge,

* Preface to Gregory's Pastorale, 1574.

could still find leisure to produce those literary treasures which alone are sufficient to stamp him as the benefactor of his race.*

The name of Dunstan claims our attention, from the extraordinary power which he acquired, and the uses to which it was applied. He was of noble lineage, and at an early age was introduced to the court of Athelstane, by his uncle, Athelm, archbishop of Canterbury. In his youth he became attached to a very beautiful maiden, his equal in rank and station, and whom he wished to marry. His uncle, Athelm, represented this as an evil temptation, and Dunstan persisting, he prayed that some affliction might befall his nephew, and bring him to a sense of duty. Dunstan was soon after seized with a violent fever, (probably the result of terror,) which endangered his life, from which, after a long time, he recovered. But he had become an altered man. The selfdenial, and the sufferings under the name of penance which he subsequently underwent, seem almost incredible, unless we conceive them to have been adopted as a habitude of mind, for the purpose of excluding from it what had once been his chief hope and consolation. But the talents he possessed, and which he cultivated with great assiduity, soon spread his fame; he was invited to court by Edmund, and constituted the chief minister of his kingdom.

The popes of Rome about this period (that is, about the middle of the tenth century) were earnest in compelling the celibacy of the clergy. This regulation had never been enforced upon the inferior clergy. It became a party-badge; a pledge, if yielded, of submission to the Church of Rome, a token of hostility if refused. The great object to be attained was the total suppression of the different independent churches throughout Christendom. In the earlier ages of the Christian faith, this supremacy was neither claimed nor enforced. In Pope Gregory's instructions to St. Augustin he writes, "You know the custom of the Roman church, in which you remember you were brought up. But I am willing, if you

have

* Wise's Asser. 1722. Turner's Anglo-Saxons. Palgrave's History.