Chapter III

The Court of the Pope

"In every work the beginning is the most important part, especially in dealing with anything young and tender; for that is the time when any impression which we may desire to communicate is most readily stamped and taken."-Socrates.

THE chief part of the more formal education of Alfred may be associated with his visit to Rome. It is quite possible, according to one reading of the authorities, that this really lasted from the time of his arrival with Bishop Swithun,1 to the time of his departure with his father-almost two years. In the year 853 King Ethelwulf, not being able to go to Rome himself, despatched Alfred, under the care of the Bishop of Winchester, with a worthy escort both of nobles and commoners to carry his gifts, and prepare the way for his own coming.

1 This is the saint who gives his name to St Swithun's day. The story is, that he was buried, at his own request, where the feet of the passers-by might tread and the rain of heaven fall. The monks tried to remove the body inside the cathedral, but rain fell continuously for forty days; this they took as a sign of the saint's displeasure, and gave it up. About a century later the body was transferred to a shrine of gold and silver.

Alfred won his way with the Pope, as he had done with others. Leo took him for "Bishop's son," and anointed him as the future king of the West Saxons. It seems that this must be regarded as a magnificent indiscretion, or an act of faith, on the part of Leo, rather than an exaggeration on the part of Asser, for Alfred was still several steps removed from the succession to the throne. The Popes, at this time, took every opportunity of anointing probable or possible successors to kingdoms. Leo III. had anointed Charles, the son of Charles the Great, along with his father in 800, although, in the paper division of the Empire in 806, Italy-which would have carried the Imperial title with it—was assigned to Pippin, not to Charles; but as both died before their father, it is difficult to be sure what exact significance was attached to the ceremony. It was probably intended as an act of consecration; it could at least do no harm, and it might afford some support to the plea that all crowns were in some way dependent on the sanction and benediction of the Pope. In Alfred's case it may have had some effect on his outlook into the future, in helping to awake in him the consciousness of a kingly destiny. It is certain that we hear no more of the Papal consecration, except from his ecclesiastical biographer, and we are not told that anyone in England based a claim that Alfred should succeed

his father, on the fact that the Pope had anointed him.1

The other events of Alfred's stay in Rome were probably of greater importance than this one, of which his biographer evidently thought so much. There, we may assume, he learned to speak a little Latin, and so acquired the key to most of the learning which was to be had in his time. Ever ✓ since the days of Offa, the great Mercian king, who had had dealings with Charles the Great, there had been constant coming and going between England and Rome. Pilgrims on penitential journeys, adventurers in search of relics, books, golden work, and embroidery kept up such a constant supply of Englishmen and-unfortunately also for our good fame-of wandering English women, that one part of the city was set apart for their use. Just as to-day Calcutta has its English quarter, Rome then had its Saxon school. Alfred would find in Rome many of his countrymen who could tell him more than "travellers' tales" of the cities of Italy and of Europe.

"Youth," it is said, "is a nursery where the future is always growing." Alfred's stay in Rome is an event which could not fail to be a factor in shaping

1 Sir John Spelman says: Some have been of opinion that this unction of Alfred by Leo IV. was not that ceremony of anointing kings as at their coronation, but rather the chrisme used in confirmation, and by mistake of the monks taken and related for Regal Unction.

his life.

His residence there, probably for two years,1 may be taken into account in explaining that love of literature and sound learning, which led him afterwards to translate and edit for his own people what he regarded as the classics in science and literature and religion of that age. He could hardly fail to contrast what he remembered of Rome with what he found in England; and he was one of those who cannot see a great want without trying to remedy it.

When Alfred arrived in Rome, the papacy of Leo IV. was drawing to an end. He had been a strong and resolute ruler, in a time when Rome had reason to be thankful for every peaceful year which it enjoyed. The Saracen fleets were masters of the Mediterranean. Sicily, with the exception of Syracuse, was in Moslem hands. The infidels had conquered Calabria, and were rapidly advancing northwards towards Rome. The suburban churches of St Peter and St Paul had actually been plundered by the invaders, and the fearful began to wonder

1 It is difficult to be sure about the exact order of events here. Asser, who makes Alfred set out for Rome twice in two years, cannot be trusted for this early part of the king's life. It seems more probable that Æthelwulf sent Alfred and Swithun to represent him, then changed his mind and decided to follow himself, bidding the boy wait to come home with him. A letter has been discovered written by Leo IV., the reigning Pope in the year 853, addressed to King Ethelwulf, announcing the safe arrival of the boy. So there is no doubt as to the fact or the date of the arrival in Rome.

whether the capital of Christendom was to become a Mahommedan city. Leo's work had been to provide for the safety of the Vatican and the churches of St Peter and St Paul. The Pope formed a new suburb, surrounded by strong fortifications, on the right bank of the Tiber; this secured a double protection for the Vatican, and immortalised the name of the Pope in the name which this part of Rome still bears the Leonine City. doubt, the news of this pious work which led It was, no Æthelwulf to provide in his will for the lamps in the churches of St Peter and St Paul, which Leo was rebuilding. And the same reason accounts for some of the gifts he brought with him when, more than a year after Alfred had started with Bishop Swithun, he followed him to Rome. He brought for the Pope a "crown, four pounds in weight, two dishes, two figures, all of pure gold, urns, silver gilt, stoles and robes, of richest silk interwoven with gold."

It was significant for Alfred's future life that amongst his earliest recollections there must always have been the memory of a strenuous, determined ruler of Rome, bent on driving back a Saracen invasion from the territories of the Holy See, and throwing into that determination all the passion and exaltation of motive implied in a war of the Christian against the pagan and infidel. It is not probable that a boy of five or six years old would

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