which they freely promised. They all continued to weep and mourn, especially because he had said that they should not see his face much longer in this life. But they rejoiced because he said, "It is time that I return to Him who made me, who created me and formed me out of nothing. I have lived long, and my gracious Judge has ordered my life well; the time of my return is come, for I desire to die and to be with Christ."

borders they maintained their peace, their customs, and their might, and at the same time extended their territory beyond; how they prospered both in war and in wisdom; and also 5 how zealous were those of the religious life in teaching and in learning and in all those services which they owed to God; and how foreigners came hither to this land seeking wisdom and learning, and how we must now get them from 10 abroad if we are to have them. So clean was learning fallen away among the English, that there were very few on this side of the Humber who could understand their service-book in English, or translate a letter from Latin into

This and much else he said, passing the day in gladness up to vespers. And the boy mentioned above said, "One sentence, dear master, is yet to be written." He answered, "Write quickly." After a little the boy said, "Now the 15 English; and I ween there were not many

sentence is written." "It is well; you spoke truly; it is finished. Take my head in your hands, for it pleases me greatly to sit opposite my holy place where I was wont to pray, so that sitting I may invoke my Father." And 20 thus, on the floor of his cell, chanting "Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto," as he named the Holy Spirit he breathed his last, and so passed to the heavenly kingdom.

All who saw the death of the venerable 25 father said that they had seen no one end his life in such devotion and tranquillity, for, as you have heard, while his soul was in his body, he chanted the Gloria Patri and other divine songs to the glory of God, and, his hands up- 30 lifted to the living God, he uttered thanks without ceasing. Know, dear brother, that I could record many things of him, but my lack of skill in speech makes my narrative short. Nevertheless, I purpose, with God's help, to 35 write of him more fully what I have seen with my eyes and heard with my ears.

King Alfred

849-901

THE STATE OF LEARNING IN ENG

LAND

beyond the Humber. So few of them were there that I cannot think of one south of the Thames when I came to the throne. To God Almighty be the thanks that we have any supply of teachers now. And therefore I bid thee, as I believe thou art willing, as often as thou art able, to free thyself from worldly affairs, that thou mayest apply the wisdom that God gavest thee wherever thou canst. Think what punishments came upon us on account of this world, when we neither loved wisdom ourselves nor allowed it to other men: the name alone of being Christians we loved, and very few of the practises.

When I remembered all this, I also recalled that I saw, before it was all laid waste and burnt, how the churches throughout England stood filled with treasures and books, and also a great number of God's servants; but they knew very little use of those books, since they were able to understand no whit of them, for they were not written in their own tongue. As if they had said, "Our elders, who held these places of old, loved wisdom, and through it they got wealth 40 and left it to us. Here we can yet see their tracks, but we know not how to follow them; and therefore we have lost both the wealth and the wisdom, because we would not bend our minds to follow their path."

King Alfred's Preface to his Translation of 45
Gregory's Pastoral Care

(Translated by P. V. D. SHELLY)

Alfred, the king, greets bishop Werferth,1

When I remembered all this, I wondered very greatly, concerning the good wise men who were formerly among the English and had fully learned all those books, that they had turned no part of them into their own language. But I

with his words lovingly and in friendly wise; and 50 soon answered myself and said, "They did not

I let it be known to thee that it has very often
come to my mind what wise men there were
formerly among the English, both of godly and
of worldly office, and what happy times were
those throughout England; and how the kings 55
who had rule of the folk in those days obeyed
God and His ministers; and how within their

1 Bishop of Worcester. Alfred intended to send a
of this work to each of the English bishops.

think that men would ever become so careless and that learning would so fall away; hence they neglected it, through the desire that there might be the more wisdom here in the land the more we knew of languages."

Then I called to mind how the law was first found in Hebrew; and again, when the Greeks learned it, they translated all of it into their own tongue, and also all other books. And

KING ALFRED

possession of earthly power, nor longed for this
materials to carry out the work I was set to do,
authority," but I desired instruments and
which was that I should virtuously and fittingly
Now no man, as thou knowest, can get full play
5 administer the authority committed unto me.
for his natural gifts, nor conduct and administer
government, unless he hath fit tools, and the
raw material to work upon. By material I
natural powers; thus a king's raw material and
mean that which is necessary to the exercise of
instruments of rule are a well peopled land, and
he must have men of prayer, men of war, and
men of work. As thou knowest, without these

of support for the three classes above spoken of,
Further, for his materials he must have means
which are his instruments; and these means are
land to dwell in, gifts, weapons, meat, ale,

again, the Romans likewise, after they learned them, translated the whole of them, through wise interpreters, into their own language. And also all other Christian peoples turned some part of them into their own tongue. Therefore it seems better to me, if it seems so to you, that we also translate some books that are most needful for all men to know, into that language which we are all able to understand; and that, as we very easily can with God's help 10 if we have peace, we cause all the youth now in England of the class of freemen, who are rich enough to be able to apply themselves to it, to be set to learn, the while they can be put to no other employment, until they are well able to 15 tools no king may display his special talent. read English writing; and afterward let those be taught in the Latin tongue who are to be the taught further and to be put in a higher office. When I remembered how, before now, knowledge of Latin had fallen away among the 20 clothing, and what else soever the three classes English and yet many knew how to read English writing, I began, among other various and manifold concerns of this kingdom, to translate into English the book that in Latin is called "Pastoralis," and in English, "Shepherd's 25 Book," at times word by word, and again according to the sense, as I had learned it from Plegmund my archbishop, and from Asser my bishop, and from Grimbold my mass-priest, and from John my mass-priest. After I had learned 30 brought out, for whatsoever is done unwisely it, I turned it into English as I understood it and could most clearly expound it; and to every bishopric in my kingdom I wish to send one; and in each there is a book-mark worth fifty mancuses. And I command in God's name that 35 me my memory in good works.' no man take the book-mark from the book, nor the book from the minster. We know not how long there may be such learned bishops as, God be thanked, there now are nearly everywhere. Therefore, I would that they may always be 40 not alluding to the subject, and yet she led up

in their place, unless the bishop wishes to have
them with him, or they be lent anywhere, or
anyone copy them.

THE CONSOLATION OF BOETHIUS
(Selections from King Alfred's Translation)
(Translated from the Old English by W. J.
SEDGEFIELD)

THE KING AND HIS SERVANTS1

need. Without these means he cannot keep his tools in order, and without these tools he cannot perform any of the tasks entrusted to him. "I have desired material for the exercise of government that my talents and my power every good gift and every power soon groweth might not be forgotten and hidden away," for old, and is no more heard of, if Wisdom be not in them. Without Wisdom, no faculty can be

can never be accounted as skill. To be brief, I may say that it has ever been my desire to live honourably while I was alive, and after my death to leave to them that should come after

FATE AND PROVIDENCE

"Then she began to speak in a very remote and roundabout fashion, as though she were

to it, saying, 'All creatures, both the seen and the unseen, the motionless and the moving, receive from the unmoving, unchanging, and undivided God their due order, form, and 45 proportions; and, inasmuch as it was so created, He knoweth why He hath made all that He hath made. Nothing of what He hath made is without use to Him. God ever dwelleth in the high city of His unity and mercy; thence He 50 dealeth out ordinances many and various to all His creatures, and thence He ruleth them all. But regarding that which we call God's it abides with Him in His mind, ere it be providence and foresight, this exists as long as But as soon as it is accomplished we call it Fate. brought to pass, and while it is but thought. From this every man may know that Prov idence and Fate are not only two names, bu two things. Providence is the Divine Reason

"When Philosophy had sung this song she was silent for a time. Then the Mind answered, saying, 'O Philosophy, thou knowest that I 55 never greatly delighted in covetousness and the

The passages in this, and in the following selection, not enclosed in double quotation marks, were composed by Alfred himself and inserted in his translation.

and lieth fast in the high Creator that knoweth how everything shall befall ere it come to pass. But that which we call Fate is God's working day by day, both that which we see, and that which is not seen of us. The divine forethought holdeth up all creatures, so that they may not fall asunder from their due order. Fate therefore allots to all things their forms, places, seasons, and proportions; but Fate comes from the mind and the forethought of Almighty 10 God, who worketh whatsoever He will according to His unspeakable providence.

wards. Just as the spokes have one end sticking in the felly and the other in the nave, while in the middle the spoke is equally near either, so the midmost men are at the middle of the 5 spokes, the better sort nearer the nave, and the baser nearer the fellies, joined, however, to the nave, which in turn is fixed to the axle. Now, the fellies are fastened to the spokes, though they roll on the ground; and so the least worthy men are in touch with the middle sort, and these with the best, and the best with God. Though the worst men turn their love towards this world they cannot abide therein, nor come to anything, if they be in no degree fastened to God, no more than the wheel's fellies can be in motion unless they be fastened to the spokes, and the spokes to the axle. The fellies are farthest from the axle, and therefore move least steadily. The nave moves nearest the

So do the best men; the nearer to God they set their love, and the more they despise earthly things, the less care is theirs, "and the less they reck how Fate veers, or what she brings." So

'Even as every craftsman thinks over and marks out his work in his mind ere he take it in hand, and then carries it out altogether, so this 15 changing lot that we call Fate proceeds according to His forethought and purpose, even as He resolveth that it shall be done. Though it seem to us manifold, partly good, partly evil, yet it is to Him good, pure and simple, for He 20 axle, therefore is its motion the most sure. bringeth it all to a goodly conclusion, and doeth for good all that He doeth. When it is done, we call it Fate; before, it was God's forethought and His purpose. Now Fate He setteth in motion by means of the good angels 25 also the nave is ever sound, let the fellies or the souls of men, or the lives of other creatures, or through the heavenly bodies, or the divers wiles of evil spirits; at one time through one of them, at another through all. But it is manifest that the divine purpose is single and 30 unchanging, and rules everything in orderly wise, and gives unto all things their shape. Now some things in this world are subject to Fate, others are in no way subject; but Fate, and the things that are subject to her, are sub- 35 confounded and afflicted both in mind and in ject to divine Providence. Concerning this I can tell thee a parable, so that thou mayest the more clearly understand who are the men that are subject to Fate, and who are they that are not.

strike on what they may; and nevertheless the nave is in some degree severed from the axle. Thereby thou mayest perceive that the wagon keeps far longer whole the less its distance from the axle, and so also those men are most free from care, both in this present life of tribulation and in the life to come, that are firmly fixed in God. But the farther they are sundered from God, the more sorely are they

body.

"That which we call Fate is, compared to divine Providence, what reflection and reason are when measured against perfect knowledge, 40 and as things temporal compared with things eternal, or, again, like the wheel compared with the axle, the axle governing all the wagon. So with the forethought of God; it governeth the firmament and the stars, and maketh the

'All this moving and changing creation turns round the unmoving, the unchanging, and the undivided God, and He ruleth all creatures as He purposed in the beginning, and still doth purpose. The wheels of a wagon turn upon its 45 earth to be at rest, and measureth out the four

elements, to wit, water, earth, fire, and air. These it keepeth in peace; unto these it giveth form, and again taketh it away, changing them to other forms and renewing them again. It

axle," while the axle stands still and yet bears all the wagon and guides all its movement. The wheel turns round, and the nave next the wheel moves more firmly and securely than the felly does. Now the axle is as it were the high- 50 engendereth everything that groweth, and

hideth and preserveth it when old and withered, and again bringeth it out and reneweth it when it pleaseth." Some sages, however, say that Fate rules both weal and woe of every

est good we call God, and the best men move next unto God just as the nave moves nearest the axle. The middle sort of men are like the spokes, for one end of each spoke is fast in the nave, and the other is in the felly; and so it is 55 man. But I say, as do all Christian men, that

with the midmost man, at one time thinking in his mind upon this earthly life, at another upon the divine life, as if he looked with one eye heavenwards, and with the other earth

it is the divine purpose that rules them, not Fate; and I know that it judges all things very rightly, though unthinking men may not think so. They hold that all are good that

work their will, and no wonder, for they are blinded by the darkness of their sins. "But divine Providence understandeth it all most rightly, though we in our folly think it goes awry, being unable to discern what is right. He, however, judgeth all aright, though at times it seems to us otherwise."

THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE

Selections

(Translated by J. A. GILES)

A. 443. This year the Britons sent over sea to Rome, and begged for help against the Picts; 15 but they had none, because they were themselves warring against Attila, king of the Huns. And then they sent to the Angles, and entreated the like of the ethelings1 of the Angles. A. 444. This year St. Martin died.

stars showed themselves full-nigh half an hour after nine in the forenoon.

A. 596. This year Pope Gregory sent Augus5 tine to Britain, with a great many monks, who preached the word of God to the nation of the Angles.

Aelfric

c. 955-c. 1020

THE DAILY MIRACLE

(From the Homilies, 990-994, translated by P. V. D. SHELLY)

Many wonders hath God wrought, and daily doth work; but these wonders are much weakened in the sight of men because they are very common. That each day Almighty God feeds all the earth and directs the good, is a greater 20 miracle than was that of feeding five thousand men with five loaves; yet men marvelled at that, not because it was a greater miracle, but because it was uncommon. Who grants fruit to our fields, and increases the harvest from a

A. 449. This year Martianus and Valentinus succeeded to the empire, and reigned seven years. And in their days Hengist and Horsa,2 invited by Vortigern, king of the Britons, 25 few grains, but He who multiplied the five

loaves? The might was in Christ's hands, and the five loaves were seed, as it were not sown in the earth, but multiplied by Him who wrought the earth.

This miracle is very great and deep in its tokens. Often one sees fair letters written, and praises the writer and the letters, and knows not what they mean. He who has knowledge of letters, praises their fairness, and reads the letters, and understands what they mean. In one way do we view a painting, but in other wise, letters. In the case of the painting, one needs only to see it and praise it; but it is not enough that you look at letters without also

landed in Britain on the shore which is called Wippidsfleet; at first in aid of the Britons, but afterwards they fought against them. King Vortigern gave them land in the southeast of this country, on condition that they 30 should fight against the Picts. Then they fought against the Picts, and had the victory wheresoever they came. They then sent to the Angles; desired a larger force to be sent, and caused them to be told the worthlessness of the 35 Britons, and the excellencies of the land. Then they soon sent thither a larger force in aid of the others. At that time there came men from three tribes in Germany; from the Old-Saxons, from the Angles, from the Jutes. From the 40 reading them and understanding the sense. Jutes came the Kentish-men and the Wightwarians, that is, the tribe which now dwells in Wight, and that race among the West-Saxons which is still called the race of Jutes. From the Old-Saxons came the men of Essex and 45 Sussex and Wessex. From Anglia which has ever since remained waste betwixt the Jutes and the Saxons, came the men of East Anglia, Middle Anglia, Mercia, and all North-humbria. Their leaders were two brothers, Hengist and 50 Horsa: they were the sons of Wihtgils; Wihtgils son of Witta, Witta of Wecta, Wecta of Woden; from this Woden sprang all our Royal families, and those of the South-humbrians also.

So is it with the wonder that God wrought with the five loaves; it is not enough that we marvel at the token or praise God for it, unless we also understand its meaning.

Wulfstan

SERMON TO THE ENGLISH

AT THE TIME OF THEIR GREAT SUFFERINGS
FROM THE DANES, THAT IS, IN THE
DAYS OF KING AETHELRED.1
(Translated by P. V. D. SHELLY)
Beloved men, know it for sooth, that this
world is in haste and neareth the end. Hence

A. 540. This year the sun was eclipsed on the 55 in the world is it ever the longer the worse, and twelfth before the Kalends of July, and the

1 Princes.

Leaders of the Jutes.

Now, Ebbsfleet in the Isle of Thanet, on the east

coast of Kent.

so it must needs grow very evil from day to day before the coming of Antichrist, because

1 This was apparently written in either 999 or 1014. The writer may have been Wulfstan, Archbishop of York, c. 1003-1023.

of the folk's sins; and indeed it will then be fearful and terrible far and wide in the world.

ished. Freemen cannot command their own persons, nor go where they will, nor do with their own as they wish; nor can thralls have what they possess, though they toiled for it 5 in the time that was theirs, nor that which by God's grace good men have given them as an almsgift for the love of God; but each almsright which each one in God's grace ought right gladly to perform, he decreaseth or withholdeth, since injustice and love of un-law are too common among men. In a word, God's laws are loathed, and learning is despised; and for this we all often suffer insults through God's anger, as he may understand who can; and the loss will be common to all this people, though men think not so, unless God save.

Understand also that the devil hath now for many years led this people too far astray, that there has been little faith among men, though they have spoken fair. Wrong hath reigned too much in the land, and of many men never hath one thought of the remedy as eagerly as he ought; but daily have we heaped evil upon evil, and reared injustice and un-law far too widely 10 throughout the nation. And for this we have also endured many losses and insults, and if we are to expect any mending, then must we merit of God better than we have done ere this, for with great deserving have we earned 15 the miseries that sit upon us, and with very great deserving must we obtain the remedy at God's hands, if things henceforth are to be better. We know full well that a mickle breach needs much mending, and a great fire, much 20 hath had many set-backs. This long time water, if that fire is at all to be quenched. And great also is the need to every man that he willingly keep God's law henceforth better than he did before, and carry out His justice with uprightness.

Certainly it is clear and manifest to us all that hitherto we have more often broken [the law] than bettered it, and hence this nation

naught hath availed at home or abroad; there have been harrying and hunger, burning and bloodshed, on every hand often and often; stealing and slaughter, sedition and pestilence, 25 cattle-plague and disease, slander and hate, and rapine of robbers have harmed us greatly; unjust taxes have afflicted us sorely, and often foul weather has spoiled our harvests; because, as it may seem, now for many years in this land

Among heathen people no man durst hold back little or much of that which by law is due to the worship of idols; but everywhere we withhold God's rights, all too often. Neither among the heathen durst man injure, within or 30 there have been much unrighteousness and

unstable faith among men everywhere. Often hath a kinsman protected his kinsman no more than a foreigner, nor the father his son, nor at times the son his own father, nor one

without, any of those things that are brought to the idols and are appointed for sacrifice; but we have clean despoiled God's house within and without. Also, God's servants are everywhere deprived of honor and protection; and 35 brother the other. Nor hath any of us ordered some men say that among heathen peoples no man durst in any wise ill treat the servants of idols, as men now too generally do the servants of God, in places where Christians should hold to God's law and protect God's 40 servants.

his life as he should,―neither those in orders, according to their rule, nor laymen, according to the law; but the lust of crime is all too often a law to us, and we hold not to the learning or law of God or of men as we should. No one hath thought toward the other faithfully as he should, but for the most part each is deceitful and injures others by word and by deed; unrighteously and from behind, each striketh

Sooth is it that I say we have need of mending, for God's laws have been waning too long within this land on every side, and the folk-laws have become worse, all too much 45 at his fellow with shameful calumnies and

since Edgar died. Sanctuaries are too generally unprotected, and God's houses are too clean bereft of their old rights, and are stripped within of all things befitting. Men of religion

accusations; let him do more if he can.

Here in our land is much treachery toward God and the world, and likewise in divers ways traitors too many. Of all treasons in the world

have now this long time been greatly despised; 50 the greatest is that a man betray his lord's

soul; and a full great treason is that also, that a man betray his lord's life or drive him living from the land; and both have been present in this realm. Edwards was betrayed, then

widows unlawfully are forced to marry, and too many are made poor and are greatly ill used. Poor men are sore deceived and miserably ensnared, and, though innocent, are sold out of the land into the power of foreigners; 55 murdered, and after that burned, and Aethelthrough cruel un-law children are enslaved for petty theft; free-right is taken away, and thrall-right curtailed, and alms-right dimin

2 Edgar, King of Wessex, died 975.

red' was driven from the land. Gossips and Edward the Martyr, murdered in 978.

4 Aethelred the Un-redy, or "ill advised," was obliged to flee to Normandy in 1014.

⚫ Sponsors.