taking his place as King of Wessex, A.D. 871. Before the year was out Alfred fought another battle with the Northmen near Salisbury, in which neither side won, but the Danes were so stubbornly resisted that they ceased troubling Wessex for a while, and confined their attention to Northumbria and Mercia. This land they apportioned amongst themselves, as they had done with the kingdom of East Anglia. It did not matter whose the land might be, Church lands, common or tribal lands, as well as that which had been in the personal possession of the kings or nobles whom they slew in battle, they seized upon it all. Also they changed the names of many towns. In fact, all places in England with the termination by, which is equivalent to bury or town, were so named by the Danes about this time. 4.-Peace with the Danes.-In 878 they again invaded Alfred's kingdom, Guthrum being their leader. There were several battles, but a decisive one was fought at Ethandun, in which the English were victorious, and Alfred was able to make definite terms with the invaders. He was willing that they should occupy the districts known as Northumbria, Mercia, and East Anglia, if they would agree to leave Wessex, Kent, and Sussex undisturbed; in other words, the boundary line was to be the Thames as far as London, and from thence the great highway called "Watling Street," which was the chief means of communication between London and Chester. One great condition, however, was imposed, viz., that the Danes should become Christians, respect the property of the Church, and restore the lands they had taken from it. To this they agreed, and the treaty was signed at Wedmore. Guthrum, afterwards called Athelstan, was baptised with his nobles, near Athelney, and Alfred was his god-father. This conversion was the indirect means of bringing over to the Faith many other bands of Northmen, who continued immigrating hither for generations; and from this time, although the Northmen soon became lords of the soil, there was not that utter destruction of tribes which marked the conquest of the Celts. Of course they were heathen when they landed and remained so for awhile, but they at last became absorbed, and lost their tribal characteristics, because they adopted the faith and customs of their English kindred. They perceived the temporal benefit that resulted to others from the possession of Christianity; they saw their fellows transformed from roving pirates into agricultural settlers, and gradually they came to see that the latter fashion was the easiest way to wealth. Like Coifi of old (see page 61) if to become Christians would bring them more gain than the worship of Woden, they were willing to be baptised, and if settlement in the land would increase their prosperity, they would forsake their ships without regret. No doubt the people of Northumbria and Mercia made terms of peace with them to save their homes and churches. They had to be under some overlord, whether it were Guthrum or Alfred could scarcely matter much to them, and the Danes would be glad to make terms of peace with the Saxons under Alfred, for the sake of being permitted to tax, and live upon the labour of, the Anglians. Alfred also was a man of peace; he had been religiously trained, and desired rather "to live worthily," and leave behind him the remembrance of good works, than to be constantly imbruing his hands with the blood of his enemies. 5. Alfred's Government and Laws.-The Peace of Wedmore gave the land ten years' rest, during which Alfred set to work to ALFRED THE GREAT, retrieve the prosperity of his kingdom which the Danes had wrecked. The long wars exhausted all the youthful vigour and intelligence of the people, so that Alfred did not know of a single person south of the Thames who could translate from Latin into English. To remedy this, he introduced teachers from other kingdoms, as Asser from Wales and Grimbald from Flanders, who established schools. The tradition that Alfred founded the University of Oxford is now declared fictitious. Even when. engaged in battles with the Danes, he was never without his Missal, or prayer book, which he would read by the light of his camp fire. As he had opportunity, he translated suitable books into the tongue of the common people. Portions of the Scriptures, the works of Bede, several devotional manuals, a book by Orosius on "Universal History," and much besides, were all rendered by him into the English vernacular. His efforts for the civil government of his kingdom were even more extensive. In this his chief advisers were the bishops, under whose guidance he issued a code of laws, incorporating those of Ina and Offa, on the basis of the Decalogue. The earlier codes are not extant, but "Alfred's Dooms," as his code is called, have been handed down to us. They begin thus :-"The dooms which the Almighty Himself spake to Moses, and gave him to keep, and after Christ came to earth, He said He came not to break or forbid, but to keep them." Then follow the ten commandments, and such other laws as were thought needful for the kingdom, even to the declaring what holidays the labourers should have. These latter were Fasts and Festivals of the English Church. For the guidance of the Danes, who had accepted Christianity through his interposition, a special agreement was drawn up. It provided for silence and reverence within the walls of churches, forbade Sunday labour, made apostacy a finable offence, and enforced the customary payment of dues to the Church. The destruction of religious houses by the Danes, and the drafting of lay monks into the army almost broke up the monastic system in England. This, Alfred, as far as he was able, sought to revive; for the monasteries were very useful in times of war, as places where the women and children might be sheltered and cared for, while the men were fighting. So we find records of Alfred having built a monastery where Guthrum was baptised, and founded a house for women at Shaftesbury, in Dorsetshire, A.D. 888, the revenues of Aldhelm's church at Bradford-on-Avon forming part of its endowment. The King's grant to Shaftesbury is as follows: "I, King Alfred, to the honour of God," etc., "do give and grant for the health of my soul, to the Church of Shaftesbury one hundred hides of land (the lands are then specified as being in different neighbourhoods) with the men and other appurtenances, as they now are, and my daughter Aylena with the same, she being at her own disposal and a nun in the same convent." Then follow the signatures of the witnesses, and the charter concluded thus: "Whosoever shall alienate these things, may he be for ever accursed of God, and the Holy Virgin Mary, and all Saints. Amen." Many noble ladies, not bound by any vows. lived in such establishments for protection, and their retainers defended the approaches against the incursions of the Dancs. King Alfred, still further to guard his kingdom, built many ships with which he often prevented the Northmen from landing on the coasts. To revive the old love of his race for the sea he sent men on foreign expeditions and trading missions, and for the encouragement of Churchmen he sent embassies to the great bishops of Rome and Jerusalem. He also sent ships, so the chronicles say, to India, with alms for the poor Christian communities which the Apostles St. Bartholomew and St. Thomas had established there. Thus we have in Alfred's reign the foundation of our naval and commercial enterprise, and also the intercommunion on equal terms of the Apostolic English Church with other Apostolic Churches in Jerusalem, Rome, and India. He died in the year 901, and was buried in the cathedral at Winchester, then the chief city of the Saxon kingdom. 6. Reconquest of the North.-After Alfred had improved his kingdom, through the assistance and advice of the clergy, the way was clear for his son Edward (the Elder) to regain that supremacy which the Saxons had obtained under Egbert over the Anglian princedoms, but which the Danes had wrested from them. He became king of the Anglo-Saxon provinces as far as the Humber, all the other princes, Danish, Scotch, or Welsh, paying homage to him as their overlord. His sister, Ethelfleda, contributed greatly to this result. She was married to the eorlderman Ethelred, whom King Alfred had made prince of Mercia. When Ethelred died Ethelfleda assumed the reins of government, and made for herself a name and fame as a warrior queen which overshadowed that of Boadicea. She assisted her brother in driving the Danes beyond the Humber, and still further restricted the territory of the Welsh, and invented a new method of warfare; wherever an advantage was gained over the enemy; she would raise earthworks, and build fortifications, which became bases for further operations. Thus Tamworth, Stafford, Warwick, Derby, Leicester, and Chester became fortified towns. Ethelfleda was known as the "Lady of the Mercians," and after her death A.D. 918, the Mercian province was annexed by Edward to Wessex. Edward (the Elder) had many sons and daughters, all of whom were worthy in their way; five daughters married foreign princes, a sixth wedded the Danish prince of Northumbria, and three more entered religious houses. Edward's son Athelstan still further increased the power of the West Saxon kingdom, and adopted the title of Emperor to show that he thought himself equal to the other emperors of Europe, and that all the princes of the British Isles were his vassals. He was succeeded by his brother Edmund (the Magnificent) who granted Strathclyde to Malcolm King of Scots on condition of military service. After Edmund, Edred, a third son of Edward the Elder, became king. He died in 955. This brief account of England's civil history is necessary for the better understanding of what follows. 7. Changes in the Church.-The influence of the clergy over Alfred the Great was exerted still more over his sons and grandsons. Archbishop Phlegmund, who had been one of Alfred's chief advisers, was the leading statesman of Edward the Elder for the first ten years of the latter's reign. Under these circumstances it was but natural that the Church should share as it did in the people's |