viii Anglo-Saxon Literature.

In the age of Bede, the eighth century, Britain was distinguished for its learning; but the Danish invasions caused the rapid decline of its renown.

The churches and monasteries, where alone learning flourished, and which were the only libraries and schools, were the first objects of the hatred of the ferocious pagans; and, in consequence, when Alfred came to the throne, as he tells us in his own words—­“South of the Humber there were few priests who could understand the meaning of their common prayers, or translate a line of Latin into English; so few, that in Wessex there was not one.”  Alfred set himself diligently to work to correct this evil.  Nearly all the books in existence in England were in Latin, and it was a “great” library which contained fifty copies of these.  There was a great objection to the use of the vernacular in the Holy Scriptures, as tending to degrade them by its uncouth jargon; but the Venerable Bede had rendered the Gospel of St. John into the Anglo-Saxon, together with other extracts from holy Scripture; and there were versions of the Psalter in the vulgar tongue, very rude and uncouth; for ancient translators generally imagined a translation could only be faithful which placed all the words of the vulgar tongue in the same relative positions as the corresponding words in the original.  An Anglo-Saxon translation upon this plan is extant.

Alfred had taught himself Latin by translating:  there were few vocabularies, and only the crabbed grammar of old Priscian.  Shaking himself free from the trammels we have enumerated, he invited learned men from abroad, such as his biographer, Asser, and together they attempted a complete version of the Bible.  Some writers suppose the project was nearly completed, others, that it was interrupted by his early death.  Still, translations were multiplied of the sacred writings, and the rubrics show that they were read, as described in the text, upon the Sundays and festivals.  From that time down to the days of Wickliffe, England can boast of such versions of the sacred Word as can hardly be paralleled in Europe.

The other works we have mentioned were also translated by or for Alfred.  “The Chronicle of Orosius,” a history of the world by a Spaniard of Seville; “The History of the Venerable Bede;” “The Consolations of Philosophy,” by Boethius; “Narratives from Ancient Mythology;” “The Confessions of St. Augustine;” “The Pastoral Instructions of St. Gregory;” and his “Dialogue,” form portions of the works of this greatest of kings, and true father of his people.  His “Apologues,” imitated from Aesop, are unfortunately lost.

ix The Court of Edred.