In fact, there is every reason to believe that the Saxon nations had, at that time, made such progress in wealth, population, and power as to afford to such a prince as Ethelwolf the means of making a great display, if he chose to do so, on such an occasion as that of a royal progress through France and a visit to the great city of Rome.  The Saxons had been in possession of England, at this time, many hundred years; and though, during all this period, they had been involved in various wars, both with one another and with the neighboring nations, they had been all the time steadily increasing in wealth, and making constant improvements in all the arts and refinements of life.  Ethelwolf reigned, therefore, over a people of considerable wealth and power, and he moved across the Continent on his way to Rome, and figured while there, as a personage of no ordinary distinction.

Rome was at this time, as we have said, the great center of education, as well as of religious and ecclesiastical influence.  In fact, education and religion went hand in hand in those days, there being scarcely any instruction in books excepting for the purposes of the Church.  Separate schools had been established at Rome by the leading nations of Europe, where their youth could be taught, each at an institution in which his own language was spoken.  Ethelwolf remained a year at Rome, to give Alfred the benefit of the advantages which the city afforded.  The boy was of a reflective and thoughtful turn of mind, and applied himself diligently to the performance of his duties.  His mind was rapidly expanded, his powers were developed, and stores of such knowledge as was adapted to the circumstances and wants of the times were laid up.  The religious and intellectual influences thus brought to bear upon the young Alfred’s mind produced strong and decided effects in the formation of his character—­effects which were very strikingly visible in his subsequent career.

Ethelwolf found, when he arrived at Rome, that the Saxon seminary had been burned the preceding year.  It had been founded by a former Saxon king.  Ethelwolf rebuilt it, and placed the institution on a new and firmer foundation than before.  He also obtained some edicts from the papal government to secure and confirm certain rights of his Saxon subjects residing in the city, which rights had, it seems, been in some degree infringed upon, and he thus saved his subjects from oppressions to which they had been exposed.  In a word, Ethelwolf’s visit not only afforded an imposing spectacle to those who witnessed the pageantry and the ceremonies which marked it, but it was attended with permanent and substantial benefits to many classes, who became, in consequence of it, the objects of the pious monarch’s benevolent regard.