 Part 2, Section 3 of the Life of King Alfred This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Life of King Alfred by Assar, Bishop of Sherbourne, translated by J.A. Giles. Of his fixed purpose of holy meditation, which in the midst of prosperity and adversity he never neglected, I cannot with advantage now omit to speak. For, whereas he often thought of the necessities of his soul among the other good deeds to which his thoughts were night and day turned, he ordered that two monasteries should be built. One for monks at Athelney, which is a place surrounded by impassable marshes and rivers, where no one can enter but by boats, or by a bridge laboriously constructed between two other heights. At the western end of which bridge was erected a strong tower of beautiful work by command of the aforesaid king, and in this monastery he collected monks of all kinds from every quarter and placed them therein. For at first, because he had no one of his own nation, noble and free by birth, who was willing to enter the monastic life except children, who could neither choose good nor avoid evil in consequence of their tender years, because for many previous years the love of monastic life had utterly decayed from that nation, as well as from many other nations, though many monasteries still remain in that country. Yet, as no one directed the rule of that kind of life in a regular way, for what reason I cannot say, either from the invasions of foreigners which took place so frequently, both by sea and land, or because that people abounded in riches of every kind, and so looked with contempt on the monastic life. It was for this reason that King Alfred sought to gather monks of different kinds to place in the same monastery. First he placed there as Abbott, John, the priest and monk, an old Saxon by birth, then certain priests and deacons from beyond the sea, of whom, finding that he had not as large a number as he wished, he procured as many as possible of the same Gallic race, some of whom, being children, he ordered to be taught in the same monastery, and at a later period to be admitted to the monastic habit. Note, John, not the celebrated John-Scotus Eregana. End of note. I have myself seen a young lad of pagan birth who was educated in that monastery, and by no means the hindmost of them all. There was also a deed done once in that monastery which I would utterly consign to oblivion, although it is an unworthy deed, for throughout the whole of Scripture the base deeds of the wicked are interspersed among the blessed deeds of the just, as Therese and Darnell are sown among the weak. Good deeds are recorded that they may be praised and imitated, and that their imitators may be held in all honor. Wicked deeds are there related that they may be censured and avoided, and their imitators be reproved with all odium, contempt, and vengeance. For once upon a time a certain priest and a deacon, Gauls by birth, and two of the aforesaid monks, by the instigation of the devil and excited by some secret jealousy, became so embittered in secret against their abbot, the above mentioned John, that like Jews they circumvented and betrayed their master. For whereas he had two servants whom he had hired out of Gaul, they taught these such wicked practices that in the night when all men were enjoying the sweet tranquility of sleep, they should make their way into the church armed, and shutting it behind them as usual, hide themselves therein, and wait for the moment when the abbot should enter the church alone. At length when he should come alone to pray and bending his knees bow before the holy altar, the men should rush on him with hostility and try to slay him on the spot. They then should drag his lifeless body out of the church and throw it down before the house of a certain harlot, as if he had been slain whilst on a visit to her. This was their machination, adding crime to crime, as it is said, the last error shall be worse than the first. But the divine mercy, which always delights to aid the innocent, frustrated in great part the wicked design of the wicked men, so that it should not turn out in every respect as they had proposed. Then therefore the whole of the evil council had been explained by those wicked teachers to their wicked agents, and the night which had been fixed on as most fit was come, the two armed ruffians were placed with a promise of impunity to await in the church for the arrival of the abbot. In the middle of the night, John as usual entered the church to pray without anyone's knowing of it, and knelt before the altar. The two ruffians rushed upon him with drawn swords and dealt him some severe wounds, but he, being a man of a brave mind, and as we have heard say, not unacquainted with the art of self-defense, if he had not been a follower of a better calling, no sooner heard the sound of the robbers before he saw them than he rose up against them before he was wounded, and shouting as loud as he could struggled against them, crying out that they were devils and not men, for he himself knew no better, as he thought that no men would dare to attempt such a deed. He was, however, wounded before any of his people could come to his help. His attendants, roused by the noise, were frightened when they heard the word devils, and both those two, who, like Jews, sought to betray their master, and the others who knew nothing of the matter rushed together to the doors of the church, but before they got there those ruffians escaped, leaving the abbot half dead. The monks raised the old man in a fainting condition and carried him home with tears and lamentations, nor did those two deceitful monks shed tears less than the innocent. But God's mercy did not allow so bold a deed to pass unpunished. The ruffians who perpetrated it, and all who urged them to it, were taken and put in prison whereby various tortures they came to a disgraceful end. Let us now return to our narrative. Another monastery also was built by the same king as a residence for nuns near the eastern gate of Shaftesbury, and his own daughter, Ethel Geva, was placed in it as Abbas. With her many other noble ladies bound by the rules of the monastic life dwell in that monastery. These two edifices were enriched by the king with much land as well as personal property. These things being thus disposed of, the king began, as was his practice, to consider within himself what more he could do to augment and show forth his piety. What he had begun wisely and thoughtfully conceived for the public benefit, as adhered to with equally beneficial result, for he had heard it out of the book of the law, that the Lord had promised to restore to him tenfold, and he knew that the Lord had kept his promise and had actually restored to him tenfold. Encouraged by this example, and wishing to exceed the practices of his predecessors, he vowed humbly and faithfully to devote to God half his services, both day and night, and also half of all his wealth, such as lawfully and justly came annually into his possession. And this vow, as far as human discretion can perceive and keep, he skillfully and wisely endeavored to fulfill. But that he might with his usual caution avoid that which scripture warns us against, if you offer a right but do not divide a right, you sin. He considered how he might divide a right that which he had vowed to God. And, as Solomon had said, the heart of the king is the hand of God. That is, his counsel he ordered with wise policy which could come only from above, that his officers should first divide into two parts the revenues of every year. When this division was made, he assigned the first part to worldly uses, and ordered that one third of it should be paid to his soldiers and also to his ministers, the nobles who dwelt at court where they discharged diverse duties. For so the king's family was arranged at all times into three classes. The king's attendants were most wisely distributed into three companies, so that the first company should be on duty at court for one month, night and day, at the end of which they returned to their homes and were relieved by the second company. At the end of the second month in the same way the third company relieved the second who returned to their homes where they spent two months, until their services were again wanted. The third company also gave place to the first in the same way, and also spent two months at home. Thus was the threefold division of the companies arranged at all times in the royal household. To these therefore was paid the first of the three portions aforesaid, to each according to their respective dignities and peculiar services. The second, to the operatives whom he had collected from every nation and had about him in large numbers, men skilled in every kind of construction. The third portion was assigned to foreigners who came to him out of every nation far and near, whether they asked money of him or not, he cheerfully gave to each with wonderful munificence according to their respective merits, according to what is written. God loveth a cheerful giver. But the second part of all his revenues which came yearly into his possession and was included in the receipts of the exchequer, as we mentioned a little before, he with ready devotion gave to God, ordering his ministers to divide it carefully into four parts, on the condition that the first part should be discreetly bestowed on the poor of every nation who came to him. And on this subject he said that, as far as human discretion could guarantee, the remark of Pope Saint Gregory should be followed, Give not much to whom you should give little, nor little to whom much, nor something to whom nothing, nor nothing to whom something. The second of the four portions was given to the two monasteries which he had built and to those who therein had dedicated themselves to God's service, as we have mentioned above. The third portion was assigned to the school which he had studiously collected together, consisting of many of the nobility of his own nation. The fourth portion was for the use of all the neighboring monasteries in all Saxony and Mercia, and also, during some years in turn, to the churches and servants of God dwelling in Britain, such as Wales, Cornwall, Gaul, Armorica, Northumbria, and sometimes also in Ireland. According to his means he either distributed to them beforehand or afterwards, if life and success should not fail him. When the king had arranged these matters, he remembered that sentence of divine scripture, Whosoever will give alms ought to begin from himself, and prudently began to reflect what he could offer to God from the service of his body and mind, for he proposed to consecrate to God no less out of this than he had done of things external to himself. Moreover, he promised as far as his infirmity and means would allow to give up to God the half of his services, bodily and mental, by night and by day, voluntarily and with all his might. But in as much as he could not equally distinguish the lengths of the hours by night on account of the darkness and off times of the day on account of the storms and clouds, he began to consider, by what means and without any difficulty, relying on the mercy of God, he might discharge the promised tenor of his vow until his death. After long reflection on these things, he at length, by a useful and shrewd invention, commanded his chaplains to supply wax in a sufficient quantity, and he caused it to be weighed in such a manner that when there was so much of it in the scales as would equal the weight of seventy-two pence, he caused the chaplains to make six candles thereof, each of equal length, so that each candle might have twelve divisions marked longitudinally upon it. By this plan, therefore, those six candles burned for twenty-four hours, a night and day, without fail, before the sacred relics of many of God's elect, which always accompanied him wherever he went. But sometimes, when they would not continue burning a whole day and night, till the same hour that they were lighted the preceding evening, from the violence of the wind which blew day and night without intermission through the doors and windows of the churches, the fissures of the divisions, the plankings of the wall, or the thin canvas of the tents, they then unavoidably burned out and finished their course before the appointed time. The king, therefore, considered by what means he might shut out the wind, and so, by a useful and cunning invention, he ordered a lantern to be beautifully constructed of wood and white oxhorn, which, when skillfully plain till it is thin, is no less transparent than a vessel of glass. This lantern, therefore, was wonderfully made of wood and horn, as we before said, and by night a candle was put into it, which shone as brightly without as within, and was not extinguished by the wind, for the opening of the lantern was also closed up, according to the king's command, by a door made of horn. By this contrivance, then, six candles lighted in succession lasted four and twenty hours, neither more nor less, and when these were extinguished, others were lighted. When all these things were properly arranged, the king, eager to give up to God the half of his daily service as he had vowed, and more also, if his ability on the one hand and his malady on the other would allow him, showed himself a minute investigator of the truth in all his judgments, and this especially for the sake of the poor, to whose interest, day and night, among other duties of this life, he ever was wonderfully attentive. For in the whole kingdom, the poor besides him had few or no protectors, for all the powerful and noble of that country had turned their thoughts, rather, to secular than to heavenly things. Each was more bent on secular matters to his own profit than on the public good. He strove also in his own judgments for the benefit of both the noble and the ignoble, who often perversely quarreled at the meetings of his earls and officers, so that hardly one of them admitted the justice of what had been decided by the earls and prefects, and in consequence of this pertinacious and obstinate dissension, all desired to have the judgment of the king, and both sides sought at once to gratify their desire. But if anyone was conscious of injustice on his side in the suit, though by law and agreement he was compelled, however reluctant to go before the king, yet with his own good will he never would consent to go, for he knew that in the king's presence no part of his wrong would be hidden, and no wonder for the king was a most acute investigator in passing sentence as he was in all other things. He inquired into almost all the judgments which were given in his own absence throughout all his dominion, whether they were just or unjust. If he perceived there was iniquity in those judgments, he summoned the judges, either through his own agency or through others of his faithful servants, and asked them mildly why they had judged so unjustly, whether through ignorance or malevolence. That is, whether for the love or fear of anyone or hatred of others or also for the desire of money. At length, if the judges acknowledged they had given judgment because they knew no better, he discreetly and moderately reproved their inexperience and folly in such terms as these. I wonder truly at your insolence that whereas by God's favor and mine you have occupied the rank and office of the wise, you have neglected the studies and labors of the wise. Either, therefore, at once give up the discharge of the temporal duties which you hold, or endeavor more zealously to study the lessons of wisdom. Such are my commands. At these words the earls and prefects would tremble and endeavor to turn all their thoughts to the study of justice so that, wonderful to say, almost all his earls, prefects, and officers, though unlearned from their cradles, were sedulously bent upon acquiring learning, choosing rather laboriously to acquire the knowledge of a new discipline than to resign their functions. But if any one of them from old age or slowness of talent was unable to make progress in liberal studies, he commanded his son, if he had one, or one of his kinsmen, or if there was no other person to be had, his own freedman or servant, whom he had some time before advanced to the office of reading, to recite Saxon books before him night and day whenever he had any leisure. And they lamented with deep sighs in their inmost hearts that they had never attended to such studies, and they blessed the young men of our days who happily could be instructed in liberal arts whilst they executed their own lot that they had not learned these things in their youth, and now when they are old, though wishing to learn them, they are unable. But this skill of young and old in acquiring letters we have explained to the knowledge of the aforesaid king. Note. Some of the manuscripts record, in a note or appendix written by a later hand, that King Alfred died on the 26th of October, AD 900, in the 30th of his reign. The different dates assigned to the death of Alfred, says Sir Francis Paul Grave, affords singular proof of the uncertainty arising from various modes of computation. The Saxon Chronicle and Florence of Worcester agree in placing the event in 9001. The first, six nights before all saints, the last, with more precision, in Dictione Quarta et Feria Quarta, 5 Cal-Nove, Simon of Durham in 889, and the Saxon Chronicle in another passage in 900. The concurrence of Florence of Worcester seemed to afford the greatest certainty, and the date of 9001 has therefore been preferred. End of note. End of Part 2, Section 3. End of the Life of King Alfred by Asser, Bishop of Sherbourne, translated by J.A. Giles.