istian learning in which Alfred himself and a Welshman,
Asser, whom he made bishop of an English see, were the leaders. Alfred
was a bright example of what Christianity could do for mankind.
Warrior, scholar, saint, pattern king whose heart was given to his
people, he bore himself nobly before the world as one who loved and
worshipped the Master Christ. Under his sway the Church rose again to
instruct and guide the people, and when he died he left the English
land a united Christian nation. The Danes, who after years of
predatory invasion were become settlers over a large part of England,
were brought into the Church; and the British Church in Cornwall was
brought nearer to unity with the English, a union which was complete
from 931.

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[Sidenote: Conversion of the north.]

While in the extreme north, Ross, Cromarty, Sutherland, and Caithness,
the Church remained missionary rather than parochial, in the Scotland
of the south monasticism became prominent again under a new order
called, in Goidelic, "Culdees" (servants of God). In the midlands
years of disturbance caused much of the organisation of the Church to
disappear, bishoprics to cease, monasteries to be destroyed. After the
Danish wars the work of reconstruction was an urgent need, and a great
prelate came to lead it.

[Sidenote: Dunstan, 924-88.]

Dunstan (924-88) was a West Saxon who was taught at Glastonbury by
Irish priests, and who rose, through his friendship with leaders in
Church and State, by the holiness of his life, and by the experience
that he won when in exile in Flanders, to be head of the English
Church. As archbishop he was "a true shepherd." He gave up all the
preferments he had before enjoyed, only visiting Glastonbury
occasionally for a time of repose. His friends, Aethelwold, Bishop of
Winchester, and Oswald, Bishop of Worcester, with King Eadgar's help,
did their utmost to introduce the strict rule of S. Benedict into the
monasteries, replacing the clergy of the cathedral churches (secular
canons) by monks. Dunstan sympathised, but he did not actively support
their action. Abroad there was strong feeling against clerical
marriage, and there were many canons passed against it. The danger of
the Church falling into the hands of an hereditary class of officials
was a real one; but it does not seem to have been much felt in England.
Dunstan paid far more heed to the clergy's books than their wives.

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[Sidenote: His