ested them from the storms of violence and war which swept over
every thing which the cross did not protect. To these the thoughtful,
the serious, and the intellectual retired, leaving the restless, the
rude, and the turbulent to distract and terrify the earth with their
endless quarrels. Here they studied, they wrote, they read; they
transcribed books, they kept records, they arranged exercises of
devotion, they educated youth, and, in a word, performed, in the
inclosed and secluded retreats in which they sought shelter, those
intellectual functions of civil life which now can all be performed in
open exposure, but which in those days, if there had been no monastic
retreats to shelter them, could not have been performed at all.
For the learning and piety of the present age, whether Catholic or
Protestant, to malign the monasteries of Anglo-Saxon times is for the
oak to traduce the acorn from which it sprung.

Ethelwolf was a younger son, and, consequently, did not expect to
reign. He went to the monastery at Winchester, and took the vows. His
father had no objection to this plan, satisfied with having his oldest
son expect and prepare for the throne. As, however, he advanced toward
manhood, the thought of the probability that he might be called to the
throne in the event of his brother's death led all parties to desire
that he might be released from his monastic vows. They applied,
accordingly, to the pope for a dispensation. The dispensation was
granted, and Ethelwolf became a general in the army. In the end his
brother died, and he became king.

He continued, however, during his reign, to manifest the peaceful,
quiet, and serious character which had led him to enter the monastery,
and which had probably been strengthened and confirmed by the
influences and habits to which he had been accustomed there. He had,
however, a very able, energetic, and warlike minister, who managed his
affairs with great ability and success for a long course of years.
Ethelwolf, in the mean time, leaving public affairs to his minister,
continued to devote himself to the pursuits to which his predilections
inclined him. He visited monasteries; he cultivated learning; he
endowed the Church; he made journeys to Rome. All this time, his
kingdom, which had before almost swallowed up the other kingdoms of
the Heptarchy, became more and more firmly established, until, at
length, the Danes came in, as is described in the last chapter, and
brought