the University of Paris. He was contemporary with Bede, was
acquainted with the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, languages and composed
treatises on music, logic, rhetoric, astronomy and grammar; besides
lives of saints, commentaries on the Bible, homiles, epistles and
verses.

From the age of these authors learning declined till Alfred appeared.
"At my accession to the throne," he remarks, "all knowledge and learning
were extinguished in the Englsh nation, insomuch, that there were very
few to the south of the Humber who understood the common prayers of the
Church, or were capable of translating a single sentence of Latin into
English; but to the north of the Thames, I cannot recollect so much as
one who could do this." King Alfred was an eminent lover and promotor of
learning. His works in the Saxon tongue, both original and translated,
were numerous and valuable. His glory as a scholar is not eclipsed by
his fame as a legislator. In both respects he has no peer in England's
line of Kings. He is reputed to have been the founder of the University
of Oxford, as well as the originator of the "Trial by Jury." He died
A.D. 900 or 901.

John Scot, or Johannes Scotus Engena, flourished during Alfred's reign,
was a lecturer at Oxford, and the founder or chief prompter of
scholastic divinity. The earliest specimen of the Anglo-Saxon language
extant is the Lord's prayer, translated from the Greek by Ealdfride,
Bishop of Sindisfarne, or Holy Island, about the year 700:

"Urin Fader thic arth in heofnas;
Our father which art in heaven;

sic gehalgud thin noma;
be hallowed thy name;

to cymeth thin ryc;
to come thy kingdom:

sic thin willa sue is in heofnas & in eorthe;
be thy will so is in heaven and in earth;

urin hlaf ofirwistlic sel us to daig;
our loaf super-excellent give us to day;

and forgefe us scylda urna;
and forgive us debts ours;

sue we forgefan scyldgum urum;
so we forgiven debts of ours;

and no inlead usig in custnung;
and not lead us into temptation;

ah gefrig usich from ifle.
but free us each from evil.

The new Danish irruptions again arrested the progress of learning, and
ignorance and misery, as is usual, followed in the train of war. Alfred
had restored learning and promoted the arts of peace. But his successors
failed to sustain the institutions he planted. He is said to have shone
with the lustre of the brightest day