Identifier: medivalmodernh01myer (find matches)
Title: Mediæval and modern history
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors: Myers, P. V. N. (Philip Van Ness), 1846-1937
Subjects: Middle Ages History, Modern
Publisher: Boston, London, Ginn & company
Contributing Library: Columbia University Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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After the subjection and settlement of Guthrum and hisfollowers, Alfreds little kingdom was comparatively freefrom the ravages of the Danes for a period of ten or fif-teen years ; these years of quiet Alfred employed in buildinga fleet and in instituting measures of reform in his govern-ment. But again the dreaded enemy renewed their forays, led nowby the terrible Hasting, They were finally forced, however,to withdraw from the island and seek elsewhere spoils andsettlements; and Alfred was permitted to pass his last yearsin something like quiet. The great king died in the year 901,in the fifty-third year of his age.^ 119. Alfred as a Codifier of Laws and an Author. — Eminentas were Alfreds services to his people as a leader in war, stillgreater were those he rendered them as a lawgiver and anauthor. He collected and revised the ancient laws of theAnglo-Saxons, tempering and altering them in accordance with 3 England celebrated the millennial anniversary of his death in the year1901.
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Alfred as a Codifier of Laws and an AntJior 141 Christian morals and principles.* The code that he thus madeformed the basis of early English jurisprudence. But beyond all things else must be extolled those literarylabors of King Alfred by which he fostered learning and gavethe first impulse to English literature. By the ravages of thepagan Danes the libraries of the monasteries and churches hadbeen destroyed, and this rendered still denser the ignoranceof that ignorant age. Alfred tells us that there was not asingle priest south of the Thames who could translate intoEnglish the Latin of his prayer-book. The king set himselfzealously to work to improve this state of things. His idealof education was that every youth in the land who had thetime and means should be instructed to that extent whichshould enable him to read easily the English Bible. But Alfred realized that little could be effected in the matterof instructing the people so long as all the books were writtenin an unknown la

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