The Puritan in Holland, England, and America; an introduction to American history by Campbell Douglas 1839-1893

Author:Campbell, Douglas, 1839-1893. [from old catalog]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Puritans. [from old catalog]
Publisher: New York, Harper & brothers
Published: 1892-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

t Gneist pays a high tribute to the Anglo-Saxon Church for its early work, while showing how^, in later days, it fell into rudeness and sensuality, i. 85-87, note. Before the Norman Conquest it had acquiicci about one third of the property of the kingdom, p. 110.

THB V5NKRABLB BBDB-THE DANES-KIKG ALFRED 288

as its outer form is concerned, becomes the work of his hands.* A school is established, which the Venerable Bede attends, where he learns Greek, for the first time taught in England, and with it imbibes a taste for science and letters. Bede passes his life at the monastery of Jarrow, gathers six hundred pupils about him, becomes, as Burke calls him, ^' the father of English literature," and dies in 755, translating the Gospel of St. John into the vernacular. But upon his death the kingdom of Northumbria, in which he lived, is desolated by incessant wars, the land is laid waste, his scholars are dispersed, and nothing is left of his work but the forty-five volumes which attest his industry, and a name which glorifies his age.f

Later on, in 800, just as the English are becoming one nation,:^ the Danes come in, as utterly heathen and as savage and ferocious as the followers of Ilengist and Horsa. They at once wipe out almost all of civilization above the Thames.§ In about seventy years they become masters of the land.] Then King Alfred appears on the scene, a man who, seen through the dim mist of tradition, is one of the world's heroes. He roused the people against the Danes, founded a kingdom in the lower part of the island, established peace in his realm, reduced the laws to system, and became the teacher of his people.Tf Alfred did all that he could to correct and

* Green's ** Short History," p. 66. f Idem, p. 74.

I Gneist, i. 42.

f Ranke, i. 17; Green's " Sliort History," pp. 78, 79, 82.

I Gneist, i. 105.

^ Ranke, tlie great German historian, pays this tribute to Bcrle and Alfred. *'Tlie first German who made the univei'sal learning derived from antiquity bis own was an Anglo-Saxon, the Venerable

284 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, BNGLAND, AND AMEBICA

inform the ignorance of his countrymen, to which they had been reduced by the Danish conquest. When he began to reign, he could find scarcely a priest in the kingdom able to render the Latin service into English. For the benefit of the common people he translated several Latin works, with annotations which sound of the primer. He established schools at court, where the sons of the nobility were instructed in the rudiments of learning ; and, taking an idea from Boman jurisprudence, he codified the laws, prefacing them, after the Puritan fashion, with the Ten Commandments and a portion of the law of Moses.

Alfred dies, and under one of his successors the Danish portions of the country are brought into complete subjection.* Then follow a few years of peace and national prosperity. But again civil war breaks out, and the heathen Danes reappear in new and greater hordes.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.