self to read and examine at leisure, and also to copy out and 5 impart to others more at large; and I have confidence in your zeal, because you are very diligent and inquisitive as to the sayings and doings of men of old, and above all of the famous men among our people. For this book either speaks good of the good, and the hearer imitates that, or it speaks 10 evil of the evil, and the hearer flees and shuns the evil. For it is good to praise the good and blame the bad, that the hearer may profit. If your hearer be reluctant, how else will he gain instruction? I have written this for your profit and for your people; as God chose you out to be 15 king, it behoves you to instruct your people. And that there may be the less doubt whether this be true, I will state the sources of my narrative

Coming of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes

(From the Ecclesiastical History, Book I, Chap. XV)

It was 449 years after our Lord's incarnation, when the emperor Martianus succeeded to the throne, which he occupied for seven years. He was the forty-sixth from the emperor Augustus. At that time the Angles and Saxons 5 were called in by the aforesaid king, and arrived in Britain with three great ships. They received settlements on the east side of the island by order of the same king, who had invited them here, to fight as for their country. They at once took the field against the foe, who had often before 10 overrun the land from the north; and the Saxons won the victory. Then they sent home messengers, whom they bade to report the fertility of this land, and the cowardice of the Britons. Immediately a larger fleet was dispatched here, with a stronger force of warriors; and the host when 15 united overpowered resistance. The Britons gave and assigned to them settlements among themselves, on condition of fighting for the peace and safety of their country and

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20

The new-comers were of the three strongest races of Germany, namely, Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. Of Jutish origin are the men of Kent, and the Wihtsætan; that is the tribe dwelling in the Isle of Wight. From the Saxons, that is from the people called Old Saxons, came the East Saxons, 25 the South Saxons, and the West Saxons; and from the Angles came the East Angles and the Middle Angles, Mercians, and the whole race of the Northumbrians. This is the land which is named Angulus, between the Jutes and Saxons, and it is said to have lain waste, from the time they 30 left it, up to this day. Their leaders and their commanders were at first two brothers, Hengist and Horsa, sons of Wihtgils, whose father was called Witta, whose father was Wihta, and the father of Wihta was called Woden. From his race the royal families of many tribes derived their origin. Then 35 without delay they came in crowds, larger hosts from the tribes previously mentioned. And the people, who came here, began to increase and multiply to such an extent, that they were a great terror to the inhabitants themselves, who originally invited and called them in. Later on, when occa- 40 sion offered, they entered into alliance with the Picts, whom they had previously driven out by arms. And the Saxons sought excuse and opportunity for breaking with the Britons.

So they publicly announced to the Britons and declared, that, unless they gave them a more liberal maintenance, 45 they would take it for themselves by force and by plundering, wherever they could find it. And they soon carried their threats into execution: they burned and plundered and slew from the sea on the west to the sea on the east; and now no one withstood them. Their vengeance was not unlike that 50 of the Chaldees, when they burned the walls of Jerusalem

and destroyed the royal palace by fire for the sins of God's people. So then here almost every city and district was wasted by this impious people, though it was by the just 55 judgment of God. Buildings both public and private collapsed and fell; by every altar priests and clergy were slain and murdered. Bishops and people, without regard for mercy, were destroyed together by fire and sword; nor was there anyone who bestowed the rites of burial on those so 60 cruelly slaughtered. Many of the miserable survivors were captured in waste places, and stabbed in heaps.

Some through hunger surrendered themselves into the enemy's hands, and engaged to be their slaves for ever in return for a maintenance; some in sorrow went beyond the sea; some 65 timidly abode in the old country, and with heavy hearts ever lived a life of want in wood and wilds and on lofty rocks. Then when the host returned to their home after expelling the inhabitants of the island, the latter began little by little to rouse up their strength and courage: issuing from the 70 obscure retreats in which they had hidden themselves, they began all with one consent to entreat heaven's aid, that they might not utterly and everywhere be annihilated. At that time their general and leader was Ambrosius, also called Aurelianus: he was of Roman origin, and a man of courage 75 and moderation. In his time the Britons recovered heart and strength, and he exhorted them to fight and promised victory; and by God's help in the fight they did win the victory. And then from that time now the Britons, now again the Saxons were victors, till the year in which Mount 80 Badon was beset; there was made a great carnage of the Angles, about forty-four years after the arrival of the Angles in Britain.

ALFRED THE GREAT

Preface to Pope Gregory's Pastoral Care

King Alfred bids greet bishop Waerferth lovingly and with friendship; and I let it be known to thee that it has very often come into my mind, what wise men there were formerly throughout England; both of sacred and secular orders; and how happy times there were then throughout 5 England; and how the kings who had power over the nation in those days obeyed God and his ministers; and they preserved peace, morality, and order at home, and at the same time enlarged their territory abroad; and how they prospered both with war and with wisdom; and also the sacred 10 orders how zealous they were both in teaching and in learning; and in all the services they owed to God; and how foreigners came to this land in search of wisdom and instruction, and how we should now have to get them from abroad if we were to have them. So general was its decay in Eng- 15 land that there were very few on this side of the Humber who could understand their rituals in English, or translate a letter from Latin into English; and I believe that there were not many beyond the Humber. There were so few of them that I cannot remember a single one south of the Thames 20 when I came to the throne.

Thanks be to God Almighty that we have any teachers among us now. And therefore I command thee to do as I believe thou art willing, to disengage thyself from worldly matters as often as thou canst, that thou mayest apply the 25 wisdom which God has given thee wherever thou canst. Consider what punishments would come upon us on account of this world, if we neither loved it (wisdom) ourselves nor suffered other men to obtain it: we should love the name only of Christian, and very few of the virtues. When I 30 considered all this I remembered also how I saw, before it