customs. But with the new religion came new ideas.

Manuscripts were circulated; monasteries and schools were founded, and
learning was somewhat diffused. The Saxon language is marked by three
several epochs:

1st. From the irruption of the Saxons into Britain, A.D. 449, to the
invasion of the Danes, including a period of 330 years.

2d. The Danish-Saxon period, continuing to the Norman conquest, A.D.
1066.

3d. The Norman-Saxon era, running down to the close of Henry II's reign.
Of the first period, but a single specimen remains, and that a quotation
by King Alfred; of the 2d period, numerous specimens both in verse and
prose are extant; with the last period, the annals of English poetry
commence.

The three dialects of these three literary epochs illustrate fully the
changes which the old Saxon tongue underwent during the five centuries
of its growth into the modern English.

Learning was chiefly confined to the church, during the dark ages; of
course, the great lights of Saxon England were prelates, except Alfred,
and most of them wrote in Latin.

The venerable Bede (born 673, died 735), as he is styled, who wrote
in the eighth century, was a profoundly learned man for those times.
His writings embrace all topics then included in the knowledge of the
schools or the Church. His works were published at Cologne, in 1612,