in eight folio volumes. Another of the ornaments of this century was
Alcuin, librarian and pupil of Egbert, Archbishop of York. He enjoyed
a European reputation; was invited to France, by Charlemangne, to
superintend his own studies; and was thought by some to have been the
founder of 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: