Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

KING ALFRED. 95
Knowledge without piety is the curse of our days;
the fear of God was the beginning of Alfred's
wisdom. In proportion as he was eager to make
over to God the half of his own time and substance,
I
so was he desirous of helping others to a life of
prayer and self-abnegation. The Danes had well-
nigh stamped out the religious life in England, and
that of Wessex in particular was languishing through
this and other causes. Alfred built his first monastery
at Athelney, and his second at Shaftesbury of
which he made his daughter, ^Ethelgiva, first abbess.
These two houses were always the object of his predilection,
and to them a fourth part of his wealth
was allotted. The other portions were devoted (1)
to the poor of all parts, (2) to his collegia del nobili,
(3) to religious houses other than Athelney and
Shaftesbury.1
Another recipient of Alfred's bounty was the
Holy See. This almsgiving was nothing special
to Alfred, as it was a common practice and tradition
writh the Saxon kings, but Alfred's spirit " was singu-
larly uninsular. Poverty or learning, whatever the
outward garb they wore, ever found a welcome from
him. So with the great Christian family, which is
spread over the world and independent of latitude
and longitude, he was ignorant of rights and privileges
attached to Anglo-Saxon nationality, and not
shared by others who bore the Catholic name.
^r. Knight, Life of King Alfred the Great, chap. iv.