The Danish invasions checked temporarily the remarkable educational progress this country was making. Beginning early in the ninth century, the era of Danish reconnoitring excursions closes with the year 855; the era of methodical plundering with the year 876. As a consequence of their various immigrations, the greater part of the English coasts were ruined and devastated. Towns and ecclesiastical buildings were plundered and burnt. “The Church with its civilising and cosmopolitan influences was for a time swept out of great districts which fell momentarily into heathen hands.”[74]
After a long and fierce struggle with the invaders, Alfred, the West Saxon king, held them in check, and compelled them to make peace with him. Subsequently, in the tenth century, through the successive efforts of Alfred’s son, daughter, and grandson, the territory formerly yielded was regained.
From the ruin and desolation that the Danes had occasioned, it was the aim of King Alfred to raise his country. No sovereign could recognise more fully the value of Education than Alfred did. His general attitude is evidenced by the preface he wrote to his translation of Gregory the Great’s Pastoral Care. In it he refers to the reputation that this country at one time enjoyed on account of the wisdom and learning of its clergy. Then he proceeds to show that the decay that had set in had been so great that learning had practically disappeared from the country. He aimed at making his people familiar with the contents of some of the chief religious books, and, as the knowledge of Latin had by this time practically died out in the country, he sought to get them translated “into their own land-speech.” Not content with simply expressing a wish that this might be done, he endeavoured to stimulate the efforts of others by the example he set. In order that education might make greater progress in the future, he suggested that every English child born of free condition and who had the means or faculty, should during his youth “be given over to teachers ... till such time as they may know well to read English writing.” Those who evinced an interest in letters should then proceed to a study of Latin.
It is an interesting question to consider how and where these educational advantages were to be secured. Alfred himself had written: “So clean was learning fallen off from among English folk that few there were on this side Humber that could understand the service in English or even turn an errand writing from Latin into English. And not many were there, I ween, beyond Humber. So few they were that I cannot bethink me of so much as one south of the Thames when first I took the kingdom.” The suggestion of Alfred is that “now we must get these from without if we would have them.” Unfortunately no reliable evidence is available to assist us in suggesting an answer to the problem.
The educational activities of Alfred are described at length in Asser’s Life of Alfred.[75] The authenticity of this life, however, has been called in question, and though Stevenson argues strongly in its favour yet the evidence against is so strong that it is difficult to admit its claim to be considered what it professes to be. Still, even if the work is not a ninth century production, there is indisputable evidence of its existence in the tenth century. We can, therefore, regard the work as setting out the educational ideas which tradition, at any rate, considered to be in harmony with the character of King Alfred. From this pseudo-Asser, we learn that Alfred first acquired the power of reading Anglo-Saxon by the aid of a master, who was most probably one of the priests associated with the court. Alfred’s ambition to learn Latin was difficult of accomplishment because of the scarcity of teachers of that subject. For the education of his children, Alfred arranged that they, together with the young nobles and some promising youths of lower origin, should be instructed by masters who should teach their pupils to read both Latin and Saxon. Thus the king established at his court a Palace School similar to that founded by Charles the Great.
Though all the details given in Asser cannot be accepted as true, yet the general statement that Alfred played an important part in stimulating the educational activity of his country is unquestioned. His efforts must be regarded as the beginning of a national concern for education, as Alfred, though a pious and religious king, was actuated not by a desire to recruit the ranks of the priesthood but by a wish to make his subjects capable of discharging more effectively the duty they owed to the state. This, he considered, could be secured through education. If this contention is sound, then Alfred was the first Englishman to recognise the sociological significance of education.
There is, unfortunately, no evidence that the efforts of Alfred, in the direction of improving the education of his country, met with any success. There would be practical difficulties in securing a sufficient number of keen and capable priests from abroad; the secular clergy of this country had scarcely proved equal to the trust reposed in them. To the thoughtful observer of the day the end in view could be obtained only through the restoration of monasticism. We learn that Edgar, as a youth, had made a vow to restore as many monasteries as possible,[76] but “until Dunstan and Athelwold revived learning in the monastic life, no English priest could either write a letter in Latin or understand one.”[77] We must therefore turn to those “three torches” of the Church—Dunstan, Oswald, and Athelwold—in order to learn how a revival of interest in education was effected.
We are fortunate in possessing two biographies of Dunstan which were practically contemporary writings, as one was written within sixteen, and the other within twenty-three years of his death. “Both of these are dedicated to his successors, who knew him well, as being his fellow scholars and his own disciples.” Dunstan was born at Glastonbury in 925, and the old monastic buildings in a semi-ruinous condition still existed there at that time. They were then tenanted by some Irish scholars who had come to Glastonbury to visit the tomb of Patrick the Younger.[78] To these clerks Dunstan was sent at an early age for instruction. He made rapid progress and not only acquired a mastery of grammar, but also showed excellence in other branches of study.[79] Consequently, he exposed himself to the charge of “studying the vain poems and trifling histories of ancient paganism, to be a worker of magic.”[80]
Dunstan, whilst still a young man, was introduced to the court of King Athelstan by Aldhelm, Archbishop of Canterbury, stated by Adelard, one of the biographers of Dunstan, to have been his uncle. A serious illness and the jealousy of some of the nobles led to Dunstan’s retirement from court. On the advice of Alfeah the Bald, bishop of Winchester, he took the monastic vows,[81] and in 946 was made Abbot of Glastonbury. He did all in his power to develop the growth and importance of the monastery, and it is interesting to find that under his rule, the establishment of Glastonbury was more of a school than a monastery; “the words ‘scholasticus’ and ‘discipulus’ come more naturally than ‘monachus.’”[82] After holding various bishoprics, Dunstan became Archbishop of Canterbury in 959, and was then in a position to undertake the task of restoring the monastic conditions of the country and consequently of stimulating its educational activities.
Turning to the coadjutors of Dunstan in his work of reform, we note that Athelwold (who became Abbot of Abingdon in 953, and Bishop of Winchester in 965) was one of his pupils. He attained “a most generous skill in the art of grammar and the honeyed sweetness of verse; he was not only familiar with the Bible, but also with the catholic and most famous authors.”[83] Oswald, the other colleague of Dunstan, had been for some time an inmate of the monastery at Fleury.