94. Monks brought from beyond Sea.[251]—First he placed there John[252] the priest and monk, an Old Saxon by birth, making him abbot; and then certain priests and deacons from beyond sea. Finding that he had not so large a number of these as he wished, he procured as many as possible of the same Gallic race[253]; some of whom, being children, he ordered to be taught in the same monastery, and at a later period to be admitted to the monastic habit. I have myself seen there in monastic dress a young man of heathen birth who was educated in that monastery, and by no means the hindmost of them all.
95. A Crime committed at Athelney.[254]—There was a crime committed once in that monastery, which I would <not>,[255] by my silence, utterly consign to oblivion, although it is an atrocious villainy, for throughout the whole of Scripture the base deeds of the wicked are interspersed among the reverend actions of the righteous, like tares and cockle among the wheat. Good deeds are recorded that they may be praised, imitated, and emulated, and that those who pursue them may be held worthy of all honor; and wicked deeds, that they may be censured, execrated, and avoided, and their imitators be reproved with all odium, contempt, and vengeance.
96. The Plot of a Priest and a Deacon.[256]—Once upon a time, a certain priest and a deacon, Gauls by birth, of the number of the aforesaid monks, by the instigation of the devil, and roused by jealousy, became so embittered in secret against their abbot, the above-mentioned John, that, after the manner of the Jews, they circumvented and betrayed their master. For they so wrought upon two hired servants of the same Gallic race that in the night, when all men were enjoying the sweet tranquillity of sleep, they should make their way into the church armed, and, shutting it behind them as usual, hide themselves there, and wait till the abbot should enter the church alone. At length, when, as was his wont, he should secretly enter the church by himself to pray, and, bending his knees, bow before the holy altar, the men should fall upon him, and slay him on the spot. They should then drag his lifeless body out of the church, and throw it down before the house of a certain harlot, as if he had been slain whilst on a visit to her. This was their device, adding crime to crime, as it is said, ‘The last error shall be worse than the first.’[257] But the divine mercy, which is always wont to aid the innocent, frustrated in great part the evil design of those evil men, so that it did not turn out in all respects as they had planned.
97. The Execution of the Plot.[258]—When, therefore, the whole of the evil teaching had been explained by those wicked teachers to their wicked hearers, and enforced upon them, the night having come and being favorable, the two armed ruffians, furnished with a promise of impunity, shut themselves up in the church to await the arrival of the abbot. In the middle of the night John, as usual, entered the church to pray, without any one’s knowledge, and knelt before the altar. Thereupon the two ruffians rushed upon him suddenly with drawn swords, and wounded him severely. But he, being ever a man of keen mind, and, as I have heard say, not unacquainted with the art of fighting, if he had not been proficient in better lore, no sooner heard the noise of the robbers, even before he saw them, than he rose up against them before he was wounded, and, shouting at the top of his voice, struggled against them with all his might, crying out that they were devils and not men—and indeed he knew no better, as he thought that no men would dare to attempt such a deed. He was, however, wounded before any of his monks could come up. They, roused by the noise, were frightened when they heard the word ‘devils’; being likewise unfamiliar with such struggles, they, and the two who, after the manner of the Jews, were traitors to their lord, rushed toward the doors of the church; but before they got there those ruffians escaped with all speed, and secreted themselves in the fens near by, leaving the abbot half dead. The monks raised their nearly lifeless superior, and bore him home with grief and lamentations; nor did those two knaves shed tears less than the innocent. But God’s mercy did not allow so horrible a crime to pass unpunished: the desperadoes who perpetrated it, and all who urged them to it, were seized and bound; then, by various tortures, they died a shameful death. Let us now return to our main narrative.
98. The Convent at Shaftesbury.[259]—Another[260] monastery also was built by the aforesaid king as a residence for nuns, near the eastern gate of Shaftesbury; and over it he placed as abbess his own daughter Æthelgivu, a virgin dedicated to God. With her many other noble ladies, serving God in the monastic life, dwell in that convent. These two edifices were enriched by the king with much land, and with all sorts of wealth.
99. Alfred divides his Time and his Revenues.[261]—These things being thus disposed of, the king considered within himself, as was his practice, what more would conduce to religious meditation. What he had wisely begun and usefully conceived was adhered to with even more beneficial result; for he had long before heard out of the book of the law that the Lord[262] had promised to restore to him the tenth many times over; and he knew that the Lord had faithfully kept His promise, and had actually restored to him the tithe manyfold. Encouraged by this precedent, and wishing to surpass the practice of his predecessors, he vowed humbly and faithfully to devote to God half his services, by day and by night, and also half of all the wealth which lawfully and justly came every year into his possession; and this vow, as far as human discretion can perceive and keep, he skilfully and wisely endeavored to fulfil. But that he might, with his usual caution, avoid that which Scripture warns us against, ‘If thou offerest aright, but dost not divide aright, thou sinnest,’[263] he considered how he might divide aright that which he had joyfully vowed to God; and as Solomon had said, ‘The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord’[264]—that is, his counsel—he ordered with a divinely inspired policy, which could come only from above, that his officers should first divide into two parts the revenues of every year.
100. The Threefold Division of Officers at Court.[265]—After this division had been made, he assigned the first part to worldly uses, and ordered that one third of it should be paid to his soldiers and to his officers, the nobles who dwelt by turns at court, where they discharged various duties, for thus it was that the king’s household was arranged at all times in three shifts,[266] in the following manner. The king’s attendants being wisely distributed into three companies, the first company was on duty at court for one month, night and day, at the end of which they were relieved by the second company, and returned to their homes for two months, where they attended to their own affairs. At the end of the second month, the third company relieved the second, who returned to their homes, where they spent two months. The third company then gave place to the first, and in their turn spent two months at home. And in this order the rotation of service at the king’s court was at all times carried on.
101. The Distribution for Secular Purposes.[267]—To these, therefore, was paid the first of the three portions aforesaid, to each according to his standing and peculiar service; the second to the workmen whom he had collected from many nations and had about him in large numbers, men skilled in every kind of building; the third portion was assigned to foreigners who came to him out of every nation far and near; whether they asked money of him or not, he cheerfully gave to each with wonderful munificence according to their respective worthiness,[268] exemplifying what is written, ‘God loveth a cheerful giver.’[269]
102. The Distribution for Religious Purposes.[270]—But the second part of all his revenues, which came yearly into his possession, and was included in the receipts of the exchequer, as I mentioned just above, he with full devotion dedicated to God, ordering his officers to divide it carefully into four equal parts with the provision that the first part should be discreetly bestowed on the poor of every nation who came to him; on this subject he said that, as far as human discretion could guarantee, the remark of Pope Gregory on the proper division of alms should be followed, ‘Give not little to whom you should give much, nor much to whom little, nor nothing to whom something, nor something to whom nothing.’[271] The second share to the two monasteries which he had built, and to those who were serving God in them, as I have described more at length above. The third to the school[272] which he had studiously formed from many of the nobility of his own nation, but also from boys of mean condition. The fourth to the neighboring monasteries in all Wessex and Mercia, and also during some years, in turn, to the churches and servants of God dwelling in Wales, Cornwall,[273] Gaul,[274] Brittany, Northumbria, and sometimes, too, in Ireland; according to his means, he either distributed to them beforehand, or agreed to contribute afterwards, if life and prosperity did not fail him.
103. Alfred’s Dedication of Personal Service.[275]—When the king had arranged all these matters in due order, he remembered the text of holy Scripture which says, ‘Whosoever will give alms, ought to begin from himself,’[276] and prudently began to reflect what he could offer to God from the service of his body and mind; for he proposed to offer to God no less out of this than he had done of external riches.[277] Accordingly, he promised, as far as his infirmity and his means would allow, to render to God the half of his services, bodily and mental, by night and by day,[278] voluntarily, and with all his might. Inasmuch, however, as he could not distinguish with accuracy the lengths of the night hours in any way, on account of the darkness, nor frequently those of the day, on account of the thick clouds and rains, he began to consider by what regular means, free from uncertainty, relying on the mercy of God, he might discharge the promised tenor of his vow undeviatingly until his death.