[279] In Chap. 104 of Asser's biography the capellani are described as supplying the king with candles, by whose burning he measured time. The word capellanus is of pure Frankish origin and was originally applied to the clerks (clerici capellani) who were charged with the custody of the cope (cappa) of St. Martin, which was kept in the capella. From this the term capella came to mean a room especially devoted to religious uses, that is, a chapel. It was used in this sense as early as 829 in Frankland. Whether by capellanus Asser meant mere clerks, or veritable "chaplains" in the later sense, cannot be known, though his usage was probably the latter.
[280] Chapter 87 of Asser informs us that Alfred mastered the art of reading in the year 887.
[281] Grimbald came from the Flemish monastery of St. Bertin at St. Omer. He was recommended to Alfred by Fulco, archbishop of Rheims, who had once been abbot of St. Bertin. We do not know in what year Grimbald went to England, though there is some evidence that it was not far from 887.
[282] John the Old Saxon is mentioned by Alfred as his mass-priest. It is probable that he came from the abbey of Corbei on the upper Weser. Not much is known about the man, but if he was as learned as Asser says he was, he must have been a welcome addition to Alfred's group of scholars particularly as the language which he used was very similar to that of the West Saxons in England.
[283] That is, south of the Humber.
[284] The service of the Church.
[285] They were written, of course, in Latin.
[286] By the middle of the third century A.D. as many as three different translations of the Old Testament into Greek had been made—those of Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmochus. These eventually took fixed shape in the so-called Septuagint version of the Old Testament.
[287] About the year 385 St. Jerome revised the older Latin translation of the New Testament and translated the Old Testament directly from the Hebrew. This complete version gradually superseded all others for the whole Latin-reading Church, being known as the "Vulgate," that is, the version commonly accepted. It was in the form of the Vulgate that the Scriptures were known to the Saxons and all other peoples of western Europe.
[288] In other words, sufficient relief from the Danish incursions.