From this period its decline
was rapid, in spite of its famous abbey, which Remigius partially
erected with the stones from the bishop's palace.
viii Anglo-Saxon Literature.
In the age of Bede, the eighth century, Britain was distinguished for
its learning; but the Danish invasions caused the rapid decline of its
renown.
The churches and monasteries, where alone learning flourished, and which
were the only libraries and schools, were the first objects of the
hatred of the ferocious pagans; and, in consequence, when Alfred came to
the throne, as he tells us in his own words--"South of the Humber
there were few priests who could understand the meaning of their common
prayers, or translate a line of Latin into English; so few, that in
Wessex there was not one." Alfred set himself diligently to work to
correct this evil. Nearly all the books in existence in England were in
Latin, and it was a "great" library which contained fifty copies of
these. There was a great objection to the use of the vernacular in the
Holy Scriptures, as tending to degrade them by its uncouth jargon; but
the Venerable Bede had rendered the Gospel of St. John into the
Anglo-Saxon, together with other extracts from holy Scripture; and there
were versions of the Psalter in the vulgar tongue, very rude and
uncouth; for ancient translators generally imagined a translation could
only be faithful which placed all the words of the vulgar tongue in the
same relative positions as the corresponding words in the original.
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