Alfred The Wise

Alfred's life, work and influence studied through writings of his age. Alfred and the great achievements of his reign are once more at the centre of scholarly discussion, and the studies in this collection make a significant contribution to the continuing debate. Focusing particularly on the writingsof Alfred's age, the contributions, by leading scholars in the field, examine Alfred's life, work and influence: there are accounts of law and morality; examinations of translations and their sources; and investigations of wordsand events, throwing new light on all major aspects of Alfred's reign. As a whole, the volume is an appropriate tribute to Janet Bately, whose writings on the age of Alfred are known and admired by both historians and literary scholars throughout the world. Professor JANE ROBERTS teaches in the Department of English, King's College, London; Professor JANET L. NELSON, Director of the Centre for Late Antiques and Medieval Studies, teaches in the Department of History, King's College, London; Professor MALCOLM GODDEN is Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Oxford. Contributors and contents: ANDREW BREEZE, J.E. CROSS, ANDREW HAMER, ROBERTA FRANK, ALLEN J. FRANTZEN, M.R. GODDEN, WALTER GOFFART, LYNNE GRUNDY, CYRIL HART, JOYCE HILL, SIMON KEYNES, ANN KNOCK, BRUCE MITCHELL, JANET L. NELSON, BARBARA RAW, JANE ROBERTS, D.G. SCRAGG, ALFRED B. SMYTH, E.G. STANLEY, PAULE. SZARMACH, PATRICK WORMALD

The unlikely king who saved England. Down swept the Vikings from the frigid North. Across the English coastlands and countryside they raided, torched, murdered, and destroyed all in their path. Farmers, monks, and soldiers all fell bloody under the Viking sword, hammer, and axe. Then, when the hour was most desperate, came an unlikely hero. King Alfred rallied the battered and bedraggled kingdoms of Britain and after decades of plotting, praying, and persisting, finally triumphed over the invaders. Alfred's victory reverberates to this day: He sparked a literary renaissance, restructured Britain's roadways, revised the legal codes, and revived Christian learning and worship. It was Alfred's accomplishments that laid the groundwork for Britian's later glories and triumphs in literature, liturgy, and liberty. "Ben Merkle tells the sort of mythic adventure story that stirs the imagination and races the heart?and all the more so knowing that it is altogether true!" ?George Grant, author of The Last Crusader and The Blood of the Moon

Pastoral Care, or The Book of the Pastoral Rule, is a treatise on the responsibilities of the clergy written by Pope Gregory I in which he contrasted the role of bishops as pastors of their flock with their position as nobles of the church: the definitive statement of the nature of the episcopal office. Gregory enjoined parish priests to possess strict personal, intellectual and moral standards which were considered, in certain quarters, to be unrealistic and beyond ordinary capacities. The influence of the book, however, was vast and became one of the most influential works on the topic ever written. It was translated and distributed to every bishop within the Byzantine Empire.