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displays not only the extent of Alfred's inform- CHA P. ation, but that searching curiosity, which characterised his understanding.

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THE journey is stated by several chroniclers. The Saxon Chronicle 13, Florence of Worcester 14, Radulph's, and Bromton 16, simply mention, that Suithelm, the bishop of Shireburn, carried the benevolence of Alfred to India, to Saint Thomas, and returned in safety. Huntingdon", and Alured of Beverley 18, express that the embassy was sent in a discharge of a vow which the king had made. Matthew of Westminster, and Malmsbury, mention the curiosities which Suithelm brought back with him.

MALMSBURY, who gives the fullest account of the incident, says that the king sent many presents over sea to Rome, and to St. Thomas, in India; that Sighelm, the bishop of Shireburn, was his ambassador, who penetrated with great success to India, to the admiration of the age; and that he brought with him, on his return, many foreign gems and aromatic liquors, the produce of the country. In another passage, Malmsbury de

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13 Sax. Chron. p. 86.

14 883.

Assero Scireburnensi episcopo defuncto succedit Suithelmus qui regis Alfredi elemosynam ad S. Thomam, Indiam detulit, indeque prospere retulit. Flor. Wig. 320.

15 Rad. Dic. 451. He dates it 887.

16 Bromton, 812.

17 Alfredus autem misit elemosynam suam Romæ et etiam in Indiam ad S. Thomam secundum votum quod fecerat quando hostilis exercitus hyemavit apud Londoniam. Hunt. 350.

18 Lib. vii. p. 106.

19 Matt. West. 333. He says that Suithelm brought back precious stones. Malm. calls him Sighelm.

20 Et trans mare Romam et ad Sanctum Thomam in Indiam multa munera misit. Legatus in hoc missus Sigelmus Scire

BOOK clares, that some of those gems were to be seen in his days, in the monuments of the church."

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In the former editions of this work, for the purpose of verifying this extraordinary incident, a careful investigation was pursued, in order to show that it was long before believed that Saint Thomas had been in India; that in the age of Alfred he was presumed to have died there; and that at that time there were Christians living there. It was also proved that such journeys were in those days attempted, and the inference was drawn from these facts, that the assertions of our chroniclers were not counteracted by any improbability in their assertions of this remarkable embassy.

BUT the journeys and writings of the late Claudius Buchanan, and of other travellers; and the subsequent efforts and correspondence of our Bible and Missionary Societies, have so completely confirmed the facts, not only that Syrian Christian churches were early founded in the Indian peninsula, but are still existing in the same parts, that it is unnecessary now to repeat our former collection of authorities. 22

burnensis episcopus cum magna prosperitate, quod quivis hoc seculo miretur, Indiam penetravit : inde rediens exoticos splendores gemmarum et liquores aromatum, quorum illa humus ferax est, reportavit. De Gestis, p. 44.

21 Nonnullæ illarum adhuc in ecclesiæ monumentis visuntur. Malms. De Pont. 248.

22 In Alfred's reign, the following journey to Egypt and Palestine occurred. In 870, three monks, desirous to see the places so celebrated in the Christian writings, undertook a journey thither. Their itinerary, written by Bernard, one of the travellers, is extant. They first went to Mount Garganum, in which they found the church of St. Michael. This is near the Gulf of Manfredonia. An hundred and fifty miles brought

No others of Alfred's foreign correspondencies CHA P. have been transmitted to us, besides the compli

them to Barre, then a city of the Saracens, but which had once been subject to the Beneventans. This is on the southeast side of Italy; they sought admission to the prince of the city, who was called a suldan, and obtained leave to prosecute their journey with letters to the chief of Alexandria and Babylon, describing their countenances, and the object of their journey.

From Barre, they walked ninety miles to the port of Tarentum, where they found six ships, two going to Tripoli, and two to other parts of Africa, with some captives. After thirty days' sailing they reached Alexandria; here the master of the ship exacted six pieces of gold before he would let them leave it.

They produced to the governor of Alexandria the letter of the sultan of Barre, but it did them no good; a present of thirteen denarii a piece was more serviceable. Bernard remarks, that it was the custom of Alexandria to take the money by weight; he says, six of the solidi and denarii, which they carried out with them, weighed only three of those at Alexandria. The governor gave them letters to the chief of Babylon; but by Babylon, it is obvious that Bernard means the city of that name in Egypt, and not the famous Babylon which spread along the Euphrates.

Sailing up the Nile south for six days, they came to the city of Egyptian Babylon. The guards of the place conducted them to the governor; their letters were useless, and they were sent to prison; a present of denarii, as before, released them. In return for this, he made them out letters, which, he said, whoever saw, would in no place or town exact any more. They could not leave this Babylon without a sealed permission, which some more denarii were required to obtain.

Bernard proceeds to describe his journey from Egypt to Jerusalem. It is shortly; back up the Nile in three days to Sitinuth, thence to Maalla; thence they sailed to Amiamate. Quæ habuit ab aquilone mare; thence sailed to Tanis, to Faramea; here was a multitude of camels. The desart of six days' journey began from this city; it had only palm-trees; in the middle were two hospitia; the earth was fertile to Gaza; thence to Alariza, to Ramula, to Emaus Castle, to Jerusalem. He mentions one trait of Jerusalem, which shows, that some

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BOOK ment from the Jerusalem patriarch; except some donations from the pope 23, and several messages and presents from Alfred to Rome. The king appears to have sent embassies or couriers to Rome in several successive years. 24

WHEN the measures are mentioned by which Alfred endeavoured to excite in his subjects a love of letters, it will not be forgotten that the University of Oxford has been connected with his memory.

THE Concurring testimonies of some respectable authors seem to prove, that he founded public schools in this city; and therefore the University, which has long existed with high celebrity, and which has enriched every department of literature and science by the talents it has nourished, may claim Alfred as one of its authors, and original benefactors.

BUT this incident, plain and intelligible as it appears to be, is environed with a controversy which demands some consideration; for it involves nothing less than the decision of the superior antiquity of the two Universities of England. We

intercourse was maintained by devotion between these distant places, and the west of Europe. He says, we were received there in the mansion of hospitality of the most glorious Charlemagne, in which all are received who visit this place for devotion, and who speak the Roman language. He says there was a church near it, with a most noble library from the same empire. From Jerusalem they sailed in sixty days, with an unfavourable wind, to Italy.

23 Asser, 39. The pope, at Alfred's request, liberated the Saxon school in Rome from all pecuniary payments. Ib.

24 Asser, 55. The Saxon Chronicle states, that in the years 883. 887, 888, 889, 890, Alfred's alms or letters were sent to Rome.

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leave to abler pens the determination of the dis- CHA P. pute, and shall only notice in the note a few particulars concerning the first periods of the contest, and the point on which it turned. 25

THIS indefatigable king made also a code of His laws. laws, with the concurrence of his witena-gemot or parliament, which has been called his Dom-boc. In this, for the first time, he introduced into the Anglo-Saxon legislation, not only the decalogue, but also the principal provisions of the Mosaic legislation, contained in the three chapters which follow the decalogue, with such modifications as were necessary to adapt them to the Anglo-Saxon manners. In the laws attached to those, he mentions, that, with the concurrence of his witenagemot, he had collected together, and committed to writing, the regulations which his ancestors had established; selected such of them as he approved, and rejected the rest. He adds, that he showed them to all his witena, who declared that it pleased them all that these should be observed. Forty heads of laws then follow, on the most important subjects of the Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence and legislation, obviously tending to increase the national civilisation. 26

WHEN Alfred regained his throne, and with His police. that, the kingdom of Mercia, he found that the Danish invasions had so destroyed the ancient police of the kingdom, and the regular habits of the inhabitants, that the Anglo-Saxons were

25 See note 42 at the end of this chapter.

26 See those in Wilkin's Leg. Sax. p. 28-46. I cannot doubt that these compose the dom-boc which some ancient writers alluded to.

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