Page "Alfred the Great" Paragraph 57

Very little is known of the church under Alfred.

The Danish attacks had been particularly damaging to the monasteries, and though Alfred founded monasteries at Athelney and Shaftesbury, the first new monastic houses in Wessex since the beginning of the eighth century, and enticed foreign monks to England, monasticism did not revive significantly during his reign.

Alfred undertook no systematic reform of ecclesiastical institutions or religious practices in Wessex.

For him the key to the kingdom's spiritual revival was to appoint pious, learned, and trustworthy bishops and abbots.

As king he saw himself as responsible for both the temporal and spiritual welfare of his subjects.

Secular and spiritual authority were not distinct categories for Alfred.

He was equally comfortable distributing his translation of Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care to his bishops so that they might better train and supervise priests, and using those same bishops as royal officials and judges.

Nor did his piety prevent him from expropriating strategically sited church lands, especially estates along the border with the Danelaw, and transferring them to royal thegns and officials who could better defend them against Viking attacks.