nce as Ethelwolf the means of making a great
display, if he chose to do so, on such an occasion as that of a royal
progress through France and a visit to the great city of Rome. The
Saxons had been in possession of England, at this time, many hundred
years; and though, during all this period, they had been involved in
various wars, both with one another and with the neighboring nations,
they had been all the time steadily increasing in wealth, and making
constant improvements in all the arts and refinements of life.
Ethelwolf reigned, therefore, over a people of considerable wealth
and power, and he moved across the Continent on his way to Rome, and
figured while there, as a personage of no ordinary distinction.

Rome was at this time, as we have said, the great center of education,
as well as of religious and ecclesiastical influence. In fact,
education and religion went hand in hand in those days, there being
scarcely any instruction in books excepting for the purposes of the
Church. Separate schools had been established at Rome by the leading
nations of Europe, where their youth could be taught, each at an
institution in which his own language was spoken. Ethelwolf remained a
year at Rome, to give Alfred the benefit of the advantages which the
city afforded. The boy was of a reflective and thoughtful turn of
mind, and applied himself diligently to the performance of his duties.
His mind was rapidly expanded, his powers were developed, and stores
of such knowledge as was adapted to the circumstances and wants of the
times were laid up. The religious and intellectual influences thus
brought to bear upon the young Alfred's mind produced strong and
decided effects in the formation of his character--effects which were
very strikingly visible in his subsequent career.

Ethelwolf found, when he arrived at Rome, that the Saxon seminary had
been burned the preceding year. It had been founded by a former Saxon
king. Ethelwolf rebuilt it, and placed the institution on a new and
firmer foundation than before. He also obtained some edicts from the
papal government to secure and confirm certain rights of his Saxon
subjects residing in the city, which rights had, it seems, been in
some degree infringed upon, and he thus saved his subjects from
oppressions to which they had been exposed. In a word, Ethelwolf's
visit not only afforded an imposing spectacle to those who witnessed
the pageantry and the ceremonies which marked it, but