(1) _The Handbook_, a collection of extracts on religious subjects; (2)
_The Cura Pastoralis_, or Herdsman's book of Gregory the Great, with a
preface by himself which is the first English prose; (3) _Bede's
Ecclesiastical History of the English_; (4) _The English Chronicle_,
which, already brought up to 855, he continued up to the date of writing;
it is probably by his own hand; (5) Orosius's _History of the World_,
which he adapted for English readers with many historical and
geographical additions; (6) the _De Consolatione Philosophiæ_ of
Boethius; and (7) a translation of some of the Psalms. He also made a
collection of the best laws of his predecessors, Ethelbert, Ine, and
Offa. It has been said "although King Alfred lived a thousand years ago,
a thousand years hence, if there be England then, his memory will yet be
precious to his country."


ÆLFRIC (955-_c._ 1022).--Called Grammaticus (10th century), sometimes
confounded with two other persons of the same name, Æ. of Canterbury and
Æ. of York, was a monk at Winchester, and afterwards Abbot of Cerne and
Eynsham successively. He has left works which shed an important light on
the doctrine and practice of the early Church in England, including two
books of homilies (990-94), a _Grammar_, _Glossary_, _Passiones Sanctorum_
(Sufferings of the Saints), translations of parts of the Bible with
omissions and interpolations, _Canones Ælfrici_, and other theological
treatises. His writings had an influence on the formation of English
prose. He filled in his age somewhat the same position that Bede did in
his, that of a compiler and populariser of existing knowledge.


AGUILAR, GRACE (1816-1847).--Novelist and writer on Jewish history and
religion, was _b._ at Hackney of Jewish parents of Spanish descent. She