I let it be known to thee that it has very often come into my mind what wise men there formerly were throughout England, both within the Church and without it; also what happy times there were then and how the kings who had power over the nation in those days obeyed God and His ministers; how they cherished peace, morality, and order at home, and at the same time enlarged their territory abroad; and how they prospered both in war and in wisdom. Often have I thought, also, of the sacred orders, how zealous they were both in teaching and learning, and in all the services they owed to God; and how foreigners came to this land in search of wisdom and instruction, which things we should now have to get from abroad if we were to have them at all. So general became the decay of learning in England that there were very few on this side of the Humber[283] who could understand the rituals[284] in English, or translate a letter from Latin into English; and I believe that there were not many beyond the Humber who could do these things. There were so few, in fact, that I cannot remember a single person south of the Thames when I came to the throne. Thanks be to Almighty God that we now have some teachers among us. And therefore I enjoin thee to free thyself, as I believe thou art ready to do, from worldly matters, that thou mayst apply the wisdom which God has given thee wherever thou canst. Consider what punishments would come upon us if we neither loved wisdom ourselves nor allowed other men to obtain it. We should then care for the name only of Christian, and have regard for very few of the Christian virtues. [Sidenote: Learning in the days before the Danish invasions]