ABSTRACT
It has been noted that the following Preface, on education, is all of a piece with Pope Gregory’s Cura pastoralis ‘Pastoral Care’ which covers the same theme. This is the fullest and most fi nely crafted Preface attributed to King Alfred, and appears to be written partly from dictation. The addressee marked in one copy, Bishop Wærferth of Worcester, worked there in former south-west Mercia, which lay under West Saxon jurisdiction during Alfred’s wars with the Danes. Worcester was the most powerful diocese remaining from the old Mercian kingdom, and Wærferth, though not a competent Latinist, was an important member of the king’s intellectual circle. Asser claims that he translated another work by Pope Gregory, the Dialogues.
