 When Alfred the Great became King of Wessex in 871 , learning in southern England was at a low level , and there were no Latin scholars . He embarked on a programme of revival , bringing in scholars from Continental Europe , Wales and Mercia , and himself translated works he considered important from Latin to the vernacular . His grandson , Æthelstan , carried on the work , inviting foreign scholars such as Israel to England , and appointing a number of continental clerics as bishops . In the 930s the level of learning was still not high enough to supply enough literate English priests to fill the bishoprics . The generation educated in Æthelstan 's reign , such as the future Bishop of Winchester , Æthelwold , who was educated at court , and Dunstan , who became Archbishop of Canterbury , went on to raise English learning to a high level . 
