The Medieval Church · c. 885–899
The Laws of Alfred
Domboc
Alfred the Great · 849 – 899
What it is
A West Saxon law code prefaced by the Ten Commandments, chapters of Exodus, and the apostolic decree of Acts 15 in English, after which Alfred explains that Christ came not to break the law but to fulfil it, and that the golden rule is the one judgement a man needs.
Why it lasted
The earliest attempt in any vernacular to ground secular law directly in scripture, by placing Sinai at the head of a king's own statutes. The English idea that common law rests on divine law starts here.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
Read next