Books with author Rev. Alfred J. Church.

Alfred John Church (1829-1912) was an English classical scholar. He was born in London and was educated at King's College London, and Lincoln College, Oxford, he took holy orders and was an assistant-master at Merchant Taylors' School for many years. From 1880 until 1888 he was professor of Latin at University College, London. While at University College in partnership with William Jackson Brodribb, he translated Tacitus and edited Pliny's Letters (Epistulae). Church also wrote a number of stories in English re-telling of classical tales and legends for young people (Stories from Virgil, Stories from Homer, etc. ). He also wrote much Latin and English verse, and in 1908 published his Memories of Men and Books. Other works include: Stories of the Magicians (1887), The Count of the Saxon Shore; or, The Villa in Vectis (with Ruth Putnam) (1888), Heroes of Chivalry and Romance (1898), Stories of Charlemagne (1902), The Crown of Pine (1906) and With the King at Oxford (1909).

This book covers stories of the early days of the kingdom of Rome up to the times of the Punic Wars. Alfred Church retells the most important stories and legends of the times, and at the same time explains details of the economic, social and military life of the Romans of this period. The illustrations included are widely known works of art and archeological artifacts from various artists and sources.

I have said that it was a bold change by which Virgil sought to shape the legend of Elissa or Dido to suit the purpose of his own poem. Bold indeed it was, for he brings together in the Queen of Carthage and the Hero of Troy, persons who must have been separated from each other in time by more than two hundred years. Ascanius, he tells us himself in the Aeneid, was to found Alba, and at Alba the kingdom should remain for three hundred years, till the priestess of Vesta should bear a son to Mars, who should found the great city of Rome. There must therefore have been more than three hundred years between the coming of Aeneas into Italy and the founding of Rome. But, on the other hand, it was commonly agreed that Carthage was not a hundred years older than Rome. If we are to follow Justin, from whom I have taken the legend told in the first chapter, its foundation may be put in the year 850; but it must not be supposed that this date is as certain as that of the Declaration of American Independence, or that of the Battle of Waterloo.The legend tells us that the first founders of Carthage came from Tyre. Very likely this is true; it is certain that they belonged to the nation of which Tyre was the chief city, the Phoenicians. This people dwelt in the little strip of land (not much larger than the American State of New Hampshire, or about twice the size of the English county of Yorkshire) which is called Palestine, and which occupies the southeastern corner of the Mediterranean coast. The inland tribes of this people, who are known to us in the Bible history under the name of Canaanites, were subdued and nearly destroyed by the Hebrews, when, after their escape from slavery in Egypt, they invaded the country about fourteen hundred years before Christ. But many of the dwellers of the coast remained unsubdued. In the south were the Philistines with their five cities, almost always at war with their Hebrew neighbours, sometimes almost conquering them, and sometimes, as in the days of David and Solomon, paying tribute.In the north, again, were the great cities of Tyre and Sidon. Between these and the Hebrews there seems to have been commonly friendship. They were a nation of seamen and traders, and they had to import the food which they did not wish, or perhaps were not able, to grow for themselves. For this food they paid either with the produce of their own artists and handicrafts men, with timber cut in the cedar forest of Lebanon, or work in bronze and iron, or rich purple dyes, or with merchandize which they had themselves imported. As traders, indeed, they travelled very far, and while seeking new markets in which to buy and sell, they made great discoveries. They went as far south, some say, as the Cape of Good Hope, certainly as far as Sierra Leone; and as far north as Britain, from which they fetched tin, and probably copper. But I shall have more to say of this hereafter. It was, however, chiefly the coasts of the Mediterranean that they were accustomed to visit; and along these it was that they established their trading posts. It is the story of the most famous of these posts that I have now to tell...

EPILOGUEROTTERDAM, MAY 1ST 1660'Tis about eleven years since I wrote in this book of how I had been with the King at Oxford, and of other things which grew out of the same. And now, if anyone should desire to know how I and others of whom mention has been made in this writing have since fared, I will in a very few words here set it forth.Being brought to Holland after my escape from the kidnappers, as related in the chapter last written, and seeking some means of earning my bread, I chanced to meet with a certain merchant of Rotterdam, Richard Daunt by name, who, having satisfied himself that I was a man of decent conversation and sufficient scholarship, would have me come to him as a tutor to his sons. "And you shall find," he said, "others of our nation at Rotterdam, who will gladly put their children in your charge."To this I was willing enough to hearken, nor have I ever repented that I did so, having found in Master Daunt and his fellows at Rotterdam, as good friends as a man could desire to have.About a year after my going to Rotterdam, the charge of minister to the congregation of English merchants in that city fell vacant, by the cession of Master Richard Chalfont, some time Fellow of Lincoln College, by whose good word, many of the congregation also favouring, I had from the Committee the promise of the succession, if only I could obtain Holy Orders. This agreed well with what had always been my desire, and I determined to seek Orders from some Bishop in England, if only one could be found able and willing to give them; for this, in the distress of the times, could not be with certainty counted upon. I knew of none in England from whom I could get better information and advice than Master Ellgood. To him, therefore, I resolved to resort, not, it will readily be believed without the thought present in my mind of seeing again my dear Cicely; for it had been long understood that we were to be married so soon as I had reasonable prospect of maintaining a wife. Master Ellgood behaved himself most friendly to me. When I asked him about the obtaining of Orders, he said:"'Tis not impossible. My Lord of Oxford, or, to speak more agreeably with the spirit of the times, Dr. Robert Skinner, has licence to give them, or, I should rather say, having friends among them that are in power, is winked at in so doing." Hearing this, I expounded to the good man my hopes and plans, which he encouraged, knowing that I had for a long time cherished this design.The charge at Rotterdam," said I, "is worth eighty pounds by the year; and I can add as much more by the teaching of English boys in that city, for which employment I shall have ample time. If then I can satisfy the bishop of my fitness. (of which I have a good hope), after having received Orders from him, I will ask you to give me your daughter Cicely in marriage."

Illustrated by George Morrow. A wonderful retelling of the stories of the First, Third, and Eighth Crusades, narrated by a fictional "wandering Jew" (cursed to live until the Second Coming of Christ), this classic work takes the reader on an epic rollercoaster ride of the triumphs, tribulations, and ultimate defeat of the European counterattack against the rampant Muslim aggression which had seized the Christian lands in the Middle East. The author explains how the Islamic military conquest of huge areas of the Byzantine Empire sparked the call to Crusade, and then weaves the story of some of the most famous characters and events of the Crusades. From the dizzying successes of the First Crusade-the siege and fall of Antioch and the fall of Jerusalem-to the recapture of Jerusalem by the Muslims, the reader will meet and understand the major characters of the time: Richard Lionheart, Duke Godfrey (the Norman warrior and first king of Jerusalem), Saladin, and King Louis of France. The reader will also discover the full tragedy of the ill-fated "Children's Crusade" and much more in this enthralling book.

Herodotus, the "father of history," is possibly the most famous historian of all-and perhaps the most maligned, despite his clear warning at the start of his book that he was merely recording, not vouchsafing, those things that he had not seen himself. As a result, his accounts are often dismissed, but as Alfred Church's masterful retelling shows, this is an unjust assumption. Starting with the reign of King Crœsus of Lydia (ca. 560 BC), his wars with the Persians, and the rise of Cyrus the Great of Persia, Herodotus's story line moves through the late Egyptian dynasties, and deals with their downfall and submission to the Persians. The stories of Cyrus's successor, Cambyses, and the renowned King Darius are related, along with a fascinating-if brutal-account of the habits of many of the peoples, Indo-European and otherwise, who shaped the destiny of the Ancient Middle East. The author is as careful as Herodotus in his relation of the ascertained facts, and writes in his preface: "I should be sorry that readers who are not acquainted with the work of the 'Father of History' should carry away from this book the impression that he is nothing more than a credulous and gossiping teller of stories. That he was often deceived, and that he writes with a simplicity which is quite remote from our ways of thinking, is manifest; but those who know him best are aware that he was nevertheless a shrewd and painstaking observer, whose credit has been distinctly increased by the discoveries of modern times." This edition has been completely reset, and contains all the original text and illustrations.

One of the greatest war stories of all time, The Iliad is presented here in story form for easy reading and provides a great introduction to this classic tale. Set during the Trojan war it tells of Gods and humans, and mans struggle in the face of uncaring Gods. Taking readers from the siege of Troy through to the battle between Achilles and Hector, to the final ransoming of Hector’s body, this story has been a foundation of western culture for millennia.This edition features all of the original illustrations.