Note 113 — NOTE III. LITERARY INFLUENCE IN BEOWULF.

The case of King Aldfrith shows that educated laymen were not entirely unknown; but it is extremely unlikely that they were common. In one charter (Birch, 99) Wihtred, king of Kent, is made to say: signum sanctae crucis pro ignorantia litterarum expressi. This document exists only in a late copy; but at all events it suggests that the practice of making the cross, instead of signing, was due to a widespread inability to write.