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of Edmund the Elder, succeeded his uncle Edred, at the age of sixteen (1).

It was his misfortune to live in one of those periods, which have frequently occurred in the history of mankind, when new opinions and new systems are introduced into society, which essentially counteract the subsisting establishments. The ardour of the discussions, and the opposition of interests and prejudices, inflame the mind and passions of the country; cruelty and persecution, hatred and revenge, usually accompany the conflict, and both the advocates for the revolution and its opponents become alike fanatical, ferocious, unjust, and implacable.

In the tenth century, a new religious discipline was The Benedictine spreading in Europe, which occasioned the misfortunes

order.

in the reign of Edwin. This was the Benedictine order of Monksan order which, in the course of time, became celebrated in Europe beyond every other (2).

It is a fact perpetually pressed upon the notice of the historian, that individuals often appear who seem to act at random, yet whose notions are destined to affect ages and nations. One of these was Benedict, an Italian, born 480 (3), whose peculiar associations of Edwin, are also numerous. The Chronicles in Dom. A. xii. p. 62; Dom. A. 3.; Peter de Ickham, p. 24.; Vesp. E. iv. p. 110.; Faustini, Ã. viii. p. 77. and b. vi. p. 66.; Thomas de Elmham; Claudius, E. iv. p. 54.; Nero, A. vi. p. 9.: Vesp. b. xi. p. 1. and 73.; Cleop. b. xiii. p. 130; Vesp. A. xvi. p. 43.; and Joh. Oxenedes, Nero, D. ii. p. 215.; the Historiola Gallice, in Calig. A. iii. p. 19.; also, the MS. in the King's Library, 13. D. 1.; so the Welsh Chron. Cleop. b. v. Baronius also calls him Edwini. But the Saxon Chronicle, 115.; Ethelwerd, 849.; the Wilton Chartulary, and a coin (see it in Gough's Camden, cxv.) have Eadwig. Matt. West. printed, has Edwius. A MS. of part of his book, erroneously entitled Godefrid of Malmsbury, has Edwinus. Vesp. D. iv. p. 96. Edwin and Edwig have the same meaning "prosperous in battle." His charter in Hist. Abb. Claud. c. 9. is signed Edwi, others Eadwi. On the whole, it appears to me that Edwy, Edwin, and Edwig are the same name; but as Edwy is apparently a familiar abbreviation, it cannot be entitled to a place in history any more than Willy or Harry I have therefore inserted Edwin, which has most authorities in its favour.

(1) For Edwin to have been sixteen at his accession, his father must have married at fifteen, because Edmund was eighteen in 941. This seems almost too early to be true; and yet there is no alternative, for Edwin, at his coronation, appears to us also as married. It shows us, indeed, how early the Anglo-Saxons sometimes united-Edmund at fifteen; his son Edwin at sixteen. If there be an error any where, it must be in Edmund's age at his accession, for that makes him and Edred to have been born in the two last years of their father's reign; yet Edmund's age is attested by Ingulf, Flor. Al. Bev. already quoted, and also by the Sax. Chron. 144; Sim. Dun. 155.; Malmsb. 53.; and others. Eadgiva, the mother of Edwin and Edgar, left a will, which yet exists in this she mentions Edwin, and she calls him a child. See it in the appendix to Lye's Saxon Dictionary.

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(2) It is not, however, safe to adopt implicitly the statement of Trithemius, p. 238., though Baronius follows it. This enumerates eighteen popes, above 200 cardinals, 1600 archbishops, about 4000 bishops, 15,700 abbots, and 15,600 saints, to have been of the order before his time, who was born 1462.

(3) Dupin, vol. ii. p. 45., sixth century. Fab. Bib. Med. 1. p. 533.

thought induced him to descend into a deep cavern in a desert, and to reside there for several years, known only to a friend, who let down his provisions. His singularities attracted notice, and, being connected with a piety that seems to have been genuine, though enthusiastic, at last produced veneration. His admiring spectators were so numerous, that he was enabled to found many monasteries near him. He afterwards went to Mount Cassin, in the kingdom of Naples, destroyed some temples of idolatry which he found there, erected a monastery, and laid down a new series of rules for its governance (1).

Benedict died about 543 (2). Soon afterwards the Lombards destroyed his monastery at Mount Cassin. The monks fled to pope Pelagius, who, by giving them an asylum, kept alive an institution destined to overspread the West.

The memory of Benedict was preserved, and peculiarly honoured by the famous pope Gregory, who admired his regulations, and devoted one book of dialogues to record his supposed miracles (3). By the influence of the third Gregory, who died 742, the monastery at Mount Cassin was rebuilt, and this new construction first began the establishment of its fame. Zachary, the following pope, sent them the MS. rule of Benedict, and gave them, as a mark of his favour, the important and attractive privilege of being under no bishop, and no jurisdiction but that of the pope (4).

The Benedictine rule began now to diffuse itself beyond Italy. Boniface, the Anglo-Saxon missionary to Germany, built a Benedictine monastery in Fulda, which the pope sanctioned, and which Pepin exempted from all ecclesiastical jurisdiction, but the papal (5). Boniface describes his monks as men of strict abstinence, who used neither flesh, wine, nor strong drink, nor servants, but who were contented with the produce of their own labour (6). He interested Carloman so much in his favour, that in his reign the clergy of Gaul were urged to patronise it (7).

The order increased, though slowly, till the beginning of the tenth century. Berno, preferring it to other monastic rules, introduced it at Clugny in 910. One of his pupils was Odo, who succeeded him, and who seconded his partiality to this order, added

(1) The rule is in the Bibliotheca Magna Patrum, vol. xv. p. 690. There are also some Anglo-Saxon translations of it in the Cotton Library; and one exposition of it by Dunstan, with his picture. Bib. Reg. 10. A. 13.

(2) Fabricius mentions that others talk of 542, and 547.

(3) Gregory's Dial. lib. ii. Gregory characterises his rule as discretione præcipuam, sermone luculentam. Dial. p. 275.

(4) See Marsham's Пpova, prefixed to Dugdale's Monasticon, vol. 1.

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(5) See the letters of Boniface and Zachary, 16. Mag. Bib. Pat. 115. and of Pepin, p. 121. Our countryman describes the place thus :- Est præterea locus sylvaticus in eremo vastissimæ solitudinis." Ibid. 115.

(6) Bonif. ibid.

(7) See the two councils held in 742, in Bib. Mag. Pat. p. 84, 85.

something to its regulations, and endeavoured to introduce it at Fleury, whither the body of Benedict had been transported from Cassin (1).

Fleury having been plundered by the Normans, the monks who returned to it were living irregularly when Odo began his attempt. They opposed him at first even with weapons. His eloquence or sagacity so changed their feelings, that before his death, in 944, it was so firmly established at Fleury, that this place became the chief seminary from which it was diffused through the West.

Its success as an instrument of discipline; the sanctified celebrity of its author; the necessity of some reformation among the monks and clergy, and the novelty of this, gave it a sudden and extending popularity. Fleury became famous for its superior discipline and virtues, and its monks were sent for to other places, to reform and to regulate them. Thus it perpetually happens in human life, that new plans become popular, and spread far beyond their intrinsic merit, because they happen to soothe some momentary feeling, promote some meditated interest, or supply an existing deficiency. In the present case, it seems, that the Benedictine discipline, however objectionable it may appear to us, was the best form of monastic life which had then been conceived; and was therefore wisely adopted by those who valued monastic institutions. Hence the spirit of improvement at the same time passed also into Flanders, and eighteen monasteries there were reformed by the exertions of abbot Gerard.

The monastery of Fleury was eagerly encouraging the rule, when Odo, an ecclesiastic in England, was offered the see of Canterbury. He was the son of one of those ferocious Northmen who had infested England under Ingwar and Ubbo (2). He had been himself a soldier in the first part of life, in the reign of Edward (3), and he quitted the military profession to assume the ecclesiastic. He attended Athelstan in the battle of Brunanburh; and, as other bishops often combated at that time, and as it is confessed that he knew immediately of the king's sword breaking in the conflict, and supplied the loss, it is probable that he partook of the fray (4), though his encomiasts talk only of his prayers. These circumstances may be worth noticing, as they explain that stern severity of temper which was so unhappily exerted against Edwin and Elgiva. He was raised through other gradations to the primacy of England. When Odo was offered the see of Canterbury, he was unwilling

(1) Marsham ubi sup. There is a MS. of one of Odo's works. Bib. Reg. 6. D. 5.

(2) Malmsb. 200. Osberne, 2 Ang. Sax. p. 78.

(3) Malmsb. 200. Matt. West. 359.

(4) Though councils and kings expressly forbad ecclesiastics to mix in battle, (see pope Zachary's letter to the bishops, 16 Mag. Bib. Pat. p, 110-116, and Boniface, Ibid. p. 100,) yet it was very frequent at this time, and afterwards, till the reformation.

to accept it, from his enthusiastic zeal for the new system, until he had become a monk; and he selected Fleury as the place wherein he chose to make his profession (1).

Odo came to his metropolitan dignity a decisive friend, and an aspiring patron, of the Benedictine order, from its superior piety and judicious discipline : but though high in favour with several sovereigns, he made no effort to compel the English to adopt the reform of Fleury. A letter of his to the clergy of the country, exhorting them to discharge their duty with zealous care, yet exists (2); but it does not even mention the Benedictine system.

The man whose more active mind roused England Life of Dunstan. to establish the new discipline among its clergy was Dunstan, a character formed by nature to act a distinguished part in the varied theatre of life (3). The following review of his life is made with a desire to be just towards him, without abandoning the right of free judgment on his actions, and of fair inference as to the principles by which they were directed.

'He was born in 925 (4). His parents were Heorstan and Cynethryth (5), who seem to have lived near Glastonbury (6). He fre

(1) Chron. Petrib. 26. Malmsb. 200.

(2) See it in Malmsb. de Pont. p. 200. Its first phrase is an unfortunate attempt at eloquent latinity. "Mirabili cuncti potentis præsulis polorum clementia opitulante, Ego Odo," etc. Another sentence expresses something of his temper, Spirituali charitate, etiam comitatus rigore." There is another letter of his in Wharton's Anglia Sacra, vol. ii. p. 50.

(3) There are several lives of Dunstan extant. One written by Osberne, who flourished about the year 1070. See it in Wharton's Anglia Sacra, vol. ii. p. 88. One also by Eadmar, p. 211. There are two ancient ones in the Cotton Library. One, Nero, C. 7., was written by Adelardus Blandiniensis Monachus, in the tenth century, or in the beginning of the eleventh, addressed to Elphegus, the archbishop of Canterbury, and composed at his request. But the author says, "Scias autem in opere isto historiam vitæ ejus non contineri, sed ex eadem vita quasi brevem sermonis versiculum," etc. This life is full of miracles and panegyric, with scarcely any biographical notices. The most curious and ancient life of Dunstan is in the same library, Cleopatra, B. 13. It was written by a person who was his contemporary, or nearly so. For, speaking of an incident in his monastery, he says, it happened when all the monks were absent, except Dunstan, parvoque scholastico qui postea pontifex effectus hæc nobis intimavit. It has plenty of flattery and wonder, but it contains some curious traits of biography, which enable us to sketch his mind. Matthew of Westminster, Malmsbury, and Osberne, have taken many things from it. It seems to be the one mentioned by Wharton, with the name of Bridferth; and so printed in the Acta Sanctorum.

(4) In the year of Athelstan's accession, which some place 924, and some 925. Matt. West. 360.

(5) MSS. Cleop. B. 13 Adelard, in Nero, C. 7., is so impatient to get at his miracles, that he annexes one to Dunstan before he was born. (6) Erat autem regalis in confinio ejusdem præfati viri insula antiquo vicinorum vocabulo Glastonia nuncupata. MSS. Cleop. B. 13. This life of Dunstan had been read by Malmsbury, for he quotes this passage from it; and says, he saw the book at St. Augustin's in Canterbury, and at another place. De Ant. Glast. p. 293. The MS. in the Cotton Library is probably the identical book which our Malmsbury saw; for Joscelin has written upon it, that in August, 1565, he found it among other old MSS. at the Augustine monastery at Canterbury. Usher has added a note making the same inference.

quently visited the old British church there (1). It is said that he had here a vision of his future greatness, and that a venerable phantom pointed out the place where he was to build a superb monastery (2). Ambitious talents, meditating much on the honours they covet, may experience sometimes such illusions amid the nightly chimeras of the reposing though disturbed imagination.

His parents encouraged him to study, and his penetrating abilities enabled him to excel his companions, and to run with easy rapidity through the course of his studies (3).

A fever interrupted his advancement, and all the horrors of a temporary frenzy ensued, accompanied with that debility which in this disease sometimes announces the departure of life, and sometimes a crisis which is to end in convalescence. In this state a sudden access of delirium came on. He leapt from his bed, eluded his nurse, and seizing a stick which was near him, he ran over the neighbouring plains and mountains, fancying that wild dogs were pursuing him. His wanderings led him towards night near the church. Workmen during the day had been mending the roof. Dunstan ran wildly up their scaffold, roamed over the top, and with that casual felicity which frenzy sometimes experiences, got unconsciously to the bottom of the church, where a heavy sleep concluded his delirious excursion (4). He waked with returned intellect, and was surprised at his new situation. As the churchdoors had not been opened, both he and the attendants of the place wondered how he got there (5).

(1) The author's phrase is, that the first Neophytes found there an old church not built with human hands. I translate his words to mean, that the Anglo-Saxons found one there ready built, and of course by the Britons.

(2) MSS. Cleop.

(3) Adelard calls him, indole acerrimus. Nero, C. 7. The MS. Cleop B. 13. says, coætancos quosque præcellerat et suorum tempora studiorum facili cursu transiliret.

(4) This is the statement in the MS. Cleop. B. 13., which I think to be peculiarly valuable, because it shows us the simple and natural truth of an incident which the future biographers of Dunstan have converted into an elaborate and ridiculous miracle. It gives a good specimen how monastic fancy, by its peculiar · machinery, has transformed natural incidents into celestial achievements. When reflection sobers the mind of Achilles, it is Pallas who descends to whisper in his ear; when Dunstan runs over a church in a delirium, angels are called down to protect him from the devil, to burst the roof, and to place him safely on the pavement.

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(5) This ancient life gives to this event none of those appendages of angels and devils, which credulity afterwards added. After mentioning his sleep, it merely says, Exsurgens autem post momenti spatium ammirari admodum una cum custodibus cœperat, quo pacto, quove ingenio introierat, cernens etiam quod templi ostium clausum munitumque extiterat. MS. Cleop. Its next phrase, that Dunstan acknowledged the hand of Providence in his preservation, merely expresses his pious feelings. It does not invest it with the miraculous colouring of later writers. The wonderful was, however, soon added, for we find it in Adelard; and yet even his statement reveals the truth, and shows that the falsehood was the creature of igno“ Ubi mane inventus cum consuleretur qualiter ille incolumis adveniret, qui

rance.

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