Edgar. 969. of John the Thirteenth, inserted in the history of W. Thorne, that the cathedral church of Canterbury was possessed by secular canons in the year 957; and the same writer saith they were dispossessed, and monks introduced, in the year 10057. Nor did that controversy end there: for the secular canons were so far from acquiescing in their expulsion, that it is very evident they esteemed it unjust and the effect of violence, and were so favoured in their pretence by the civil power, that about sixty years after the aforesaid expulsion we find them attempting to regain their right and drive out the monks; and so powerful an effort was made for their restoration, that archbishop Lanfranc was forced to send to Rome and call in the power of pope Alexander to the aid of the monks 8. 17. However, that party had such an ascendant over king Edgar, that his treasure and power seem to have been entirely at their disposal: and they were so profuse in the use they made of his wealth, that no less than seven and forty monasteries were built and endowed by him, and he intended to have made them up fifty. So that it is not unlikely that his lavishing the wealth of the crown in repairing, building, and endowing of monasteries did, by impoverishing the kingdom, help on those miseries which not long after his death the nation suffered from the Danes. However, without looking forward, that party made so good use of the favours of that prince, that they obtained leave from him to put out the canons of all the greater monasteries and cathedral churches throughout England, and to place monks in their stead'. And when their own power proved insufficient, they obtained a commission, directed to archbishop Dunstan, the bishops of Winchester and Worcester, to make use of the king's power to bring about their 6 Chron. W. Thorne int. X Scriptor. ed. Twysden 1778. [According to Thorne, this letter was addressed by pope John XIII to king Eadred in 955. But John XIII was pope during 965-972, and therefore wrote, if he wrote at all, to king Edgar; John XII was pope during 956-964; and the pope who was contemporary with the reign of Eadred was Agapetus II.] 7 Ibid. 1781. [See below, I, xxi, 9.] M. Westmonast. an. 969. design. And at the delivery of this commission to them, in Edgar. a speech celebrated by all the monkish writers, Edgar speaks 969. so reproachfully of the secular clergy, and in terms so unbecoming the usual gentleness and good manners of a prince, as would almost tempt one to think the speech was Dunstan's rather than his own3: but, whoever was the author of it, it is exceedingly magnified by some of our writers; and so is the whole conduct and address of king Edgar. But they who are unanimous in the applauses of that prince have given us his story in such confusion, that it is impossible to put it together in due order of time. CHAPTER XX. AB ANNO 969 AD ANNUM 1001. His I. Edgar's ecclesiastical laws settle a parochial right of tithes. canons enjoin parents to teach their children the Creed and Lord's prayer. 2. Dunstan's courage in punishing an offender and resisting the commands of the bishop of Rome to absolve him. 3. Edgar dies, and Edward succeeds. Great complaints against Dunstan by the secular clergy. A council meets at Winchester on that occasion. The seculars generally favoured by king Edward and the bishops and nobility. Dunstan by a pretended miracle carries his point. 4. This pretended miracle gains no credit; but the seculars are in many places restored. 5. Several councils occasioned by the controversy betwixt seculars and monks. Council at Calne, where the floor falls: this ascribed to miracle by some, to magic by others. 6. King Edward murdered. Ethelred succeeds. He no friend to the monks. Dunstan's design at a stop during the reign of this prince. 7. Æthelwold bishop of Winchester dies. The monks and seculars contend for the succession: Dunstan carries it in favour of the former. Dunstan dies. The character the monks give of him. The long controversy betwixt the monks of Canterbury and Glastonbury about his body. 8. Ethelgar bishop of Winchester succeeds Dunstan, and Siricius him. Oswald, archbishop of York and bishop of Worcester, dies. Practice of holding two bishoprics begun by the monks: they the breakers of the discipline of the church. 9. Councils of this age employed in settling the revenues of the church, &c. German and French clergy married. 2 Hoveden Annal. an. 969. 3 [The earliest writer who records this speech seems to be Ailred the second abbot of Rievaulx in his Ge neal. Reg. Angl. int. X Scriptor. Edgar. 10. Doctrine of transubstantiation unknown to the church of England: observations of Monsieur Du Pin on the writings of Elfric confirm this opinion. II. Ælfric archbishop of Canterbury. Miserable state of the nation : the reasons thereof. England becomes tributary to the Danes. 12. Miseries the English nation suffered by the Danes ascribed by some to the increase of the monasteries. The ground of that conjecture. 13. English forced to purchase their peace with the Danes. Increase of monasteries in England ever followed by great mischiefs to the king and kingdom. 1. ALTHOUGH the monastic institutions did too much 969. exhaust the zeal of king Edgar, yet the marks he left of his concern for the common interests of religion will deserve to be remembered: for, to say nothing of his laws which relate to civil affairs, his ecclesiastic laws and canons are such as might become a prince possessed with a just sense of the honour of God. His laws are but six'. Of which the first not only requires the payment of tithes, but seems to settle the right of parochial tithes, or at least to settle a proportion thereof on the adjacent church. The second gives us the true nature of the cyric-sceat, and determines it to be a stated payment, arising from every freeman's house; and shows how tithes should be paid where there is a church that has a burying place, and on the contrary where the church has not a burying place. The third appoints the time when tithes should be paid; the fourth the remedy in case of neglect. Of the two following, the one requires the payment of Peter-pence, the other the observance of the Lord's day. The canons which pass by the name of Edgar's canons are too numerous to be repeated, and are already extant in 1 [Concil. Britan. Spelman I, 446, Wilkins IV, 776. În another copy of these laws their number is reduced to five by the third and fourth being thrown together: Spelman I, 443, Wilkins I, 245; Thorpe's Ancient Laws &c. p. III. See also the first article in the Supplement to Edgar's Laws, Thorpe p. 114.] 2 [This second law, as printed by Spelman and Wilkins, makes cyricsceat due "be ælcum frigan eorbe", which Spelman renders “ex omni ingenuorum terra", Wilkins "de qualibet terra libera". Thorpe however prints more correctly ælcum frigan heorde", from, or according to, every free hearth. See before, viii, 3, especially note 12: see also xviii, 10.] "be 969. Spelman's and Labbe's collections of the Councils and Edgar. although some thereof taste too much of the age, yet for the most part they are such as might very well become the best of the preceding ages. But amongst the rest I cannot omit to take notice of the seventeenth and twenty-second: the former of which requires every Christian to teach his children the Creed and the Lord's prayer; and the latter forbids any one to undertake the office of a godfather, or receive the sacrament, before they have learnt them, and denies him Christian burial who persists in his ignorance thereof: rules that have such marks of a spirit truly Christian, as ought to reproach the coldness and indifference and provoke the piety of succeeding ages. 2. And it is not unlikely that Dunstan had the care and oversight of that collection: for the fierceness and natural warmth of that prelate, which led him out of the ways of pity and charity and even justice itself in pursuit of the seculars, had a bright as well as dark side; and, where he had the good luck to place it well, made him an useful instrument in punishing of vice, and fitted him to maintain the dignity of the character he supported. And he had about this time an occasion offered him to do both: for, a certain count having by an incestuous marriage deserved the censures of the church, Dunstan did right to his station and character in putting the offender under an excommunication. The count complained to the king: but, that availing nothing, he sent an agent to Rome; where pope John the Thirteenth was prevailed upon to send his brief to archbishop Dunstan, wherein he both commanded and entreated him to absolve the count and receive him into the church. To which Dunstan answered, that, if he could see the offender penitent, he would willingly obey the command of his holiness: "but God forbid that I should permit him, whilst he continues to man 3 [Concil. Labbe IX, 682, Mansi XVIII, 514; Concil. Britan. SpelI, 447, Wilkins I, 225; Thorpe's Ancient Laws &c. p. 395.] 1 [Johnson pointed out a distinction to be made among the canons enacted under Edgar. In the first sixty-seven, which form a distinct system by themselves, he could not 970. 971. Edgar. wallow in his sin, to be discharged from the church's cen971. sures, and insult over me; and God forbid that for regard to any mortal man, or for saving my own life, I should suffer the law of Christ to be violated"?. 975. This is said to have passed in a council this year 3. And, to excuse a conduct of Dunstan which agrees so ill with the late opinions of the power of the bishops of Rome, Baronius pretended that the command of the pope was grounded on a supposition of the repentance of the offender. But it is certain that if he had been penitent he needed not to have gone to Rome for an advocate: and yet, it may be, this is the best colour so evident a contempt of the papal power is capable of. But when all that is said, this example of Dunstan, and the conduct of Edgar in the affairs of the church, the title he assumed to himself of the vicar of Christ 4, and the power of St. Peter's sword which he ascribes to his bishops, as he does that of Constantine to himself, put it beyond a doubt that the supremacy of the king and the independence of the church of England on that of Rome were things not yet brought into dispute. 3. But whether Dunstan was as just to his clergy as he was to the authority of his see was by this time become a mighty subject of debate: for it was not a little ferment which the violence of his proceedings, and the heavy complaints of the oppressed and ruined ecclesiastics, had by this time spread over the whole nation; and Edgar, the great support of their oppressors, dying this year, they had great reason to hope that some way would be found out to accomplish their relief. Besides this unhappy affair, which made a mighty division in the nation, the death of the king gave occasion to a new 2 [Eadmer. Vit. Dunst., Angl. Sacr. II, 215, cited, under the name of Osbert, by] Baron. Annal. an. 970, xi, xii. 3 [It was the subsequent penitence of the offender, and his absolution by the archbishop, that are said to have passed in a council".] 4 Edgari Leges Mon. Hyd. c. viii, Concil. Britan. Spelman I, 438, [Wilkins I, 242. But the whole charter, or set of laws, is marked as spurious by Kemble, Cod. Diplom. 527.] ["Ego Constantini, vos Petri gladium habetis in manibus."] Edgari Oratio [ap. Ailred. Abb. Rievall. de Geneal. Reg. Angl. int. X Scriptor. ed. Twysden 361, et] int. not. Seldeni ad Eadmer. Hist. Nov. p. 162. [But there can be little doubt that the speech is not Edgar's.] |