Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/310

 of the first boroughs summoned to return a representative to Parliament, in the reign of Edward I. A palace of the West-Saxon kings conferred dignity upon it twelve hundred years ago; and a miracle that took place here four hundred years afterwards, decided two of the most important questions that ever agitated the Anglo-Saxon church. This was the celibacy of the priests, and the confirmation of the monks in the benefices of the secular clergy; both supported by the influence of the ambitious fanatic Archbishop Dunstan, and at length established by his violence and cunning, by his bold eloquence and lying miracles. The most impudent of these was played off at Calne, when a grand council was appointed to meet to determine the dispute subsisting between the monks and the priests in 977. Dunstan, with his accustomed arrogance, had delivered his sentiments on the subject, and the advocates for the unfortunate seculars combating his arguments, when Heaven, displeased with the impious doctrine of the legality of priests aspiring to conjugal felicity, suddenly caused the supporting beams of the apartment to give way, the floor to fall in, and all the company to be in its ruins, except the Archbishop, who sat quietly on his throne, under which the flooring was entirely uninjured. The superstition of the