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 DUNSTAN

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DUNSTAN

That same evening he was offered the hospitahty of a neighbouring abbot.

On his return from Rome Dunstan at once regained his position as virtual ruler of the kingdom. By his advice Aelfstan was appointed to the Bishopric of London, and St. Oswald to that of Worcester. In 963 St. Aethelwold, the Abbot of Abingdon, was appointed to the See of Winchester. With their aid and with the ready support of King Eadgar, St. Dunstan pushed forward his reforms in Church and State. Throughout the realm there was good order main- tained and respect for law. Trained bands poUced the north, a na\-j' guarded the shores from Danish pirates. There was peace in the kingdom such as had not been known within memory of living man. Mon- asteries were built; in some of the great cathedrals monks took the place of the secular canons ; in the rest the canons were obliged to live according to rule. The parish priests were compelled to live chastely and to fit themselves for their office ; they were urged to teach their parishioners not only the truths of the Catholic Faith, but also such handicrafts as would improve their position. So for sixteen years the land pros- pered. In 973 the seal was put on St. Dunstan's statesmanship by the solemn coronation of King Ead- gar at Bath by the two Archbishops of Canterbury and York. It is said that for seven years the king had been forbidden to wear his crown, in penance for vio- lating a virgin living in the care of the nunnery of Wil- ton. That some severe penance had been laid on him for this act by St. Dunstan is undoubted, but it took place in 961 and Eadgar wore no crown till the great day at Bath in 973. Two years after his crowning Eadgar died, and was succeeded by his eldest son Eadward. His accession was disputed by his step- mother, Aelfthryth, w'ho wished her own son Aethel- red to reign. But, by the influence of St. Dunstan, Eadward was chosen and crowned at Winchester. But the death of Eadgar had given courage to the re- actionary party. At once there arose a determined attack upon the monks, the protagonists of reform. Throughout Mercia they were persecuted and de- prived of their possessions by .\elfhere, the ealdorman. Their cause, however, was supported by Aethelwine, the ealdorman of East Anglia, and the realm was in serious danger of civil war. Three meetings of the Witan were held to settle these disputes, at Kyrtling- ton, at Calne, and at Amesbury. At the second place the floor of the hall (solarium) where the Witan was sitting gave w-ay, and all except St. Dunstan, who clung to a beam, fell into the room below, not a few being killed. In March, 978, King Eadward was as- sassinated at Corfe Castle, possibly at the instigation of his step-mother, and Aethelred the Redeless be- came king. His coronation on Low Sunday, 978, was the last action of state in which St. Dunstan took part. When the young king took the usual oath to govern well, the primate addressed him in solemn warning, rebuking the bloody act whereby he became king and prophesying the misfortimes that were shortly to fall on the realm. But Dunstan's influ- ence at court was ended. He retired to Canterbury, where he spent the remainder of his life. Thrice only did he emerge from this retreat: once in 980 when he joined .\elfhere of Mercia in the solemn translation of the relics of King Eadward from their mean grave at Wareham to a splendid tomb at Shaftesbury Abbey; again in 984 when, in obedience to a vision of St. Andrew, he persuaded Aethelred to appoint St. .\elfheah to Winchester in succes- sion to St. Aethelwold; once more in 986, when he induced the king, by a donation of 100 pounds of silver, to desist from his persecution of the See of Rochester.

St. Dunstan's life at Canterbury is characteristic; long hours, both day and night, were spent in private prayer, besides his regular attendance at Mass and the

Office. Often he would visit the shrines of St. Augus- tine and St. Ethelbert, and we are told of a vision of angels w^ho sang to him heavenly canticles. He worked ever for the spiritual and temporal improve- ment of his people, building and restoring churches, establishing schools, judging suits, defending the widow and the orphan, promoting peace, enforcing re- spect for purity. He practised, also, his handicrafts, making bells and organs and correcting the books in the cathedral library. He encouraged and protected scholars of all lands who came to England, and was unwearied as a teacher of the boys in the cathedral school. There is a sentence in the earliest biography, written by his friend, that shows us the old man sitting among the lads, whom he treated so gently, and tell- mg them stories of his early days and of his forebears. And long after his death we are told of children who prayed to him for protection against harsher teachers, and whose prayers were answered. On the vigil of As- cension Day, 988, he was warned by a vision of angels that he had but three days to live. On the feast itself he pontificated at Mass and preached three times to the people: once at the Gospel, a second time at the benediction (then given after the Pater Noster), and a third time after the Agnus Dei. In this last address he announced his impending death and bade them farewell. That afternoon he chose the spot for his tomb, then took to his bed. His strength failed rap- idly, and on Saturday morning (19 May), after the hymn at Matins, he caused the clergj' to assemble. JIass was celebrated in his presence, then he received E.xtreme Unction and the Holy Viaticum, and expired as he uttered the words of thanksgiving: "He hath made a remembrance of his wonderful works, being a merciful and gracious Lord: He hath given food to them that fear Him." They buried him in his cathe- dral ; and when that was burnt down in 1074, his relics were translated with great honour by Lanfranc to a tomb on the south side of the high altar in the new- church. The monks of Glastonbury used to claim that during the sack of Canterbury by the Danes in 1012, the saint's body had been carried for safety to their abbey; but this claim was disproved by Archbishop Warham, by whom the tomb at Can- terbury was opened in 1508 and the holy relics found. At the Synod of Winchester in 1029, St. Dunstan's feast was ordered to be kept solemnly throughout England on 19 May. Until his fame was overshad- owed by that of St. Thomas the Martyr, he was the favourite saint of the English people. His shrine was destroyed at the Reformation. Throughout the Mid- dle Ages he was the patron of the goldsmiths' guild He is most often represented holding a pair of smith's tongs; sometimes, in reference to his visions, he is shown with a dove hovering near him, or with a troop of angels before him.

Acta SS.. 19 Mav, IV. 344-84; T\'h.\rton. Anglia Sacra (London, 1691), II. 88-121. 148. 211-233; d'Achery and Mabillov, Ada SS. O.S.B. (Venice. 1733-40). V, 639-97; Memorials of Si. Dunstan. ed. Sttjbbs in R. S. (London. 1874); Icelandic Sagas. . . Relating to. . . the British Isles, ed. ViGFussON' AND Dasent in R. S. (London. 1887-94). II. xxiii- XXV. 385-408; IV, 397-420; Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ed. Thorpe in R. S. (London. 1861); Wn-u.^M of Malmesbcry, De antiquitate Glantoniensis Ecclesia- in Gale, Scriptores (Ox- ford. 1691). XV; Idem. Cesla Ponlificum, ed. Hamilton in R. S. (London, 1870); Idem. Gesta Regum, ed. Stubbs in R. S. (London, 1887-9); Chron. Monast. de .Abingdon, ed. Stevenson in R. .S. (London. 18.58); Chron. .Abbatim Rame.iiensis. ed. Mac- ray in R. S. (London, 1886); Reyner. Apostolahis Benedict, in Anglia (Douai. 1626). III. 77-94; Ypes. Chronica gen. de la orden de San Benito (Valladolid, lei.^i). V. 106a-112 b; .^lford. Ann. Ecd. .inglicance (Levden, 1663). Ill, ad ann. 925-1021; Mvbillon. .Annnles O. S. B. (Lucca, 1739). III. 393. 420. 449. 480, 491. 498. 508. 517. 543. 545. 563. 593. 615; IV, 42, 46, 176, 221, 232; Wright. Biog. Brit. Lit. (London. 1S42). I. 443-462; Robinson, Hist, of Glastonburi/ .Abbey, Somersetshire, and Life of SI. Dun-itan (London, 1844); Lingard. Hi.'st. and Aniiq. of the .Anglo-Saxon Ch. (London. 1845), II. 267-311. 445-4.50; Hook. Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury (London, 1868); Freeman, Hist, of the Norman Conquest (O.xford. 1870). I. 63-5, 263-6; Green. The Conguest of England (London, 1883); Id., D'instan at Glastonbury in Proc. Somersetshire Archceol. Soc, XI, ii, 122-142; Jones, Muniments of the town of .Anbridge in