Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 16.djvu/236

 against the bishop, and being unable to take the city ravaged the lands of the bishopric, Dunstan is said to have failed to persuade him to desist until he procured his acquiescence by a large bribe (A.-S. Chron. and sub ann. 986; Cod. Dipl. dcc.;, 116, is the earliest authority for the intervention of Dunstan). Æthelred, however, is said to have given the bishopric of Winchester to Ælfheah [q. v.] at the archbishop's request (, 62). The occupations of Dunstan's last years are recorded by the Saxon priest B., who knew him well. He was constant in prayer by night as well as by day; he loved to read the scriptures, to join in psalmody, and take part in the services of the church. The handicrafts of his earlier days were resumed, and he spent much time in correcting books. The churches of those parts of the continent that were near England held him in reverence, and he corresponded with Fleury and the great monasteries of Flanders. Although he was no longer engaged in affairs of state, he had much business to transact. As a judge he was quick to discern the truth; he loved to compose quarrels and to befriend the weak and needy, and he ever continued to uphold the laws of marriage and to strengthen the church. As a teacher he was unwearied, so that the whole of England is said to have been filled with his light. He was loving, gentle, and easily moved to tears. He used to tell the boys of his household stories of his own life, and from some of these boys, as well as from personal intercourse with Dunstan, B., the anonymous author of the earliest life of the archbishop, derived the information he has handed down to us. The remembrance of his gentleness was long cherished at Canterbury, and Osbern, who was a Canterbury scholar, tells us how, when he and his companions were about to be whipped, Godric, the dean of Christ Church, forbade it and chid the masters; for he said their kind father Dunstan had the day before shown them a pattern of gentleness by working a miracle at his tomb. Again, Osbern records that when on another occasion the masters had determined, apparently from a mere love of cruelty, to whip their scholars, the poor lads, with many tears, cried to their ‘sweetest father’ to have pity on them, and the good Dunstan heard the children's prayer and delivered them. With his guests he would talk of things he had heard in his youth from men of an older generation, as when Abbo of Fleury heard him tell the bishop of Rochester and others the story of the martyrdom of St. Edmund, which he had learnt from the king's armour-bearer. The account we have of his death was written by Adelard about twenty years afterwards. His strength began to fail on Ascension day, 17 May 988. On that day he preached three times and celebrated the Eucharist; then he supped with his household. After supper all saw that his end was near (Vita B.) On the following Saturday, after the matin hymns had been sung, he bade the congregation of the brethren come to him. He commended his spirit to them, and then received the ‘viaticum’ of the sacrament that had been celebrated before him. For this he began to give thanks to God, and sang, ‘The merciful and gracious Lord hath so done his marvellous works that they ought to be had in remembrance. He hath given meat unto them that fear him,’ and with these words he passed away (, 66). He was buried near the altar of his church, in a tomb that he had made for himself. His day is 19 May. In 1508 the monks of Glastonbury claimed that the bones of the saint rested in their church, alleging that they had been removed thither in the reign of Eadmund Ironside. Their claim was groundless [see under ]. No extant literary work is to be attributed to Dunstan. The writings, ‘Tractatus … de lapide philosophorum,’ printed at Cassel in 1649, the ‘Regularis Concordia’ in Reyner's ‘Apostolatus Benedictinorum’ and Dugdale's ‘Monasticon,’ i. xxvii–xlv, and the ‘Commentary on the Benedictine Rule’ in the British Museum (Reg. MS. 10A, 13) sometimes ascribed to him cannot be accepted as his work ; and the lists of titles in Bale and Pits may safely be disregarded. Neither the date nor the authorship of the ‘Penitential,’ printed by Wilkins with the ecclesiastical canons of Eadgar's reign, can be determined. A book which almost certainly belonged to Dunstan is preserved in the Bodleian Library (Auct. F. iv. 32). It consists of a large part of the ‘Liber Euticis Grammatici de discernendis Conjugationibus,’ some extracts from the scriptures in Greek and Latin, and other miscellaneous contents, among which are ‘some of the earliest written specimens of Welsh’. On the first page is a picture of the Saviour, with a monk kneeling before him with a scroll coming from his mouth; on which are written the lines— Dunstanum memet clemens rogo, Christe, tuere; Tenarias me non sinas sorbsisse procellas. A note by a later hand on the same page declares the picture and writing to be Dunstan's work, and Leland (Collectanea, iii. 154), who mentions having seen the book at Glastonbury, accepts it as his (,