Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 18.djvu/44

 this is merely based on a guess as to his age when ordained priest. In childhood he was well instructed in religious knowledge, and when he was yet young entered the household of Æthelstan, becoming one of his comitatus, or followers. As such he remained for a considerable time, learning a good deal from the counsellors of the king, for he was a sharp-witted lad. In accordance with the king's desire he received the tonsure from Ælfheah, or ‘Elfege the Bald,’ bishop of Winchester, who also after a while admitted him to priest's orders. Ælfheah is said to have ordained both him and Dunstan priests at the same time, and to have foretold that both of them should become bishops, and that Æthelwold should succeed to the see he then held. He remained with Ælfheah for some time, and learnt much from him; for there is reason to believe that the bishop was intent on monastic reform. He then entered the monastery of Glastonbury, where he held the office of dean of the monastery under Dunstan. At Glastonbury he continued his studies, learning the arts of grammar and poetry, besides reading theological works, was constant in watching, prayer, and fasting, and in exhorting the brethren to austerity, which he was especially able to do, as the monastic dean appears to have been a disciplinary officer. He set an example of humility and diligence by working in the monastery garden and gathering the fruits needed for the common meals. Conscious that English monasticism fell far behind that which was to be seen in the great houses of northern France and Flanders, he desired to go abroad that he might learn the rule that was observed in them. Eadgifu, the mother of Eadred, and Dunstan, the king's chief adviser, were unwilling that he should leave the country. Eadred accordingly refused him permission to go abroad, and, with Dunstan's concurrence, gave him a small monastery that had long stood at Abingdon in Berkshire, that he might there found a congregation which should live according to monastic rule; for with the exception of Glastonbury the English monasteries were tenanted by communities that were not monastic, and many of them had gone to decay. This was the case at Abingdon. Æthelwold probably received the grant about 954 (Chron. de Abingdon, i. 125;, Codex Dipl. p. 441). He found the place in a wretched state; the buildings were mean, and only forty ‘mansæ’ (hides) remained to the house, the rest of the land, consisting of a hundred hides, having fallen into the king's possession. He brought certain ‘clerks’ from Glastonbury—the term shows that even there the community did not consist exclusively of regulars—who were willing to submit to his discipline, and soon gathered round him a band of monks. The king gave him all the land he had in Abingdon, and much money, and raised excellent buildings for him, and the gifts of the king's mother were even larger. Eadred took a warm interest in the building of the new monastery, and a visit he paid to Abingdon to give directions about it was the occasion of a remarkable miracle. It chanced that besides his ordinary attendants a large body of Northumbrian thegns accompanied him. The abbot asked him to dine, and the king assented gladly, ordering that the doors should be shut so that no one might shirk his drink. So he and his train sat all day drinking. Nevertheless the abbot's cask of mead failed not, nor wasted more than one hand's breadth, so that when evening came the Northumbrians went back ‘as drunk as hogs’ (, Vita S. Æthelwoldi). During the building a heavy post fell on Æthelwold, breaking several of his ribs and causing him to fall into a pit hard by. Eadwig was also a liberal benefactor to the new house. Æthelwold's own gifts to his church were splendid. Chief among them were a golden chalice of immense weight, three crosses of gold and silver that were destroyed in Stephen's wars, and an organ. He also enriched it with the work of his own hands, for like Dunstan he was a cunning craftsman. He made two bells which were hung along with those that Dunstan made for the church, and a machine called the ‘golden wheel,’ overlaid with gold, and full of little bells, which he had twirled round on festivals to excite the devotion of the worshippers (Chron. de Abingdon, i. 345). With the consent of the brethren he sent Osgar, one of the clerks who had accompanied him from Glastonbury, to learn the strict Benedictine rule at Fleury. On Osgar's return, probably early in Eadgar's reign, he caused this rule to be observed at Abingdon, and this was the first introduction of it into England; for if it had been known and practised at Glastonbury under Dunstan, Æthelwold would have had no need to send any one to Fleury to learn it for him (Chron. de Abingdon, i. 129;, Historical Essays, p. 190). He gave minute directions as to the food and drink of his monks, and his arrangements were neither mean nor profuse; he left his curse on any of his successors who should alter them, and evidently caused his rules to be written down (Chron. de Abingdon, i. 347, ii. 313). In 963, by the advice of Dunstan, the see of Winchester was conferred on Æthelwold. Before he left Abingdon he made a prayer for the future