Page:The Saxon Cathedral at Canterbury and The Saxon Saints Buried Therein.djvu/102

THE SAXON CATHEDRAL AT CANTERBURY however, in different forms, sometimes as a bear, a dog, or a serpent. There is one thing, however, that the Devil cannot stand and that is contempt; on one occasion when he appeared as a fox, Dunstan smiled derisively and making the sign of the Cross, the Devil vanished.

Osbern is responsible for the best-known legend. It must be remembered, however, that it does not appear till about a hundred years after the saint's death; but it is worth repeating; he says:

"That Deceiving One, having taken on the deceptive form of a man, sought the cell of the young Dunstan at Glastonbury, peeped in at the window, and seeing him at work in his forge, asked him to make something for him. Meanwhile he went on talking, mixing up the name of women and evil pleasures with religion, and then again to talk of luxurious delights, so that Dunstan soon came to understand who he was. Then the strong man in Christ held his pincers forth and well heated them in the fire, blowing it up the while with his bellows, all the while confessing and calling on the name of Christ, with tightly compressed lips; when he saw that the pincers were white hot, moved by holy rage, swiftly he drew them out of the fire and seized the Monster by the nose, and with all his might tried to draw him inside, so that with fearful outcry he fled away howling 'What has this bald-headed devil done?' for Dunstan's hair, though beautiful, was thin. The next morning all the people came to ascertain what all the noise and screaming meant. But from that day, more than ever, Dunstan kept himself fully equipped for warfare, by fasting and prayer, knowing that in no other way could the fight be won."

Abbot Dunstan started his new work at Glastonbury as a reformer, evidently copying the example of his uncle, Alphage. He began building the new Church of St. Peter, and restoring the Church of St. Mary. He then started on the domestic buildings, providing all things necessary for the monks to live as monks, though it seems that seculars lived in the house as well. Most writers say that at this time, though monks lived in monasteries, yet it was not the Rule of St. Benedict that they followed, which as yet was unknown in England—apparently they took the three vows and lived a sliding kind of discipline, of which the more exalted were practically hermits; and the more lax, monks living in the world. But Dunstan's great idea was to establish a school of learning which should become famous, and in this he succeeded.

In after years when his friend and King, Edmund, was slain, it was Dunstan who carried his body to Glastonbury, and buried it there. King 64