Page:The Saxon Cathedral at Canterbury and The Saxon Saints Buried Therein.djvu/106

THE SAXON CATHEDRAL AT CANTERBURY let it not be so." The opponents of the monks were dumbfounded, and their supporters were again supreme. But the matter was not to end in this way; in 977 it cropped up again at a Witenagemote held at Kirtlington, and in the next year at Calne, where a terrible accident occurred: the Council were assembled in a large hall, when suddenly the floor gave way and all the nobles were precipitated into the vaults beneath; some were killed outright, and some were seriously injured. The Archbishop himself escaped by a miracle—his seat was just above a joist. It was many years afterwards that Osbern in his Life of St. Dunstan mentions these events as a manifestation of the wrath of the Almighty against the opponents of the monks.

In 978, King Edward was slain at Corfesgate by one of the servants of his stepmother. He was buried first at Wareham; and afterwards at Shaftesbury by Alfhere, ealdorman of Mercia, who had been instrumental in expelling the abbots and monks from the monasteries which had been founded by Ethelwold. He, however, did not escape the looked-for vengeance of the monks, for it is recorded that within a year "his body was eaten up by worms". The burial of the King at Shaftesbury in 980 is amongst the last recorded acts of Dunstan's life.

In 978, Thorne the chronicler tells us that this year Blessed Dunstan dedicated at Canterbury the Church of the Holy Apostles SS. Peter and Paul and St. Austin. This was the great Abbey Church without the walls of the city. He goes on to record that in 980 Abbot Elfnoth died and Siricus was elected in his stead, being blessed by the Blessed Dunstan in his church. Also that about this time St. Dunstan saw the Queen of Heaven and all the Heavenly Host, and amongst them he saw St. Adrian leading the choir in the church which Edbald the King had founded in honour of the Mother of God in A.D. 616-618.

In 984, Ethelwold the Bishop of Winchester died, and Alphage, at the request of Dunstan, was nominated to the See by Ethelred, the young King. Two years later, in 986, Ethelred invaded Rochester and laid waste the domains of the Bishop there, till with a bribe, Dunstan the Peaceful managed to induce him to desist.

After celebrating the Mass and preaching three times on Ascension 68