BOOK in.'

CONTAINING
THE THREE HUNDRED YEARS,
FROM THE REIGN OF KING EGBERT TO THE TIME OF
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.
Now remaineth, likewise as before I did in describing the descent and diversity of the seven kings, all together reigning and ruling^ in this land, so to prosecute in like order the lineal succession of those, who, after Egbert, king of the West Saxons, governed and ruled solely, until the conquest of William the Norman ; first ex- pressing their names, and afterwards importing such acts, as in their time happened in the Church worthy to be noted. Albeit, as touch- ing the acts and doings of these kings, because they are sufficiently and at large described, and taken out of Latin writers into the English tongue, by divers and sundry authors, and namely in the History or Chronicle of Fabian ; I shall not spend much travail thereupon, but rather refer the reader to him or to some other, where the troublesome tumults between the Englishmen and the Danes at that time may be seen, whoso listeth to read them. 1 have fur- nished a table of their names and reigns ; and the acts done under their reigns I have compendiously abridged, using such brevity as the matter would allow.
Therein is to be noted, that, before the reign of Edward the Con- fessor, the Danes obtained the crown under their captain, Canute, who reigned nineteen years. Harold Harefoot, son of Canute, reigned about four years ; Hardicanute, son of Canute, two years ; Edward the Confessor, an Englishman, son of Ethelred, twenty- four years ; Harold, son of Earl Godwin, an usurper, one year ; and William the Conqueror, a Norman, reigned twenty-one years and ten months.
(1) Edition ir)G3, p. 10. E first eit;ht pa;?e.s of tlie Latin Edition of 1j.)9, brinf^ tlio reader down to an account of Die proceed- 'ngs of a Convocation of Ilishops, holden at Lambeth, in the time of Wickliff, a.d. 1377. — Ed.
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DANISH INVASION OF ENGLAND. 5
EGBERT THE GREAT, — ?^
A.I). KING OF THK WEST SAXONS, AFTERWARDS MONARCH OF THE 800. WHOLE REALM.
In tlic reign of Brightric, a little before mentioned, about the year of grace 795, there was in his dominion a noble personage, i„ ,),; of some called Egbert, of some Ethelbert, of some Etliclbriirht ; !'nif"rae who, being feared of the same Brightric, because he was of kingly i^anes blood and near unto the crown, was, by the force and conspiracy of fheVorth the aforenamed Brightric, chased and pursued out of the land of p^^^^^^- ^'"^ Britain into France, where he endured till the death of the said driven Brightric ; after the hearing whereof Egbert sped him eftsoons out of °" ^°*"'' France unto his country of West-Sax, where he in such wise behaved himself that he obtained the regiment and governance of the above- said kingdom.
Bernulph, king of Mercia, abovementioned, and other kings, had a.d. so; this Egbert in such derision, that they made of him divers scoffing jests and scorning rhymes, all which he sustained for a time. But when he was more established in his kingdom, and had proved the minds of his subjects, and especially God working withal, he after- ward assembled his knights, and gave to the said Bernulph a battle, in a.d. 823. a place called Elinden, in the province of Hampton ;' and, notwith- standing in that fight were great odds of number, as six or eight against one, yet Egbert (through the might of the Lord, who giveth victory as pleaseth him) had the better, and won the field ;^ which done, he seized that lordship into his hand ; and that also done, he made war upon the Kentish Saxons, and at length of them, in like wise, ob- tained the victory. And, as it is in Polychronicon testified, he also A.n. sit. subdued Northumberland,^ and caused the kings of these three king- doms to live under him as tributaries, or joined them to his kingdom.* This Egbert also won from the Britons or Welshmen the town of Chester,* which they had kept possession of till this day. After these and other victories, he, peaceably enjoying the land, called a council of his lords at Winchester, where, by their advice, he was crowned king and chief lord over this land, which before that day was called j^^.^ ^^^^^ Britain ; but then he sent out into all coasts of the land his com- fi'^t mandments and commissions, charging straitly that, from that day Angiia. forward, the Saxons should be called Angles, and the land Angiia.
About the thirtieth year of the reign of Egbert, the heathenish a.d. 832. people of the Danes, which a little before had made horrible destruc- Danes tion in Northumberland, and especially in the isle of Lindisfarn, where ge^cond"^ they spoiled the churches, and murdered the ministers, with men,
. tered this
women, and children, after a cruel manner, entered now the second^ land.
time, with a great host, into this land, and spoiled the isle of Sheppy
in Kent, or near to Kent ; where' Egbert, hearing thereof, assembled
his people, and met with them at Charmouth : but in that conflict a.d. 833
he sped not so well as he \vas wont in times before, but with his
(1) " Elindon in Hamptuensi provincia," Polyclir. Most of the liistorians, however, say, " EUandunc," i. e. Wilton.— Ed.
(2) Of this victory went a proverh, — " Rivjs crnore rubuit, ruina restitit, fcetore tabuit."
(3) SeeMalmsb.de Gest. Reg. Anjil. lib. i. c. 3. [Also Harpsfield, Hist. Eccl. Seoul. 8, c. 21.— Ed.]
(4) Ex Flor. Hist. (5) " Chester" here means Caerleon : see vol. i. p. o38, note. — Ed. (fi) More correctly, " the third time :" see vol. i. p. 378, note (,'!).- Ed.
(7) " Where " here meaiis " wliereupon." " Whereof hearvnge, tlie kyngc Egbert," &c. Fabian. —Ed.
b A BISHOP MADE A KIKG.
Egbert, knii^'lits was compelled to forsake the field. Notwillistanding, in the
^ j3 next battle, the said Egbert, with a .small power, overthrew a great
8;53. multitude of them, and so dravc thom back.* The next year follow-
ing, the said Danes presuming upon their victory before, made their
return again into the land westward, where joining with the Britons,
by their help and powder they assailed the lands of Egbert, and did
much harm in many places of his dominion and elsewhere ; so that
after this day they were continually abiding in one place of tiie
realm of England or other, till the time of Hardicanute, last king
of the Danes' blood ; so that many of them were married to P^nglish
women, and many that now be, or in times past were, called English-
nien, are descended of them. And albeit that they were many and
sundry times driven out of the land, and chased from one country to
another, yet, that notwithstanding, they ever gathered new strength
and power, that they abode still within the land.
England Aud tluis, as by stories appears, this troublesome land of Britain,
*'i^^^^'^" now called England, hath been hitherto by five sundry outward nations
by other plagucd : first, by the Romans ; then, by the Scots and Picts ; thirdly,
na ions. |^^ ^j^^ Saxons ; fourthly, by the Danes, of whose outrageous cruelty
and hostility our English liistories* do most exclaim and complain;
fifthly, by the Normans, who, I pray God, may be the last.
I'hen it followeth in the story, that the time of this persecution of the aforesaid pagans and Danes continuing, King Egbert, when he had ruled the West Saxons, and over the more part of England, by the term of seven and thirty years, died, and was buried at ^Vin- chester, leaving to his son P]thelwolf his kingdom, who first was bishop of Winchester, (as Hoveden recordeth,) and after, upon neces- sity, made king, leaving withal, and pronouncing this saying to his son, " Felicem fore si regnum, quod multa rexerat industria, ille consueta genti illi non interrumperet ignavia."
ETHELWOLF.
A.D. Ethklwoi.f, the son of Egbert, in his former age had entered 837. into tire order of sub-deacon, as some others say, was made bishop of Winchester; but afterwards, being the only son of Egbert, was made king through the dispensation, as Fabian saith, of Pope Pas- chal :^ but that cannot be, for Paschal then was not bishop : so that, by the computation of time, it should rather seem to be Gregory IV.'' This Gregory IV, was the third pope who succeeded after Paschal I., being but four years betwixt them : whieh Paschal suc- ceeded after Stephen IV., who followed after Leo III., next pope to Adrian above in our history mentioned, where we treated of Charle- magne.^ From the time of that Adrian I. unto Pope Adrian III. the emperors had some stroke in the election, at least in the con- firmation of the Roman poj)c. Notwithstanding, divers of those aforesaid popes in the mean time began to work their practices to bring their purpose about; but yet all their devices could take no full effect before the said Adrian III., as hereafter (Christ willing) shall be declared ; so that the emperors all this while bare some rule in choosing the popes, anil in assembling general councils. Wherefore,
(1) Fabian, c. 15S. RoR. Hovcil. lib v. c. 1. [See Appendix.— En.]
(2) Ex Rof!. Moved, lib. v. (3) Guliel. lib. de dcst. Anglor. saith this pope vfas I.eo. IV (4) See Appendix.— Kd. ('>) Supri, vol. i. p. Srs.
rOPE JOAN A WOMAN POPE. 7
by tlie commandment of Louis, the emperor, in the time of this Eceiesias- (xregory IV., a general synod was commenced at Aix-la-Chapellc, HisTory.
where it was decreed by the said Gregory and his assistants : first, ~
that every church should have sufficient of its own proper lands and synod at revenues to find the priests thereof, that none should need to lack chap'eiie. or go about a begging ; Item, that none of the clergy, of what order ^^^ery or degree soever they be, should use any vesture of any precious or to\"Ive scarlet colour, neither should wear rings on their fingers, unless it be to^nd u's when prelates be at mass, or give their consecrations ; Item, that pre- °^" lates should not keep too great ports or families, nor keep great horse, nor use dice, or harlots, and that the monks should not exceed measure in gluttony or riot ; Item, that none of the clergy, being either anointed or shaven, should use either gold or silver in their shoes, slippers, or girdles, like to Heliogabalus. By this it may be conjectured, what pomp and pride in those days had crept into the clergy. Moreover, by the said Pope Gregory IV., at the commandment of Louis, the The Feast emperor, the feast of All Saints was first brought into the church. saints.
After this pope came Sergius II., who first brought in the altering The of the popes' names, because he was named before ' Os porci,' that is, names ' Swine's snout :' who also ordained the ' Agnus' thrice to be sung at ^'f^'^"^''" the mass, and the host to be divided into three parts. The host
After him was Pope Leo IV., to whom this King Ethelwolf (as in into three this present chapter is hereafter specified) did commit the tuition of ^"'^' his son Alfred. By this Pope Leo IV. it came in, and was first enacted in a council of his, that no bishop should be condemned under threescore and twelve witnesses ; according as ye see in the witnesses at the condemnation of Stephen Gardiner orderly practised.
Item, contrary to the law of Gregory IV,, his predecessor, this pope The ordained the cross, all set with gold and precious stones, to be carried c°ofs first before him, like a pope. foTthe^
And here next now followeth and cometh in the whore of Babylon pope. [Rev. xix. 2,] (rightly in her true colours, by the permission of God, and manifestly without all tergiversation) to appear to the wliole world : and that not only after the spiritual sense, but after the very letter, and the right form of an whore indeed. For after this Leo abovemen- tioned, the cardinals, proceeding to their ordinary election (after a solemn mass of the Holy Ghost), to the perpetual shame of them and of that see, instead of a man pope, elected a whore indeed to minister sacraments, to say masses, to give orders, to constitute deacons, priests, and bishops ; to promote prelates, to make abbots, to consecrate churches and altars, to have the reign and rule of emperors and kings: and so she did indeed, called by name Joan VIII. This woman's a.d. sss. proper name was Gilberta, a Dutch woman of Mayence, who went ^ ^oma" with an English monk out of the abbey of Fulda in man's apparel called unto Athens, and after, through her dexterity of wit and learning, ^'"'" was promoted to the popedom, where she sat two years and six months. At last, openly in the face of a general procession, she fell in labour and travail of child, and so died ; by reason whereof the cardinals, yet to this day, do avoid to come near by that street where this shame was taken.^ By Benedict III. who succeeded next in the whorish
(1> In reference to this event, which has proved a source of lengthened controversy, a monkish poet observes — " Papa Pater Patrimi peperit Papissa Papellum." See Bower's Lives of the Popes ; Joan. Also Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. vol. ii. p. 271. — Ed.
8 MAKIUAGKS OK rUlKisTS fOltmUOEX.
Ecrieiiat- scc, was fifst onlaiiiccl (as most writers do record) tlie "Dirige" to /h.To'„j. 1)0 said for tlie dead. Albeit before liim, Gregory III, liad done in \h7TT7 ^''''*'' "^^^•'^^'" worthily for liis part already.
the dead. After liim sat Pope Nieliolas I. who enlarged the pope's decrees with many constitutions, equalling the authority of them with the writings of the apostles. He ordained that no secular prince, nor the emperor liiniself, should be present at their councils, unless in matters concerning the fliith; to the end that such as they judged to be heretics, thev should execute and murder ; Also, that no laymen should sit in jutlgment upon the clergy, or reason upon the pope's power ; Item, that no christian magistrate should have any power upon any prelate, alleging that a prelate is called God ; Item, that all church service should be in Latin ; yet, notwithstanding, dispensing with the Sclavoniansand Poles to retain still their vulgar language. Sequences Marri- in tlic mass were by him first allowed. By this pope priests began v?re'st*9^ to be restrained and debarred from marrying : w hereof Huldericke, forbidden. l)isliop of Augsburgli, a learned and a holy man, sending a letter unto the pope, gravely and learnedly refuteth and reclaimeth against his indiscreet proceedings touching that matter. The copy of which letter, as I thought it unworthy to be suppressed, so I judged it here worthy and meet for the better instruction of the reader to be inserted ; the words thereof here follow, out of Latin into English translated.
A learned epistle of Huldericke, bishop of Augsburgli, sent to Pope Nicholas I., proving by probations substantial that priests ought not to be restrained from marriage.*
Iluklevicke, bishop only by name, unto the reverend Father Nichola?, tlic vigilant overseer of the holy church of Rome, with due commendation sendeth love as a son, and fear as a servant. Understanding, reverend Father, your decrees whicli you sent to me concerning the single life of the clergy, to be far discrepant from all discretion, I was troubled partly with fear, and partly with heaviness. With fear — for that, as it is said, the sentence of the jiastor, whether it be just or unjust, is to be feared. For I was afraid lest the weak hearers of the Scripture, who scarcely obey the just sentence of their pastor, much more despise his unjust sentence, should show themselves disobedient to this oppressive, nay intolerable, decree of their pastor. With heaviness I was troubled, and with compassion — for that 1 doubted how the members of the body should do, their head being so greatly out of frame. For what can be nmre grievous or more worthy the compassion of the whole church, than for you, being the bishop of the principal see, to whom appcrtaineth the exami- nation of the whole church, to swerve never so little out of the right way ! Ccrtes, in this you have not a little erred, in that you have gone about to con- strain your clergy to continency of marriage with imperious tyranny, whom rather you ought to admonish on the subject. For is not this to be counted a violence and tyranny in the judgment of all wise men, when a man is com- jJcUed by private decrees to do that which is against the institution of the gospel and the suggestion of the Holy Ghost? Seeing then there be so many .loly examples both of tiie Old and New Testament, teaching us (as you know) holy discretion, I desire your patience not to think it grievous for me to bring a few here out of many. Priests' First, ill the old law, the Lord permitteth marriage unto the priests, which
inThTI'Td afterward in the new law we do not read to be restrained, but in the gospel law per- tlius he saith, " Tlicro be some which have made themselves eunuchs for the
inittcd, in kingdom of heaven, but all men do not take this word ; he that can take it, tiie new " ' '
r rl "ih' (l)Nicholao Domino el Tatri, pervijjili sanctre Romanac eoclesia! provisori, HuMorirus solo
lorumUL'n. nomine episropus, amorem ut filius, timorem ut servus. Cum tua (O Pater et Doniine) decrna
siii^r clericorum rontinentifl, &c. [See the Latin infra, vol. v. p. 312, whence this translation is
revised and cnrrectert.— En.1
PIIIKSTS MARRIAGES PROVED LAWFUL «^
let him take it." [Matt. xix. 12.] Wherefore the apostle saith, " Concerning Ecdesias- virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord, but only I give counsel." jil^l'J^
[1 Cor. vii. 25.] Wliich counsel he knowing that all men could not take,
according to the Lord's saying before ; nay — seeing that many professed admi- rers of the said counsel, who sought to please men, not God, by a false pre- tence of continency, actually fell into horrible wickedness Therefore, t
lest through the infection of this wicked pestilence tlie state of the cliurch shoukl be too much perilled, he said, " Because of fornication, let every man have his own wife." [1 Cor. vii. 2.] Touching which saying our false hypo- crites falsely do lie and ffeign, as though only it pertained to the laity, and not to them. And yet they themselves, seeming to be set in the most holy older, are not afraid to commit adultery, and, as we see with weeping eyes, they all do outrage in the aforesaid wickedness.
These men have not rightly understood the Scripture, whose breasts while they suck so hard, instead of milk they suck out blood. For the saying of the apostle, " Let every man have his own wife," [1 Cor. vii, 2,] doth except none in very deed, but him only who hath made a profession of continency, prefix- ing with himself to keep his virginity in the Lord. Wherefore, O reverend Father, it shall be your part to cause and oversee, that whosoever either with hand or mouth hath made a vow of continency, and afterward would forsake it, either should be compelled to keep his vow, or else by lawful authority should be deposed from his order.
And to bring this to pass, you shall not only have me, but also all other of my order, to be helpers unto you. But that you may understand, that those who know not what a vow doth mean, are not to be violently compelled there- unto, hear what the apostle saith to Timothy, " A bishop must be irrepre- hensible, the husband of one wife." [1 Tim.iii. 2 — 12.] Which sentence lest you should turn and apply onl}' to the church, mark what he infen-eth after, " He that knoweth not to rule his own household and family, how should he rule the church of God ?" "And likewise the deacons," saith he, "let them be the husband of one wife, which have knowledge to govern their own house and children." And this wife, how she is to be blest of the priest, you understand sufficientlj'-, I suppose, by the decrees of holy Sylvester, the pope.
To these and such other holy sentences of the Scripture agreeth also he that This de- is the writer of the " Rule of the clergy," writing after this manner, " A clerk po^^^trary must be chaste and continent, or else let him be coupled in the bands of to the bi- matrimony, having one wife."' Whereby it is to be gathered, that the bishop shops and and deacon are noted infamous and reprehensible, if they be divided among fn Queen more women than one : otherwise, if they do forsake one under the pretence Mary's of religion, both they together, as well the bishop as the deacon, be here con- *'™'^' demned by the canonical sentence, which saith, " Let no bishop or priest forsake his own wife, under the colour and pretence of religion. If he do forsake her, let him be excommunicate. And if he so continue, let him be degraded. "2 St. Augustine also, a man of discreet holiness, saith in these words, " There is no offence so great or grievous, but it is to be allowed, in order to avoid a greater evil."
Furthermore, we read in the second book of the Tripartite History, that when the Council of Nice, going about to establish the same decree, would enact that bishops, priests, and deacons, after their consecration, either should abstain utterly from their own wives, or else should be deposed; then Paphnutius (one of those holy martyrs of whom the Emperor Maxlmus had put out the right eye, and hocked their left legs) rising up amongst them, withstood their purposed decree, confessing marriage to be honourable, and asserting the bed of matrimony to be chastity ; and so dissuaded the council from making that law, declaring what occasion thereby might come to them- selves and their wives of fornication. And thus much did Paphnutius (being immarried himself) declare unto them. And the whole council, commending his sentence, gave place thereto, and left the matter freely without compulsion to the will of every man, to do therein as he thought right.
Notwithstanding, there bo some who take St. Gregory for their defence in this matter, whose temerity I laugh at and ignorance I lament; for they know not how that the dangerous decree of this heresy being made by St. Gregory,
(1) Isidore, De Divinis sive Ecclesiasticis Olliciis, lib. ii. cap. 2, " dt Regulis Clciicoruni." — Et/.
(2) Apost. Can. v.— Ed.
10 nilESTs' MARKIAGKS PKOVEO LAWFUL
Eccieriat- l>e afterwards well revoked the same, with condign fruit of repentance. For
licai upon a certain day, as he sent unto his fishpond to have fish, and did see more
""'°'^9- than six lliousand infants' iicads brouglit to him, which were taken out of tlie
Six same pond or moat, he did greatly repent in himself the decree made before
thousand toucliing tlie single lite of priests, which he confessed to be the cause of that
^ff^n',,"'^ so lamentable a nnirder.' And so purging the same (as I said) with condign
found in fruit of repentance, lie altered again the things which he had decreed before,
moa^"'" * commending tliat counsel of tlie apostle, which saith, " It is better to marry
than to burn" [1 Cor. vii. 9]; adding moreover of himself thereunto, and
saying, " It is better to marry than to give occasion of death."
Peradventure if these men had read witli me this which so liappencd, I think they would not be so rash in their doing and judging, fearing at least the Lord's commandment, " Do not judge, that you be not judged" [Matt. vii. 4.] And St. Paul saith, " Who art thou that judgest another man's servant ? Either he standeth or falleth to his own master ; but he shall stand ; for the Lord is mighty and able to make him stand." Therefore let your holiness cease to compel and enforce tliose whom only j-ou ought to admonisli, lest through your (jwn private commandment (which God forbid) you be found contrary as well to the Old Testament as to tlie New ; for, as St. Augustine saith to Donatus, " Tliis only do we fear about you, lest, in your zeal for righteousness, you should be for punishing transgressors more witli reference to the aggravation of their offences than to the tender forbearance of Christ. This we do beseech you for his sake not to do. For transgressions are so to be punished, that the trans- gressors may haply be brought to repentance." Also another saying of St. A saying Augustine we would have you to remember, which is this : — " Nil nocendi fiat of St. Au- cupiditatc, omnia consulendi charitate, et nihil fiat immaniter, niliil inhu- ^"^ '" ■ maniter;" that is, " Let nothing be done through the greediness of hurting, but all things through the charity of profiting ; neither let any thing be done cruelly, nothing imgently." Item, of the same Augustine it is written, " In the fear and name of Christ I exliort you, which of you soever have not the goods of this world, be not greedy to have them ; such as have them, presume not too much upon them. For I say, to have them is no damnation ; but if you presume upon them, that is damnation, if for the having of them you shall seem great in your own sight, or if you do forget the common condition of man through the excellency of any thing you have. Use therefore therein due discretion, tempered with moderation." The which cup of discretion is drawn out of the fountain of the apostolic preaching, which said, ' Art thou loose from thy wife ? do not seek for thy wife. Art thou bound to tliy wife? seek not to be loosed from her.' [1 Cor. vii. 27.] Where also it followelh, ' Such as have wives, let them be as though they had them not, and they that use the world, rom.irry let them be as not using it.' Item, concerning the widow he saith, ' Let her fii the maiTy to whom she will, only in the Lord.' [1 Cor. vii. 39.] To marry in the Lord is nothing else, but to attempt nothing in contraction of matrimony, which the Lord doth forbid. Jeremy also saith, ' Trust not in the words of lies, saying. The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.' [Jer. vii. 4.] The which saying of Jeremy, Hierome expoimdeth thus, " This may agree also, and be applied, to such virgins as brag and vaunt of their virginity, with an impudent face pretending chastity when they have What a another thing in their conscience, and know not how the apostle defineth the d'fi''"d' ^ '""S'"' '^^'''^ ^'^^' s^'oidd be lioly in body, and also in spirit. For what availeth by the '''^ chastity of the body, if the mind inwardly be unchaste, or if it have not apostle, the other virtues, which the prophetical sermon doth describe?"
The which virtues forsomuch as we see partly to be in you, and because we are not ignorant that this discretion, although neglected in this part, yet in the other actions of your life is kept honestly of you, we do not despair but you will also soon amend the little lack which is behind; and therefore (though not so severely as we might, so serious is the offence) we do blame and condemn tiiis your negligence. For although, according to our common calling, a bishop is greater than a priest, yet Augustine was less than Hierome, and a
(I) nisliop Hall, In his " Honour of the ilarried Clergy," book iii. seel. 2 & 3, vindicates the Kenuineuess of this letter against the cavils of his popish adversary, and in reference to this par- ticular passage, says, " As for the number of children, I can say no more for it than he can against it. This history shall be more worth to us than his denial. ]!ut this I dare say, that 1 know persons both of credit and honour, that saw betwixt fifty and three score cast up out of the little mole of an abbey where I now live. Let who list cast up the proportion." See Appendix. —Ed.
BY BISHOP HULDEUICKK. II
good correction proceeding from the lesser to the greater is not to be refused EccUsias- ' ■" > ■ • - ff^^^i
llistvry.
or disdained, especially wlicn lie who is corrected is found to strive against the trutli, to please men. For, as St. Augustine saith, writing to Boniface, " Tlic disputations of men, be they never so catholic or approved persons, ought not to be placed on a par with the canonical Scriptures, as though we may not dis- approve or refuse (saving the reverence which is due unto them) any thing that is in their writings, if any thing therein be found contrary to the truth, as dis- covered through divine aid either by ourselves or others." And what can be found more contrary to the truth than this, viz. that when the Truth him- self, speaking of continency, not of one only, but of all (the number only excepted of them which have professed continency), saith, " He that can take, let him take ;" these men, moved I cannot tell by what cause, do turn and say, " He that cannot take, let him be accursed?" And wliat can be more foolish with men or displeasing to God, than when any bishop or arch- deacon run themselves headlong into all kinds of lust, yet shame not to say, f that the chaste marriage of priests is in ill savour with them; and do not, with the compassion of real righteousness, entreat their clerks, as their fellow- servants, to contain, but with the pride of mere pretended righteousness com- mand them and enforce them violently, as servants, to abstain 1 Unto the which imperious commandment of theirs, or counsel (whichever you will call it), they add also this foolish and scandalous suggestion, saying, "that it is more honest The ab- privily to have to do with many women, than apertly in the sight and con- ?"r science of many men to be hound to one wife." The which truly they would contrary not say, if they were either of Him, or in Him, who saith, " Woe to you doing of Pharisees, which do all things before men." And so the Psalmist, " Because P^P'^ts. they please men they are confotmded, for the Lord hath despised them." [Ps. liii. 5.] These be the men who ought first to persuade us that we should shame to sin privily in the sight of Him, to whom all things be open, and then that we seem in the sight of men to be clean. These men therefore, althotigh through their sinful wickedness they deserve no counsel of godliness to be given them, yet we, not forgetting our humanity, cease not to give them counsel, by the authority of God's word, which seeketh all men's salvation, desiring them by the bowels of charity, and saying with the words of Scripture, " Cast out, thou hypocrite, first the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see to cast the mote out of the eye of thy brother."
Moreover, this also we desire them to attend to, what the Lord saith of the adulterous woman, " \Miich of you that is without sin, let him cast the first stone against her." As though he would say, " If Moses bid you, I also bid you. But yet I require you that be the competent ministers and executors of the law, take heed what you add thereunto; take heed also, I pray you, what you are yourselves : for if, as the Scripture saith, thou shalt well consider thyself, thou wilt never defame or detract from another."
Moreover, it is signified unto us also, that some there be of them, who, wlien they ought like good shepherds to give their lives for the Lord's flock, yet are they puiied up with such pride, that without all reason they presume to rend and tear the Lord's flock with whippings and beatings ; whose unreasonable doings St. Gregory bewailing, thus saith, " Quid fiat de ovibus quando pastores lupi fiunt?" that is, " What shall become of the sheep when the pastors them- selves be wolves?" But wl^o is overcome, but he who exerciseth cruelty? Or who shall judge the persecutor, but He who gave patiently his back to stripes? But it is worth while to learn the fruit which cometh to the church by such persecutors, also which cometh to the clergy by such despiteful handling of their bishops, more like infidels. (Nay — why may I not call them infidels, of whom St. Paul thus speaketh and writeth to Timothy ; that " in the latter days there shall certain depart from the faith, and give heed to spirits of error and doctrine of devils ; that speak false thi-ough hypocrisy, having their con- sciences marked with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats." [1 Tim. iv. 1 — 3.]) This, then, if it be well niariicd, is the bundle which will grow from tlieir darnel and cockle sown amongst the corn ; this is all the event of their madness ; that while they of the clergy be compelled through a Pharisaic frenzy (which God forbid) to relinquish the company of their own lawful wives, they must become vile ministers of forni- cation and adidtery and other sinful filthiness, through the fault of those which brought into tlie cluirch of God this heresy, as blind guides leading the blind ; that it might bo fulfilled wliicli the Psahnist speaketh of such leaders in
12 THK DANKS AGAIN INVADF. EXGLAND.
Eihfiiroif. error, accursinn; them after this manner, "Let their eyes be blinded, thatthey see
—- not, and bow down always their back. " [Ps. Ixix. 23.]
-P' Forsomiich then, () apostolical sir! as no man who knoweth you, is igno-
^^— rant, that if you tliroiigh the light of your wonted discretion had understood
and seen wliat j)oisoned pestilence must come into the church through the
sentence of this your decree, you would never have consented to the suggestions
of certain wicked persons ; therefore, we counsel you, by the fidelity of our
due subjection, that with all diligence you put away so great slander from the
church of (Jod, and through your discreet discipline remove this Pharisaical
doctrine from the flock of (Jod : so that this only Shunamite of the Lord's
(using no more adulterous husbands) do not separate the holy people and the
kingly priesthood from her spouse which is Christ, through an irrecoverable
divorcement: seeing that no man without chastity (not only in the virgin's
state, but also in the state of matrimony) shall see our Lord, who, with the
Father and the Holy Ghost, livcth and reigneth forever. Amen.'
By this epistle of Bisliop Iluldcricke above prefixed the matter is plain, gentle reader, to conceive what was then the sentence of learned men coricerning the marriage of ministers : but here, by the way, the reader is to be admonished, tliat this epistle, which by error of the Avriter is referred to Pope Nicholas I., in my mind is rather to be attributed to the name and time of Nicholas II. or III,
After this Pope Nicholas succeeded Adrian II., John VIII., and Martinus II. After these came Adrian III. and Stephen V. By this Adrian it was first decreed, That no emperor after that time should intermeddle or have any thing to do in the election of the pope ; and thus l)egan the emperors first to decay, and the papacy to swell and rise aloft. ^ Thus much concerning Romish matters for this time.
Then to return where we left, touching the story of King Ethel- wolf. About the beginning of his reign,^ the Danes, who before had invaded the realm in the time of King Egbert, as is above declared,
A.D. 838. now made their re-entry again, with three and thirty ships arriving about Hampshire ; through the barbarous tyranny of wliom much bloodshed and murder happened here among Englishmen, in Dorset- shire, about Portsmouth, in Kent, in East Anglia, in Lindsey, at Rochester, about London, and in Wessex, where Ethclwolf, the king, was overcome, besides divers other kings and dukes, Avhom the Danes, daily approaching in great multitudes, in divers victories had put to flight. At length King Ethelwolf, with his son Ethelbald,
AD. 852. warring against them in Southcry, at Ocley, drave them to the sea; where they hovering a space, after a while burst in again with horrible rage and cruelty, as hereafter (Christ willing) shall be declared, so much as to our purpose shall serve, professing in this history to write of no matters extern and politic, but only pertaining to the church. The cause of this great affliction sent of God unto this realm, thus I found expressed and collected in a certain old written story, which hath no name : the words of which writer, for the same cause as he thought to recite them, (writing, as he saith, "ad cautelam futurorum,'') I thought also for the same here not to be omitted, albeit in all parts of his commendation I do not fully with him accord. The words of the writer be these : * —
(1) Invcnitur ha;c epistnia in vetustis membranaceis libris (testante lUyrico in catalogo.) MenilMit ejusdeni epistola: yEneas Sylvius, in sua percgrinaiione, et Gernianine tlescriptioiic. ('.') Martinus Polonus. — Kd.
(3) Foxe, misled by Fabian, gays, "the latter end:" see Appendix.— En.
(4) " In Anfflorum quideni Erelesia primitiva, religio clarissinie resplenduit : ita ut Regfs et llcRina?, ct Principcs ac Duces, Consules. et Harones," etc.— E.\ vetusto exeniplo historlEC Cariaiiac. W. C. 1. [The passak'C is found in M. Westni., and with very little variation in Hovedin, Script, oost Bed. p. 412, and Uronipton : see infra, p. 108, note (1). — Ed.]
CAUSES OF god's WRATH AGAINST ENGLAND. 13
" In the primitive church of the Englishmen religion did most clearly shine, r.ihelwoif.
insomuch that kings, queens, princes and dukes, consuls, harons, and rulers of
churches, incensed with the desire of the kingdom of heaven, labouring and A.D. striving among themselves to enter into monkery, into voluntary exile, and ^'>2. solitary life, forsook all, and followed the Lord. But, in process of time, all xhe virtue so much decayed among them, that in fraud and treachery none seemed causes of like unto them : neither was to them any thing odious or hateful, but piety ^^."gj'j and justice ; neither any thing in price or honour, hut civil war and shedding whereby of innocent blood. Wherefore, Almighty God sent upon them pagan and cruel 'he realm nations, like swarms of bees, which neither spared women nor children, as land was Danes, Norwegians, Goths, Swedes, Vandals, and Frisians : who, from the scourged beginning of the reign of King Ethelwolf till the coming of the Normans, ^^^J/^^ by the space of nearly two hundred and thirty years, destroyed this sinful land from the one side-of-the-sea to the other, from man also to beast. For why? they, invading England ofttimes of every side, went not about to subdue and possess it, but only to spoil and destroy it. And if it had chanced them at any time to be overcome of the English, it availed nothing, since other navies with still greater power in other places were ready upon a sudden and unawares to approach them."
Tlius far have you the words of mine author, declaring the cause which provoked God''s anger: whereunto may be adjoined the wickedness, not only of them but of their forefathers also before them, who, falsely breaking the faith and promise made with the Britons, did cruelly murder their nobles, wickedly oppressed their commons, impiously persecuted the innocent Christians, injuriously possessed their land and habitation, chasing the inhabitants out of house and country ; besides the violent murder of the monks of Bangor, and divers foul slaughters among the poor Britons, who sent for them to be their helpers.^ Wherefore God's just recompence falling upon them from that time, never suffered them to be quiet from foreign enemies, till the coming of William the Norman.
Moreover, concerning the outward occasions given of the English- The first men's parts, moving the Danes first to invade the realm, 1 find of the"^ in certain stories two most specially assigned ; the one unjustly ^'*"^^- given, and justly taken, the other not given justly, and unjustly taken. ^ Of the which two, the first was given in Northumber- land, by the means of Osbright, reigning under-king of the West Saxons, in the north parts. This Osbright upon a time journeying by the way, turned into the house of one of his nobles, called Bruer, who, having at home a wife of great beauty (he being absent abroad), the king after his dinner, allured with the excellency of her beauty, did sorely ill treat her : whereupon, she being greatly dismayed and vexed f in her mind, made her moan to her husband returning, of this violence and injury received. Bruer consulting with his friends, first went to the king, resigning into his hands all such service and pos- sessions which he did hold of him : that done, he took shipping and sailed into Denmark, where he had great friends, and had his bringing up before. There, making his moan to Codrinus the king, he desired codnnus his aid in revenging the great villany of Osbright against him and and'in^' his wife. Codrinus hearing this, and glad to have some just quarrel ^"ubbT*^ to enter their land, levied an army with all speed, and preparing all captain's things necessary for the same, sendeth forth Inguar and Hubba, oane^s. two brethren, his chief captains, with an innumerable multitude of Danes, into England ; who first arriving at Holderness, there burnt
(1) See vol. i. pp. 313, 338.— Ed. (2) Ex Historia Jornalensi.
u
INVASION' Ol Tin: DANKS.
fause of the com iiig of tlie
Murder will out
Eihfitruif. u^) tlic countrv, aiitl kilk-il wiiliout mercy both men, women, and
^ D cliililii 11, whom they couUl lay hands ujion ; then marclunc: towards
8r)2. York, entered their battle with the aforesaid Osbri
^jj gg, with the most part of his anny was slain ; and so the Danes entered
Another posscssion of the city of York. Some others say, and it is by the
most part of story writers recorded, that the chief cause of the coming
of Inguar and Hubba with the Danes, was, to be revenged of King
Kdmiind, reigning under the West Saxons over the East Angles in
Norfolk and Sulf()lk, for the murdering of a certain Dane, father to
Inguar and llubba, which was falsely imputed to King Edmund.
The story is thus told.'
" A certain nobleman of the Danes, of the king's stock, called Lothbroke, fatlier to Inguar and Hubba, entering upon a time with his hawk into a certain skiff or cock-boat alone, by chance, through tempest, was driven with his hawk to the coast of Norfolk, named Kudham, where he, being found and detained, was presented to the king. The king understanding his parentage, and seeing his case, entertained him in his court accordingly ; and every day more and more perceiving his activity and great dexterity in hunting and hawking, bare special favour unto him, insomuch that the king''s falconer, or master of game, bearing privy envy against him, secretly, as they Avere hunting together in a wood, did murder him, and threw him into a bush. This Lothbroke, being murdered, within two or three davs began to be missed in the king's liousc ; of whom no tidings could be heard, but only by a dog or spaniel of his, which con- tinuing in the wood with the corpse of his master, at sundry times came and fawned upon the king, so long that at length they, folloAving the trace of the hound, were brought to the place where Lothbroke lay. Whereupon inquisition being made, at length, by certain cir- cumstances of words and other evidences, it was known how and by whom he Avas murdered, that was by the king's liuntsman, named Bcrike ; avIio thereupon being convicted, was put into the same boat of Lothbroke, alone, and without any tackling, to drive by seas, and thus either to be saved by the weather, or to be drowned in the deep. And as it chanced Lothbroke from Denmark to be driven to Norfolk, so it happened that from Norfolk Berike was cast into Denmark, where the boat of Lothbroke being well known, hands were laid upon him, and inquisition made of the party. In fine, in his toniients, to save himself, he uttered an untruth of King Edmund, saying, ' That the king had ])ut Lothbroke to death in the county of Norfolk.' AVHiereupon grudge first was conceived, then an army appointed, and great multitudes sent into England to revenge that fiict, Avhere first they arriving in Northumberland, destroyed, as is said, those parts first. From thence sailing into Norfolk, they exercised the like tyranny there upon the inhabitants thereof, especially upon the inno- cent prince and blessed martyr of God, King Edmuncl." Concerning the further declaration whereof hereafter shall follow (Christ our Lord so permitting) more to be spoken, as place and observation of time and years shall rc(juire.
This Ethelwolf had especially about him two bishops, whose counsel he was most ruled by, Swithin, bishop of Winchester, and Adclstan,
(1) Sec vol. i. p. 32:., note (3).— Ed.
BLIND IGNORANCE. 15
bishop of Sherborne. Of the which two, the one Avas more skilful in Ei/ieiwoi/. temporal and civil affairs touching the king's wars, and filling of his ^ jj coffers, and other furniture for the king. The other, which was 855. Swithin, was of a contrary sort, wholly disposed and inclined to spiri- swithin tual meditation, and to minister spiritual counsel to the king ; who 'wincfie"*^ had been schoolmaster to the king before. Wherein appeared one t^r. good condition of this king''s nature, among his other virtues, not only in following the precepts and advertisements of his old schoolmaster, but also in that he, like a kind and thankful pupil, did so reverence his bringer-up and old schoolmaster (as he called him), that he ceased not, till he made him bishop of Winchester, by the consecra- tion of Celnoch, then archbishop of Canterbury. But as concerning Monkish the miracles which arc read in the church of Winchester, of this "J-^^nerof Swithin, them I leave to be read together with the Iliads of Homer, switinn. or the tales of Robin Hood.
This Ethelwolf (as being himself once nuzled in that order) was always good and devout to holy church and religious orders, inso- much that he gave to them the tithe of all his goods and lands in West Saxony, with liberty and freedom from all servage and civil charges ; whereof his chart instrument beareth testimony after this tenor proceeding,' much like to the donation of Ethelbald, king of Mercians above mentioned.
Regnante in perpetuum Domino iiostro Jesu Christo, in nostris temporibus per bellorum incendia, et direptiones opum nostrarum, necnon et vastantium ciudelissimas depriedationes hostinm barbarorum, paganarunique gentium multiplices tribulationes affligentium nos pro peccatis nostris usque ad inter- necionem, tempora cernimus incumbere periculosa. Quamobrem, ego Ethel- wulfus Rex occidentalium Saxonum, cum consilio Episcoporum et principum meorum, consilium salubre atque imiforme remedium affirmavi : ut aliquam portionem terrse mese, Deo et beatae Marise et omnibus Sanctis jure perpetuo possidendam concedam, decimam scilicet partem terras meas, ut sit tuta muneri- bus et libera ab omnibus servitiis secularibus, necnon regalibus tributis majori- bus et minoribus, sive taxationibus, quas nos Witteredden appellamus : sitque omnium rerum libera, pro remissione animarum et peccatorum meorum, ad serviendum soli Deo, sine expeditione, et pontis constructione, et arcis muni- tione, ut eo diligentius pro nobis preces ad Deum sine cessatione fundant, quo eorum servitutem in aliquo levigamus. Placuit autem episcopis ecclesite Scire- burnensis Alstano, et Winton Switlieno, cum suis abbatibus et Dei servis, viris scilicet et foeminis religiosis quibus supradicta collata sunt beneficia, consilia inire, ut omnes fratres et sorores omni hebdomada, die Mercurii, hoc est Wed- nesday, in vmaquaque ecclesia cantent psalmos 50 et unusquisque presbyter duas missas, unam pro rege, et aliam pro ducibus ejus in hunc modum con- sentientibus, pro salute et refrigerio delictorum suorum. Postquam autem defuncti fuerimus, pro rege defuncto singulariter, et pro ducibus communiter. Et hoc sit firmiter constitutum omnibus diebus Christianitatis, sicut libertas constituta est, quamdiu fides crescit in gente Anglorum. Scripta est autem hcec donationis charta, anno gratiae 8.55 indictione quarta quinto nonas No- vemb. in urbe Wentana ante majus altare beati Petri apostoli.
Hereby it may appear, how and when the churches of England began first to be endowed with temporalities and lands, also with ignorance privileges and exemptions enlarged : moreover (and that which spe- days."^^ daily is to be considered and lamented), what pernicious doctrine this was, wherewith they were led thus to set remission of their sins and remedy of their souls, in this donation and such other deeds of
(1) Ex Flor. Hist. [Lond. 15/0, p. 307 ; Francof. 1601, p. 158. The Latin in the text is accord- ing to the printed copies, from which Foxe a little varies. — Ed.] ,
16 STORY OF LOUIS THE PIOLS, KI\G OF FRAXCK.
Eiheiwoif. then devotion, contrary to tlic information of God's word, and with „ no small derogation from the Cross of Christ. g56 ■ These things thus done within the realm, the said Ethclwolf, the
— king, taking his journey to Home with Alfred, his youngest son,
' committed him to the bringing up of Pope Leo IV., where he also
re-edified the English school at Rome; which, being founded by
King OtTa, or rather by Ine, king of Mercians, as in the * Flowers
of Histories"' is afiirmed, was lately, in the time of King Egbert his
Peter father, consumed with fire. Further and besides, this king gave and
{"hZuRh granted there unto Rome, of every fire-house a penny to be paid
the realm tliroufli liis wliolc land, as Kin" Ine in his dominion had done before.
to Rome. Also, lic gavc and granted, yearly to be paid to Rome, 300 marks ,
btswwed t'l^t is, to the maintaining of the lights of St. Peter, ]00 marks ;
to burn to the lights of St. Paul, 100 marks ; to the use of the Pope also
"' '^ ' another hundred.* This done, he returning home through France,
Oct. 1st, married there Judith, the daughter of Charles the Bald, the French
■ king ; whom he restored afterward (contrary to the laws of West
Saxons) to the title and throne of a queen. For before, it was decreed
among the AVest Saxons, by the occasion of wicked Ethelburga, who
poisoned Brightric, her own husband, that after that, no king"'s wife
there should have the name or place of a queen.
And forsomuch as I have here entered into the mention of
Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald, the occasion thereof putteth
me in memory here to insert by the way a matter done, although not
in this realm, yet not impertinent to this ecclesiastical history. And
first, to deduce the nan-ation thereof from the first original. The
father of this Charles the Bald, whose name M-as Louis, the first of
that name, called " the Pious," king of France, had two wives; whereof
by the first he had three sons, Lothairc, Pepin, and Louis : Avhich
three sons unnaturally and unkindly conspiring against their father
The and his second wife, with her son, their youngest brother, persecuted
^'^e* him so that through a certain council of lords spiritual and temporal,
and"do-* tlicy dcposcd the same their natural and right godly father, dispos-
ingsofthe scssing and discharging him (if all rule and dominion. ^loreover,
ford's."^ they caused him to renounce his temporal habit, enclosing him in the
monastery of St. Mark, for a monk, or rather a prisoner. All which
done, they divided his empire and kingdom among themselves.
Thus was Louis the Pious of impious sons left desolate. But the power of God which worketh, when all earthly power ceaseth, of his divine mercy so aided and recovered him out of all his tribu- lation to this imperial dignity again, that it was to all his enemies confusion, and to all good men a miracle. But this by the way. By his second wife, whose name was Judith,^ he had this Charles the Bald, here mentioned. Which Judith was thought, and so accused to the pope, to be within such degree of alliance, that by the pope's law she might not continue his wife without the pope's dispensation. Frederic It so fell out in tlic mcau time, that this Louis, the emperor, Utrecht. Iiad promoted a young man named Frederic, to be bishop of Utrecht, and to him had given sad and good exhortation, that he remembering
(1) See the Latin conveyance, infri, p 652.— Ed.
(2) There were two Judiths, one the mother of Charles the Bald, the other his daughter, whom King Ethelwolf married.
I
STORY OF LOUIS THE PIOUS, KING OF FKAXCE. 17
and following the constancy of his predecessors, would maintain riglit^'/'Wiro//. and truth without all exception of any person, and punish misdoers ~X~1)~ with excommunication, as well the rich as the poor ; with such like 85G. Avords of godly counsel. Frederic, hearing the king thus say, sitting at dinner with him as the manner was, being newly invested, in these words answered the emperor again : " I thank your majesty," saith he, " who with your so wholesome exhortation put me in mind of my profession. But I beseech you, of your benign favour and patience, that I may freely disclose that which hath long encumbered and pierced my conscience." To whom leave being given, thus he began : " I pray you, lord emperor, to show me herein your mind" (point- openiy ing to the fish before him), " whether it is more according to pro- nt'ueth priety to attack this fish here present, beginning first at the head or "'^^"1116' at the tail?"^ " What a tale is this?" quoth the emperor, " of the taWe. tail and of the head ?" " At the head," quoth he. Then Frederic, taking thereof his occasion, proceedeth : " Even so let it be, lord emperor," saith he, " as you have said. Let christian faith and charity first begin with yourself, as with the head, admonishing you to cease from your fact and error, that your subjects by that example be not emboldened to follow your misdoing. Wherefore first forsake you your unlawful wedlock, which you have made with Judith your near kinswoman." These words of the new bishop, although they moved Louis the emperor not a little, yet he with a gentle modesty and modest silence was contented, suffering the bishop to go home in peace. But the word being uttered in such an audience could not be so concealed, but spread and burst out in much talk in the whole court, and especially among the bishops, consulting earnestly with themselves about the matter. Through whose counsel and labour so at length it fell, that the emperor was constrained to leave the com- pany of his wife, till he had purchased a license of the bishop of Rome to retain her again, who then forgave the said bishop all that was past. But the woman hired two knights that slew him in his vestments, when he had ended his mass. Ranulphus and Malmsbury^ give forth judsjedof this story in his great commendation, that he died a martyr ; whereof m^Jfj^. I have not to judge, nor here to pronounce, but that rather I think him to be commended in his dying, than the woman for her killing.
And forsomuch as mention hath been made of Louis the Pious, here is to be noted, that in France then were used by priests and churchmen precious and shining vestures, and golden and rich staring girdles, with rings and other ornaments of gold. Wherefore the said Louis purchased of the bishop of Rome a correction for all such as used such disordinate apparel, causing them to wear brown and sad colours, according to their sadness.^
Of this Louis the papists do feign, that because he converted certain of their church-goods and patrimony to the wages of his sol- diers, " his body," say they, " was carried out of his tomb by devils, and was no more seen."
And thus a little having digressed out of our course, now let us return out of France into England again. King Ethelwolf, coming
(1) " Utrum piscem hunc mensse appositum honestius est X capite an 4 cauda aggredi?" Malmsb. — Ed.
(2) Gul. lit), de Pontif. (3) Fabian. VOL. II. C
IS YORK BURNED BY THE DANES.
Kiheiwoif. now from Rome by the country of France, was now returned again
^ ,) into his own doniinion, where lie continued not long after, but
857, departed, leaving be'..ind him four sons, who reigned every one in his
^——- order, after the decease of their father ; the names of whom were
Ktheiwoif Ethelbald, Ethelbright, Ethclrcd, and Alfred or Aiured.
eth.
ETHELBALD, ETIIELBRIGllT, AND ETHELRED L
A.D. KiXG Ethelbald, the eldest son of Ethelwolf, succeeding his father 8J7. in the province of West Sax, and Ethclbright in the province of Kent, reigned both together the term of five years, one with the other. Of the which two, Ethelbald, the first, left this infamy be- hind him in stories, for marrying and lying with his stepmother, wife A.D. 866. to his own father, named Judith. After these two succeeded Ethel- Etheired. red, the third son, who in his time, was so encumbered with the Danes York bursting in on every side, especially about York, which city they byore** then spoiled and burnt up, that he in one year stood in nine battles Danes, against them, with the help of Alfred his brother. In the beginning of this king's reign, the Danes landed in East England, or Norfolk and Suffolk, But, as Fabian writeth, they were compelled to forsake that country, and so took again shipping, and sailed northward, and landed in Northumberland, where they were met by the kings then there reigning, called Osbriglit and Ella, who gave them a strong fight ; but, notwithstanding, the Danes, with the help of such as inhabited the country, won the city of York, and held it a certain season, as is above foretouched.
In the reign of this Ethelrcd I., the Northumberlanders rebelling against the king, thought to recover the former state of their kingdom out of the AVest Saxons' hands ; by reason of which discord, as hap- peneth in all lands where dissension is, the strength of the English nation was thereby not a little weakened, and the Danes the more thereby prevailed. A D. 870. About the latter time of the reign of this King Ethelred L, which was about a.d. 870, certain of the aforesaid Danes being thus pos- sessed of the north country, after their cruel persecution and murder done there, as partly is touched before, took shipping from thence, intending to sail toward the East Angles, who by the way upon the sea met with a fleet of Danes, whereof the captains or leaders were named Inguar and Hubba ; who, joining all tOj,ethcr in one couYicil, made all one course, and lastly landed in East England, or Norfolk, St. F.d- and in process of time came to Thetford. Thereof hearing, Edmund, king'o'f then under-king of that province, assembled a host that gave to them Angles ^J'lttle ; but Edmund and his company were forced to forsake the field, and the king, with a few persons, fled unto the castle of Framling- ham, whom the Danes pursued; but he in short while after yielded himself to the persecution of the Danes, answering in this manner to the messenger, who addressed him in the name of Inguar, prince of the Danes, " who most victoriously," saitli he, " was come with innu- merable legions, subduing both by sea and land many nations unto him ; and so now arrived in those parts requireth him likewise to submit himself, yielding to him his hid treasures, and all other goods
INGUAR AND HUBBA SLAIN. 19
of liis ancestors, and so to reign under liini : -whicli thing if he would Eiheired. not do, he should," said lie, ''be judged unworthy both of life and a.D. reign.'" Edmund, hearing of this proud message of the pagan, con- 870. suited with certain of his friends, ar 1 among others, with one of his bishops, who was then his secretary ; who, seeing the present danger of the king, gave him counsel to yield to the conditions. Upon this the king pausing a little with himself, at length rendered this answer, bidding the messenger go tell his lord in these words, " that Edmund, a christian king, for the love of temporal life, will not submit himself to a pagan duke, unless he first would be a Christian." Immediately upon the same, the wicked and crafty Dane, approaching in most hasty speed upon the king, encountered with him in battle, as some say, at Thetford ; Avhere the king being put to the worse, and pitying the terrible slaughter of his men, think- ing with himself rather to submit his own person to danger, than that his people should be slain, did fly, as Fabian saith, to the castle The per- of Framlingham, or, as mine author writeth, to Halesdon, now and"n°a"r- called St. Edmundsbury, where this blessed man, being on every I^^j'^'^j?™"'^ side compassed by his cruel enemies, yielded himself to their per- mund, secution. And, for that he would not renounce or deny Christ tile^^East and his laws, they therefore most cruelly bound him unto a tree, and ^''[h^' caused him to be shot to death ; and, lastly, caused his head to be nanes. smitten from his body and cast into the thick bushes; which head and body at the same time by his friends were taken up, and solemnly buried at the said Halesdon, otherwise now named St. Edmunds- bury : whose brother, named Edwold, notwithstanding of right the kingdom fell next unto him, setting apart the liking and pleasure of the world, became a hermit, of the abbey of Cerne, in the county of Dorset.
After the mart}Tdom of this blessed Edmund, when the cruel Danes had sufficiently robbed and spoiled that country, they took again their ships, and landed in South ery, and continued their journey till they came to the town of Reading, and there won the town with Readin? the castle, where, as Cambrensis saith, within three days of their J^^^" ^^ coming thither, the aforesaid Inguar and Hubba, captains of the Danes, Danes, as they went in pursuit of their prey or booty, were slain at guar and a place called Englefield. These princes of the Danes thus slain, ^^in'!^ the rest of them kept whole together, in such wise that the West Saxons might take of them no advantage, but yet, within a few days after, the Danes were holden so short, that they were forced to issue out of the castle and to defend themselves in open battle ; in the which, by the industry of King Ethelred and of Alfred his brother, the Danes were discomfited, and many of them slain, which discomfort made them fly again into the castle, and there keep them for a certain time. The king then committing the charge of them to Ethelwold, duke of Baroke, or Berkshire, departed. But when the Danes knew of the king's departure, they brake suddenly out of puice their hold, took the duke unprovided, and slew him and much ^J^^^'' of his people ; and so, joining themselves with others that were siain. scattered in the country, embattled them in such wise, th^^t of them was gathered a strong host.
As the tidings hereof were brought to King Ethelred, which put
c2
QO DEATH OF ETHELRED,
lUMrni. liim in £n"cat heaviness, word also was brought the same time of
j^D the hin(lin«j: nf Osrick, king of Denmark, wlio, witli the assistance
872. of the other Danes, hail gathered a gi'eat liost, and were embattled
o^rick. "Pf>n Ashdon. To this battle King Ethelred, with his brother
kini? of Alfred, forced by great need, hastened, to withstand the Danes, at
lanTi" n wliicli timc the icing a little staying behind, being yet at his service,
England, j^if-^^.^]^ .^^-jj^, y^,cj^ (.omc in bcforc, had entered already into the whole
fight with the Danes, who struck together with huge violence.* Tho
king being required to make speed, and being then at service and
med.itJitions, such was his devotion, that he would not stir out one
foot before the service was fully complete. In the meanwhile,
the Danes so fiercely invaded Alfred and his men, that they won
invoca- the hill, and the christian men were in the valley, and in great danger
pmycr"'* to lose thc field. Nevertheless, through the grace of God, and their
mli'me'^ godly mauliood, the king coming from his service, with liis fresli
of battle, soldiers, recovered the hill of the infidels, and so discomfited the
T''e Danes that day, that in flying away not only they lost the victory, but
over- most part of them their lives also, insomuch that their duke or king,
A3Mo"n."' Osrick or Osege, and five of their other dukes, with much of their
people were slain, and thc rest chased imlo Reading town.
After this the Danes yet re-assembled their people, and gtithered a new host, so that within fifteen days they met at Basingstoke, and there gave battle to the king, and had the better. Then the king again gathered his men, which at that field were dispersed, and with fresh soldiers accompanying them, met the Danes, within two Another months after, at the town of Merton, where he gave them a sharp iMerton. battle, SO that much people were slain as well of the Christians as of the Danes ; but, in the end, the Danes had the honour of the field, and King Ethelred was wounded, and therefore fain to save himself.
After these two fields thus won by the Danes, they obtained great circuit of ground, and destroyed man and child that would not yield to them ; and churches and temples they turned to the use of stables, and other vile occupations.
Thus the king, being beset with enemies on every side, seeing tlie land so miserably oppressed of the Danes, his knights and soldiers consumed, his own land of West Saxons in such desolation, he being also wounded himself, but specially for that he, sending his commis- sions into Northumberland, Mercia, and East Anglia, could have of them but small or little comfort, because they, through wicked rebellion, were more willing to take the part of the Danes than of their king, was sore perplexed therewithal, as the other kings were both before him and after him at that time, so that (as Malm esbury witnesseth) " magis optarent honestum exitium, quam tam acerbum imperium : ' that is, " they rather wished honestly to die, than with Death of such troublc and sorrow to reign." And thus this king not long after
Kthelred. i , , i i i • °i x-i i • • i • i
(icccased, when he had reigned, as J^ abian saith, eight years, or, as Malmesbury ^vriteth, but five years, during which time, notwith- standing his so great troubles and vexations in martial affairs (as is in some stories mentioned), he founded the house or college of canons
(I) Ex Gulitl. iM:.lniesburiensi. Ex Historia Jornalensi. Ex pabiano et aliis.
ALFRED CROWNED AT ROME. 2 1
at Exeter, and was buried at the abbey of Wimborne, in Dorset- Alfred. shire, after whose decease, for lack of issue of his body, the rule of "XU" the land fell unto his brother Alfred. 872.'
ALFRED,! OTHERWISE CALLED ALURED.
Among the Saxon kings hitherto in this history mentioned, I find few or none to be preferred, or even to be compared, to this Alfred, or Alured, for the great and singular qualities in this king, worthy of high renown and commendation — whether we behold in him the valiant acts and manifold travails which he continually, from time to time, sustained against his enemies in war, during almost all the time of his reign, for the public preservation of his people ; or whether we consider in him his godly and excellent virtues, joined with a public and tender care, and a zealous study for the common peace and tranquillity of the weal public, appearing as well in his prudent laws by him both carefully set forth, and with the like care executed, as also by his o'^vn private exercises touching the virtuous institution of his life; or, lastly, whether we respect that in him, which with equal praise matcheth with both the others before, that is, his notable knowledge of good letters, with a fervent love and Kinp prmcely desire to set forth the same through all his realm, before his f^^^^^^ time being both rude and barbarous. All these heroical properties, P'ety, and joined together in one prince, as it is a thing most rare, and seldom ''''"""^' seen in princes now a-days, so I thought the same the more to be noted and exemplified in this good king, thereby either to move other rulers and princes in these our days to his imitation, or else, to show them Avhat hath been in times past in their ancestors, which ought to be, and yet is not found in them. Wherefore, of these three parts to discourse either part in order, first we will begin to treat of his acts and painful travails sustained in defence of the realm public, against the raging tyranny of the Danes, as they are described in the Latin histories of Roger Hoveden and Huntington, Avhom Fabian also seemeth in this part somewhat to follow. King Alfred, therefore, the first of all the English kings, taking his crown and unction at Rome of Pope Leo ^ (as Malmesbury and Polychro- nicon do record), in the beginning of his reign, perceiving his lords and people much wasted and decayed by reason of the great wars which Ethelred had against the Danes, yet, as well as he could, gathered a strength of men unto him ; and, in the second month that he was made king, he met with the Danes beside Wilton, where he gave them battle ; but being ftir over-matched through the multitude of the contrary part, he w\as put there to the worse, though not without a gi-eat slaughter of the pagan army, which army of the Danes,
(1) Edition 1563, p. 11. Ed. 1583, p. HI. Ed. 159C, p. 127. Ed. 1684, vol. i. p. 157.— Ed.
(2) Pope John VIII., the hundred and sixth bishop of Rome, was chosen a.d. 872, the year that Alfred obtained the government of his realm. The Leo to whom our author refers, was Leo IV. to whom Alfred was sent at the age of four years, to be educated, [a.d. 85-1.] Asserius, wlio wrote Alfred's life, informs us that Leo confimied him, adopted him for his son, and anointed him king '" took his crown and unction at Rome." as Foxe observes), but of what kingdom neither that writer, nor any other has informed us. , The kingdom of West Saxons was then held by his father, who had three sons older than Alfred.— Ed.
22 INCKKASK OK THE DANES.
A'frr
^1) of liis dominion of West Sax, removed from Reading to London,
878. where it abode all that winter. Haldcn their king, making truce
B^h^ there with Burthred, king of Mercia, the following year left those
expeiiij parts, and drew his men to Lindsey, robbing and spoiling the towns
doMi.'dfJs and villages a.s they went, and holding the common people under
at Rome, servitude. From thence they proceeded to Rcpingdon, where,
joining with the three other kings of the Danes, called Surdrim,
Osketell, and Ilamond, they grew thereby to mighty force and
strength : then, dividing their army into two parts, the one half
remained with Halden in the country of Northumberland ; the
residue were with the other three kings, wintering and sojourning
all the next year at Grantbridge, which was the fourth year of King
A.D. f7s. Alfred. In that year King Alfred's men had a conflict on the sea
with six of the Danes' ships, of Avhich they took one, the others fled
Roiio, away. In the next year went Hollo, the Dane, into Normandy,
rir^rSuke ^^here he was duke thirty years, and afterward was baptized in the
of Nor- faitli of Christ, and named Robert. The aforesaid army of the three
Danish kings above-mentioned, from Grantbridge returned again to
West Saxony, and entered the Castle of AVareham, where King
Alfred, with a sufficient power of men, was ready to assault them ;
but the Danes seeing his strength durst not encounter with him, but
sought delays till more aid might come. In the mean season they
were constrained to entreat for a truce, leaving also sufficient pledges
in the king's hand ; promising, moreover, upon their oath, to leave
the country of the West Saxons. The king, upon this surety, let
them go ; but they, falsely breaking their league, privily in the night
brake out, taking their journey toward Exeter, during which journey
they lost six score of their small ships by a tempest at Swanawic, as
Henry Huntingdc n in his story recordeth. Then King Alfred
followed after the horsemen of the Danes, but could not overtake
them before they came to Exeter, where he took of them pledges
and fair promises of peace, and so returned. Notwithstanding, the
number of the pagans did daily more and more increase, insomuch
(as one of my authors saith) that if in one day thirty thousand of
them were slain, shortly after they increased to double as many.
A.D. 877. After this tmce taken with King Alfred, the Danes withdrcAv to the
land of Mercia, part of which kingdom they kept themselves, and part
they committed to one Ceolulphus, upon condition that he should
be vassal to them, and at their commandment, with his people at
all times.
A D. 87S. The next year ensuing, which was the seventh year of the reign
of Alfred, the Danes now having all the rule of the north part
of England, from the river Thames, with Mercia, London, and
Essex, disdained that Alfred should have any dominion on the other
side of Thames southward. Whereupon the aforesaid three kings,
with all the forces and strength they oould gather, marched toward
Chippenham, in West Sax, with such a multitude, that the king with
his peo])]e was not able to resist them ; insomuch that of the people
which inhabited there, some fled over the sea, some remained with
the kin^, and divers submitted themselves to the Danes. Thus
King Alfred being overset with a multitude of enemies, and forsaken
ALFRED ENTEKS THE DANISH CAMP. 23
of his people, having neither land to hold, nor hope to recover that ytifred. which he had lost, -withdrew himself with a few of his nobles about a.D. him, into a certain wood country in Somersetshire, called Etheling, 878. where he had right scant to live upon, but such as he and his people Alfred miirht procure by huntinij and fishing. This Edelinc^, or Ethelintr, '''^■"' ',"'°
CI t* '^ ^ O' O'dW 00(1.
or Ethelingsey, which is to say, the Isle of Nobles, standeth in a great marsh or moor, so that there is no access to it without ship or boat, and hath in it a great wood called Selwood, and in the middle a little plain, about two acres of ground : in this isle is venison, and other wild beasts, with fowl and fish in great plenty. In this wood King Alfred, at his first coming, espied a certain desert cottage of a poor swineherd, keeping swine in the wood, named Dun wolf; by whom the king, then unknown, was entertained and a swine- cherished with such poor fare as he and his wife could make him, for ni"ie which King Alfred afterwards set the poor swineherd to learning, ^v'^lJ'^'^g"- and made him bishop of Winchester. ter.
In the mean time, while King Alfred, accompanied with a few, was thus in the desert wood, waiting the event of these miseries, according to certain stories a poor beggar there came and asked alms of the king ; and the night following he appeared to the king in his sleep, saying, his name was Cuthbert, promising (as sent from God unto him for his good charity) great victories against the Danes. But let these dreaming fables pass, although they be testified by divers authors.^ Notwithstanding, the king, in process of time, was more strengthened and comforted, through the providence of God, respecting the miserable ruin of the English. First, the brother of King Halden the Dane, before-mentioned, coming in with three and thirty ships, landed about Devonshire, where by chance being resisted by an ambushment of King Alfred's men, who for their safeguard there lay in gamson, they were slain to the number of 1800 men, and their ensign, called the Raven, was taken. Hoveden, in his book called ' Continuationes,"' writeth, that in the same conflict both Inguar and Hubba were slain among the other Danes. ^ After this, King Alfred being better cheered, showed himself more at large ; so that daily resorted to him men of Wiltshire, Somersetshire, and Hampshire, till he was strongly accompanied.
Then the king put himself in a bold and dangerous venture, as Alfred write Malmesbury, Polychronicon, and Fabian, who followeth them ^nTo't^i^e* both. For he, apparelling himself in the habit of a minstrel, being j^^"^^'' very skilful in all Saxon poems, with his instrument of music, entered into the tents of the Danes, lying then at Eddington. There, while showing his interludes and songs, he espied all their sloth and idleness, and heard much of their counsel ; and after, returning to his company, declared to them the whole manner of the Danes. Shortly upon this, the king suddenly in the night fell upon the a.d. srs. aforesaid Danes, distressed and slew of them a gi-eat multitude, and chased them from that coast, insomuch that tlirough his strong and valiant assaults upon his enemies out of his tower of Edeling newly fortified, he so incumbered them, that he clearly voided the country
(1) Giiliel. JTalmesb. lib. de Reg.; Polychronicon, Rog. Hoveden; Jomalensis; Heiir. Hunting, lib. V. de Hi.
(2) See page 19.— Ed.
^t SIKGE OF ROCIIESTEU.
^'f"^- of tlicni, between that and Selwood. His subjects soon hearing of A.I), these liis valiant victories and manful deeds, drew to him daily out SOO. of all coasts ; so that through the help of God, and their assistance, he held the Danes so short, that he won from them Winchester and divers other good towns. Briefly, he at length forced them to seek for peace, which was concluded upon certain covenants, whereof one, and the principal was, that the beforenamed Gutrum, their king, shouUl be christened ; the other was, that such as would not be christened should depart, and leave the country. Gutrum, Upon tlicsc covcuants, first the said Gutnnn, the Danish prince, prmce o ^^^j^^jj^^ j^ Winclicstcr, was there christened with twenty of his greatest diVi"- dukes or nobles, which Gutrum King Alfred, being his godfather ened, and at his baptism, named Athelstan. Having, after a certain season, Athei- feasted the said Danes, Alfred, according to his promise before made, ']!"'"' gave unto their king the country of East Anglia, containing Norfolk and suf- and Suffolk, and part of Cambridgeshire. Moreover, as saith Poly- to him!*^" clironicon, he gi-antcd to the Danes that were christened the country of Northumberland ; so the residue that would not be christened departed the land, and sailed into France, where what vexation and harm they ^v^ought, the chronicles of France do partly com- prehend.
King Athelstan thus having the possession of these countries,
had all East Anglia imdcr his obedience ; and, albeit that he held
the said province as in fee of the king, and promised to dwell there
as his liege man, yet, notwithstanding that, he continued more like
a tyrant by the term of eleven years, and died in the twelfth year ;
during which space. King Alfred, having some more rest and
peace, repaired certain towns and strong holds before by the Danes
The nun- impaired ; also he buildcd divers houses of religion, as the House of
shaftls"- Nuns at Shaftesbury ; another religious house at Etheling he founded ;
EtheUng, ^"other in Winchester, named the New Monastery ; and also endowed
ami the ' richly the Church of St. Cuthbcrt in Durham. He, likewise, sent to
at Win- India to pay and perform his vows to St. Thomas of Ind, which he
buiu.^"^ made during the time of his distress against the Danes.
A.D. 88G. About the fifteenth year of the reign of Alfi-ed, the Danes
returning from France to England, landed in Kent, and so came
to Rochester and besieged that city, and there lay so long that they
buildcd a tower of timber against the gates of the city : but, by
strength of the citizens, that tower was destroyed, and the city
defended, till King Alfred came and rescued them ; whereby the
Danes were so distressed, and so near trapped, that for fear they left
their horses behind them, and fled to their ships by night. But the
king, when he was thereof aware, sent after them, and took sixteen
of their ships, and slew many of the Danes. This done, tlie king
returned to London, and repaired the same honourably (as saith
Hoveden), and made it habitable, which before was sore decayed
and enfeebled by the Danes.
A.D. 890. The fourth year after this, Avhich was the nineteenth year of the
reign of King Alfred, the aforesaid Athelstan, the Danish king of
Norfolk, who was before christened by Alfred, deceased. Not
long after this, about the one and twentieth year of tliis king's reign,
the Danes again landed in four places of this land; namely, in
Danes driven
DEFEAT OF THE DANES. 25
East England, and in the north, and in two phiccs in the west. Before Ai/red. the landing- of these Danes it chanced that King Alfred, liaving heard a.I). of the death of King Athelstan, and of other complaints of the 897. Danes, was in East Anglia when these tidings came to him.
When King Alfred was hereof assured that some of the Danes The were landed on that coast, thinking with themselves the further they went in those parts the less resistance to have and the more speed, [\""\ „
, ^ , IP *ir>i T Norfolk.
as they were Avont to have beiore ; Alired, sendmg messengers in all haste to Ethclred, duke of Mercia, to assemble him a host to withstand the Danes, who landed in the west, made forth toward his enemies there, where he was in East Anglia, whom he pursued so sharply, that he drove them out from those parts. They then landed in Kent, whither the king with his people sped him ; and in like manner drave the Danes from thence, without any great fight, so far as in our authors we can see. After this, the Danes took ship])inQ- amin and sailed into North Wales, and there robbed and Betum to
... . North
spoiled the Britons, and from thence returned by the sea into East waks. Anglia, with a hundred ships, and there rested themselves, inasmuch as the king was then gone westward.
The fourth host of the Danes the same year came to Chester, which at Driven length they won ; but the country adjoining pressed so sorely upon Chester, them, and besieged them so long, keeping them within the city, that j,'- "•, ,
1 • 1 • 1 1 1 ^ . '^ 1° n 1 "^ Caerleon.]
at last, weaned with the long siege, they were compelled to eat their own horses for hunger. But, by appointment, at last they gave up the town, and went about by North Wales to Northum- berland, which was about the three and twentieth year of King Alfred. In the mean while Alfred with his host sped him thither- ward. Then the Danes, leaving their strong holds and castles garnished with men and victual, took again shipping, and fet their course in such wise that they landed in Sussex, and so came to the port of Lewes, and fi-om thence toward London, and builded a tower or castle near the river Ley, twenty miles from London. But the Londoners hearing thereof, manned out a certain number of men at arms, who, with the assistance of them of that country, put the Danes Dnven from that tower, and afterwards beat it to the ground. Soon after, the ^ewes. king came down thither, and, to prevent the dangers that might ensue, commanded the river Ley to be divided into three streams, so xiie river that where a ship might sail in times before, a little boat might then ^f/^d'' scarcely row. From thence the Danes, leaving their ships and wives, into three were forced to fly that country, and took their way again toward ^ '^^^^^' Wales, and came to Quadruge, near the river Severn ; Avhere, upon the borders thereof, they builded a castle, and rested themselves for *
a time, but the king with his army soon pursued them. In the mean time the Londoners at Ley, taking the Danish ships, brought some of them to London, and the rest they fired. During these three years, from the first coming of the Danes to Ley, England Avas afflicted with three kinds of sorrows ; with the Danes, with Three pestilence of men, and Avith murrain of beasts ; notwithstanding 1',!'']^",!' which troubles the king manfully resisted the malice of his enemies, s'*'"*- and thanked God always, what trouble soever fell to him, or to his realm, sustaining it Avith great patience and humility. These three years overpast, the next following, A\diich Avas the eight and twentieth
'26 ( HAUACTF.U OK KISG AI.KKED.
Alfred, of the rciijn of Alfred, the Danes tlivided their host, of whom part A.D. went to Northumberland, part to Norfolk ; others sailed over to 001. France, and some came to AVcst Sax, Avherc they had divers conflicts 'i^^ with the l*hi Danes' of wlioni sonie were slain, many perished by shipwTcck, divers others taken, werc taken and hanged, and thirty of their ships were captured. AD. 897. -^^^ i^j^g ^^j^gj. jjjjg^ King Alfred, when he had reigned twenty- A.D. 901. nine years and six months, exchanged this mortal life. And thus much, anil more, peradventure, than will seem to this our eccle- siastical history ajjpcrtaining, touching the painful labours and travails of this good king; which he no less valiantly achieved than patiently sustained, for the necessary defence of his realm and subjects. Character Now, if thcrc bc any prince who listeth to see and follow the Alfred? virtuous and godly disposition of this king, both touching the institution of his own life, and also concerning his careful govern- ment of the common-weal, thus the histories of him do record : that at what time he, being young, perceiving himself somewhat disposed to carnal indulgences, and thereby hindered from many virtuous purposes, did not, as many young princes and kings'' sons in the world be now wont to do, that is, resolve themselves into all kind of carnal license and dissolute sensuality, running and following without bridle, whithersoever their license given doth lead them ; as therefore, not without cause, the common proverb reporteth of them, that " kings'' sons learn nothing else well but only to ride f meaning thereby, that while princes and kings'* sons have about them flatterers, who bolster them in their faults, their horses yield to them no more than to any other, but if they sit not fast, tliey will cast them. But this young king, seeing in himself the inclination of his fleshly nature, and minding not to give himself so much as he might take, but rather by resistance to avoid the temptation thereof, iTis Rodiy bcsought God that he would send him some continual sickness to quench that vice, whereby he might be more profitable to the public business of the commonwealth, and more apt to serve God in his calling.'
Then, at God's ordinance, he had the evil called Ficus till he came to the age of twenty years, whereof at length he Avas cured (as is said in some histories) by a virgin called Modwen, an Irish woman. Afler this sickness being taken away, to him fell another, which continued with him from the twentieth to the forty-fifth year of his age (according to his OAvn petition and request, made unto God), ^ whereby he was the more reclaimed and attempered from the other
greater inconveniences, and less disposed to that which he did most abhor.
Moreover, to behold the bountiful goodness, joined with like prudence, in this man, in the ordering and disposing his riches and. rents, it is not unworthy to be recited, how he divided his goods into two equal parts,^ the one appertaining to uses secular, the other to uses spiritual or ecclesiastical ; of the which two principal parts, the first he divided into tliree portions, namely, one to the
(1) Cestrcn. lib. v. cap. \. Fab. cap. 17.
(2) Polychron. lib. v. cni'. 1. GuUel. Malmcsb. lib. de Regibus.
His GOULY LAWS. 27
behoof of liis house and family ; one to the workmen and builders Alfred. of his new works, wherein he had gi-eat delight and cunning ; and one "a.D.^ to strangers. Likewise the other second half upon spiritual uses, he 901. did thus divide in four portions ; one to the relieving of the poor, JJ~ another to monasteries, the third portion to the schools of Oxford ji^'^''^' for the maintaining of good letters, the fourth he sent to foreign churches without the realm. This also is left in stories written in his commendation for his great tolerance and sufferance, that when he had buildetl the new monastery at Winchester, and afterward his son Edward had purchased of the bishop and the chapter a sufficient piece of ground for certain offices to be adjoined unto the same, and had given for every foot of ground, " marcam auri pleni ponderis " (which was, as I think, a mark of gold or more), yet Alfred therewithal was not greatly discontented to see his coffers so wasted.
Over and besides, how sparing and frugal he was of time, as of a How wcu thing in this earth most precious, and how far from all vain pastimes h" spent^ and idleness he was, this doth well declare, which in the story of •^ '™^- Malmesbury and other writers is told of him ; namely, that he so divided the day and night in three parts, if he were not let by wars or other great business, that eight hours he spent in study and learning, other eight hours he spent in prayer and almsdeeds, and other eight hours he spent in his natural rest, sustenance of his body, and the needs of the realm ; which order he kept duly by the burning of waxen tapers kept in his closet by persons appointed for that purpose.'
How studious he was and careful of the commonwealth, and His godly maintenance of public tranquillity, his laws, most godly set forth and devised by him, may declare ; wherein especially by him was provided for the extirpation and abolishing of all theft and thieves out of the realm, whereby the realm, through his vigilant care, was brought into such tranquillity, or rather perfection, that in every cross or turning-way, he made to be set up a golden brooch, at least of silver gilded, throughout his dominions, and none so hardy, neither by day nor night, to take it down ; for the more credit whereof, the words of the Latin story be these, " armillas aureas juberet suspendi, quae viantium aviditatem irritarent, dum non essent qui eas abriperent." ^ And no great marvel therein, if the realm in those days was brought into such an order, and justice so well ministered, when the king himself was so vigilant in overseeing the doings of his judges and officers ; whereof thus also we read in the said author testified : " judiciorum a suis hominibus factorum inquisitor perperam actorum asperrimus corrector," i. e. " he was," saith mine author, speaking of the king, " a vigilant inquisitor of the doings of his judges, and a strict punisher of their misdoings." Jornalensis also writing upon the same, saith, " he did diligently search out the doings of his officers, and especially of his judges, so that if he knew any of them to err, either through covetousness or unslcilfidness, them he removed from their office."*
(1) Guliel. Malmesb. lib. de regibus Angl. (2) Ibid.
(3) " Facta ministroruni suorum et potissime judicum diligenter investigavit, adeo ut quos ex avaritia aut imperitia errare cognosceret, ab officio removebat." — Ex Hist. Jornalensi.
28 Alfred's encouragement of learning.
jiif"d. And thus mucli 00110001111? the valiant acts and noble virtues of
A.D. this worthy ]uinoc ; whorcunto, although there were no other
901. ornaments adjoininij besides, yet sufficient were they alone to set
forth a prince worthy of excellent commendation. Now, besides
these other qualities and g-ifts of God's qrace in him above-mentioned,
Kins remaineth another part of his no little praise and commendation,
com- which is his learning and knowledge of good letters, wherein he not
for"icani- "^^^7 ^^'^ oxcollently expert himself, but also a worthy maintainor of
">K' . ^ the same through all his dominions. Where, before his time, no use
li'r^re'n-*' of grammar or other sciences was jn-actised in this realm, especially
[n En-*'* about the west parts of the land, there, through the industry of this
gland. king, schools began to be erected and studies to flourish. Although
Chester auioug the Britous, in the town of Chester, in South Wales, long
ieo^n],'a' boforc that, in King Arthur's time, as Galfridus writeth,* both
riarning. grammar and philosophy, with other tongues, were taught. After
that, some wnriters record that in the time of Egbert, king of Kent,
this island began to flourish with philosophy. About which time
univer- some also think that the university of Granchester, near to that
oran°- wliicli now is Called Cambridge, began to be founded by Bede,
cam-*"^^^ following this conjecture therein, for that Alcuinus, before-mentioned,
bridge, who after went to Rome, and from thence to France, in the time
Univer- of Charlciiiagnc, where he first began the university of Paris,
Paris. "vvas first trained up in the exercise of studies at the same school
of Granchester. Bede^ also, writing of Sigebert, king of East
Anglia, declareth how that king, returning out of France into
England, according to the examples which he did there see,
ordered and disposed schools of learning, through the means of
King Si- Felix, then bishop, and placed in them masters and teachers, after
founder the usc and manner of the Cantuarites. And yet before these
ofschoois. t[,^-,eg^ moreover, it is thought that there were two schools or
Two an- univorsitios within the realm; the one for Greek, at the town of
schools Greglade, which afterward was called Kirkelade; the other for Latin,
riand, ^^ ^ placo tlion callod Latinlado, afterward Lethelado, near Oxford.
one for But, howovor it clianccd that the knowledge and studv of good
Greek . . ^ • O
the other Icttors, ouce planted in this realm, afterward went to decay, yet for Laiin. j^jj^„ Alfred desorvoth no little praise for restoring, or rather increasing the same ; after whose time they have ever since con- tinued, albeit not continually through every age in like perfection. But this we may see, what it is to have a prince learned himself, who, feeling and tasting the price and value of science and knowledge, is thereby not only the more apt to rule, but also to instruct and frame his subjects from a rude barbarity, to a more civil congruity of life, and to a better understanding of things, as we see in this famous prince to happen. Concerning his first education and bringing up, although it was somewhat late before he entered on his letters, yet, such was the apt towardncss and docility of his nature, that being a child he had the Saxon Poems, as they were used then in his own tongue, by heart and memory. Afterwards with years and time he grew up in such perfection of learning and knowledge that, as mine author saith, " nullus Anglorum fuerit vel intelligendo acutior, vel interpretando clegantior ;" which
(I) Lib. ix. cap. 12. See Appendix. (2) Beda, lib. iii. cap. 18.
1
HIS LITERARY WORKS 29
tiling in liim the more was to be marvelled at, for that lie was twelve Aifr.;i. vears of age before lie knew any letter. Then his mother, careful a.D. and tender over him, having by chance a book in her hand, which 901. he would fain have, promised to give him the same, so that he would learn it.^ Whereupon he, for greediness of the book, soon learned the letters, having for his schoolmaster Pleimundus, after- pieimun- wards bishop of Canterbury. And so daily grew he more and fg"^j,,,gj{„ more in knowledge, that, at length, as mine author saith, " a King ai- great part of the Latin library he translated into English, converting after- to the uses of his citizens a notable prey of foreign ware and ,"i"[,yp ^^ merchandize."^ Of the books by him and through him translated, eauter- Avere Orosius, the Pastoral of Gregory, the History of Bede, Boetius Books ' de Consolatione Philosophise ;'' also a book of his own making and in ^1' out of his own tongue, which in the English speech he called a Hand-book, ^?i'"j''y in Greek called Enchiridion, in Latin a Manual. Besides the History of Bede, translated into the Saxon tongue, he also himself compiled a story in the same speech, called, ' The Story of Alfred,"" both which books, in the Saxon tongue, I have seen, though the language I do not understand. As he was learned himself excellently well, so likewise did he inflame all his countrymen to the love of liberal letters, as the words of the story reporteth : " he exhorted None aa- and stirred his people to the study of learning, some with gifts, anrdig-" some by threats, suffering no man to aspire to any dignity in the "''V '*'^- court except he were learned." * Moreover, another story thus saith, ^^ere speaking of his nobles : " also his nobles so much lie did allure to ''^""'^'^• the embracing of good letters, that they sent all their sons to school ; or if they had no sons, yet their servants they caused to be learned ;""^ whereby the common proverb may be found, not so common as true, " such as is the prince, such be the subjects." He began, The moreover, to translate the Psalter into English, and had almost fransfa- finished the same, had not death prevented him.^ In the prologue ^^^ '"'« of the book," thus he writeth, declaring the cause why he was by King so earnest and diligent in translating good books from Latin into English ; shoAving the cause thereof why he so did, as foUoweth -J " the cause was, for that innumerable ancient libraries, which were kept in churches, were consumed with fire by the Danes ; and that men had rather suffer peril of their life than follow the exercises of studies ; and therefore he thought thereby to provide for the people of the English nation."'
It is told of him, both by Polychronicon, Malmesbury, Jornalensis, and other historians, whereof I have no names, that he, seeing his country to the westward to be so desolate of schools and learning, partly to profit himself, partly to furnish his country and subjects with better knowledge, first sent for Grinbald, a learned
(1) Ex Hist. Guliel. Malmesb. de Regib. Ang.
(2) " Plurimam partem Romanse Bibliotheca; Anglorura auribus dedit, optimam prasdam pere- grinarum mcrcium oivium usibus convertens."
(3) " Illos praemiis, hos minis hortando, neminem illiteratum ad quamlibet curiae dignitatem aspirare permittens."
(4) " Optimates quoque suos ad literaturam addiscendam in tantum provocavit, ut sibi filios sues, vel saltcm si tilios non habereut, servos suos, literis commendarent." — Polychron. lib. vi. cap. 1.
(5) Guliel. Malmesb. de Regib. Ang. (6) Entitled, " Pastorale Gregorii."
(T) "Quod Ecclcsiae in quibus innumerie priscse Bibliothecse continebaiitur, cum libris a Danis incensfe sint: quodque in tola insula studium literarum ita abolitum esset, ut quisque minus timeret capitis periculum, quam studiorum exercitia adire. Quapropter se in hoc Anglis suis consulere," &c.
80 .lOlIANNES SCOTUS.
Alfred, monk, out of France, to come into England : he also sent for another learned man out of Wales, whose name was Asserius, whom he made bishop of Sherborne ; and out of Mercia he sent for Wcrefrith, bishop of Worcester, to whom he gave the Dialogues of Gregory to be translated. But chiefly he used the counsel of Neotus, who then was counted for a holy man, an abbot of a certain monastery, in Cornwall, by whose advisement he sent for the learned men above recited, and also first ordained certain schools of divers arts at Oxford, and enfranchised the same with many great liberties ;' and uni- ^^'^^^^^^^o^' perhaps the school now called New College first then begun versity of bv tliis Ncotus, might take its name; which afterwards, perad venture, bepun by tlic bisho})s of Winclicstcr, after a larger manner, did re-edify and Alfred, enlarge with greater possessions.
Johannes Morcovcr, among other learned men who were about King Alfred, scotus. histories make mention of Johannes Scotus, a godly divine and a learned philosopher; but not that Scotus whom now we call Duns, for this Johannes Scotus came before him many years. This Johannes is described to have been of a sharp wit and of great eloquence, and well expert in the Greek tongue, pleasant and meiTy of nature and con- ditions, as appeareth by divers of his doings and answers. First, he coming to France out of his own country of Scotland, by reason of the great tumults of war, was there worthily entertained, and for his learning had in great estimation of Charles the Bald, the French king; who commonly and familiarly used ever to have him about him, both at table and in chamber. Upon a time the king sitting at meat, and seeing something (belike in this John Scot) which seemed not very courtly, cast forth a merry word, asking him what difference there was betwixt a Scot and a sot .'' Whereunto the His an- Scot, sitting ovcr against the king somewhat lower, replied again t"/' '" suddenly rather than advisedly, yet merrily, sajing, " mensa tantum," French tj^^^ jg^ " |-]jg i^\)\Q quIv ;" importing thereby himself to be the Scot, and so calling the king a sot by craft ; which word how other princes would have stomached I know not, but this Charles, for the great reverence he bare to his learning, turned it but to laughter among his nobles, and so let it pass.
Another time the same king being at dinner was served with a certain dish of fish, wherein were two great fishes and a little one. After the king had taken thereof his repast, he set down to John Scot the aforesaid fish, to distribute unto the other two clerks sitting there with him, who were two tall and mighty persons, he himself being but a little man. John taketh the fish, of the which the two great ones he taketh and carveth to himself, while the little fish he reacheth to the other two. The king, perceiving his division thus made, reprehended the same. Then John, whose manner was ever to find out some honest matter to delight the king, answered him again, proving his division to stand just and equal : " for here," saith he, " be two great ones and a little one," pointing to the two great fishes and himself, " and likewise here again is a little one and two great ;" pointing to the little fish, and the two great persons : " I pray you," saith he, " what odds is there, or what
(1) Ouliel. Mainicsb. ; Jornaleiisis; Fabian, c. i"l.
I
KING Alfred's childrex. 31
distribution can be more equal ?" Whereat the king with his nobles ^'fred. being much delighted, laughed merrily. A.D.
At the request of this Cliarles, simamed Bald, the French king, this 90l. Scotus translated the book of Dionysius, entitled, " De Hierarchia," joiianne» from Greek into Latin, word for word, " quo fit," as my author f ™',^f,tes saith, " ut vix intelligatur Latina litera, quum nobilitate magis Graeca, ciony- quam positione construitur Latma. He wrote also a book, iJe Hierar- Corpore et Sanguine Domini,' Avhich was afterward condemned by the iiuoLatin. Pope, in the council of Vercelli. The same John Scot, moreover, compiled a book of his own, giving it a Greek title, ' I\tp\ ^wcrtKwv Stat|0£o-£wi;,' that is, ' De naturae divisione ; ' in which book (as sailh my aforesaid author) is contained the resolution of many profitable questions, but so that he is thought to follow the Greek church rather than the Latin, and for the same was counted of some to be a heretic ; because in that book some things there be w'hich in all points accord not with the Romish religion. Wherefore the pope, is ac- writing to the said King Charles of this Scotus, complaineth, as in thrpope his own words here foUoweth : — " relation hath been made unto ^ ^ . our apostleship, that a certain man called Johannes, a Scottish man, hath translated the book of Dionysius the Areopagite, of the names of God and of the heavenly orders, from Greek into Latin ; which book, according to the custom of the church, ought first to have been approved by our judgment ; namely, seeing the said John, albeit he be said to be a man of great learning and science, in time past, hath been noted by common rumour, to have been a man not of upright or sound doctrine in certain points."'"^ For this cause, the said Scotus being constrained to remove from France, came into England, allured, as some testify, by the letters of Alured, or Alfred, by whom he was with great favour entertained, and was con- versant a gi-eat space about the king ; till, at length (whether before or after the death of the king, it is uncertain), he went to Malmes- bury, where he taught certain scholars a few years, by whom at last most impiously he was murdered and slain with their penknives, siain by and so died, as stories say, a martyr, buried at the said monastery scholar", of Malmesbury with this epitaph.
" Clauditur in tumulo sanctus sopliista Johannes, Qui ditatus erat jam vivens dogmate miro. Martyrio tandem Christi conscendere regmnn Qui meruit, regnans secli per secula cuncta."
King Alfred having these helps of learned men about him, and no less learned also himself, past his time not only to the great utility and profit of his subjects, but also to a rare and profitable example of other christian kings and princes for them to follow. This aforesaid Alfred had by his wife, called Ethelwitha, two sons, Ed.vard and Ethelward ; and three daughters, Elfieda, Ethelgora, The chii- and Ethelguida : " quas omnes liberalibus fecit artibus crudiri ; " that Alfred, is, " whom he set all to their books and study of liberal arts," as my story testifieth. First, Edward, his eldest son, succeeded him
(U " Relatum est apostolatid nostro, quod opus Dionysii Areopajritae, quod de divinisnominibus et de ccelestibus ordinibus Grasco descripsit eloquio, quidam vir Johannes (jienere Scotus) nuper transtulit in Latinum. Quod, juxta morem Ecclesia;. nobis niitti, et nostro judicio debuit appro- bari ; praesertim quum idem Johannes (licet multss scientia; esse praedicetur) olim non sane sapere in quibusdam frequent! rumore dioatur," &c.
32
ALFREDS DKATII. KCCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS.
Alfred, in the kingdom; tlic second son, Etliclward, died before his father; A.D. Ethelgora, his middle (huigliter, was made a nun; the other two 901. were married, the one in Mercehmd, the other to the earl of Flanders. Thus King Alfred, that valiant, virtuous, and learned prince, after he had thus ehristianly governed the realm for the term of twenty- Death nine years and six months, departed this life, 5 Cal. Novemb. a.d. Alfred.^ 901, and lieth buried at Winchester. Of Alfred this I find, more- A.D. yoi. Qy^,Y^ greatly noted and commended in history, and not here to be forgotten, for the rare example thereof, that, wheresoever he was, or whithersoever he went, he bare always about him in his bosom or pocket a little book containing the Psalms of David, and certain other orisons of his own collecting, whereupon he was continually reading or praying whensoever he was otherwise vacant, having leisure thereunto. Finally, what were the virtues of this flimous king, this little table hereunder written, Mhich is left in ancient writing in remembrance of his worthy and memorable life, doth sufficientlv, in few lines, contain.' ^J^f^- In the story of this Alfred, a little above, mention was made of
Canter- Pleimuud, schoolmastcr to the said Alfred, and also bishop of Can- ^'^'' terbury, as succeeding Ethelred there bishop before liim ; which Pleimund governed that see thirty-four years. After Pleimund succeeded Athelm, Avho sat twelve years, and after him, Ulfelm, who sat thirteen years. Then followed Odo, a Dane, bom in the said see of Canterbury, who governed the same twenty years, being in great favour with King Athclstan, King Edmund, and Edwin, as in process hereafter (Clirist willing), as place and order doth require, shall more at large be expressed.
Ecciesias- As toucliing the course and proceedings of the Romish bishops fairs"'' there, where I last made mention of them, I ended with Pope Stephen V.^ After his time was much broil in the election of the Nine bishops of Romc, one contending against another, insomuch that popes in -vithin tlic spacc of nine years were nine bishops, of whom the first yjars. was Fomiosus, who succeeded next unto the forenamed Stephen V.,
(1) " In Repis Alfredi, ct virtutis illius claram niemoriain : — Famosus, bellicosus, victoriosus ; viduarum, pupilloruni, et orphanorum, pauperumque, provisor studiosus ; poetarum Saxonicorum peritissimus ; sua; gciiti diarissimus, affabilis omnibus, libcralissinius ; prudentia, fortitudine, temperantia, justitia proeditus ; in infirmitate, qua continue laborabat, patientissimus ; in exe- quendis judiciis indaj^ator discretissimus, in servicio Dei vigilantissimus et dcvotissimus, Anglo- Saxonum Rex Alfredus, piissimi Ethelulfi filius, 29 annis sexque meuMbus regni sui pcractis mortem obiit. Indict. 4. quinto cal. Novemb. feria quarta, ct Wintoni.v in novo moiiasterio sepultus, immortalitatis stolam ct resurrectionis gloriara cum justis expectat," &c.
Moreover, in the history of Henry of Huntingdon, these verses I find written in commendation of the samp Alfred, made, as I suppose and liy his words appeareth, by ilie said author, wliereo*'I thought not to defraud the reader. The words thereof here foUow :
Epitaphium Regis Alfredi. Nobilitas innata tibi probitatis honorem, Armipotcns Alfrede, dedit, probitasque laborem, Perpctuumque labor nomen: cui mixta dolori Gaudia semper erant, spcs semper mixta timori. Si modo victor eras, ad crastina bella pavebas, Si modo victus eras, ad crastina bella parabas. Cui vestcs sudore jugi, cui sica cruore Tincta jugi, quantum sit onus regnare, probanmt. Non fuit inmunsi quisquam per cliniata mundi, Cui tot in adversis nil respirare liceret. Ncc tamen aut fcrro contritus ponere ferrum, ' Aut gladio potuit vita; finisse dolores.
Jam jiost transactos vitac regnique Uibores Christus ei sit vera quies, sceptrumque perenne.
(2^ See page 12. Stephen V.— liu
I
SCHISMS AMONG THE I'OPES. o3
being made pope against tlie mind of certain in Rome, that ■would Ecdettas- ratlier Sergius, then deacon of the church of Rome, to have been Jffd'iL.
pope : notwitlistanding, Mars and money prevailed on Formosus'
part. This Formosus, of Avhom partly also is mentioned in other places of this ecclesiastical history/ being before bishop of Porto, a sea- port near Rome, had, on a time, I know not upon what causes, offended Pope John VIII. , by reason whereof, for fear of the pope, he voided away, and left his bishopric, and because he, being sent for again by the pope, would not return, therefore was excommunicated. At length, coming into France to make there his satisfaction unto the pope, he was degraded from a bishop into a secular man's habit, swearing to the pope that he would no more re-enter into the city of Rome, nor claim his bishopric again ; subscribing, moreover, with his own hand, to continue from that time in the state of a secular person. But then Pope Martin, the next pope after John, released the said Formosus of his oath, and restored him again unto his bishopric ; whereby Formosus not only entered Rome again, but also obtained shortly after the papacy. Thus he being placed in the popedom, there arose a great doubt or controversy among the schisms divines about his consecration, whether it was lawful or not ; some ^bruOTies holding against him, that forsomuch as he was solemnly deposed, degraded, unpriested, and also sworn not to reiterate the state ecclesiastical, therefore he ought to be taken no otherwise than for a secular man. Others alleged again, that whatsoever Formosus was, yet for the dignity of that order, and for the credit of them whom he ordained, his consecration ought to stand in force, especially seeing the said Formosus was afterward received and absolved by Pope Martin from that his perjury and degradation. In the mean time, as witnesseth Sigebert, this Formosus sendeth for King Arnulph for aid against his adversaries ; who then marching to Rome, was pre- vented from entering, and besieged the Leonine quarter. But in the siege the Romans within so played the lions, that a poor hare, or such a like thing, running toward the city (saith the author), the host of Arnulph followed after with such a main cry, that the valiant Romans upon the walls for verv fear, and where there was no hurt, cast themselves desperately over the walls, so that Arnulph with little labour scaled the walls, and got the city. Thus Arnulph, obtaining the city of Rome, rescueth Pope Formosus, and beheadeth his adversaries ; whom the pope to gratify with like recompence again, blesseth and crowneth him for emperor. Thus Formosus, sitting fast about the space of four or five years, followed his predecessors ; after whose time, as I said, within the space of nine years, were nine bishops, as followeth. But in the mean time, concerning the story of this Formosus declared by Sigebert and many other chroniclers, this thing would I gladly ask, and more gladly learn, of some indif- ferent good Catholic person, who not of obstinacy, but of simple error being a papist, would answer it to his conscience, whether doth he think the holy order of priesthood, which he taketh for one of the seven sacraments, to be character indehhilis or not ? If it be not indelebilis, that is, if it be such a thing as may be put off, why then
(1) Ex Clironico Sigeberti. VOL. II. D
34 ON'E POPE nURN'S THE DECREES OF AXOTIIER.
rcriesias- dotli tlic popc's (loctriiic so call and so hold the contrary, pre- affalrs. tending it to be indelehilis, \inrcniovablc ? If it be indeed so as "TT they teach and affinn, hulelehilis character^ ■why then did Pope the pope John, or could Pope John, annihilate and evacuate one of his c"rdinau sevcu popc-holv sacramcuts, making of a priest a non-priest or may err. Jaynian, uncliaractcring his owtv order, which is (as he saith) a character, which in no wise may be blotted out or removed ? Again, howsoever Pope John, is to be judged in this matter to do either well or not well, this would I know, if he did well in so dispriesting and discharactering Fonnosus for such private offences ? If yea, how then standeth his doing with his own doctrine which teacheth the contrary ? If he did not well, how then standeth his doctrine with his doings to be true, which teacheth that the pope with his sjTiod of cardinals cannot en-? Moreover, if this Pope John did not err in his disordering Forraosus, how then did Martin, his successor, not err in repealing the said doing of his predecessor ? or how did not Pope Fonnosus himself err, who being unpricsted by Pope John, afterward, without reiterating the character or order of priesthood, took upon him to be Pope, and made acts and laws in the church ? Again, if Fonnosus now pope did not en, how then did Pope Stephen his successor afterward not en, who did annihilate the consecration, and all other acts of the said Formosus, as erroneous ? Or again, if we say that this Stephen with his sjTiod of cardinals did right, then how could it be that Pope Theodore, and Pope John IX, who came after the aforesaid Stephen, did not plainly en, who, approving the consecration of Fonnosus, did condemn and burn the acts sjniodal of Stephen and his cardinals, which before had condemned Fonnosus, according as in story here consequently may appear ?
After Formosus had governed tlie sec of Rome five vears, succeeded first Boniface \ I., who continued but five and twenty days. Then came Stephen VI., who so envied the name of his predecessor For- mosus, that he abrogated and dissolved his decrees, and, taking up his body after it was buried, cut two fingers off his right hand, and commanded them to be cast into the Tiber, and then buried the body in a private or layman''s sepidchre.^
Thus, after Stephen had sat in the chair of pestilence one year, succeeded to the same chair Pope Romanus, and sat three months, repealing the acts decreed by Stephen his predecessor, against For- mosus. Next to him came Theodore II., who likewise taking part with Fonnosus against the aforesaid Stephen, reigned but t'^enty days. Then sat Pope John IX., who did fight and repugn against the Romans, and, to confirm the cause of Formosus more surely, did hold a synod at Ravenna of seventy-four bishops, the French king Charles^ and his archbishops being present at the same, at the which One council were ratified all the decrees and doings of Fonnosus, and burne'th thc Contrary acts of the synod of Stephen VI. were burned. This decree/.' P'^P^ ^'^'c A.D.9U0. diet IV., who kept the chair three years. After whom Leo V. was next popc, who within forty days of his papacy, was, with strong
(1) Ex Chron. Martini ptEnitentiarii, Platina. Sigeberto, Polychronico, et aliis. (2)iSee Appendix.
RAPID SUCCESSION OF POPES. 35
lifind, taken and cast into prison by one Christopher, his own house- Ecciesim- liold chaplain, whom he had long nourished before in his house ; which ^^",„. thing, saith Platina, could not be done without great conspiracy, and ~ — ~ — great slaughter of men. Which Christopher, being pope about the v. imi.ri- spacc of seven months, was likewise himself hoisted from his papal un"pop'e(i' throne by Sergius, like as he had done to his master before ; and thus cvla'j'a'i^"' within the space of nine years had been nine popes, one after another. Then Sergius, after he had thrust down Pope Christopher into a monastery, and shorn him monk, occupied the room seven years, ad. so.';. This Sergius, a rude man and unlearned, very proud and cruel, had before been put back from the popedom by Formosus above- mentioned ; by reason whereof, to revenge himself upon Formosus again, Sergius being now in his papacy, causing the body of Formosus, where it was buried, to be taken up and afterward set up in the papal chair, as in his pontificalibus, first degraded him, and then commanded his head to be smitten off, with the other three fingers that were left, Pope For- as Sigebert writes ; ^ which done, he made his body to be throM^n into ^"1"^' the Tiber, deposing likewise all such as by the said Formosus before ^^f\ , had been consecrated and invested. This body of Formosus, thus thrown into the Tiber, was afterward, as our writers say, found and taken up by certain fishers, and so brought into St. Peter''s temple ; at the presence whereof, as they say, certain images there stand- ing by, bowed down themselves, and reverenced the same — with lie and all. But such deceivable miracles of stocks and images, Feisned in monkish and friary temples, be to us no news, especially here in ™'",'^{^,e England, where we have been so inured to the like, and so many, that ^o'^y "f such wily practices cannot be to us invisible, though this crown-shorn sus. generation think themselves to dance in a net. But the truth is, while they think to deceive the simple, these wily beguilers most of all deceive themselves, as they will find, except they repent. By this Bearing Pope Sergius first came up to bear about candles on Candlemas on"c!rn- dav, for the purifying of the blessed Virgin ; as though the sacred diemas
' ^ ^ I J ^ o^ ^o ^ flay, how
conception of Jesus the Son of God, were to be purified as a thing it came impure, and that with candle-light ! "^'
After Sergius entered Pope Anastatius III., in whose time the a.u.sh. body of Formosus, aforenamed, is thought to be found of fishermen in the river Tiber, and so brought (as is said) into the temple to be saluted of the images ; which thing may be quickly tainted as a lie ; for how is it to be thought that the body of Formosus, so long dead before, and now lying seven years in the river, could remain whole all that while, that fishers might take it up, and discern it to be the same ? After Anastatius had sat two years followed Pope Lando I., A.D.nu. the father, as some stories think, of Pope John, which John is said to have been the paramour of Theodora, a famous harlot of Rome, and set up of the same harlot, either against Lando, or after Lando his father, to succeed in his room. There is a story writer, called Luithprandus,^ ■who maketh mention of this Theodora and Pope John X., and saith, Harlots at moreover, that this Theodora had a daughter, named Marozia, wliich [lUed'aT Marozia had, by Pope Sergius above-mentioned a son, who was -''' '^"""^• afterward Pope John XL The same Marozia afterwards chanced
(1) See infrA, vol. viii. p. 292, and Appendix. — Ed.
(2) Liiifliprandus. da Iniperatorihu.'i, lib. ii. cap. 13.
n 9
3G COMPARISON' BETWEEN ALFRED AND EDWARD.
Eccifsiat- to marry 'witli Ouido, marciuis of Tuscany, tlirourjli the means of
afffirs. wliicli Guido auil his tViemls at Rome, slic broviglit to pass that this
Pope John X. was smotheroil with a pillow laid to his mouth, after he
had reigned thirteen years, and so that the aforesaid John XI., her son,
might succeed next after him ; but because the clergy and people of
Rome did not agree to his election. Pope Leo VI. was in his ])lace
set lip ; thus, Pope John, the son of Sergius and Marozia, being
dejected, Po])e Leo reigned seven months. After him, Pope Stei)hen
A.D. 929. VII. or VIII. reigned two years, who, being poisoned, Pope John
Pope XI. above-rehearsed, the son of Scrgius and Marozia, Avas set up
nTs'toreY' 'igfti^ in the papacy, where he reigned nearly the space of five years.
Of the wickedness of Marozia, how she married two brethren, one
after the death of the other, and how she governed all Rome and the
whole church at that time, I let it pass. Although the Latin verses
Avherewith Luithprandus doth inveigh against such women as marry
two brethren, were not unworthy here to be recited, and perhaps might
be furtlier applied than to that Marozia of Rome, yet for shortness
I let them also pass. After John XL followed Pope Leo VII. three
A.D. 939. years and four months ; Pope Stephen VIII. three years and four
months ; Pope Martin III. three years and six months ; and, after
him. Pope Agapetus II. eight years and six months;* about whose
ordo time, or a little before, began first the order of monks, called Ordo
censis be- Cluuiacensis. But now to leave off these monstrous matters of Rome,*
\'d*946 ^^^ t^ return again to our country of England, where we last left off.
EDWARD THE ELDER. ^
A.D. After the reign of the famous King Alfred, his son Edward
901. succeeded, sirnamed the Elder; where first is to be noted, that before
the conquest of the Normans, there were in England three Edwards :
first, this Edward the Elder ; secondly, Edward the Martyr ; thirdly,
Thi-ee Edward the Confessor ; whereof hereafter (by the grace of Christ) shall
befdrc the follow in ordcr, as place shall give to be declared. This Edward
Conquest. ]jp„^^^-, ],jg j-gign A.D. 901, autl govcmcd the land right valiantly
and nobly four and twenty years. In knowledge of good letters and
and his learning he was not to be compared to his father ; otherwise, in princely
ward' ' renown, in civil government, and in martial prowess, he was nothing
pa™d inferior, but rather excelled him, through whose valiant acts the
princedom of Wales and kingdom of Scotland, with Constantinc king
thereof, wxre first to him subdued. He adjoined, moreover, to his
dominion, the country of East Anglia, that is, of Norfolk, Suffolk,
and Essex. All Merccland also he recovered, and Northumberland,
out of the hands of the Danes. In all liis wars he never lightly went
without victory. The subjects of his provinces and dominions were
so inured and hardened in continual practice and feats of war, that
when they lieard of any enemies coming (never tarrying for any
(1) On the authority of Moslieini, 6ome obvious errors in the history of the popes of Rome have been here corrected. — Kd.
(2) Baronius calls the tenth century an "iron age, barren of all goodness; a leaden age, abound- ing with all wickedness; and a dark age, remarkable above all the rest for the scarcity of writtra and men of learning." — En.
(.3) Kdition 1563, p. 10. Ed. 1583, p. HG. Ed. 159G, p. 132. Ed. 1681, vol. i. p. 163.— Ed.
REBEn.TON OF C'MTO FTHKLM'OM). 37
bidding from the king or from liis dukes), straightway they encountered Edwaru with them ; both in number and in knowledge of the order of war, '!!1^^Z. exeelUng always their adversaries. Malmesbury saith, " So was the ^- ^^ coming and assaulting of their enemies, to the people and common ^^'^' soldiers but a trifle, to the king but a ridicule."! Among other adversaries who were busy rather than wise, in assailing this king, was one called Clito Ethelwold, a young man. King Edward's uncle's ciito son ; who, first occupying the town of Wimborne, and taking thence ^^^,f " a nun with him, whom he had already married, fled by night to '■''''^:'s Northumberland, to unite himself unto the Danes, and was" made kmuT' chief king and captain over them. Being chased from thence, Clito a.d!'904. fled over into France, but shortly returning again into England, he landed in East England, where, with a company of Danes of that country gathering to him, he destroyed and pillaged much of the country about Crekinford and Crikeland ; and so passing over the Thames, after he had spoiled the land there to Bradenstock, returned again to Norfolk and Suffolk ; where, meeting with an ambushment of Kentish men, which dragged and taiTied after the main host of Edward, contrary to his commandment, he inclosed them, and slew the most part of them. Soon after, the two hosts meeting together, between the two ditches of St. Edmund's land, after a long fight, Clito and many of the Danes were slain, and the remnant were con- strained to seek for peace, which, upon certain conditions, and under a tribute, was to them granted.
In process, about the twelfth year of his reign, the Danes repent- ing them of their covenants, and minding to break the same, assem- bled a host, and met with the king in Staffordshire, at a place called Tottenhall, and soon after at Wodenfield, at which two places the king slew two kings, two earls, and many thousands of Danes that occupied the country of Northumberland.
Thus the importunate rage of the Danes being assuaged, King a.d. 913. Edward having now some leisure given from wars to other studies, gave his mind to the building or repairing of cities, towns, and castles, that by the Danes were rased, shattered, and broken ; as first, of Chester, which city he enlarged to double that it was before, compassing the castle within the walls of the same, which before stood without. That done, the king builded a strong castle at Hereford, on the edge of Wales. Also, for the-'strengthening of the country, he made a castle at the mouth of the water of Avon, and another castle at Buckingham, and the third fast thereby upon the river Ouse. Moreover, he builded or re-edified the towns of Towcester and Wig- moor, and destroyed the castle that the Danes had made at Demes- ford. Likewise upon the river Trent, against the old town of Nottingham, he builded a new town on the south side, and made a The ne^v bridge over the river between the said two towns. Also by the river Notting- Mersey he builded a city or town in the north end of Mercia, and \^l^^^ named it Thilwall ; and after repaired the city of Manchester, that was sore defaced Avith wars of the Danes.
In this renewing and building of towns and castles, for the more fortifying of his realm, his sister Elfleda, daughter of King Alfred, and mai-ried to the did^e of JMcrcia,as is before-mentioned, was no small
(1) " Ita hostes militibus contemptui, legi risui erant."— Guliel Malmesb. de Regib.
38 C'HAllACTEll OF ELFI.KDA.
EJwnrd helper. Of tliis Elflctla, it is firmly of writers affu'iiicd, that she being, - — — as is said, married to Ethelred, duke of Mercia, after she had once ^•^- assayed the pains of travail, did so much abhor them, that it seemed " to her, she said, not seemly for a noble Avoman to desire that 'whereof • so great sorrow and travail should ensue. Yet notwithstanding, the same ElHeda, Ibr all her delicate tenderness, was so hardy in warlike dangers, which nature giveth not to women, that, fighting against ^ the Danes, four of her next knights, who were guardians of her chaiactcr body, wcrc slain fast by her. This Elfleda, among her other noble ofEiiicda. ^^^^^ whereby she deserved praise, was a great helper and stirrer up of her brother Edward, who buildcd and newlv rc])aircd many castles and towns, as Tamworth beside Lichfield, Stafford, Warwick, Shrewsbury, A\'atrisbury, Eldsbury beside Chester in the forest, noAv destroyed ; also, in the north end of Mercia, upon the river Mersey, a castle called Runcorn ; as well as a bridge over the Severn, named Brimmis- bury bridge. The laws As touching the laws and statutes of this Edward, as also of his Alfred father Alfred, made before him, I omit here to record them for length "Kd'w^d"''' f'f matter and waste of time ; yet, notwithstanding, this admonition by the way I think good to note, that in the days of those ancient kings reigning in England, the authority both of confcning bishop- rics and spiritual promotions, and also of prescribing laws as well to the churchmen as to the laity, and of ordering and intemieddling in matters merely spiritual, was then in the hands of kings ruling in the land, and not only in the hand of the pope, as appeareth by the laws of Alfred.^ Kinps of By these and other such like constitutions it may appear, how in°fini"s the governance and direction of the church in those days depended authority ^ot upou Mousicur Ic Popc of Romc, but upon the kings, who here, in spiri- j^ their time (under the Lord), did govern the land. To this also causes, the example of King Edward''s time gives testimony ; which Edward, Avith Pleimundus above-mentioned, archbishop of Canterbm-y, and with other bishops, in a synod assembled, assigned and elected seven bishops, in seven metropolitan churches of the realm ; the first of whom was Fridelstan, the second Adelstan, the third AVerstan, the fourth Adeleme, the fifth Edelftis, the sixth Dernegus, the seventh Kenulphus ; in which election the king''s authority seemed then alone to be suflScient. A. p. 92.5. This Edward, as in the beginning was said, reigned twenty-four of'King" years, Avho had three wives, Egwin, Elfled, and Ethelwid. Of Egwin ufe^Hder ^^ ^^^^ ^'^^ cldcst son Athclstau, who next succeeded in the kingdom, and a daughter, mamed after to the duke of Northumberland. Of Elfled he received two sons, to wit, Ethelwald and Edwin, and six daughters. Ethelwald was excellently well seen in all knowledge of learning, much resembling, both in countenance and conditions, his grandfather Alfred; he died soon after his fiither. Of his six daugh- ters, two of them, Elfled and Ethelhilda,were made nuns, the other
(1) " Si quis fomicetur cum iixore ahena, &c.
Si quis in qiiadragcsima sanctum \elum in publico vel in Iccto, &c.
Ut Christiani Deum dilij,'ant et paganismo reniuicient, &c.
Si quis Christianitatcm iiiutet, &c
Si quis ordinatus sacris furetur, &c.
Si Presbyter ad rectuin temiinum i-anctum cliri^ma, ic.
Si duo fratrcs vel cogiiati cum uiin aliqua fornicentur, &c."
AWFUL DKATH OF DUKE ELFRED. 39
four were married ; Edgiva to Charles, tlie French king, in her father's Aiheuum time; Ethilda, by king Athclstan, was married to Hugo, the son of a.U." Duke Robert ; Edgitha and Algiva were both sent to Henry, prince of Ahnains. Of which two sisters, the former the said Henry married to his son Otho, who was the first emperor of the Ahnains ; the other sister, who was Algiva, the aforesaid Henry married to a cer- tain duke,^ about the borders of the Alps, in France. Of his third Avife, Ethelwid, he received two sons, Edmund and Edred, who both reigned after Athelstan ; and two daughters, Edburga, whom he made a nun, and Eadguina, who was married to Ebles,^ prince of Aquitaine, in France. These sons and daughters King Edward the The _^^^ Elder thus brought up ; his daughters he set to spinning and to the up of needle ; his sons he set to the study of learning, " to the end that ^^w^ard's they, being as first made philosophers, should be the more expert cuudren. thereby to govern the commonwealth.""^
ATHELSTAN, or ADELSTAN.*
Athelstan, or Adelstan, after the death of Edward his father, a. u .125. began his reign in England, and Avas crowned at Kingston. He was a prince of Avorthy memory, valiant and wise in all his acts, nothing inferior to his father JEdward, in like worldly renown of civil government, joined Avith much prosperous success in reducing this realm under the subjection of one monarchy; for he both expelled the Danes, subdued the Scots, and quieted the Welshmen, as Avell in North Wales as also in Cornwall. The first enemy against this Athelstan, Avas one Elfred, Avho, with a faction of seditious persons conspiring against the said Athelstan at Winchester, incontinently after the death of his father, Avent about to put out his eyes. Not- Avithstanding, the king escaping that danger, through the help of God, Avas at that time delivered. Elfred, upon the same being accused, fled Duke ei- to Home, there before the pope to purge himself by his oath. When /Jiiiy^ ' being brought to the church of St. Peter, and there swearing, or if^^"^ rather forswearing, himself to be clear, Avho indeed Avas guilty thereof, ^^^^f suddenly upon his oath fell doAvn ; and so brought to the English perjury. house in Rome, Avithin three days after departed. The pope sending Avord to King Athelstan, Avhether he Avould have the said Elfred buried among"^ Christians or not, at length, through the persuasions of his friends and kinsfolks, it was concluded that he should be buried in christian burial. This story although I find in no other Avriters mentioned, but only in the Chronicles of Malmesbury, yet, forasmuch as it beareth the Avitness and Avords of the king himself, as testified in an old deed of gift, given to the monastery of Malmesbury, I thought the same the more to be of credit. The' words of the king proceed as folloAv in the note.^
(1) Louis rAveugle, king of Provence. L'Artde Ver. des Dates, Rois de Bourgogiieet Provence. —Ed.
(2) Not Louis, as Foxe says; who, however, copies Mahnesbury in this paragraph. Ibid.— Ld.
(3) " Ut quasi philosophi ad gubernandam rempublicam non jam rudes procederent."— Gulie). Malmesb. de Regib.
(4) Edition 1563, p. 10. Ed. 1583, p 147. Ed. 1596, p. 133. Ed. 1684, vol. i. p. 164.— Ed.
(5) The copy of an old writing of King Athelstan, testifying of the niiraculous death ol Duke Elfred, suddenly stricken by the hand of God for perjury:—" Sciant sapit-ntes regionis nostra;, non lias pra-fatas terras me injuste rapuisse, rapinamque Deo dedisse. Sed sic eas accepi, queinaa- niodum judic.iverunt omnes optimates regui Anglorum, insuper et apostolicus papa Romanx
40
FABULOUS MIRACLES.
A. D.
933.
North- umbfr- land and the Scuts subdued to the king of England.
FabuloBS miracles.
A.D. 933.
In the second year of the reign of King Athelstan, for an unity and a peace to be had between the king and the Danes of North- umberland, he married to Sitheric* their king his sister, whereof mention is made before ; but shortly after, within one year, this Sitheric died, after wliose death King Athelstan seized that province into his own hand, putting out the son of the aforesaid Sitheric, called Anlaff, who, with his brother Godfrey, fled, the one into Ireland, the other to Constantine, king of the Scots ; and, when he hail thus accorded with the Danes of Northumberland, he shortly made subject unto him Constantine, king of Scots. But the said Constantine meeked himself so lowly to the king, that he restored him to his former dignity, saying, that it was more honour to make a king than to be a king.
Not long after, the said Constantine, king of Scots, did break covenant with King Athelstan ; wherefore he assembled his knights, and made towards Scotland, where he subduing his enemies, and bringing them again unto due subjection, returned into England with victory. Here, by the way, in some story writers, who, forgetting the office of historians, seem to play the poets, is written and recorded for a marvel, that the said Athelstan, returning out of Scotland into England, came to York, and so into the church of St. John of Beverly, to redeem his knife, which before he had left there for a pledge at his going forth : in the which place he praying to God and to St. John of Beverly, that he might leave there some remembrance Avliereby they that came after might know that the Scots by right should be subdued to the English men, smote with sword, they say, upon a great hard stone standing near about the castle of Dunbar, that with the stroke thereof the stone was cut a large ell deep, with a lie no less deep also than was the stroke in the stone. But of this poetical or fabulous story, albeit Poly- chronicon, Fabian, Jornalensis, and others more, constantly accord in the same, yet in Malmesbury and Huntington no mention is made at all. But peradvcnture, he that was the inventor first of this tale of the stone, was disposed to lie for the whetstone ; wherefore in my mind he is worthy to have it. Of like truth and credit seemeth also to be this that followeth about the same year and time under the reign of King Athelstan, being the eighth year of his reign, of one Bristan, bishop of Winchester, who succeeded Frithstan, in the same see, and governed that bishopric four years. This Bristan, being a devout bishop in prayer and contemplation, used much, among his solitary walks, to frequent late the church-yard, praying
ecclesiae Johannes, Elfredo defuncto, qui nostra; felicitafi et vitae aemulus extitit, nequitiae inimi- corum nostrorum consenticns, qui me voluerunt (patre meo defuncto) c non me Deus sua pietate eripuisset. Sed denudatis eorum machinamentis, remissus est ad Romanam ecclesiani, ut ibi sc coram Apostolico Johanne jurejurando defenderet. Et hoc fecit coram altare sancti Petri. Sed facto juramento, cecidit coram aliare, et manibus famulorum suorum portatus est ad scholam Angloruni, et ibi tertia nocte vitam finivit. Et tunc apostolicus ad nos remisit, et quid de eo agcretur a nobis consuluit, an cum CcEteris Christianis corpus illius pone- retur. His peractis et nobis renuooiatis, optimates regionis nostra; cum propmquorum illius turma cfllapitabant omni humilitate, ut corpus illius per nostram licentiam cum corporibus pone- retur Christianorum. Nosque flagitationi illorura consentientes Romam remisimus ; et papa consenliente, positus est ad caeteros Christianos, quamvis indignus. Et sic judicata est mihi tota possessio ejus in magnis ct in modicis. Sed et hsec apicibus li'.erarum praenotavimus, ne quando aboleatur, unde mihi prsefata possessio, quam Deo et sancto Petro dedi, donatur. Nee justius novi, quam Deo et sancto Petro banc possessionem dare, quiacmulum meum in conspectu omnium cadere feccrnnt, et mihi prospiritatem rcgni largiti sunt." &c.— Guliel. Malmesb. lib. de Reg. in Vila Ethelstani. fEdit. Francof. p. 52.— Ed.] (1) See pp. 38, 43.— Ed.
HATTLE OF BUUM AN15RUCH. 41
for the souls there, and all christian souls departed. Upon a time the Atheiiian. said' Bristan, after his wonted manner proceeding in his devotions, ~X~D~ when he had done, came to " Kequiescant in pace," whereunto 938. suddenly a great multitude of souls answering together with one voice, said, " Amen." Of this miracle albeit I have not much to say, hasting to other matters, yet this question would I ask of some indifferent papist, who were not wilful, but of ignorance deceived, if this mul- titude which here answered " Amen," were the souls of them buried in the church-yard or not ? If yea, then how were they in purgatory, what time they were heard in that place answering " Amen," except we should think purgatory to be in the church-yard at Winchester, where the souls were heard then so many answering and praying " Amen?" And yet this story is testified by the accord of writers of that time, Malmesbury, Polychronicon, Hoveden, Jornalensis, and others more. Much like miracles and prophecies also we read of Elphege who succeeded him ; but because we haste to other things, let these fables pass.
Ye heard a little before, how King Athelstan, after the death of Sithcric, king of Northumberland, seized that land or province into his own hand, and put out his son Anlaff, who, after flying into Scotland, married the daughter of Constantine, king of Scots, by whose stirring and exhortation he gathered a company of Danes, Scots, and others, and entered the mouth of Humber Avith a strong navy of six hundred and fifteen ships. Whereof king Althelstan, with his brother Edmund, having knowledge, prepared his army, and at Battle length joined in fight with him and his people at a place called a^Bru- Brimanbruch, or Brimford, where he fighting with them from ™a"- morning to even, after a terrible slaughter on both sides, as the like a.d. sss. hath not been seen lightly in England, had the victory. In which battle were slain five small and under-kings, with Constantine, king of Scots, and twelve dukes, with the more part of all the strangers Another which at that time they gathered to them. Here, also, our writers ^jra'^cie^of put in another miracle in this battle, how King Athelstan's sword ^ing miraculously fell into his sheath, through the prayer of Odo, then stan's" arclibishop of Canterbury. ^^°^'^'
Concerning this battle, I find in a certain written Chronicle the odo arch- underwritten verses, which, because they should not be lost, I thought ^a,',\gP "' not unworthy here of rehearsal.' buiy-
(I) " Transierat quinos et tres et quatuor annos, Jure regens cives, subigens virtute tyrannos, Cum redit ilia lues Europae noxia labes. Jam cubat in terris fera barbaries aquilonis, Et jacet in campis pelago pirata relicto. Illicitas torvasque minas Analavus anhelat. Bacchant! furije, Scotorum rege volente, Commodat assensum borealis terra serenum. Et jam (jrande turaent, jam terrent aera verbis. Cedunt indigenae, cedit plaga tota superbis. Nam — quia rex noster, fidens alacrisque juventa, Emeritus pridem detriverat otia lenta— nii continuis faedabant omnia praedis, Urgentes miseros injectis ignibus agros. Marcuerant totis viridantia gramina campis, iEgra seges votum deluserat agricolarum. Tanta fuit peditum, tam barbara vis equitantum, Innumerabilium concursus quadrupedantum ! Excivit tandem famae querimonia regem, Ne se cauterio tali pateretur inuri, Qu6d sua barbaricas cessissent arma securi. Nee mora, victricis ducentia signa cohortes
42
KTHEI.STAN MUUDKUS HIS UttOTlIliU EDWIX.
"f""-'''""- After tliis victory thus obtained of the Danes and Scots, King
A.D. Atliclstan also subdued, or at least quieted, the North Britons, vhom
938. he conventing together at Hereford, or thereabouts, forced them to
riiiJ grant unto him as a yearly tribute twenty pounds of gold, three hun-
.wisouth '^'"^^ pounds of silver, antl of heads of neat five and twenty hundred,
iJriions with hawks and dogs to a certain number. This done, he went to
tJuibiltc, Exeter, and there likewise subduing the South 13ritons about Exeter
due/"*^ and Cornwall, repaired the walls of Exeter with sufficient strength,
and so returned.
Among these victorious and noble acts of this king, one blot there is of him written and noted, wherein he is as much worthy to be reprehended as in the other before to be commended ; that is, the innocent death and murder of his brother Edwin, the occasion whereof was this : — King Edward aforenamed, their father, in the time of his youth, coming by a certain village or grange where he had been nursed and brought up of a child, thought of courtesy to go see how liis nurse did, where he, entering into the house, espied a certain young damsel, beautiful, and right seemly attired, Egwina by name. This Egwina, before being a poor man''s daughter, had a vision by night, that of her body sprang such a bright light of the moon, that the brightness thereof gave light to the realm of England, by reason whereof she was taken into the aforesaid house, and daintily brought up instead of their own daughter for hope of some commodity to ensue thereby, as afterward it came to pass ; for King Edward, as it is declared, coming into the house, and ravished "with the beauty of the maiden, had of her this Athelstan. Where- fore the said Athelslan being thus basely born of Egwina, the first wife to Edward, as is said, before he was married to her, and fearing his next brother Edwin, who was rightly born, especially King being stirred thereunto through the sinister suggestion of his butler, stan^' did cast such displeasure to the aforesaid Edwin his brother, being death of^ yet but young, that, notwithstanding his innocent submission and his own jjurgation made against his accusers, he caused him to be set in an old rotten boat in the broad sea, only with one esquire with him, without any tackling or other provision to the same ; where the young and tender prince being dismayed with the rage of winds and of the floods, and now -weary of his life, cast himself overboard into the sea, and so was drowned. The esquire, however, shifting for himself as he could, and recovering the body of his master, brought it to Sandwich, where it was buried : which done, the king, afterwards coming to the remembrance of himself, was stricken with great repentance the space of seven years together, and at length was revenged of him that was the accuser of his brother. This accuser, as is said, was the king's cup-bearer, who, as God the righteous Judge of all things would have it, upon a certain solemn feast, bearing the cup unto the king, chanced in the middle of the floor to stumble
Explicat in ventum vexilla ferocia centum.
Juncta viruni virtus, decics bis miliia quina,
Ad stadium belli cumitantur pr
Hie strepitiis movit prx'd itorum legiones,
Terruit iiisignis venientum fawa lairoiies,
I't positA proprias i)ra;da petereiit regiones.
At viilgus reliquuni miseranda straj,'e peremptum
Infeeit bibulas tetris nidoribus auras.
I'ugit Analavus de tot inodo millibus unus," &c.
SUPKUSTITIOUS IIKLICS. 43
with one foot, helping and recovering himself with the other, saying a ihehtan in these words, " Thus one brother, as you see, helpeth another."''' ~^7l7~ These words being thus spoken in the hearing of the king, so moved yii. his mind, that forthwith he commanded the false-accuser of liis brother to be had out to execution ; whose just recompense I would wish to be a warning to all men, what it is to sow discord between brother and brother.
King Athelstan, besides his seven years' lamentation for this act, builded the two monasteries of Middleton and of Michelenes for his Tiiecause brother's sake, or, as the stories say, for his soul : whereby it may Sn^ "b- appear what was the cause most special in those days of building ^''^^■ monasteries, to wit, for releasing the sins both of them departed, and them alive ; which cause, how it standeth with the grace and verity of Christ's gospel, and of his passion, let the christian reader try and examine with himself. This cruel fact of the king towards Edwin, caused him afterward to be more tender and careful towards his other brethren and sisters left in his hands unmarried ; which sisters, as is partly in the chapter before declared, he richly bestowed in great marriages, as one to the king of Northumberland, Sitheric ; another he gave to Louis, king of Provence ; the third to Henry, duke of Almain, for his son Otho, who was the first emperor of the Germans ; whereby it otho, is to be understood, that the empire at this time began first to be emperor translated from France (where it remained about one hundred years °^^^^^ and a half) unto Germany, Avhere it hath ever since continued.
The fourth of his sisters, being a virgin of singular beauty, Hugo, duke of France,* required to be given to him ; sending to King Jewels Athelstan precious and sumptuous presents, such as were not before Atheis'ian seen in England : among the which presents and gifts, besides sundry ^ favours of rare odours and fine spices ; and besides precious and costly king. gems, namely, emeralds of most refulgent green ; besides also many fine coursers and palfries richly trapped; especially of one jewel do writers make mention, which was a certain vase, finely and subtilely made of the precious stone onyx, so wrought and polished, that in it corn and vines appeared to be really growing, and men's images walk- ing. Over and besides was sent also the sword of Constantine the Great, with his name written in golden letters, and in the haft of the same, inlaid in gold, was one of the iron nails wherewith our Saviour oneofthe on the cross was nailed. Of the verity whereof I am not disposed at ^^"jj^'^^ this present much to say what I suspect, but from the ecclesiastical with our story of Eusebius it is evident, that two of the aforesaid nails of was cru Christ were spent on the bridle of Constantine, the third he cast into ^'''*'^' the sea in a raging tempest ; wherefore if Christ were nailed with four nails, perhaps this nail might be one ; if he were nailed but with three, I see not how this story can stand with other stories, neither how this fourth nail can stand with the truth. Among the rest, moreover, was the spear of Charlemagne, the same (as is reported) wherewith the side of our Saviour was opened, which also the said Charlemagne was wont to carry in the field against his enemies : with a portion likewise of the holy cross enclosed in crystal ; also a part of the crown of thorns in like manner enclosed.^ Of the which relics,
(1) Alias, Earl of Paris. L'Art de V. des D. Foxe, misled by Malmesbury, calls him " the French king." One or two errors are corrected in the preceding parai;raph. See supra, p. 39. — Kd.
(2) The above aceouut of Hugo's presents is corrected from the original in Malmesbury. — Ed.
om the rench
44 A LAW COXCERNIXG TITHES,
Aihehtan. part was gjvcn to Winchester, part to the cliurch of Malmcsbury,
A. D. where King Athclstan was burictl. As this king was endued and
^tl- enlarged by the gift of God (tiie setter-up and disposer of all kings)
with great victories of worldly renown, liaving under liis subjection
both the Scots and Britons, and the whole monarchv of the land ; so
he devised divers good and wholesome laws for tlie government of the
same, as well concerning the state of the orders ecclesiastical, as also
of the secular or lay people.* Whereby it is to be understood, that
the usurped power of the Bishop of Rome did not then extend itself
so largely, nor so proudly derogate from the authority of kings and
Kinps of princes, but that every one in his own dominion had, under God, and
EiiKiand pqj. under the pope, the doing of all matters within the same liis
governors .. -iiii i --i
as well in doniiuion contamed, whetlier they were causes temporal or spiritual, ecciesias- as by the decrees and constitutions of this king, and also of others temporal ^^ ^^^^^ bcforc him as after him, may evidently be testified ; as where he, amongst other laws, thus ordaineth touching the bishop, in the words that follow undcrwTitten.^ A law The said Athelstan besides prescribed other constitutions also, as
ingtithes. toucliing tithcs-giving, wlicre he saith, and proclaimeth: " I Athelstan, king, charge and command all my officers through my whole realm, to give tithes unto God of my proper goods, as well in living cattle as in the corn and fruits of the ground ; and that my bishops like- wise, of their proper goods, and mine aldermen, and my officers and headmen, shall do the same.' Item, this I will, that my bishops and other headmen do declare the same to such as be under their subjection, and that to be accomplished at the term of St. John the Baptist. Let us remember what Jacob said unto the Lord, ' Of all things that thou givest to me I will offer tithes unto the Lord ;'
(1) See the Acts of the Council of Gratley, a.b. 928, given in Wilkins's Concilia, torn. i. p. 205. —Ed.
(2) " F.piscopo jure pertinet, omnem rectitudinem promovere, Dei videlicet ac scculi. In priniis, debet oinnem ordinatum instruere, quid ei sit agendum jure, et quid hominibus secularibus judicara debeant.
" Debet etiam sedulo pacem et concordiam operaricum seculi judicibus, qui rectum velle diligunt, et in compellationum allegationem edocere, ne quis alii perperam a^at in jurejurando vtl in ordalio.
" Nee pati debet aliquam circumventionem injustje mensuriE, vel injusti ponderis. Sed convenit ut per consilium et testimonium ejus omne le;;is rectum, et burgi niensura, et omne pondus, sit secundum ditionem [alias dictionem] ejus institutum valde rectum; ne quis pro.xinium suum seducat, pro quo dccidat in pcccatum.
" Et semper debet Christianis providere contra omnia quae predicta sunt, et ideo debet se de pluribus introniittere, ut sciat quomodo grex agat, quern ad Dei manum custodire suscepit, ne diabolus eum dilaniet, nee malum aliquod superseminet. Nunquam enim erit populo bene consultum, nee digne Deo conversabitur, ubi lucrum impium et magis falsum diligitur. Ideo debent omnes amici Dei quod iniquum est enervare, etquodjustum est elevare, nee pati ut propter falsum et pecuniae quaestum homines se forisfaciant erga veresapientem Deuni,cuidisplicetomnis injustitia.
" Christianis autem omnibus necessarium est, ut rectum diligant, et iniqua condemnent, et saltern sacris ordinibus evecti justum semper crigant, et prava deponant.
" Hinc debent episcopi cum seculi judicibus judicia dictitare, et interesse judiciis, ne permittant (si possint) ut illinc aliqua pravitatum gramina pullulent. Et sacerdotibus pertinet in sua dioccesi, ut ad rectum sedulo quemcumque juvent, nee patiantur (si possint) ut Christianus aliquis alii noceat, non potens impotenti, non summus infimo, non pralatus subditis [miiioribus], non dominus hominibus suis, servis aut liberis. Et secundum ditionem [alias dictionem] et per mensuram suam convenit per rectum, ut necessaria servi [servi testamentalcs] operentur super omnem schyram cui praeest.
" Et rectum est ut non sit aliqua menjurabilis virpa longior quam alia, sed per Episcopi men- suram omnes in^titulae sint, et exequata» per suam dicccesin [in sua scriftscyra], et omne pondus constet secundum dictionem ejus, et si aliquid controversiarum intersit, discernat Episcopus
" Uniuscujusque Domini proprium est et necesse, ut servis suis condescendat et compatiatur, sicut indulgentius poterit : quia Domino Deo viventi sunt jeque chari servus et liber. Et omnes uno et eodem pretio rcdemit, et omnes sumus Deo necessario servi, et sic judicabit nos, sicut ante judicavinius eos, in quos potestateni judicii in terris habuimus. Et ideo oi)U8 est ut eis parcamus qui nobis parere debent, et tunc manutencbimur, in Dei Omnipotentis proprio judicio. Amen." — Extractum ex legib. Kegis Ethelstani. [The above is found, slightly varied, in Brompton. — Ed.]
(3) " Ego Ethelstanus Rex, consilio Ulfelmi archiepiscopi mei et aliorum episcoporum, niando praepositis omnibus in regno raeo, in nomine Domini et sanctorum omnium, ut imprimis reddant de meo proprio decinias Deo, tarn in vivente capitali, quam in mortuis frugibus terrae : et episcopi mci similiter faciant de suo proprio, ct aldcrmanni mei et propositi mci," &c.
TIIK DIFFERKXCE BKTWKKX MOKKS AXI) I'RIKSTS. 45
also, wliat the Lord saitli in the Gospel of St. Matthew, ' To him Kdmun^- that hath it sliall be given, and he shall abound.' We must also ~a^^ consider how terribly it is written in books, that ' if we will not offer 941.'
our tenths, from us nine parts shall be taken away, and only the
tenth part shall be left us.'" And, in the same place, after that he hath assigned the church rights to be paid in the place whereto they belong, it followeth, " that the king would usurp no man's goods wrongfully.'"'
Among his other laws and ordinances, to the nmuber of thirty- five, divers things are comprehended, pertaining as well to the spiri- tual, as also to the temporal jurisdiction.
Out of the laws of this king first sprang up the attachment of thieves, that such as stole above twelve pence, and Avere above twelve years old, should not be spared. Thus much, briefly, concerning the history of King Athelstan, and things in his time done, who reio-ned about the space of sixteen years i^ as he died without issue, after him succeeded his brother Edmund, a.d. 941, who reigned four years and a half.
EDMUND.'
Edmuxd, the son of Edwurd the Elder by his third wife (as is A.D. declared) and brother of Athelstan, being of the age of twenty years, ^ ^^ '» entered upon his reign, who had by his queen Elgina two sons, Edwin, ^'^^• and Edgar, surnamed Pacificus, who both reigned after him as followeth. Tliis Echiiund continued his reign four years and a half. By him were expelled the Danes, Scots, Normans, and all foreign enemies out of the land. Such cities and towns as before were in the possession of strangers, as Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby, Stafford, and Leicester, he recovered out of their hands. Thus the realm being cleared of foreign power for a time, the king set his mind upon redressing and maintaining the state of the church ; which all stood then in build- ing of monasteries, and furnishing of churches, either with new possessions, or in restoring the old, which were taken away before. In the time of this Edmund, this I find in an old written story borrowed of William Carey, a citizen of London, a Avoithy treasurer of most worthy monuments of antiquity. The name of the author I cannot allege, because the book beareth no title, lacking both the beginning and the latter end, but the words thereof faithfully recited be these, " In the time of this king, there was a scattering or dis- persion made of the monks out of the monastery of Evesham, and canons svibstituted in their place, through the doing of Athelmus and Ulricus, laymen, and of Osulfus, bishop," &c.'' a.d. 94L
Here, as concerning this matter between monks and others of the The dff- clergy, first it is to be understood, that in the realm of England here- b^wcea to fore, before the time of Dunstan, the bishops' sees and cathedral """"^^
'■ and
(1) " Facite etiam ut mihi mea propria capiatis, quae mihi poteritis recte acquirere. Nolo ut P"*^*'^' aliquid mihi injuste conquiratis. Sed omnia vestra concedo vobis eo tenore, quo mihi mea similiter exoptetis. Cavete simul et vobis, et els quos admonere debetis, ab ira Dei et trans- gressione mea." '
(2) Epitaph, in Ethelst. " Sol illustravit bisseno scorpion ortu : cum regem cauda percutit iDc sua "
(3) Edition 1563, p. !1. Ed. 1.583, p. 150. Ed. 1597, p. 135. Ed. 16S4, vol. i. p. 167.— Ed.
(4) " Hujus regis tempore facta est dispersio monachorum Eushmensis cdMiobii, cum substitu- tione canonicorum per Athelmum et Ulricum laicos, et Osulphum episcopum," &;c.
46 MONASTERY OF FLORTAKE.
Edmund, cluirclics wcie rcplciiisliccl Avitli no monks, but witli priests and canons, A.D. called tlicn clerks, or men of the clergy. After tliis, beginneth 941 to to rise a difference or a sect between these two parties in strictness of ^40- life, and in habit ; so that they -who lived after a stricter rule of holi- ness were called monks, and professed chastity; that Avas, to live without wives, for so was chastity then defined in those blind days ; as though holy matrimony were not chastity, according as Paphnutius did well define it in the Council of Nice. The other sort, who were not monks, but priests, or men of the clergy so called, lived more free from those monkish rules and observances, and were then commonly, or at least lawfully, married, and in their life and habit came nearer to the secular state of other Christians, by reason whereof great disdain and emulation were among them, insomuch that in many cathedral churches, where priests were before, there monks were put in ; and on the contrary, where monks had intruded, there priests and canons again were placed, and monks thrust out ; whereof more shall appear hereafter (by the grace of Christ), when we come to the life of Dunstan. In the mean time something to satisfy the cogita- tion of the reader, who perad venture either is ignorant, or else would know of the first coming in of monks into this realm and church of England in the Saxons' time, this is to be noted, according as I find in old chronicles, namely, in the Latin history of Malmes- bury, recorded touching the same.'
About this time of King Edmund, or shortly after, hardness and strictness of life, joined with superstition, was had in veneration, and coimted for great holiness : men, therefore, either to win public fame with men, or merits witb God, gave themselves to lead a strict life, thinking thereby, the stranger their conversation was, and the further from the common trade of vulgar people, the more The mo- perfect to be towards God and man. There was at that time, and of VrJ^ry. before that, a monastery in France named Fleury,^ after the order and rule of Benedict ; from which monastery did spring a great part of our English monks, who being there professed, and after- ward returning into England, did congregate men daily to their pro- fession ; and so, partly for strangeness of their rule, partly for outward holiness of their strict life, partly for the opinion of holiness that many had of them, were in great admiration, not only with the rude sort, but with kings and princes, who founded their houses, maintained their rules, and enlarged tlicm with possessions. Among this order of monks coming from Flcury especially was one Oswald, first a monk of Fleury, then bishop of Worcester and York, a great patron Oswald, and setter up of monkery. Touching this Oswald, Malmesbury, of Yo7k, w'riting of his history, hath these words : " It was a common custom pafron of ^^ ^^^^^ ^"^^^ amoug Englishmen, that if any good men were well- monkery affected or minded toward religion, they went to the monastery of the blessed St. Benedict in France, and there received the habit of ^♦^ . a monk, whereupon the first orimn of this religion beq-an," &:c. But
origin. , ' . c" o o "
of this Oswald, bishop of York, and Dunstan, bishop of Canterbury, and Ethelwald, bishop of AVinchester, how they replenished divers
(1) Gulicl. Malmesh de Gestis Pontificum Anglorum, lib. ii.
(2) Founded by Pepin, a.d. 695. — Kd.
DUNSTAN, ARROT OV GLASTOXnURY. 47
monasteries and catlicdral cliurchcs witli monks, and how they dis- Edmund. charged married priests and canons out of their houses, to plant "aTdT in monks in their cells, more shall be spoken, by the grace of oil to Christ, hereafter. "' ^ _J^6.
Let us now return to the matter where we left off, of King Edmund, who, besides his noble victories against his enemies, and recovering the cities above expressed into his own hands, did also subdue the province of Cumberland ; and, after he had put out the eyes of the two sons of Dunmail, king of Cumberland, he com- mitted the governance thereof to Malcolm, king of Scots, upon pro- mise of his trusty service and obedience, when the king should stand in any need of him. In the time of this king, Dunstan was not yet cunstan, archbishop of Canterbury, but only abbot of Glastonbury, of whom ciaston- many fabulous narrations pass among writers, importing more vanity ^""^^^ than verity, whereof this is one of the first. \Vliat time Edgar, called Pacificus, was bom, Dunstan, being at the same time abbot of Glastonbury, heard, as the monkish fables dream, a voice in the air of certain angels singing after this tenor, " Now peace cometh to the church of England in the time of this child, and of oiu: Dun- stan," &c. This I thought to recite, that the christian reader might Tiie sons the better ponder with himself the impudent and abominable fictions Edmund, of this Romish generation. But of the same mint also they have ^^^g*°j" forged, how the said Dunstan heard the angels sing the Kyri- vanity eleson, usually sung at even-song in the church.* \Vliich is as popes' true as that the harp, hanging in a woman's house played by itself i^Y^lg. the tune of the anthem, called, " Gaudent in ccelis," &c. What ing false would not these deceivers feign in matters something likely, who, in things so absurd and so inconvenient, shame not to lie and to forge so impudently, and also so manifestly ? Through the motion of this The Dunstan, King Edmund builded and fiirnished the monastery of ciaston- Glastonbury, and made the said Dunstan abbot thereof. buifded
Concerning the end and death of this king, sundry opinions there ty King be. Alfridus and Marianus say, that while this King Edmund endeavoured himself to save his sewer from the danger of his enemies, who would have slain him at Pulcher chm-ch, the king, in parting the fray, was wounded, and died shortly after. But Malmesbury saith,^ " that the king being at a feast at Pulcher church upon the day of St. Augustine, spied a felon sitting in the hall named Leof, Avhom he for his felony had exiled ; and leaping over the table did fly upon him, and plucked the thief by the hair of the head to the ground ; in which doing, the felon with a knife wounded the king to the death, and also with the same knife wounded many other of the king's servants, and at length was hewn down and died forth- with.
By the laws of King Edmund (ordained and set forth, as well for me laws the redress of church matters, as also of civil regiment) it would i/d!^,'"^d appear, that the state of causes both temporal and spiritual, apper- to"ciii"s tained then to the king's right (the false pretended usurpation of tiiesute the bishop of Rome notwithstanding), as by these laws is to be asu'm-^ seen : where he, by the advice of his lords and bishops did enact p°"'- and determine concerning the chastity and pure life of ecclesiastical
(\) Guliel. Malmesb. de Pontif. lib. i. (2) Idem, dc Regib lib. ii.
48 KIXG KnMLKl)"'s LAWS.
Edmund, ministers, and sucli as were in the orders of tlic eluircli, witli tlie A.D. penalties also for those who transgressed the same. 941 to Item, For tithes to be paid for every christian man, and for the ^^^- church fees, and alms fees, &c.
Item, For defilin Item, For every bishop to see his churches repaired of his own proper charge ; and boldly to admonish the king, whether the houses of God were well maintained, Sec.
Item, For flying into the church for sanctuary, &c. Item, Concerning cases and determinations spousal or matri- monial, &c.
All which constitutions declare what interest kings had in those days in matters as well ccclesiiistical as others, within their dominion ; and that, not only in disposing the ordinances and rites that apper- tained to the institution of the church, but also in placing and setting bishops in their sees, &c.
In the time of this Edmund, Ulstan was archbishop of York, and
Odo, archbishop of Canterbury, which Odo, being a Dane bom,
as is before said, was promoted to that see by King Athelstan, for
that, as they say, lie being first bishop of Wilton, and present witli
King Athelstan in the field against Analavus before-mentioned,
Avhat time the said Athelstan had lost his sword, he, through his
intercession uj) to heaven, did sec a sword from heaven come down
into the sheath of the king. Whereof relation being made unto the
king by the aforesaid bishop,' Athelstan upon the same was so
affected towards Odo, tliat not only he accounted him a patron of his
life, but also made liim primate of Canterbury after the decease
of Ulfelm. This Odo was the first from the coming in of the
Saxons, Avho was archbishojj of Canterbury, being no monk ; for all
the others before him were of the ])rofcssion of monks, of whom a
odomade great part had been Italians unto Berctualdus.^ Notwithstanding
Fieury,^ this, Odo, being also a stranger born, after he Avas elected to the
f/!!^''.':.. bishopric, to answer to the old custom of others before him, sailed
bishoi) of over into France, and there, at Fleury, after the usual manner
bury. above-mentioned of Englishmen, received the profession and habit
of monkish religion, as saith Malmesbury.' And, like as the said Odo
first being no monk, was made archbishop of Canterbury, so also
Ulstan, being at the same time bishop of York and f>f AVorcester,
differed from divers of his predecessors before him in profession
and habit ; of whom the beforenamed author thus writeth in his
third book, speaking of Ulstan, " Qui sanctitate discrepabat ct
The dif- liabitu ;" that is, " He differed in sanctimony and in habit.'"' Where-
ofTabu by it is to be collected, that in those days there was a difTercnce in
meni^^ habit and garment, not only between monks and bishops, but also
among between one bishop and another ; albeit what difference it was, I do
tiie not find. But to return again to Odo, v.ho, by the description of
ciiurch. jijg iiijjj^j^ers, might seem not to be the worst wlio occupied that
place, were it not that our Iving histories, feigning flilse miracles
about liini, as they do of others, make him indeed to seem worse
(1) Guliel. ^^almesb. de Pontif. lib. i. Polychron. lib. vi. np G.
(2) Idem, de I'ontif. lil). i.
(3) Idem, lib. iii. de I'oiiiif. Ebor.
stantia- tion not
PASTORAL LETTER OF ARCHBISHOP ODO. 49
titan he was, as where they imagine that he should see from heaven Edmur.d. a sword fall into the scabbard of King Athelstan ; also, where he ~X ij ^ should cover and defend the church of Canterbury with his prayers 941 to from rain ; and where he should turn the bread of the altar (as 940- the writer termeth it) into lively flesh, and from flesh into bread J^^ again, to confirm the people who before doubted about it. Where tirades note again, good reader ! that albeit this miracle were true, as no doubt it is untru?-, yet is it to be noted, that in those days was a great doubt amongst Englishmen about the popish sacrament, and that transubstantiation was not received into the christian creed. Transub- The like judgment is to be given also of that, where our English ■vvi-iters, testifying of the same Odo, say that he prophesied long be- IH^^^ fore that Dunstan would be his successor in the church of Canter- bury. But to let these phantasies and idle stories pass, this which we find of his own ^mting is certain, that the said Odo, in the reign of King Edmund, had a synod commenced of the chief pre- lates and men of the clergy in his time, to whom he directed this letter here following : the copy whereof I thought to give, for the reader to see what zealous care then reigned in archbishops to- ward the church of the Lord. The words of his epistle proceed in this tenor : —
The letter or epistle of Odo, archbishop of Canterbury, sent to the other bishops and men of the clergy.*
By the divine grace of God, I Odo, of the church of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ archbishopj and meti-opolitan of the city of Dover, to my fellow- bishops and fellow-planters of the Cathohc faith, and my fellow-brethren in the spiritual bond of charity, with greeting, wish prosperity in this world present, and in the world to come fehcity. If it were so, or by any means could be, that all the riches of this world were laid before mine eyes, so that I being emperor had all things universally under my subjection, all those things gladly would I give, yea and myself also I would offer willingly for the health of your souls, aa who also do desire, and trust likewise myself to be strengthened with the fervency of your holiness, as appertaining to those things wherein the Lord our God hath set us to be workmen, &c.
And after a few other words to the like eff'ect, wherein he doth declare the heavy burden of his office, it followcth after this manner : —
Wherefore most humbl}-, and as one unworthy, but yet a devout fellow-brother of yours, I beseech and exhort your holiness, that you will not show yourselves cold and negligent in the cure and regiment of souls, so that in the time of the fearful judgment, the Lord do not complain of you, saying, " My shepherds did not feed my flock, but they fed themselves;" and again, " They were princes of my flock, and I knew not of it." But rather let us take heed and be diligent over the household of the Lord, over which he hath set us to be the leaders, to give them meat and true measure of corn in time convenient ; that is to say, whole- some doctrine. And, although upon mine own merits or worthiness, I do not presume to comfort or exhort any man, but as one being unworthy and faulty in transgressions innumerable, I am glad, and stand in need rather, to be strengthened by your brotherly admonitions ; yet, for the ancient authority of my predecessors, as of Augustine of happy memory, and also of all other saints, by whose indus- try the rule of Christianity did first flourish and spring from this metropolitan see unto all quarters of England, therefore I have thought good to direct unto
(1) " Mirabili cuncti-potentis polorum prcesulis dementia opitulante, ego Odo.ecclesiae salva- toris Domini nostri Jesu Cliristi archiepiscoims, Doverniensis civitatis metropolitanus, coepis- copis fulei CatholiccE corapagatoribus, spirituali charitatis vigore meis confratribus, prcesentiuiu prosperitatem cethereique decoris beatitudinem," &c. VOL. II. E
60 DUSSTAN THK MONK, ABBOT OF GLASTOXBL'K V ,
Edmund. J'ou tliese my letters to the profit of you all ; especially, for tliat our renowned
and princely king Edmund, witli all his people, doth joy to follow that which
A. U. )je heareth in you and of you ; and also forasmuch as all his subjects, who be 940 to under his imperial dominion, do love and delight to follow most joyfully the "■'^' same, and report of your sincere conversation, &c.
This Odo continued bishop the space of eifjli teen years. After him Elsinus was elected and ordained by tlie king to succeed througli favour and money ; but, in going to Rome for the pope's pall, in his journey through the Alps, he decayed and died for cold. Hereupon succeeded Dunstan, as in time and place (by the leave of Christ) fol- loweth to be declared.
King Edmund gave to St. Edmund the Mart}T before-mentioned, the town of Brcdrichworth, which is now called St. Edmundsbury, with great revenues and lands appertaining to the same. But con- cerning the frivolous miracles Avhich our monkish story-writers here feign of this good Edmund, by the way, or rather out of the way, I Children let them pass. And thus much concerning King Edmund, who, after Edmund. ^^^ had rcignedfourycars and a-half, was slain, as it is said, at Pulcher- church, and buried at Glastonbury by Dunstan, leaving behind him two children, Edwin and Edgar, by his wife Elgina. But because the two aforesaid children were yet young, and under age, therefore Edred, Edjcd, brother to King Edmund, and uncle to the children, governed ofthe" as protector about the space of nine years and a half, till Edwin the a^d"946 eldest son came of age. This Edred, Avith great moderation and fidelity to 955. to the young children behaved himself, diu-ing the time of his govern- ment. In his time Dunstan was promoted, tlirough the means of Odo Dunstan the archbishop, from abbot of Glastonbury to be bishop of Worcester, bishop of By the counsel of this Dunstan, Edred was much ruled, and too worces- jjmc}^ thereto addicted ; insomuch that he is reported in stories to have submitted himself to much fond penance and eastigation, in- flicted on him by the said Dunstan. Such zealous devotion was then in princes, and more blind superstition in bishops. And here again is another miracle as fantastical as the other before, forged by Dunstan, that when that Edred being sick sent for Dunstan to be his confessor, by the way Dunstan should hear a voice declaring to him beforehand, that Edred was already departed ; at the declaring whereof, Dunstan's horse fell immediately dead under him — with lie and all !
EDWIN, OR EDWY.
A.D. Edwin, the eldest son of King Edmund before-mentioned, after 955 to liis uncle Edred, began his reign about a.d. 955, being crowned at ^^^' Kingston by Odo, the archbishop of Canterbury. Of this Edwin it is reported by divers writers, that the first day of his coronation, sitting with his lords, he brake suddenly from them, and entered a secret chamber, to the company of a certain woman whom he inordinately retained, being, as some say, another man's wife, whose husband he had before slain ; as others say, being of his alliance, to the great mis- liking of his lord?, and especially of the clergy. Dunstan was as yet but abbot of Glastonbury ; who, following the king into the chamber,
I
Ills ADVANCEMENT TO THE PRIMACY. ol
brought him out by the hand, and accused him to Odo, the arclibisliop, E'lwin. causing him to be separate from tlie company of the aforesaid party, ^ yy by the whicli Odo the king was for his fact suspended out of the 955 to church : by reason whereof the king, being with Dunstan displeased, 959. banished him his land, and forced him for a season to flee to Flanders, The king where he was in the monastery of St. Amand. About the same e"i''by't'ue season the monastical order of 13enedict monks, or black monks, (as •"■c'lbi- they were called,) began to multiply and increase here in England ; insomuch that where, beforetime, other priests and canons had been placed, there monks were in their rooms set in, and the secular priests (as they then were called) or canons, put out. But King Edwin, Edwin an for the displeasure he bare to Dunstan, did so vex all the order of ^,'o™^_'" the said monks, that in Malmesbury, Glastonbury, and other places more, he thrust out the monks, and set secular priests in their stead. Notwithstanding, it Avas not long but these priests and canons were again removed, and the said monks in their stead restored, both in the aforesaid houses, and in divers other cathedral churches besides, as in the next story of King Edgar (Christ willing) shall more at large appear.
In fine, King Edwin being hated, by reason of certain his de- His death, meanours, of all his subjects, especially the Northumbrians and Mercians, was by them removed from his kingly honour, and his brother Edgar in his stead received, so that the river of Thames divided both their kingdoms. Which Edwin, after he had reigned about the term of four years, departed, leaving no heir of his body, wherefore the rule of the land fell unto Edgar, his younger brother.
EDGAR, suRNAMED PAOIFIOUS.^
Edgar, the second son of Edmund, and brother to Edwin, being of A. D. the age of sixteen years, began his reign over the realm of England, 95^- A.D. 959, but was not crowned till fourteen years after,^ the causes whereof hereunder follow (Christ willing) to be declared. In the be- ginning of his reign he called home Dunstan, whom King Edwin had exiled. Then was Dunstan, who before was abbot of Glastonbury, Dunsian made bishop of Worcester, and then of London. Not long after this, ^^l^l^ of Odo, the archbishop of Canterbury, deceaseth, after he had governed Lo"don, that church twenty-four years. After Avhom, Elsinus,^ bishop ofsemiy Winchester, [first was elected ; but shortly after died, as above re- bishop of lated. After him, Brithilinus, bishop of Wells,] was elected ; but S^"'"" because he was thought not sufficient to fumish that room, Dunstan was ordained archbishop, and the other sent home again to his old church.* AVhere note by the way, how in those days the donation and assigning of ecclesiastical dignities remained in the king's hand ; only they fetched their pall from Rome as a token of the pope's con- Livings firmation. So Dunstan, being by the king made archbishop, took his ^^^rwl., iourney to Rome for his pall of Pope John XII., whicli was about andnotby
. *■ the DOPC.
the beginning of the king''s reign. Thus Dunstan, obtaining his pall, shortly after his return again from Rome entreateth King Edgar that Oswald (who, as is said, w'as made monk at Fleury, and was nephew to Odo, late archbishop of Canterbury) might be promoted to the bishopric of Worcester, which thing to him was granted ; and,
(1) Edition 1563, p. 10. Ed. 1583, p. 152. Ed. 159G, p. 13". Ed. 1684, vol. i. p. 169.— Ed.
(2) See Appendix. (3) Foxe says, erroneously, "Brithilinus:" see pp. 50, 103. — Ed. W) Kx. Hist. Ro. Hoveden, [whence the above correction of the text is made. — En.]
52 MOKKISH DRKAMS.
Ejiiar. not long after, tlirougli the means of the said Dunstan, Etlielwold,
^ J) wliom stories do feign to be tlie great patron of monkery, first monk
959. at Glastonbury, then abbot of Abingdon, was also made bishop of
Winchester. Of this Etlielwold, Malmcsbury' recordeth, that what
wold, time he was a monk in the house of Glastonbury, the abbot had a
wlnche"'^ vision of him, which was this : how that there appeared to him in his
ter, a slccp a ccrtain great tree, the branches whereof extended throughout
maimain- all the four quarters of the realm, which branches were all covered
monkery "'•'^^ many little monks' cowls ; where in the top of the tree was one
A. 1). 963. great master-eowl, which, in spreading itself over the other cowls,
enclosed all the rest; which master-cowl in the tree-top mine author,
Monkish in the interpretation, applieth to the life of this Etlielwold. Of such
reams, prodigious fantasics our monkish histories be full ; and not only our
histories of England, but also the heathen histories of the Gentiles,
be stuffed with such kind of dreams of much like effect.
Of such a like dream we read of the mother of Athelstan ; how the moon did spring out of her womb, and gave light to all England! Also of King Charles the emperor, how he was led by a thread to see the torments of hell. Likewise of Furceus, the hermit, mentioned in the third Book of Bede, who saw the joys of heaven, and the four fires that should destroy the world ; the one of lying, for breaking our promise made at baptism ; the second fire was of covetousness ; the third of dissension ; the fourth was the fire of impiety and wromrful dealinfj. Item, in like sort of the dream of Dunstan, and of the same Etlielwold, to whom appeared the three bishops, Bristan, Birin, and Swithin, &c. Item of the dream of the mother of this Ethelwold, who being great with him, did see a golden eagle fly out of her mouth, &c.; of the dream likewise, or the vision of King Edgar, concerning the falling of the two apples ; and of the pots, one being full, the other empty, of water, &e.; also of King Edward the Confessor, touching the ruin of the land by the conquest of the Normans. Wc read also in the History of Astyages, how he dreamed of Cpus ; and likewise of many other dreams in the books of the monks and of the ethnic writers ; for what cannot either the idle vanity of man's head or the deception of the lying spirit work by man, in fore- showing such earthly events as happen commonly in this present world .'* But here is a difference to be understood between these earthly dreams, speaking of earthly things and matters of human super- stition ; and between other spiritual revelations sent by God touching spiritual matters of the church, pertaining to man's salvation. But, to How and our purposc ; by this dream, and by the event which followed after, it "onksbe- "^^^ appear how, and by what means, the multitude of monks began gan to first to swarm in the churches of England, that is, in the days of this liTigiand. Edgar, by the means of these three bishops, Dunstan, Ethelwold, and Threeset- Oswald. Albeit Duustan was the chiefest ringleader of this race, yet ^"' "P."!' Ethelwold, bein? now bishop of Winchester, and Oswald bislioi) of
amonkisn ' ~ iii-ip i- ni- ••
religion. Worcester, were not much behind for their parts. By the instigation and counsel of these three aforesaid, King Edgar is recorded in histories to build either new out of the ground, or to re-edify monasteries de- cayed by the Danes, more than forty: as the house of Ely, Glastonbury, Abingdon, Burga by Stamford,^ Thorney, Ramsey,' Wilton, Winton,
(1) Ex. Guliel. Malmcsh. lib. de Gestis Pontificum Anglorum. (2) Peterborough. — En.
(3) Rumsey in Hants was founded by Ed^ar, Ramsey in Hunts re-founded. See Tanner's Notitia Monastica for confirmation of our author.
PRIESTS COMPKLLKD TO GIVK PLACE TO MONKS. 53
Winchcomb, Tavistock in Devonsliire, ^fith divers other more, in the Edgar. setting up and building' of the which the aforesaid Ethchvokl was a ^ r^ great doer, and a founder under tlie king. Moreover, through the 964. motion of this Dunstan and his fellows, king Edgar, in divers great houses and cathedral churches where prebendaries and priests were before, displaced the priests, and set in monks. Whereof we read in the Chronicle of Roger Hoveden, in words and form as followeth : — " Ethclwold, bishop of Winchester, who was then one of the king's council, did urge the king chiefly to expel clerks out of monasteries, and in their rooms to bestow monks and nuns."' Thus the secular priests being put to their choice, whether to change their habit, or to leave their rooms, departed out of their houses, giving place for other better men to come in. Then the houses and monasteries of religious men through all the realm went up apace.
After the king's mind was thus persuaded and incited by these The i-o- bishops to advance monkery, then Oswald, bishop of Worcester, and oswaidin also made archbishop of York after the decease of Oskitel, " Sui voti ^uV'"^ compos effectus,"" as Hoveden writeth, having his see in the cathedral pnests to church there of St. Peter, began first with fair persuasions to assay the Lonks" minds of the canons and priests, whether they could be content to a.d. 9G3. change their profession, and to be made monks or no ; and when he saw it would not take effect, he practised this policy with them : — near to the said church of St. Peter, within the church-yard, he erected another church of our Lady, ^ which when he had replenished with monks, he continually frequented ; there he kept, there he sat, and was ever there conversant, by reason whereof the other church was left naked and desolate, and all the people gathered there, vrhere the bishop was. The priests seeing themselves so to be left and neglected both by the bishop and by the people, to w^liom nothing remained but shame and contempt, were driven by shame either to relinquish the house (such as would not enter the monkish profession), or else to become monks (such as had nothing else to depend upon). After the like superstition, although not after the same subtilty, did Ethelwold also drive out the canons and priests from the new monastery in Winchester, afterward called Hyde, and place therein his monks. So in Oxford and in Mildune', with divers other places, the secular priests, with their wives, were expelled, to give place to monks. The cause thereof is thus pretended in certain story-writers, whom I see also Fabian to follow; for that the priests and clerks were thought slack and negligent in their church service, and set in vicars in their stead, while they lived in pleasure and mispent the patrimony of the church after their own lust. Then King Edgar gave to the vicars the same land which before belonged to the prebendaries ; who also not long after showed themselves as negligent as the others. Wherefore King Edgar, as mine authors write, by the consent of Pope John XHL, voided clearly the priests,
(1) " Hie namque Ethelwoldus regem, cujus eximius erat consiliarius, ad hoc maxime provoca- vit, ut clericos a monasteriis expelleret, et monachos sanctimonialesque in eis collocaret," &c. Ro. Hoveden, lib. Contiiiuationum post Bedam. Chro. Jornalens. Guliel. Malmesb. de Gestis Fon- tif. lib. i. Whereunto accordeth likewise Jornalensis : " Hoc anno Ethehvoldus Wint. et Oswaldus Wigorniensis, episcopi, jussu Regis Edgari (Clericis de quibusdam majoribus ecclesiis expulsis) monachos instituerunt, aut de eisdem clericis et aliis monachos in eisdera fecerunt." Malmesbury also, writing of the time of Dunstan, maketh the matter somewhat more plain, where he saith, " Itaque clerici multarum ecclesiarum data optione, ut aut amictum mutarent, aut locis valedi- cerent, melioribus habitacula vacuefacientes : surgebant itaque in tota insula rcligiosorum mo- nasteria, cumulahantur mole pretiosi mctalli sanctorum altaria," Src.
(2) Guliel. Malmesb. lib. iii. de Gest. Pont. ; Chron. Jornalen. in Vita Edgari.
(3) Malmesbury.— Ed.
MONKS I\ THE PRIMITIVE CHUECH
Edgar, aiiil ovdaincd tlicrc iiKuiks ; tliouf,di certain of the nobles and some \ iJ" of the prelates ^vcre therewith not well contented, as in the chapter 966. following may partly appear.
Ecclraias- tical
But forasmuch as we have entered upon the mention of monks and aff,iirs. nuns, and of their profession, -which 1 see so greatly in our monkish stories commended ; lest perhaps the simple reader may be deceived Thedif- thereby, in hearing the name of monks in all histories of times to be o*rde"r!alid sucli an aucicut tiling in christian life, even from the primitive tion'of church after the a])ostles'' time, both commonly recited and well monks, rcccived : therefore, to help the judgment of the ignorant, and to pre- vent all error herein, it shall not be unprofitable, in following the present occasion here given, by way of a little digression, to inter- meddle somewhat concerning the original institution of monks, Avhat they were in the old time who were called Monachi ; wherein the Two monks of the primitive time did differ from the monks of the middle theprimi- time, and from these our monks now of this latter age ; moreover, church, wherein all these three do differ fi'om priests, as we call them, and from men of the clergy. Wherefore, to answer to the superstitious scruple of those who allege the old antiquity of the name and title of monks, first, I grant the name and order of monks to be of old continuance, nearly from the time of three hundred years after Christ ; of whom divers old authors do discourse, as Augustine, llieronymus, Basilius Magnus (who was also himself one of the first institutors and com- menders of that superstition), Chrysostom, Nazianzen, Evagrius, So- zomen, Dionysius, and divers others. In the number of these monks, who then were divided into hermits or anchorites, and into Coenobites, were Antonius, Paulus, and Johannes, with divers other recluses, among whom were Hieromc, Basil. JVIacharius, Isidore, Pambns, Nilammon, Simeon, with infinite others, both in Palestine, Syria, Thebes, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Africa, and Scythia ; insomuch that Cassianus' maketh mention of a certain monastery at Thebes, wherein were above 5,000 monks, under the government of one abbot. And here also in England mention is made before of Bangor, wherein were 2,200 monks under one man's ruling [a.d. 596] ; whereby it appcarcth that there were monks then, and two hundred years before, in the primitive time of the church. But what monks these were, is to be considered : such as by tyranny of persecution were driven into solitary and desert places, or else such as not constrained by any, but of their own voluntary devotion, joined witli some superstition, for the love they had unto spiritual contemplation, and for hatred of the Avicked world, withdrew themselves from all company, either having nothing to themselves proper, or else all thiuLTs Monks in common with others. Now all these were then notiiing else buL Hme^were l^ymcu : of wliicli laymcu there were two sundry sorts, one of the only lay yulgar and common pco])le, who only were partakers of the sacraments ; u-adinga the otlicrs, tlu-ougli following a monastical kind of life, were called monks, being nothing but la}Tnen leading a more severe and stricter trade of life than others.
By the authors quoted in the notc,^ it is evident that monks
(2) Aupust. lib. du nionbus c-.-clcsia', ca]!. l.l. iti-iii, lib. de operihu.s Monaohonim. Item, Kpis- tola ad Aurclium. Also by Ilierome ad Heliodorum, writing these words: " Alia monachoriim
>trict life.
NOT RESTRAINED FROM MARRIAGE. 55
in the former age of the church, albeit they lived a solitary life, Edgur. yet were they no other but laymen, differing from priests and also Ecciesuu- from the other monks who succeeded them afterwards in the middle „^"/,
age of the church, and that in three points : First, they were tied
and bound to no prescribed form, either of diet or apparel, or any uleprimi- thing else, as we may see testified by the words of St. Augustine.' "j^^''™" And Sozomen, speaking of the monks of the same time, who in from ' ^ cities had several mansions separate from others, saith, " Some live ti'e'se- "' in cities, so behaving themselves, as seeming nothing worth, and they oJ'JSjj'^'' differed nothing from the multitude,''- &c. The second point wherein church, they were discrepant from the later monks was, that they remained in no other order but that of laymen, only being of a stricter life than the rest, and had nothing to do in matters and charges ecclesiastical ; which was afterward broken by Pope Boniface IV., as followeth (the Lord willing) to be seen and said. Thirdly, the aforesaid monks of some that age, albeit the most part of them lived sole and single froniried^M"" wives, yet some of them were married : certes, none of them were ""ra^r".! forbidden or restrained from maniage. Of such as were married ff"™ '^'■'■• speaketh Athanasius, who says, " he knew both monks and bishops, "^^*" as married men, and fathers of children.'"*
The said monks of the old time, though they were better than supersti- the others who followed them, yet, all that notwithstanding, super- f^\"^^ stition with them, and among them, began then to creep into the mockery. church through the crafty subtilty of Satan, and all for the ignorance of our free justification by faith in Jesus Christ. Examples do declare the vain and prodigious superstition of these monastical sorts of men ; which examples do not lack, if leisure rather did not lack to igno- bring them in. But two or three shall suffice for many, which I pur- freT pose (the Lord willing) here to insert, to the intent the mind of by^christ the godly reader may the better consider and understand, how the cause shortly after the time of Christ and his apostles, the doctrine of pereti-^"" christian justification began to be forgotten, true religion turned to "°°" superstition, and the price of Chiisfs passion to be obscured through the vain opinion of men's merits, kc. A certain abbot, named Moses, thus testifieth of himself in the Collations of Cassianus, that he so afflicted himself with much fasting and watching, that sometimes, for two or three days together, not only he felt no appetite to eat, but also had no remembrance of any meat at all, and by reason thereof was driven also from sleep ; insomuch that he was caused to pray to God but for some portion of the night to be given him, for a little refreshing of sleep.^ In the same author mention is made of
est causa, alia clericorum ; clerici pascunt oves, ego pascor," &c. that is, " One thing pertaineth to monks, another thing unto them of the clergy; they of the clergy feed their flock. I am fed," &c. Kt ex Dionysio. The same appeareth likewise by the fourth canon of the Council of Chalcedon, where it is provided, " Ne monachi se ecclesiasticis negotiis immisceant ;" that is, " That monks should not intermeddle with matters of the church," &c. Et Leo, Epistola 62. vetat Monachos et Laicos, •' etsi scientiae nomine glorientur, admitti ad officium docendi et concionandi."
(1) " Neque inter ha?c nemo urgetur in aspera, qua; ferre non potest : nulli quod recusat imponitur; nee ideo contemnitur a cfeteris, quiid in eis imitandis se fatetur invalidum. Jleminerunt enim quantopere commendata sit in scripturis charitas. Meminerunt omnia munda mundis, &c. ' Non quod intrat in os coinquinat hominem, sed quod exit.' Itaque non rejiciendis generibus ciborum quasi pollutis, sed concupiscentice perdoniandte, et dilectioni fratrum retinenda; invigilat omnis in- dustria." — August, de Institutis Monachorum.
(2) " Alii in turba civitatum conversabantur, sic scipsos gerentes, ut nuUius momenti videren- tur et a multis nihil differrent," (tc— Lib. iii. cap. 16.
{?) " Se novisse et monachos et episcopos conjuges ct liberorum patres," &c.— In Epistola ad Dracontium. (4) Cassian. Collat. 2 cap, 17.
ranee of justi-
56 MONKS OF THE MIDDl-E AGES.
JCdgar. a certain old man, u liennit, who, because he had conceived in liinisclf
£ccifsias- sucli a puqiosc as never to cat meat without he liad some guest or
affatri. straugcr with him. sometimes was constrained to abstain five days
togetlier until Sunday, when he went to tlie church, and thence
brouglit some stranger or other liome with liim.
Two otlier examples more will I add out of the said Cassianus, to
declare liow the subtilty of Satan, through superstition and false
colour of holiness, blindeth the miserable eyes of those who rather
attend men''s traditions than the word of God. The said author
relates that a certain abbot named Johannes, in the desert of Scythia,
niind sent two of his novices with figs unto one that was sick in the wilder-
supersti- ncss, ciglitccn miles off from the chiu-ch. It chanced that these
*'°"" two young novices, missing the way, wandered so long in the
wild forest or wihlorncss, unable to find the cell, that for emptiness
and weariness they waxed faint and tired ; and yet rather would they
die than taste the figs committed to them to carry, and so they did,
for shortly after they were found dead, their figs lying whole by
them.^
Another story also Cassianus reciteth, of two monastical brethren, who making their progress in the desert of Thebes, purposed with themselves to take no sustenance but such as the Lord himself Anrth-r should minister \mto them. It happened, as they were wandering desolate in the desert, and fainting almost for penury, that certain !Maziscs, a kind of people by nature fierce and cruel, notwithstanding being suddenly altered into a new nature of humanity, came forth, and of their own accord, offered bread unto them ; which bread, the one thankfully received as sent of God ; the other, accounting it sent of man, and not of God, refused it, and so for lack perished.^
Hereunto might I also annex the story of Mucins, who, to declare
his obedience, did not stick, at the commandment of his abbot, to
cast his son into the water, not knowing whether any were appointed
Ajiother. there ready to rescue him from drowning ; so far were the monks in
those days drowned in superstition. What is this, but for man's
traditions and commandments to transgress the commandments of
Monicerj' God, w^ho saith, " Thou shalt do no murder ;" " Thou shalt not
ther of tempt the Lord thy God ?" What man is so blind, that seetli not by
tio?rind these, and infinite examples more, what pernicious superstition had
i>yp'>- begun by reason of this monkery, almost from the beginning, to creep
into the church ? whereat I cannot marvel enough, seeing that
age of the church had in it so many learned and famous doctors,
who not only did approve and allow these monastical sects of life,
but also certain were themselves the authors and institutors of the
sajne, yea, and of men's traditions made the service of God ; in
the number of whom may be reckoned Basilius Magnus, and Nazi-
anzen, mIio, with innnodcrate austerity, did so pluck down themselves,
that when they were called to the office of bishops, they were not
able to sustain the labour thereof.
Monks of After these aforesaid monks of that time, above-recited, followed
(i:eand otlicr uiouks of the middle age of the church, who, as in multitude,
^^^^ so also in superstition increasing, began, by little and little, from
church ^^^^^^ desolate dens in the vast wilderness, to approach more near to
(1) Cassiun. [Instit. Coenob. lib. v.] cap. 40, de Spiritu Gastrimarp.— Ed
(2) See Appendix. (3) Cassian. CoUat. ii. cap. G. — En.
lar-
MOXKS OF THE LATTER AGES OF TIIK CIItTRCH. O
great towns, -where tlicy had solemn monasteries founded by kings Ed^ar. and queens, and king's daughters, and other rich consuls, as is partly eccUs before touched upon, and also the causes withal for which they „^™^'^ were first founded.^ All these impious and erroneous titles and ^~~f causes we find alleged in histories, as in Malmesbury, Jornalensis, theiomut- Henricus, and others. In those histories I also note, that most of the ll^a'ltcrh^r monasteries were erected first upon some great murder, either by war n^^e"^" in the field, or privately committed at home, as shall well appear tending to them that read their books to whom I have refeiTcd. aeroRa-
But, to return to our monks again, who, as is said, first began to elJris't's creep from the cold fields into warm towns and cloisters, from towns passion, then mto cities, and at length from their close cells and cities, into christian cathedral churches (as here appeareth by this story of King Edgar), ^^^^^' where, not only did they abound in wealth and riches (especially these monks of our later time), but much more did they swim in supersti- tion and Pharisaical hypocrisy, being yoked and tied in all their doings to certain prescribed rules and formal observances ; in watch- ing, in sleeping, in eating, in rising, in praying, in walking, in talking, in looking, in tasting, in touching, in handling, in their gestures, in their vestures, every man apparelled not as the proper condition of others would require, nor as the season of the year did serve, but as the compulsory rules and order of every sect did enforce.
The number of monkish sects was infinitely divers •- some, after various St. BasiFs rule, went in white ; some, after Benefs rule, in black ; Monks'.' some, Cluniacenses, first set up by Otho in the time of this King Edgar, wore* after the rule of Benet's order ; some, after Hierome''s rule, were leather-girdled, and coped above their white coat ; some Gregorians were copper-coloured ; some, ' De valle umbrosa," were grey monks; some, Grandimontenses, wore a coat of mail upon their bare bodies, with a black cloak thereupon : some, Cistercians, had white rochets on a black coat ; some, Celestines, all in blue, both cloak, cowl and cap ; some, Charter monks, wearing haircloth next their bodies ; some. Flagellants, going barefoot in long Avhite linen shirts, with an open place in the back, where they beat themselves with scourges on the bare skin every day before the people's eyes, till the blood ran down, saying, that it was revealed to them by an angel, that in so scourging themselves, within thirty days and twelve hom-s they should be made as pure from sin as they were when they first received baptism ; some, Starred monks ; some, Jesuats, with a white girdle an da russet cowl. Briefly, who can reckon up the innumerable sects and disguised orders of their fraternities ? some holding of St. Benet, some of St. Hierome, some of St. Basil, some of St. Ber- nard, some of St. Bridget, some of St. Bruno, some of St. Lewis ; as though it were not enough for Christians to hold of Christ only. So subject were tliey to servile rules, that no part of christian liberty remained among thorn ; so drowned and sunk in superstition, that not only they had lostChrisfs religion, but also almost the sense and nature of men. For where men naturally are and ought to be ruled
(1) "Pro remedio anims meEB," " pro remissione peccatornm menrum," " pro redemptione peccatorum meorum, Pt pro salute regnorura. quique meo subjacent rejrimini populoruni," " in honorem gloriosae Virginia. " (2) i.e. Henry of Huntingdon. — Ed.
68 KXGLAND UNITED UNDER ONE MONAUCHV.
r-^gar. by the discreet government of reason in all outward doings wliercin no Eccicsins- one rule can serve for all men, the circumstance of time, place, person
affairs, ^"d busiucss bciug so sundry and divers ; on the contrary, among "— these, not rca.son, but only the knock of a bell ruled all their dointrs :
Monks .1 • • ■ 1-1 • 1 • • 1 • • 1 . *?
ruled by their rising, tlieir sleeping, their praying, their eating, their coming of a'ben.'' •»» their going out, their talking, their silence ; and altogether, like insensible people, either not having reason to rule themselves, or else as persons ungrateful to God, neither enjoying the benefit of reason created in them, nor yet using the grace of Christ's liberty, whercunto lie redeemed them.
Thus thou seest, gentle reader ! sufficiently declared, what the
monks were in the primitive tunc of the church, and what were the
monks of the middle age, and of these our latter days of the church;
whcrcunto join this witiial, that whereas the monks of elder time, as
is said, were mere laymen, and not spiritual ministers, afterwards
A.D. C06. Boniface IV. made a decree, that monks might use the offices of
preaching, christening, and hearing confessions ; and also, that of
absolving them from their sins : so that monks, who, in the beginning.
Made wcrc but laymcu, and not spiritual ministers, forbidden by the general
min/stcrs couucil of Chalccdou, as is above related, to intermeddle with matters
to'the ae- ecclesiastical, afterwards, in process of time, did so much encroach
crccs and upon tlic officc of Spiritual ministers, that at length the priests were
of the"^ discharged out of their cathedral churches, and monks put in their
places ; because that monks in those days, leading a stricter life, and
professing chastity, had a greater countenance of holiness among the
people than had the priests, who then, in the days of King Edgar,
Priests had wivcs (at least so many as would), no law forbidding them till
the time of Ilildcbrand, now called Gregory VII., whereof more shall
be said (Christ willing) in the book next following.
custom of the cluircl)
had wives
A.D. 567. And thus much, by the way, as touching the order and profession
of monks. Now, to turn in again from whence we digTcssed, that is,
to the matter of King Edgar, who, following the counsel and leading
of Dunstan, and the aforesaid Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester, was
somewhat thereby inclined to superstition ; but, otherwise, of his own
nature, well given to all virtues and princely acts worthy of much
The wor. commendation and famous memory. So excellent was he in justice,
ofKi'lig^ and sharp in correction of vices, as well in his magistrates as other
td^ar. subjects, that never before his days was less felony by robbers, nor less
extortion or bribery by false officers. Such provinces and lordships
as were not yet come under the king's subjection, he united and
F.npiand adjoiucd to his dominion ; and so made one perfect monarchy of the
to'oiTe'* whole realm of England, with all the islands and borders about the
)!erfect gamc. Such as were Avickcd he kept under ; he repressed those that
ciiy. were rebels ; the godly he maintained ; he loved the modest ; he was
devout to God, and beloved of his subjects, whom he governed in
)nuch peace and quietness. And as he was a great seeker of peace,
so God did bless him with much abundance of peace and rest from all
wars, so tluit, as the history recordeth of him, '' he neither tasted of
any privy treason among his subjects, nor of any invasion of foreign
enemies,'" for which he was called Pacificus. So studious he was
of the public profit of his realm, and fruitful in his government,
AVOLVES DRIVEN OUT OF ENGLAND. 59
that, as the said story saitli of him, " no year passed in all the time Edgar. of his reign, wherein he did not some singidar and necessary com- a.D. modity for the commonwealth." ' A great maintaincr he was of 970. rehgion and learning, not forgetting herein the foresteps of King ^^~^ Alfred his predecessor. Among his other princely virtues this chiefly and is to be regarded, that whereas other princes in much peace and ^nv quietness are commonly wont to grow into a dissolute negligence ^^^^^' of life, or oblivion of their charge committed unto them ; this king, in continuance of peace (that notwithstanding), kept ever with him such a watch, and a vigilant severity joined with a seemly clemency, that I cannot but recite here what our historians witness, testifying of his diligent and great care over the commonwealth, " that he would suffer no man, of what degi-ee of nobility soever he were, to evade his laws without condign punishment." ^ And the same author adds, " in all his time there was neither any privy picker, nor open thief, but he that in stealing other men's goods Avould venture, and suffer, as he was sure to do, the loss of his own life."^
Moreover, as the studious industry of th.is prince was forward in woives all other points, so his prudent provision did not lack in this also, venomof in driving out the devouring and ravening wolves throughout all his England, land, wherein he used this policy, in causing Llewellyn, prince or king of Wales, to yield him yearly, by way of tribute, SOO wolves ; by means whereof, within the space of four years after, in England and Wales, might scarcely be found one "W'olf alive.
This Edgar, among other of his politic deeds, had in readiness The pro- 3600 ships of war to scour the seas in the summer-time, whereof 1200 King" Ed- kept the east seas ; as many defended the west side ; and again, feepfng as many were in the south seas to repulse the invasion of foreign ^'^^ «eas. enemies. Moreover, in the winter season, the use and manner of this virtuous king was this : during all the time of his life, to ride over the land in progress, searching and inquiring diligently (to use the words of mine author), " how the laws and statutes by him or- a notaWe dained were kept, and that the poor should suffer no prejudice, or fo/^f "^ be oppressed in any manner of way by the mightier,"* &c. Briefly, ^"hfcesto as I see many things in this worthy prince to be commended, so fo""^^'- this one thing in him I cannot but lament, to see him, like a phenix, to fly alone ; that of all his posterity so few there be that seek to keep him company. And although I have showed more already of this king than I think will well be followed, yet this more is to be added to the worthiness of his other acts, that whereas, by the multitude of the Danes dwelling in divers places of England, much excessive drinking was used, whereupon ensued drunkenness and Tiie de- many other vices, to the evil example and hurt of his subjects ; KhV^- he, therefore, to prevent that evil, ordained certain cups, with pins ^i?eVent or nails set in them, adding thereunto a law, that what person drank drunk'm- past the mark at one draught should forfeit a certain penny, whereof "^''*'
(1) " Nullus fere annus in chronicls praeleriit, quo non magnum et necessarium patrioB aliquid fecerit."
(2) " Ut nullum cujuscunque dignitatis hominem leges eludere impune permitteret.".
(3) " Nemo ejus tempore privatus la'ro, nemo popularis pra'do, nisi qui mallet in fortunas alienas grassari propria; vitas dispendio," itc. Guliel. Malmesb. de Reg.
(4) " Ouomodo legum jura, et suorum statuta decretorum oljservarentur ; et ne pauperes a potPntibus praejudicium passi oppii i erentur."
60 VICKS NOTKD IN EDGAK.
jidgar. oHc half slioiilcl fall to tlic accuscr, and the other half to the ruler A.D. of the borougli or town where the offence was done. 971. It is reported of this Ed " thirteenth year of his reign, he being at Chester, eight kings, called
in histories Subreguli, to wit, petty-kings, or under-kings, came and EiRht did homage to him ; of whom the first was the king of Scots, hOTflge" called Kenneth, Malcolm of Cumberland, Mackus, or Mascusinus, Edga'"^ king of Monia,' and of divers other islands ; and all the kings of Wales, the names of whom were Dufiial or Dunewald, Sifresh, Hawaii, Jacob, and Vikyll or Juchel. All these kings, after they hail f;ivcn their fidelity to Edgar, the day following, for a pomp or royalty, he entered with these aforesaid kings the river Dee ; where he, sitting in a boat, took the rule of the helm, and caused these eight kings, every person taking an oar in his hand, to row him up and down the river, to and from the church of St. John, unto his palace again, in token that he was master and lord of so many provinces, whereupon he is reported to have said in this manner : •' Tunc demum posse successores suos gloriari, se Rcgcs Angli?e esse, cum tanta pricrogativa honorum frucrentur." But in my mind this king had done much better, if he had rather said with St. Paul, " Absit raihi gloriari, nisi in cruce Domini nostri Jesu Christi." Edgar a And thus yc havc heard hitherto, touching the commendation of tb^"up- King Edgar, such reports as the old monkish writers thought to mon""*^ bestow upou him, as upon the great patron of their monkish religion, who had builded as many monasteries for them as there were Sundays in the year, as some say, or, but forty-eight, as Edmer reporteth. Vices Now, on the other side, what vices in him were reigning, let us
likewise consider, according as we find in the said authors described, who most AVTote to his advancement. The first vice is noted to be cruelty as well towards others, as especially towards a certain earl, being of his secret council, called Ethelwold. The story is this : Ordgar, duke of Devonshire, had a certain daughter, named Elfrida, Avhose beautv being highly commended to the king, and he being inflamed therewith, he sent this aforesaid Ethelwold (whom he especially trusted) to the party, to see and to bring him word again, and if her beauty were such as was reported, willing him also to make the match between them. Ethelwold well viewing the party, and seeing her beauty nothing inferior to her fame, and thinking first to serve his o^^^l turn, told all things contrary imto the king. Whereupon the king, withdrawing his mind otherwise, in the end it came to pass that Ethelwold himself did marry her.
Not long after, the king, understanding further by the complaints and rumours of certain, how he was ])revcntcd and beguiled, set a foir face upon the matter before Ethelwold, and merrily jesting with him, told him how he would come and see his wife ; and indeed appointed the day when he would be there. Ethelwold, the husband, perceiving this matter to go hardly with him, made haste to his wife, declaring to her the coming of the king, and also opening the Avhole order of the matter how he had done; desiring her of all love, as she would save his life, to disgi-ace and deform herself with, garments and such attire as the king might take no delight in her.
(I) That is, "the Isle of Man." Sec Hoffman vv. Mannia, and Monia. — Ed.
noted in Edgar
HIS CKUELTY AND IMCONTINENCY. Gl
Elfrlda liearing this, what did she, but, contrary to the request of her Edgar. husband and promise of a Avife, against the king''s coming trim ~Xd herself at the gL^ss, and deck her in her best array ; whom, when 975.'
the king behekl, he was not so much enamoured with her as in
hatred with her husband, who had so deceived him. Whereupon the king shortly after, making as though he would go to hunt in the forest of Harewood, sent for Ethclwold to come to him under His cm- the pretence of hunting, and there ran him through and slew him. "^"y- A.fter this the bastard son of Ethelwold coming to him, the kino- asked him how he liked that hunting 'i who answered, " That which pleaseth the king ought not to displease me." For the death of this Ethelwold, Elfrida afterwards builded a monastery of nuns, for remission of sins.
Another fault which Malmesbury noteth in him, was the coming Great de- in of strangers into this land, as Saxons, Flemings, and Danes, Avhom toTh^' he with gi-eat familiarity retained, to the great detriment of the land, ^hl"" |^. as the aforesaid story of Malmesbury rccordeth, whose words be these: ear. "whereby it happened that divers strangers, out of foreign countries, allured by his fame, came into the land, as Saxons, Flemings, and Danes also, ail whom he retained with great familiarity ; the coming of which strangers Avi-ought great damage to the realm, and therefore is Edgar justly blamed in stories,"^ &c. With this reprehension all the Saxon stories also do agree.
The third vice to him objected was his incontinency and his His in- lasciviousness of life. He degraded a duke's daughter, being [°f"""^"' a nun, and a virgin named Wilfrida, or Wilstrud, of which Wilfrida f was born Editha, a bastard daughter of Edgar. Also a certain other virgin in the town of Andover, who was privily conveyed into his chamber by this means : the lascivious king, coming to Andover, not far from Winchester, and thinking to have his desire of a cer- tain other duke's daughter, of whose beauty he heard much speaking, commanded the maid to be brought unto him. The mother of the virgin, gi-ieving to have her daughter so wronged, secretly, by night, conveyed to the king's chamber, instead of her daughter, another maiden of beauty and favour not uncomely, who, in the morning rising to her work, and so being known by the king who she was, had granted unto her by the king such liberty and freedom, that of a servant she was made mistress both to her ,master, and also to her mistress.*
Among other concubines Edgar had Egelfleda, or Elfleda, called Edward Candida, the fair daughter of Duke Ordmer," she being also a basurdy professed nun, of whom he had Edward ; for which he Avas en- Kin"*Ed joined by Dunstan seven years' penance, which being complete, he card's took to him as his lawful Avife,* Elfrida, the mother of Edmund and "" Ethelred, otherAvise called Egelred, whereof more shall be said (the Lord willing) hereafter.
Over and besides all these vices, noted and objected to King Edgar, in our monkish story-Avriters, I also obserA^e another no less, or rather a greater vice than the other before-recited, Avhich was blind
vl) " Unde factum est, ut fkma ejus per ora omnium volitante, alienigena», Saxones, Flandrits, Ipsi etiam Dani hue frequenter annavigarent, Edgaro fauiiliares elfecti. Quorum adventus mafpuim provincialibus detrimentum peperit. Inde merito jureque repreliendunt eum literoc," &c
'?; Ex Mattli. Paris, lib. de Regib. (.3) Gulielm. Malmesb. (t) Idcni.
C2 EDGAu's BLIND SLPEKSTITIOX. HIS DEATH.
Rdgar. supcrstition, which brou^'ht iJolatiou^ monkery into the churcli of
A.D. Christ, with the wrongful expelling of lawful married priests out of
975. their houses. Whereupon, what inconveniences ensued in this realm,
j^„jj jy. especially in the house of the Lord, I leave to the consideration of
K*"" se- those who have heard of the detestable enormities of those religious
Du^nstan, votarics: the occasion whereof, first and chiefly, began in this Edgar,
E"hei- through the instigation of Dunstan and his fellows ; who, after they
wold, bi- ]jjj(| inveigled the king, and had brought him over to their purpose,
Winches- caused him to call a council of the clergy, where it was enacted and
^"' decreed that the canons of divers cathedral churches, collegiates,
parsons, vicars, priests and deacons, with their wives and children,
either should give over that kind of life, or else give room to
monks, Sec. For execution of which decree, two principal visitors
were appointed ; Athelwold, or Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester,
and Oswald, bishop of Worcester, as is before mentioned.^
And thus much conceming the history of King Edgar, and of such tilings as in his tune happened in the church, which Edgar, after he had entered into the parts of Britany, to subdue the rebellion of the Welshmen, and there had spoiled the country of Glamorgan, and Avasted that of Odo, within ten days after, when he had reigned the H'* space of sixteen years, died, and was buried at Glastonbury, leaving after him two bastards, to wit, Editha and Edward, and one son laA\fully begotten, named Ethclred, or otherwise by conniption called Egclrc'd : for Edmund, the elder son, died before his father.
Ye heard before how King Edgar is noted in all stories to be an incontinent liver. In consequence of his connexion with Elfled, mother of Edward, he was stayed and kept back from his coronation by Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury, the space of seven years : and so the said king, beginning his reign in the sixteenth year of his age, being a.d. 959, was crowned in the thirty-first year of his age, A.D. 973, as is by the Saxon Chronicle of Worcester Church to be proved.^ For the more evident declaration of which matter, concerning the coronation of the king restrained, and tlie presumptuous behaviour of Dunstan against the king, and his penance by the said Dunstan enjoined, ye shall hear both Osberne, Malmesbury, and other authors speak in their own words, as followeth : " Perpetrate itaque in virgi- nem velatam peccato,"" he? After Dunstan had understanding of the king's offence perpetrated with the professed nun, and that the same was blazed amongst the people, with great ire and passion of mind he came to the king, who, seeing the archbishop coming, eftsoons of gentleness arose from his regal scat towards him, to take him by the Dunstan hand, and to give him place. But Dunstan refusing to take him by take^the° t^'^ hand, and with stern countenance bending his brows, spake after king by \\^\^ effect of words, as stories import, unto the king : " You that have
tlie hand. p ^ • • i i i f ro •
not teared to corrupt a virgm made handtast to Christ, presume you to touch the consecrated hands of a bishop ? You have defiled the spouse of your Maker, and think you by flattering service to pacify the friend of the bridegroom ? No, Sir, his friend will not I be, who hath Christ to his enemy." The king, terrified with these tJiundering words of Dunstan, and compuncted with inward re-
(1) Ex Osbcrno in Vita Dunstnni. fcil. 27; Malmcsbur. de Vit. Pontif. ; Ropr. Iloved. et aliis.
(2) Ex Chronico Saxonico Ecclesice Wi^orniensis. (3) Ex Osbemo in Vita Dunstani.
ERRORS COMMITTED BY HISTORIANS. 63
pentance of his crime perpetrated, fell down with weeping at the feet Edgar. of Dunstan, wlio, after he had raised him np from the ground again, \ q began to utter to him the horribleness of his fact ; and finding the 975. king ready to receive whatsoever satisfaction he would lay upon him, enjoined him this penance for seven years' space, as followeth : —
" That he should wear no crown all that space ; that he should fast twice in Penance the week ; that he should distribute his treasure, left to him of his ancestors, (T^vlj",'''* liberally unto the poor; tliat he should build a monastery of nuns, in order that as he had robbed God of one virgin through his transgression, so he should restore to him many again in times to come. Moreover, he should expel clerks of evil Meaning life out of churches, and place covents of monks in their room : that he should ^^'r^ enact just and godly laws ; and that he should write out portions of the holy had Vivts Scriptures, to be distributed among the people of his realm." and chil-
It followeth, then, in the story of Osberne, that when the seven years Edgar of the king's penance were expired, Dunstan, calling together all buf"hree the peers of the realm, with bishops, abbots, and other ecclesiastical >'^^" degrees of the clergy, in the public sight of all the multitude, set the king. crown upon the king's head, at Bath, which was the one and thirtieth year of his age, and fourteenth of his reign ; so that he reigned only three years crowned king. All the other years besides, Dunstan, it is likely, ruled the land as he listed. Furthermore, as touching the son of the said Elfleda, Osberne -wTiteth to this effect, " The child also which was born of Elfleda, he baptized in the holy fountain of regeneration, and so giving him the name of Edward, he did adopt him to be his son."^ By this narration, agreeing also with the story Errors in of the Saxon book abovcmentioned, there is evinced a double un- bury'^a^nd truth or error, either negligently overseen, or of purpose dissembled, °''^'^"' in our later monkish story-writers, as in Malmesbury, Matthew Paris, Matthew of Westminster, and others ; who, to conceal the fault of King Edgar, or to square with Dunstan's fact in setting up Edward for the maintenance of their monkish order, first do falsely aflftrm that Editha, the daughter of Wilfrida, was bom after Edward, and that for her this penance was enjoined on King Edgar. This neither is, nor can be so, as in process hereafter (the Lord willing) shall appear.
Secondly, they are deceived in this, that they affirm King Edgar to have two wives ; and that Elfleda, the mother of Edward, was not a professed nun indeed, but dissembled so to be, to avoid the violence of the king ; whereas, indeed, the truth of the story both giveth her to be a nun, and her son to be base, and she herself never to be married unto the king.^
Now, forasmuch as we have hitherto entered mention of Wilfrida and Editha, and also of Elfleda and Dunstan, here should not be let pass to speak something of their lying miracles, ialsely forged, to the great seduction of christian people, by super- stitious monks, who cared not what fables and lies they brouo-ht into the church, so that they might have the advantage of poor men's purses and oblations. And first, here come in the fabulous miracles wought at the tomb of Elfleda, the king's concubine, which William of Malmesbury in certain verses expresseth ;^ the English of
(I) " Puerum quoque ex peccatrice quondam prosenitum, sacro fonte regeneratum lavavit, et aptato lUi nomine Eriwardo in (ilium sibi adoptavit." (2) See Appendix.— Ed.
(') " Nam nonnuUis passa annis morborum molestiam,
Defecatam et excoctam Deo dedit animam.
Functas ergo vita fato bcatas exuvias
lufinitis Clemens signis illustravit Deltas: Inopes
64 FORGED mihacles of dunstak.
EdgftT-^ wliich it is needless liere to recite. Briefly, tlic effect is this : — That
X.U. both the l)lin(l, deaf, lialt, and such as be mad, receive their health
975. again, if thev worsliij) the tomb of this Elflcda. The like feignings and
The idle monstrous nuracles we read also in chronicles of the doting Dunstan,
fantasiej tlrowTicd in all supcrstition, if he were not also a wicked sorcerer.
forged First, how he, being yet a boy, chased away the devil, set about with
S'oun- a great company of dogs, and how the angels did open the church
"^" door for him to enter; then, how the lute or harp, hanging upon the
wall, did sing or play without any finger these words : " The souls of
the saints, who have followed the footsteps of Christ, and who have shed
tlieir blood for his love''s sake, are rejoicing in lieaven ; tlierefore they
Dunst7.n shall rcign with Christ for ever.''' Item, where a certain great beam or
sercr. master-post was loosed out of its place, he, by making the sign (;f a
the'difvu cross, set it in right frame again. Moreover, how the said Dunstan,
by the bciug tempted upon a time by the devil, with impure cogitations,
a hot pair cauglit the dcvil by the nose with a hot pair of tongs, and held him
of tongs. £^gj.^ Item, how heavenly spirits often appeared to liim, and used
to talk with him familiarly. Item, how he prophesied of the birth of
King Edgar, of the death of King Egelred, of the death of Editha,
and of Ethehvald, bishop of Winchester. Also, how our Lady, with
her fellows, appeared visibly to him, singing this song :
" Cantemiis Domino, socire, cantemus honorem ; Dulcis amor Cliristi personet ore pio."^
Again, how the angels appeared to him, singing the hymn called " Kyrie Rex splendens," and yet these prodigious fantasies, with others, are written of him in chronicles, and have been believed in churches. A foul Among many other false and lying miracles, forged in this corrupt
mh-aciein time of moukcry, the fabulous, or rather filthy legend of Editha, were ofEditiia. ^^^ ^^ ^^ overpassed, if for shame and honesty it might well be recited. But to cast the dirt of these pope-holy monks in their own face, who so impudently have abused the church of Christ, and the simplicity of the people, with their vmgracious vanities, let us see what this miracle is, and how honestly it is told. Another Certain years after the death of Editha, saith William of Mal- PunMan. mcsbury, whicli years Capgrave in his new legend rcckoneth to be thir- teen, the said Editha, and also St. Dennis, holding her by the hand, appeared to Dunstan in a vision, willing and requiring him that the body of Editha, in the church of Wilton, should be taken up and shrined, to the intent it might be honoured here on earth by her ser- vants, according as it is worshipped by her spouse in heaven. Dunstan, upon this, coming from Salisbury to Wilton, where Editha was interred, commanded her body to be taken up witli much honour and solemnity ; who, there, on opening her tomb (as both Malmesbury . and Capgrave with shame enough record), found the whole body of this Editha consumed to earth, save only her thumb, and a few other
Inopes visus et auditus si adorant tumulum, Sanitati restituti probant sanctae meritum* Rertum gressum rcfert domuin, qui accessit loripes : Mente captus rcdit sanus, boni sensus locuples." (1) " Gaudcnt in cd'lis anima; sanctciruiTi, qui Christi vestigia sunt sequuti, et qui pro ejus amore fan^inem suum fudcruiit ; ideo cum Christo rcpnabunt in .Tternum."
(21 What marvel, if certain books and epistles be falsely ascribed to the doctors, when the papist! shame not to ascribe other men's verses also to the Virgin Mary herself?
CONTENTION AMONGST THE LORDS. 65
parts. Whereof the said Editha, expoundhig the meaning, declared E that lier thumb remained sound for the much crossing she used with the same, and that the other parts were uncorrupted for a testimony of lier abstinence and integrity.'
What Satan hath so envied the true sincerity of christian faith and doctrine, as to contaminate tlie same with such impudent tales, such filthy vanities, and such idolatrous fantasies as these ? Such monks, with their detestable houses, where Christ's people were so abomi- nably abused, and seduced to worship dead carcases of men and women, whether they deserved not to be rased and plucked down to the ground, let all chaste readers judge. But of these matters enough and too much.
Here foUoweth the Epitaph ^vritten by Henry, archdeacon of Huntingdon, upon the praise and commendation of King Edgar : —
" Alitor opum, vindex scelerum, largitor liononim, An epi-
Sceptiger Edgarus regna superna petit. menda™*
Hie alter Salomon, legum pater, orbita pacis,: toryof
Quod caruit bellis, claruit inde magis. l^'n?
Tenipla Deo, templis monachos, monachis dedit agros, ^^^'
Neqiiitiae lapsuiii, justitiiEqiie locum. Novit enim regno verum perquirere falso,
Immensum modico, perpetuumque brevi."
Among his other laws, this king ordained that the Sunday should be solemnized from Satiu'day at nine o'clock till Monday morning.
EDWARD II., CALLED THE MARTYR.^
After the death of King Edgar no small trouble arose among ^ jy the k)rds and bishops about the succession of the crown ; the principal 975. cause whereof arose on this occasion, as by the story of Simon of conten- Dm-ham, and Roger Hoveden, is declared. Immediately after the amongst decease of the king, Alferus duke of Mercia, and many other "i^ lords nobles who held with Egelred, or Ethelred, the only right heir and putting in lawful son of Edgar, dishking the placing and intruding of monks °^™°"''^- into churches, and the thrusting of the secular priests, with their wives and childi-en, out of their ancient possessions, expelled the abbots and monks, and brought in again the aforesaid priests, with their wives ; against whom, certain others there were on the contrary part that made resistance, as Ethelwin, duke of East Angles, Elfwold his brother, and the Earl Brithnoth, saying, in a council together assembled, " That they would never suffer the religious monks to be expelled and driven out of the realm, who held up all religion in the land ; " and, thereupon, immediately levied an army, wherewith to defend by force such monasteries as were within the precincts of East Anglia.
In this hurly-burly amongst the lords, about the placing of monks, Also for and putting out of priests, rose also the contention about the crown, [he k^g. who should be their king; the bishops and such lords as favoured the monks, seeking to advance such a king as they knew would incline
(1) Ex Guliel. Malmesb., et Capgravo, in iegenda nova.
(2) Edition 1563, p. 11. Ed. 1583, p. 157. Ed. 1596, p. 142 Ed. 16S1, vol. i. p. 175. Ed. VOL. II. 1.-
()6 HOWARD THK BASTARD MADE KIXG,
Edu-ard to tliclr siclc ; so that the lords tlius divided, some of tlieni would
Moriyr. liavc Eilward, and some arrrccd upon Egclred, the lawful son.
"^757 Then Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury, and Oswald, archbishop
975. of York, with other their fellow-bishops, abbots, and divers other
lords and dukes, assembled tojrether in a council ; into which council
the^Bas- Dunstan coming with his cross in his hand, and bringing Edward
kingl^'and bcforc tlic lords, so persuaded them, that, in the end, Edward, by
the riRht Dunstan's means, was elected, consecrated, and anointed for their king.
bit^k)'" And thus hast thou, good reader, the very truth of this story,
according to the \^Titing of authors of most antiquity who lived nearest
to that age, as Osberne and others ;* which Osberne, living in the days
of William the Conqueror, wrote this story of Dunstan on the motion
of Lanfranc, and allegeth, or rather translateth the same out of such
Saxon stories as were written before his time. Besides this Osberne,
we have also for witness hereof, Nicholas Trivet, in his English
History, ^vritten in French, and also Johannes Paris, in his French
History, written in the Latin tongue, where he plainly calleth Ed-
Avard, " non legitimum filium," that is, "no lawful son.'' Where-
unto add, moreover, the testimony of Vincentius and Antoninus,
who in plain terms likewise report the same.
Editha Now, having laid the foundation for the truth and ground of this
chiid'for r>iatter, let us come to examine how truly our later writers do say,
whomEd- ■who write that Editha, and not Edward, was the child for whom
enjoined Duustan cnjoined the king seven years' penance; and, also, how truly
penai.ce. ^j^^^ report Edward to be'the lawful heir, and Elfleda to be the lawful
wife, to King Edgar. For first touching Editha, this is confessed by
the said writers themselves, that she was of good years at the time
Edgar, her fiither, was enjoined his penance ; after which seven years
of his penance were expired, he lived, at the most, but three years
and a half; Avhich seven years, and three years and a half, do make in
all but tea years and a half. But now the said authors themselves
do grant, that she was made abbess by her father, he being then
alive. And how then can this stand with her legend, which saith,
that she was not less than fifteen years of age .'' By which account it
must needs fall out, that she could not be so little as five years old
before the birth of that child for whom the king did penance. And
thus much touching Editha.
The years Now, in like manner, to consider of the time of Edward. First,
and'Jd-'^ this by all writers is granted, that he was slain in the fifteenth year
ward. of his agc, which age doth well agree to that bastard child which King
Edgar had, and for which he did penance ; for the more evidence
whereof, let us come to the computation of the years in this sort :
first, the penance of the king after the birth of this child lasted
seven years ; then, the king, after the same, lived three years and a
half; after whose death Edward reigned other three years and a half,
which in all make the full sum of fourteen years, about the count
of which age, by their own reckoning, the said Edward, going on in
his fifteenth year, was slain.
Thus have ye, by manifest demonstration, proved by the right casting u]) of the years, after their own grant and reckoning, that Editha, daughter of Wilfrida, in no case can be the child that was
(1) Ex Osbern., Nic. Trivet., Johan. Paris., Vincentio, Antonino.
AND THE RIGHT ITEIR DEFEATED. 07
bom after Edward, and for whom the king was enjoined penance ; J^'hvard but that Edward rather was bom after Editha, and was tlie child for Ma'/tyr. whom the penance was enjoined, contrary to the opinion commonly . ,. received in the church, whicli, for ignorance of the story, liath hitlierto 97.'-,.
holden EdAvard to be a holy martyr, and right licir to the cro\Mi.
How this eiTor and opinion first sj)rang up, and by whom, albeit it pertain not to my story to discuss, yet were it no hard matter to conjecture.
First, after that Dunstan and Oswald, with other bishops, abbots, Thecause and certain lords and dukes of that faction, for the maintenance of "!'*y "'i?
^ . . /-v , . story of
monkery, had advanced Edward to be king, against Queen Elfrida, Edward is mother of Ethelred, and Alferus, duke of Mercia, and certain other corrupted nobles who held with the contrary side of the priests against the ]"hTis^ monks ; in process of time, the monks that came to write stories, tof'^s. perceiving Dunstan to be reputed in the church of Rome for a holy saint, and the said King Edward for a holy martyr, and partly also to bolster up their own religion of monkery as much as they could, to the intent that they might save the credit both of Dunstan and the king, and especially bearing favour to their own religion, and partly that the reputation of the church of Rome should not be stained by opening the truth of this matter, either they did not see, or would not confess herein what they knew, but rather thought best to blanch the story, and colourably to hide the simple truth thereof; making the people falsely believe that Elfleda, the mother of Edward, was wife to King Edgar, and that Edward was lawfully born, and also that Editha was born after Edward, and was the child for which the king was enjoined penance. All which is false, and contrary both to the order of time above declared, and also to the plain Avords of Mal- mesbury, who, speaking of King Edgar''s last concubine, saith in plain words, " Dilexit unice,integram lecto uni deferens fidem, quoad legi- timam uxorem accepit Elfthridem, filiam Ordgari : " ' that is, " He had a concubine whom he loved entirely, keeping true faith to her alone, until the time he married for his lawful wife Elfrida, the daughter of Duke Ordgar :" whereby we have to understand, that whatsoever woman this was of whom Malmesbury speaketh, certain it is, that Edgar lived incontinently till the time he married his lawful wife. Furthermore, and to conclude : beside these arguments and allegations above-recited, let this also be appended, how the said Dunstan Dunstan, with his accomplices, after the killing of King Edward, g^jj^^'^j. leaving the right heir of the crown, namely, Ethelred, went about (as thato Capgrave^ in their own legend confesseth) to set up Editha, the other crown bastard, to possess the crown ; but that she, more wise than her brother rlghlheu-. Edward, refused the same. Whereby what is to be thought of the doings of Dunstan, and what could be the cause why he prefen-ed both Edward and Editha to the crown, rather than the lawful heir, I leave to all indifferent readers thereof to judge.
After Dunstan and his fellows had thus set up Edward for their king, they were now where they would be, supposing all to be sure on their side, and that they had established the kingdom of monkery for ever, through the help of the young king, and the duke of East
(1) Guliel. Malmesb. in lib. de Regib.
(2) Capgrav. in Vita Sanctae Edithse.
G8 COXTKNTIOX AHOLT MONKS AND PRIESTS.
EJtcard Angles, and certain other nobles whom they had drawn to their part.
Marls/r. Howbcit, tliis mattcr passed not so well with them as they hoped ;
A.D. f"r» shortly after the coronation of this young king, Alferus, duke of
976. Mcrcia, who followed much the deeds of the queen, with other great
men, stoutly standing on the contrary side, drove out the monks from
the cathedral churches, whom King Edgar before had set in, and
Priests restored the priests, as Kamdphus saith, with their co7icuhines ;
wiles'"'" "^iit. in the history of the library of Jornalensis, I find it plainly cx-
restorcd. presscd, with their reives. The very words of the author be these : —
" Alferus, duke of Mercia, with other great men, drove out the monks
from the great monasteries, whom King Edgar had there set in before,
Bishops and restored again the priests with their wives.""' Whereby it doth
prists in evidently appear that priests in those days were married, and had
!ia°? ^^^^'' '^^^^'^^'^ wives. The like before that, in King Ina's time, is plain,
married, that bishops then had wives and children, as appcareth by the words
of the law then set forth, and extant in the history of Jornalensis.^
And thus much, by the wav, for priests' wives and their children.
Now to our purpose again, which is to declare how tiie duke and
nobles of England expelled the monks out of the monasteries after
the death of King Edgar ; whereof let us hear what the monkish
Great stir story of the abbey of Crowland recordeth : — " The monks being
in the . . «
land expelled out of certain monasteries, the clerks again were brought piadngin "^i ^^^^^ distributed the manors or forms of the said monasteries to monks, the dukcs and lords of the land, that they being obliged to them,
find uiS" .z o »_f '
placing; should defend them against the monks. And so were the monks pnebts. Q^ Evesham tlmist out, and the secular clerks placed therein, and the lands of the church given to the lords ; Avith whom the queen, the king''s stepmother, holding at the same time, took part also with the said clerks against the king. On the contrary side stood the king and the holy bishops, taking part with the monks. Howbeit the lords and peers of the realm, staying upon the fovour and power of the queen, triumphed over the monks.""^ Priests' Thus, as there was much ado throudi all quarters of the realm
marriage i.i iiii
noted for about the matter amonar the lords, so arose no less contention custom in between the priests and monks of England. The priests complaining England, ^q the king and Dunstan, said for themselves that it was uncomely, uncharitable, yea, and unnatural, to put out an old known dweller, for a new unknown ; and that God was not pleased, that that should be taken from the ancient possessor, which by God was given him ; neither that it could be of any good man accepted, to suffer any such injury to be done, lest peradventure the same thing, wherein he was prejudicial to another, might afterwards revert and redound upon himself at last.* The monks on the other side said for their
(1) "Alferus princeps Merciorura, caeterique plures, ejectis monachis de magnis monasteriis, quos Rex Edgarus nuper instituerat, Clericos cum uxoribus reduxerunt." — Historia Jornalensis, in Vita Edgari. — Idem.
(2) " Si quis filiolum alterius occidat vcl patrinum, sit simile cognationi, et crescat emendatio secundum Weram ejus regi, sicut cognationi. Si de parentela sit qui occidit eum, tuncexcedat emendatio patrini, sicut mandata Domini. Si episcopi filiolus sit, sit dimidium hoc," &c.— Idem.
(3) " Monachis dc quibusdam monasteriis ejectis, clerici sunt introducti, qui statim monasteri- orum maneria ducibus terra; distribuebant, ut sic in suas partes obligati, cos contra monachos defensarent. Tunc dc Monasterio Eveshamensi monacliis expulsis, clerici fuerunt introducti. TerTcEque tyranni de terris ccclesirc pr.tmiati sunt, quibus regina novercali neciuitia, stans cum clericis in regis opprobrium, favebat. Cum monachis autem rex et sancti episcopi persistcbant. Sed tyranni, fulti rogina; favore et poloiitia, super monachos triumphabant. Multus inde tumultus in omni angulo Anglia; factus est."— Ex Chronico Ingulphi Abbatis de Crowland.
(4) Gulicl. de Rcgih. lih ii
A COUNCIL AT CALNE. 69
part, that Clirist allowed neither the old dweller, nor the new comer, Edward nor yet looked upon the person, but whoso would take the cross A/awV of penance upon him, and follow Christ in virtuous living, should be ^ ^ his disciple. 978.
These and such other were the allegations of the monks ; but
Avhether a monk's cowl, or a wifeless life, make a sufficient title to enter into other men's possessions or no, I refer it to the judgment Married of the godly. The troublous cares in marriage, the necessary pro- J"^!^"^^ vision for housekeeping, the virtuous bringing up of children, the ^"'j'JP^'^-*^ daily helping of poverty, and bearing of public charges, with other those of manifest perturbations and incumbrances daily incident to the state ™°" of matrimony, might rather appear, to godly Avise men, to come nearer to the right cross of penance, than the easy and loitering idleness of monkery. In the end, upon this controversy, was holden a council of bishops and others of the clergy. First, at Reading, or at Win- chester, as Malmesbury saith, where the greater part, both of the nobles and commons, judged the priests to be greatly wronged, and sought by all means possible to bring them again to their old pos- sessions and dignities. Jornalensis here maketh rehearsal of an image a.d. 97s. of the crucifix, or a rood standing upon the frater-wall, where the council was holden. To this rood Dunstan required them all to a vain pray, being belike not ignorant of some spiritual provision before- ™Du„'i hand. In the midst of their prayer the rood (or else some blind ^oo^ j^at monk behind it in a trunk) through the wall, is reported to speak spake. these words, " Absit hoc ut fiat ; absit hoc ut fiat : judicastis bene, ^^^^ mutaretis non bene." In remembrance whereof these verses were aThomas
, T) r> , Cromwell
WTitten under the rood s teet : to try out
false jug-
" Humano more crux praesens edidit ore, g'mg-
Coelitus affata, quae perspicis hie subarata; Absit ut hoc fiat, et czetera tunc memorata."
Of this Dunstanical, or rather Satanical oracle, Henry maketh no mention, nor Ranulph, nor yet Hoveden, nor Fabian, in their histories. Malmesbury, in his book De Regibus, reporteth it, but by hearsay, in these words, saying, " Alise litera? docent," &c. ; wherefore of the less credit it seemeth to be. Albeit if it were of credible truth, yet it proveth in this matter nothing else but Dunstan to be a sorcerer, as Polydore Vkgil also himself seemeth to smell something in this matter.
Notwithstanding all this the strife ceased not ; insomuch that a council a new assembly of the clergy and others was appointed afterwards at a place called the Street of Calne, where the council was kept in an upper loft. In this council many grievous complaints were made, as Malmesbury saith, against Dunstan ; but yet he kept his opinion, and would not remove from that which he had begun to maintain. And while thev w'cre in m-eat contention and arsfument a sudden
. . fall of the
Avhich way should be admitted and allowed (if that be true which in people at the stories is written), suddenly the joists of the loft failed, and the ^^ *^'"^"' people with the nobles fell down, so that certain were slain, and many hurt.^ But Dunstan, they say, only standing upon a post of the gallery which remained unbroken, escaped without danger. Which
(1) Henricus, lib. v. ; Malniesb., Ranulph, Jornalensis, Fabian.
70 MIIlDKIl OF KINO KDWAKU.
Edtrard thin?, whctlicr it so lia])))inc(l to portend the ruin of the realm and
^f'ar'iyr. of tlic noljlcs, tis Hcnrj Huntingdon doth expound it, which after
"^ J) ensued by the Danes, or whether it was so wrought by Dunstan's
978. sorccrv, as was not impossible, or whether it were a thing but
feigned of the monkish writers, and not true ; all this I leave
to the readers to think therein what they like. The stories say further, that upon this, the matter ceased, and Dunstan had all his will.
These things tluis done at Calne, it happened not long after, that
King Edward, whom writers describe to be a virtuous and a
meek prince, very pitiful and beneficial to the poor, about the fourth
year of his reign came upon a time from hunting in the forest alone,
without a company of his servants, to the place in the west country,
where Queen Elfrida his mother, with her son Egelred, did live.
Thehor- When shc was warned of his coming by her men, anon she calletli
wicked- a Servant of hers, Mho was of her special trust, opening to him all her
quten-^^ couccived couuscl, and showing him all points, how, and what to do,
mother, fj^^ ^he accomplishing of her wicked purpose. Which thing done,
she made towards the king, and received him with all courtesy,
desiring him to tarry that night ; but he, in like courtesy, excused
himself, and for speed desired to see his brother, and to take some
drink upon his horse sitting, which was shortly brought. While
the cup was at his mouth, the servant of the queen, being instigated,
Kinp; Ed- struck him in tlic body with a long two-edged dagger ; after which
Terousfy' strolcc, tlic king took the horse with the spurs, and ran toward the
dered ^''^J "^^^'^^'^ lic cxpcctcd to meet with his company ; but he bled so
A d's^ sore, that with i'aintness he fell from his horse, one foot remaining
in the stirrup, by reason whereof he was dravii by his horse over
fields and lands, till he came to a place named Corfegate, where he
was found dead ; and because neither the manner of his death, nor
Edward yet he liimsclf, to be the king, was known, he was buried unhonourably
not' ' at the town of Wareham, wliere the body remained the space of three
bTkTng!" y^^^s ; after Avhich it was taken up by Duke Alferus beforementioned,
reinter- and with pomp and honour accordingly, was removed to the minster
shattes- of Shaftcsbury, and there bestowed in the place called Edwardstow.
^^^' Many tales run, more perchance than be true, concerning the
finding and taking up of his body, which our most common histories
ascribe to miracles and great wonders wrought about the place where
the king was buried. As first, how a poor woman, bom blind, received
her sight by the means of St. Edward, there where he did lie. Also,
how a ])illar of fire from heaven descended over the place of his
burial. Then, how the aforesaid Queen Elfrida, taking her horse to
go to tlie place, was stopped by the way, so that neither her horse
could be driven by any nicans, nor she herself on foot was able to
approach near to the place where the corpse of St. Edward was.
Twonui - Furthermore, how the said queen, in repentance of her deed, afterward
fou^rdcd buildcd two nunneries, one at Amesbury by Salisbury, the other at
roTdcr. Werewell, where she ke])t herself in continual repentance all the
days of her life. And thus, as ye have heard, was this virtuous
young King Edward murdered, when he had reigned almost four
years, leaving no issue l)chind him, whereby the rule of the land fell
to Egelred, his brother.
ECCLKSIASTICAL AFFAlllS. 'J J
But here by the way is to be noted, upon the name of this Edward, Ecciesi- that there Avere three Edwards before tlie conquest. The first was "affairl King Edward the Elder; the second, Kinij Edward the Martyr, v/ho ~ —
o ^ ' o J ' Edwards
was this king; the third was King Edward, called the Confessor, I'eiore the whereof hereafter shall follow, Christ willing, to be declared. conquebt.
In the order and course of the Roman bishops, mention was made contimi- last of Agapetus II., after whom next succeeded Pope John XII., \l^°^^J. of whom Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury, received his pall, as in ™ish the story of King Edgar is before minded. This pope is noted to o^ pope's. be very wicked and infamous, replete, from his first bringing up, with ^'^' ^*''' abominable vices ; a whoremaster, an adulterer, incestuous, libidinous, a gamester, an extortioner, perjured, a fighter, a murderer, cruel and tyrannous. Of his cardinals, some he put out their eyes, from some he cut off their tongues, some their fingers, some their noses. In a general council before the Emperor Otho, the first of that name (who was the first emperor of the Germans), after the empire was translated out of France to Germany by Pope Agapetus, as is before historied, these objections were articulate against him :' — " That he never said his service ; that in saying his mass he did not communi- cate ; that he ordained deacons in a stable ; that he committed incest with two of his sisters ; that playing at dice he called for the devil to help; that for money he made boys bishops; that he turned the palace of the Lateran to the vilest of uses ; that he put out the eyes of t Bishop Benedict ; that he caused houses to be set on fire ; that he brake open houses ; that he drank to the devil ; that he never crossed himself,'" &c. For these causes, and worthily, he was deposed by the a.d. 963. consent of the emperor with the prelates, and Pope Leo was substi- J^X tuted in his place; but after his departing, through the harlots of ^^^.'•^j'^'^" Rome and their great promises the said Pope John was restored again and aher- to his place, and Leo, who had been set up by the emperor, was de- ^stored, posed. At length, about the tenth year of the popedom of this John, he being found without the city with another man's wife, was so wounded of her husband, that within eight days after he died.
After him the Romans elected Pope Benedict V., without the consent of the Emperor Otho ; whereupon the said emperor, being not a little displeased for displacing of Leo, whom he had before promoted, and for the choosing also of Benedict, came with his army a.d. d64. and laid siege to Rome, and so set up Pope Leo again, the eighth of that name ; which Leo, to gratify his benefactor again, crowned Otho for emperor, and entitled him to be called Augustus. Also the power which Charlemagne had given before to the clergy and people The eke of Rome, this Leo, by a synodal decree, granted to the emperor and {he"bifiiop his successors ; that is, touchins: the election of the bishop of Rome, "f ''^""i''
mi ' ' o 1 ffivcil to
1 he emperor again restored to the see of Rome all such donations the em- and possessions which either Constantine (as they falsely pretend), or ^"""^ which Charlemagne took from the Lombards, and gave to them.
After Pope Leo had reigned a year and three months, succeeded Pope Pope John XIII., against whom, for holding with the emperor, xin. Petrus the head captain of the city, with two consuls, twelve aldermen, and divers other nobles, gathering their power together, laid hands
(1) Luithprandus, lib. vi.
FIRST CIIRISTKXING OF BKLLS.
Ecclesi- astical affairs.
The cruel revenge of the pope.
Cliristen- ing of bells be- gun.
Pope Benedict