The History of England, Volume I From Egbert through Edward the Martyr Edred
by David Hume
The reign of this prince, as those of his predecessors, was disturbed
by the rebellions and incursions of the Northumbrian Danes, who,
though frequently quelled, were never entirely subdued, nor had ever
paid a sincere allegiance to the crown of England. The accession of a
new king seemed to them a favourable opportunity for shaking off the
yoke; but on Edred’s appearance with an army, they made him their
wonted submissions; and the king having wasted the country with fire
and sword, as a punishment for their rebellion, obliged them to renew
their oaths of allegiance; and he straight retired with his forces.
The obedience of the Danes lasted no longer than the present terror.
Provoked at the devastations of Edred, and even reduced by necessity
to subsist on plunder, they broke into a new rebellion, and were again
subdued; but the king, now instructed by experience, took greater
precautions against their future revolt. He fixed English garrisons
in their most considerable towns; and placed over them an English
governor, who might watch all their motions, and suppress any
insurrection on its first appearance. He obliged also Malcolm, King
of Scotland, to renew his homage for the lands which he held in
England.
Edred, though not unwarlike, nor unfit for active life, lay under the
influence of the lowest superstition, and had blindly delivered over
his conscience to the guidance of Dunstan, commonly called St.
Dunstan, Abbot of Glastonbury, whom he advanced to the highest
offices, and who covered, under the appearance of sanctity, the most
violent and most insolent ambition. Taking advantage of the implicit
confidence reposed in him by the king, this churchman imported into
England a new order of monks, who much changed the state of
ecclesiastical affairs, and excited, on their first establishment, the
most violent commotions.
From the introduction of Christianity among the Saxons, there had been
monasteries in England; and these establishments had extremely
multiplied, by the donations of the princes and nobles; whose
superstition, derived from their ignorance and precarious life, and
increased by remorse for the crimes into which they were so frequently
betrayed, knew no other expedient for appeasing the Deity than a
profuse liberality towards the ecclesiastics. But the monks had
hitherto been a species of secular priests, who lived after the manner
of the present canons or prebendaries, and were both intermingled, in
some degree, with the world, and endeavoured to render themselves
useful to it. They were employed in the education of youth [e]: they
had the disposal of their own time and industry: they were not
subjected to the rigid rules of an order: they had made no vows of
implicit obedience to their superiors [f]: and they still retained the
choice, without quitting the convent, either of a married or a single
life [g]. But a mistaken piety had produced in Italy a new species of
monks called Benedictines; who, carrying farther the plausible
principles of mortification, secluded themselves entirely from the
world, renounced all claim to liberty, and made a merit of the most
inviolable chastity. These practices and principles, which
superstition at first engendered, were greedily embraced and promoted
by the policy of the court of Rome. The Roman pontiff, who was making
every day great advances towards an absolute sovereignty over the
ecclesiastics, perceived that the celibacy of the clergy alone could
break off entirely their connexion with the civil power, and depriving
them of every other object of ambition, engage them to promote, with
unceasing industry, the grandeur of their own order. He was sensible,
that so long as the monks were indulged in marriage, and were
permitted to rear families, they never could be subjected to strict
discipline, or reduced to that slavery under their superiors, which
was requisite to procure to the mandates issued from Rome, a ready and
zealous obedience. Celibacy, therefore, began to be extolled, as the
indispensable duty of priests; and the pope undertook to make all the
clergy throughout the western world renounce at once the privilege of
marriage: a fortunate policy; but at the same time an undertaking the
most difficult of any, since he had the strongest propensities of
human nature to encounter, and found, that the same connexions with
the female sex, which generally encourage devotion, were here
unfavourable to the success of his project. It is no wonder
therefore, that this master-stroke of art should have met with violent
contradiction, and that the interests of the hierarchy, and the
inclinations of the priests, being now placed in this singular
opposition, should, notwithstanding the continued efforts of Rome,
have retarded the execution of that bold scheme, during the course of
near three centuries.
[ [e] Osberne in Anglia Sacra, tom. 2. p. 92. [f] Osberne, p. 91.
[g] See Wharton’s notes to Anglia Sacra, tom. 2. p. 91. Gervase, p.
1645. Chron Wint. MS. apud Spell. Conc. p. 434.]
As the bishops and parochial clergy lived apart with their families,
and were more connected with the world, the hopes of success with them
were fainter; and the pretence for making them renounce marriage was
much less plausible. But the pope, having cast his eye on the monks
as the basis of his authority, was determined to reduce them under
strict rules of obedience, to procure them the credit of sanctity by
an appearance of the most rigid mortification, and to break off all
their other ties which might interfere with his spiritual policy.
Under pretence, therefore, of reforming abuses, which were, in some
degree, unavoidable in the ancient establishments, he had already
spread over the southern countries of Europe the severe laws of the
monastic life, and began to form attempts towards a like innovation in
England. The favourable opportunity offered itself, (and it was
greedily seized,) arising from the weak, superstition of Edred, and
the violent impetuous character of Dunstan.
Dunstan was born of noble parents in the west of England; and being
educated under his uncle Aldhelm, then Archbishop of Canterbury, had
betaken himself to the ecclesiastical life, and had acquired some
character in the court of Edmund. He was, however, represented to
that prince as a man of licentious manners [h]: and finding his
fortune blasted by these suspicions, his ardent ambition prompted him
to repair his indiscretions by running into an opposite extreme. He
secluded himself entirely from the world; he framed a cell so small,
that he could neither stand erect in it nor stretch out his limbs
during his repose; and he here employed himself perpetually either in
devotion or in manual labour [i]. It is probable, that his brain
became gradually crazed by these solitary occupations, and that his
head was filled with chimeras, which, being believed by himself and
his stupid votaries, procured him the general character of sanctity
among the people. He fancied that the devil, among the frequent
visits which he paid him, was one day more earnest than usual in his
temptations; till Dunstan, provoked at his importunity, seized him by
the nose with a pair of red-hot pincers, as he put his head into the
cell; and he held him there till that malignant spirit made the whole
neighbourhood resound with his bellowings. This notable exploit was
seriously credited and extolled by the public: it is transmitted to
posterity by one who, considering the age in which he lived, may pass
for a writer of some eloquence [k]; and it ensured to Dunstan a
reputation which no real piety, much less virtue, could, even in the
most enlightened period, have ever procured him with the people.
[ [h] Osberne, p. 95 Matth West, p. 187. [i] Osberne, p. 96. [k]
Osberne, p. 97.]
Supported by the character obtained in his retreat, Dunstan appeared
again in the world; and gained such an ascendant over Edred, who had
succeeded to the crown, as made him not only the director of that
prince’s conscience, but his counsellor in the most momentous affairs
of government. He was placed at the head of the treasury [l], and
being thus possessed both of power at court, and of credit with the
populace, he was enabled to attempt with success the most arduous
enterprises. Finding that his advancement had been owing to the
opinion of his austerity, he professed himself a partisan of the rigid
monastic rules; and after introducing that reformation into the
convents of Glastonbury and Abingdon, he endeavoured to render it
universal in the kingdom.
[ [1] Ibid. p. 102. Wallingford, p. 541.]
The minds of men were already well prepared for this innovation. The
praises of an inviolable chastity had been carried to the highest
extravagance by some of the first preachers of Christianity among the
Saxons: the pleasures of love had been represented as incompatible
with Christian perfection; and a total abstinence from all commerce
with the sex was deemed such a meritorious penance, as was sufficient
to atone for the greatest enormities. The consequence seemed natural,
that those, at least, who officiated at the altar should be clear of
this pollution; and when the doctrine of transubstantiation, which was
now creeping in [m], was once fully established, the reverence to the
real body of Christ in the eucharist bestowed on this argument an
additional force and influence. The monks knew how to avail
themselves of all these popular topics, and to set off their own
character to the best advantage. They affected the greatest austerity
of life and manners: they indulged themselves in the highest strains
of devotion: they inveighed bitterly against the vices and pretended
luxury of the age: they were particularly vehement against the
dissolute lives of the secular clergy, their rivals: every instance of
libertinism in any individual of that order was represented as a
general corruption: and where other topics of defamation were wanting,
their marriage became a sure subject of invective, and their wives
received the name of CONCUBINE, or other more opprobrious appellation.
The secular clergy, on the other hand, who were numerous and rich, and
possessed of the ecclesiastical dignities, defended themselves with
vigour, and endeavoured to retaliate upon their adversaries. The
people were thrown into agitation; and few instances occur of more
violent dissensions, excited by the most material differences in
religion, or rather by the most frivolous: since it is a just remark,
that the more affinity there is between theological parties, the
greater commonly is their animosity.
[ [m] Spell. Conc. v. i. p. 452.]
The progress of the monks, which was become considerable, was somewhat
retarded by the death of Edred, their partisan, who expired after a
reign of nine years [n]. He left children; but as they were infants,
his nephew, Edwy, son of Edmund, was placed on the throne.