The monasteries remained in ruins until the reign of King Edgar, who was a great supporter of the Church, and seemed to be under the complete control of Archbishop Dunstan—the first episcopal pluralist—the originator of a practice, contrary to the primitive custom of the Church, which, in subsequent centuries, was carried to a most scandalous extent. Wolsey, in more modern times, held several bishoprics at the same time, and yet one of his great objects was the reformation of the Church. But he should have commenced at home. The ostensible reason assigned in Dunstan’s time for his conduct, was that there was a dearth of suitable men for the episcopal appointments; but the real cause was, as in the case of Bishop Oswald, to carry out the scheme for removing the seculars and bringing the monks into the cathedral churches. In Wolsey’s time the same ostensible reason could not be urged. But the revenues of a multiplicity of bishoprics were necessary to maintain his pride and extravagant living, and to build palaces, which he presented to an ungrateful king. The leading church ideas of King Edgar during his reign were, (1) to rebuild the monasteries which lay in ruins, and (2) to drive the married clergy out of the convents, replacing them by monks. Dunstan, Athelwold of Winchester, and Oswald of Worcester (afterwards of York), were the king’s chief agents in carrying out his schemes. It does not appear that any of the other bishops had taken an active share in the work. Before King Edgar’s reign, the monasteries were filled with secular clergymen, who did duty outside their monasteries. The English monks passed through three reformations: (1) At the Council of Cloveshoe, A.D. 747, where no reference was made to Benedict’s rule, although it had been framed in 529 and approved of by the Pope in 595. (2) At the Council of Winchester, A.D. 965, where Benedict’s rule was prominently set forth for general adoption. The monks were henceforth to confine themselves to their cloisters, to have no parochial cure of souls, and to adopt celibacy. These facts alone prove that the discipline of the Roman Church on the Continent, was imported into the English Church long before the Norman Conquest. Some writers, in treating of tithes and other church endowments, strive to show that the Church of England, before the Conquest, had not the same doctrines as the Roman Church. The object of this line of erroneous argument is to show that the endowments of the Church of England were given to her when her doctrines were different from those of the Church of Rome. The system of doctrinal development which was going on in the Roman Church on the Continent, was introduced and adopted in the Church of England by her hierarchy and priests. (3) At the Council of London, A.D. 1075, where monks were enjoined to adhere more strictly to the rule of Benedict.