A Student's History of England, v. 1: B.C. 55-A.D. 1509: From the Earliest Times to the Death of King Edward VIIGardiner, Samuel Rawson
History
A Student's History of England, v. 1: B.C. 55-A.D. 1509: From the Earliest Times to the Death of King Edward VII
Gardiner, Samuel Rawson
Great Britain -- History; Great Britain -- History -- Outlines, syllabi, etc.
1. =Eadgar and Dunstan. 959--975.=--Eadgar was known as the Peaceful
King. He had the advantage, which Eadwig had not, of having the Church
on his side. He maintained order, with the help of Dunstan as his
principal adviser. Not long after his accession Dunstan became
Archbishop of Canterbury. His policy was that of a man who knows that
he cannot do everything and is content to do what he can. The Danes
were to keep their own laws, and not to have English laws forced upon
them. The great ealdormen were to be conciliated, not to be repressed.
Everything was to be done to raise the standard of morality and
knowledge. Foreign teachers were brought in to set up schools. More
than this Dunstan did not attempt. It is true that in his time an
effort was made to found monasteries, which should be filled with
monks living after the stricter rule of which the example had been set
at Cluny, but the man who did most to establish monasteries again in
England was not Dunstan, but AEthelwold, Bishop of Winchester.
AEthelwold, however, was not content with founding monasteries. He also
drove out the secular canons from his own cathedral of Winchester and
filled their places with monks. His example was followed by Oswald,
Bishop of Worcester. Dunstan did not introduce monks even into his own
cathedrals at Worcester and Canterbury. As far as it is now possible
to understand the matter, the change, though it provoked great
hostility, was for the better. The secular canons were often married,
connected with the laity of the neighbourhood, and living an easy
life. The monks were celibate, living according to a strict rule, and
conforming themselves to what, according to the standard of the age,
was the highest ideal of religion. By a life of complete self-denial
they were able to act as examples to a generation which needed
teaching by example more than by word. How completely monasticism was
associated with learning is shown by the fact that the monks now
established at Worcester took up the work of continuing the Chronicle
which had been begun under AElfred (see p. 61).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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