[A.D. 961-992.] OSWALD, the successor of Dunstan, the founder of the monastery, and one of the patron saints of Worcester, is best known from his unceasing patronage of the monks, in opposition to the secular clergy. Oswald, the son of Danish parents of high rank, was the nephew of Odo, the predecessor of Dunstan in the see of Canterbury; and was appointed by King Edgar to the see of Worcester at the request of Dunstan himself, with whose zeal for the monastic cause Oswald (who had passed some of the earlier years of his life in the famous monastery of Fleury) more than sympathized. In 972 Oswald became Archbishop of York, which see he held, together with Worcester, until his death in 992--in the same manner as Dunstan had held the sees of London and Worcester together, before his elevation to the primacy. Little is recorded “of what he did at York, although he presided over that see for twenty years. There was no Northern writer to speak of what he effected in Northumbria[101].” The condition of the province, “seamed and scarred” by the struggles of the native princes, and by Danish incursions, may have prevented him from working there. But at Worcester, and throughout the south, Oswald was active as a great ecclesiastical reformer. He was powerful enough to remodel the monasteries of Ely and St. Albans. The Church of Worcester had hitherto been served by secular canons. These Oswald determined to replace by Benedictine monks; “and succeeded by the following artifice. Having erected in its vicinity a new church to the honour of the Virgin Mary, he intrusted it to the care of a community of monks, and frequented it himself for the solemn celebration of mass. The presence of the Bishop attracted that of the people; the ancient clergy saw their church gradually abandoned; and after some delay, Wensine, their dean, a man advanced in years and of unblemished character, took the monastic habit, and was advanced three years later to the office of prior. The influence of his example, and the honour of his promotion, held out a strong temptation to his brethren, till at last the number of canons was so diminished by repeated desertions, that the most wealthy of the churches of Mercia became without dispute or violence, by the very act of its old possessors, a monastery of Benedictine monks[102].” Oswald is said to have introduced monks in the room of secular clergy, in six other churches of his diocese; and charges of extreme tyranny and arrogance have been brought against him in consequence. But there is every reason to believe that a severe ecclesiastical reform was necessary; and there is proof that the eviction of the canons from Worcester was very gradual, and was not completed in Oswald’s lifetime. It is also certain that, although