kings. During his reign the Bible was tranflated into the Saxon language; and some alliances also were formed by him with the princes on the continent. He died at Glou- A. D. 941. cester, after a reign of fixteen years, and was fucceeded by his brother, Edmund.

EDMUND, like the reft of his predeceffors, met with difturbance from the Northumbrians on his acceffion to the throne; but his activity foon defeated their attempts. The great end therefore which he aimed at, during his reign, was to curb the licentiousness of this people, who offered to embrace Christianity as an atonement for their offences. Among other fchemes for the benefit of the people, he was the first monarch who by law instituted capital punishments in England. Remarking, that fines and pecuniary mulets were too gentle methods of treating robbers, who were in general men who had nothing to lofe, he enacted, that, in gangs of robbers, when taken, the oldest of them should be condemned to the gallows. This was reckoned a very severe law at the time it was enacted; for, among our early anceftors, all the penal laws were mild and merciful. The refentment this monarch bore to men of this defperate way of living was the cause of his death. His virtues, abilities,

G 4

wealth,

wealth, and temperance, promifed him a long and happy reign; when, on a certain day, as he was folemnizing a festival in Gloucestershire, he remarked that Leolf, a notorious robber, whom he had sentenced to banishment, had yet the boldness to enter the hall where he was dining, aud to fit at the table among the royal attendants. Enraged at this infolence, he com manded him to leave the room; but on his refufing to obey, the king whose temper was naturally choleric, flew against him, and caught him by the hair, The ruffian, giving way to rage alfo on his fide, drew a dagger, and lifting his arm, with a furious blow stabbed the monarch to the heart, who fell down on the bofom of his murderer, The death of the af, faffin, who was inftantly cut in pieces, was but a fmall compenfation for the lofs of a king, loved by his subjects, and deferving their esteem.

The late king's fons were too young to fucceed him in the direction of fo difficult a go, vernment as that of England; his brother EDRED was therefore appointed to fucceed, and, like his pedeceffors, this monarch found him, felf at the head of a rebellious and refractory people. The Northumbrian Danes, as ufual, made several attempts to fhake off the English yoke, fo that the king was at last obliged to

place

place garrifons in their moft confiderable towns, and to appoint an English governor over them, who might fupprefs their infurrections on the first appearance. About this time, the monks from being contented to govern in ecclefiaftical matters, began to affume the direction in civil affairs; and, by artfully managing the fuperftitions, and the fears of the people, erected an authority that was not fhaken off for feveral fucceeding centuries. Edred had blindly delivered over his confcience to the guidance of Dunstan, abbot of Glastonbury, who was afterwards canonized; and this man, under the appearance of fanctity, concealed the moft boundless ambition, The monks had hitherto been a kind of secular priests, who, though they lived in communities, were neither feparated from the reft of the world, nor use、 lefs to it. They were often married; they were affiduously employed in the education of youth, and fubject to the commands of temporal fuperiors. The celibacy, and the independency of the clergy, as being a measure that would contribute to the establishment of the papal power in Europe, was warmly recommended by the fee of Rome to all ecclefiaftics in general, but to the monks in particular, The prefent favourable opportunity offered of carrying

A. D. 954.

carrying this measure in England, arifing from the fuperftitious character of Edred, and the furious zeal of Dunftan. Both lent it all the affiftance in their power; and the order of Benedictine monks was established under the direction of Dunftan. Edred implicitly fubmitted to his directions both in church and ftate; and the kingdom was in a fair way of being turned into a papal province by this zealous ecclefiaftic; when he was checked in the midst of his career, by the death of the king, who died of a quinfey, in the tenth year of his reign.

EDWY, his nephew, who afcended the throne, his own fons being yet unfit to govern, was a prince of great perfonal accomplishments, and a martial difpofition. But he was now come to the government of a kingdom, in which he had an enemy to contend with, against whom, all military virtues could be of little fervice. Dunftan, who had governed during the former reign, was refolved to remit nothing of his authority in this; and Edwy, immediately upon his acceffion, found himself involved in a quarrel with the monks; whose neither his accomplishments nor his virtues could mitigate. He seems to have been elected by the fecular priests in oppofition to the monks; fo that their whole

rage,

whole body, and Dunftan at their head, purfued him with implacable animofity while. living, and even endeavoured to brand his character to pofterity.

This Dunftan, who makes a greater figure in thefe times, than even kings themselves, was born of noble parents, in the Weft; but being defamed as a man of licentious manners in his youth, he betook himself to the aufterities of a monaftic life, either to atone for his faults, or vindicate his reputation. He fecluded himself eutirely from the world, in a cell so small, that he could neither stand erect, nor lie along in it. It was in this retreat of conftant mortification, that his zeal grew furious, and his fancy teemed with vifions of the moft extravagant nature. His fuppofed illuminations were frequent; his temptations ftrong, but he always refifted with bravery. The devil, it was faid, one day paid him a vifit in the shape of a fine young woman; but Dunstan, knowing the decéit, and provoked at his importunity, feized 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 the malignant. fpirit made the whole neighbourhood refound with his bellowings. Nothing was fo abfurd, but what the monks were ready to propagate in