ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



minations a contemporary drawing of this noble tower, with the golden 

 weathercock above the swinging bells. 1 



Ethelwold also rebuilt the Nunnaminster and assisted King Edgar 

 in the renovating and extending of Romsey Abbey, which had been 

 founded by Edward the Elder. 



In Ethelwold, Dunstan,then primate, found an energetic lieutenant for 

 that monastic revival which was the special characteristic of the last half of 

 the tenth century. After making every allowance for the exaggerations 

 and prejudices of the monkish chronicles, there can be no doubt that 

 the condition of the leading secular clergy of those days was often dis- 

 reputable. The clergy of the cathedral church of Winchester were 

 secular canons, and the bishop, with the support of King Edgar, re- 

 solved to replace them by Benedictine monks. On the first Saturday 

 in Lent, 964, Ethelwold went into the quire of his cathedral church 

 accompanied by one bearing a number of Benedictine cowls. After 

 an exhortation to holiness of life, the bishop urged the canons at once 

 to adopt the cowls as pledges of a change of life. Only three assented; 

 the remainder were dispossessed of their benefices, monks from the 

 abbey of Abingdon (whence Ethelwold had come to Winchester) being 

 put in their place. An embittered strife, of some duration, ensued be- 

 tween the regulars and seculars and their friends throughout the kingdom. 



An interesting memorial of this eminent tenth century bishop was 

 his cup, which was greatly esteemed in the house of St. Swithun down 

 to the dissolution. It was the use of the monastery, on the day of the 

 deposition of that saint, for the keeper of the refectory to carry into the 

 frater St. Ethelwold's cup at dinner time with a pitcher of wine. After 

 it had been kissed by all the brethren there assembled, the cup was 

 carried to be kissed by every one at the tables of the farmery, and then to 

 the prior's hall for a like salutation from the prior and his guests. 2 



On the death of Ethelwold in 984 the dispossessed canons tried 

 their best to recover their position, but Dunstan secured the episcopal 

 throne of Winchester for Alphege II., a keen supporter of the monastic 

 rule. Some of the most stirring events in the life of this saintly prelate 

 occurred during the twenty years that he presided over the see of Win- 

 chester. In 994, when Ethelred (the degenerate successor of Edgar and the 

 short-lived Edward the Martyr) reigned, Olaf of Norway and Sweyn of 

 Denmark, after ravaging the western districts, wintered at Southampton. 

 Ethelred decided to make terms, and sent Bishop Alphege to offer 

 tribute and friendship. Olaf had already received baptism at the hands 

 of English missionaries in his own land. The exhortation of the bishop 

 greatly impressed the Norwegian king, who not only submitted to the 

 rite of confirmation but promised that he would never make another 

 raid on England. But Sweyn, an apostate and fiercely opposed to 

 Christianity, refused to join in any pledges, and on the death of Olaf 

 in the year 1000 he returned to the English coasts and ravaged Hamp- 



1 Arthatloga, xxiv. pi. 32. 



* A Consuetudinary of the Fourteenth Century, edited by Dean Kitchin in 1889, pp. 1 1, 20. 



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