A HISTORY OF DORSET 



These early foundations, as in other parts of the country, appear in the 

 first instance to have been occupied by secular canons, or monks following 

 no established rule. Following the monastic reforms of Edgar and 

 Archbishop Dunstan we find in 904 the seculars at Milton replaced by 

 monks under the rule of Abbot Cyneward." In 987 ^Elfric, the author of 

 the famous Homilies, was appointed first abbot of Cerne, the inmates of 

 which were ordered to follow the Benedictine rule." Bishop Wulfsige, or 

 Wulfsy, in 998, as we have seen, substituted monks for the secular canons 

 who had previously formed the community attached to the cathedral church 

 of the diocese at Sherborne.^' The society of secular canons, established at 

 Abbotsbury about 1026 by Ore or Orcus, steward of the household to King 

 Cnut, was afterwards changed into a house of Benedictine monks by the 

 founder, or by his widow after his death.*" On the other hand, Wimborne, 

 originally ' a house of Holy Virgins,' was, on its restoration, converted into a 

 house of secular canons, and continued as a royal free chapel under the govern- 

 ment of a dean down to the Reformation." 



As regards the state of the church during the long and protracted 

 struggle against the Danes, little can be positively ascertained save as 

 it affected materially the religious foundations of the county. Wareham, 

 one of the oldest monasteries in Dorset, is said to have been destroyed 

 in an assault on the town in 876.** Horton, again, is supposed to have 

 shared the fate of Tavistock, which was destroyed in the raid of 997—8.** 

 A blank succeeds in the history of Wimborne after the reign of Edward 

 the Elder, and the next mention of it records its restoration by Edward 

 the Confessor.** Cnut, we are told, raided the counties of Dorset, Somer- 

 set and Wiltshire in 1015," and plundered the monastery of Cerne of 

 which he afterwards became a benefactor.** Ethelred ' the Unrede ' in the 

 midst of the troubles and turmoils of his reign granted by charter, dated 

 1 00 1, to the nuns of Shaftesbury the vill and monastery of Bradford (Wilt- 

 shire) that they might there retire as to a place which offered greater security 

 against the attacks of the enemy. *^ It would be impossible to leave the tenth 

 century, with its disconnected record of destruction and reconstruction, with- 

 out referring to the events of 978— 80, which took place within the borders 

 of Dorset and played so important a part in determining the future greatness 

 of the abbey of Shaftesbury : the cruel murder of the young King Edward, if 

 not by the actual hand, at least with the connivance of his stepmother ^Ethel- 

 thryth or Elfrida, the daughter of Ordgar, earl of Devon, the founder of 

 Horton; and the solemn translation of his body by Dunstan and the alderman 

 Alfhere from Wareham to the conventual church of the nunnery which, 

 originally dedicated to the honour of the Blessed Virgin, soon after appears 

 under the popular designation of St. Edward's.** 



" Leland, Colkcl. ii, 1 86 ; iii, 72. " Cart. Antiq. D. 16. " Leiand, Itin. W, 51-2. 



'" Tanner, Notitia (ed. 1744), 105 ; Coker, Particular Surv. of Donet, 30. 



" Leland, Collect, i, 82 ; Itin. iii, 72. " Cressy, Church Hist, of Brit. lib. xxviii, cap. ix. 



" Matt, of Westminster, Flores Hist. (Rolls Ser.), i, 324. 



" Or 'King Edward,' supposed to be the Confessor ; Leland, Collect, i, 82 ; Itin. iii, 72. 



" Jngl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 121. ^ Leland, Collect, i, 66 ; iii, 67. " Had. MS. 61, fol. i. 



^ Jngl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 234 ; Wm. of Malmesbury, Gesta Reg. (Rolls Ser.), i, 258 ; Gesta 

 Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 202-3. The relics of the murdered Icing, who as early as the year 1001 was referred 

 to as 'the Blessed Martyr' (Harl. MS. 61, fol. l), and whose festival was afterwards kept four times in 

 the year, early attracted crowds of worshippers to his shrine. 



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