ST. DUNSTAN. 
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enjoyed the favour of this prince during his siiort reign of six years, 
hut he stood much higher in the favour of his brother and successor, 
Ii’irtg Edred, to whom he was confessor, chief confidant, and printe 
minister. He employed all his influence during this period of court 
favour, in promoting the interest of the monks of the Benedictine 
order, to which he belonged, and of which he was a most active and 
zealous patron. Having the treasures of these two princes, especially 
of the last, very much at his command, he lavished them away in 
building and endowing monasteries for these rnoiiks, because almost 
all the monasteries were in possession of secular canons. He per- 
suaded Edred to bestow such immense treasures on the churches and 
monasteries by his last will, that the crown was stripped of its most 
valuable possessions, and left in a state of indigence. This conduct 
of Dunstan rendered him very odious to Edwi, who succeeded his 
uncle Edred, A. D. 955 ; and his rude behaviour to himself, and his 
beloved queen Elgiva, raised the resentment of that prince so high, 
that he deprived him of all his preferments, and drove him into exile. 
The banishment of Dunstan was a severe blow to the monks, who 
were expelled from several monasteries ; but their sufi'erings were not 
of long continuance, for Edgar, the younger brother of Edwi, having 
raised a successful rebellion against his unhappy brother, and usurped 
all his dominions on the north ^ide of the Thames, recalled Dunstan, 
and gave him the bishopric of Worcester, A. D. 957. From this time 
he was the chief confidant and prime minister of king Edgar, who 
became sole monarch of England, A. D. 959, by the death of Edwi. 
In 960, Dunstan was raised to he archbishop of Canterbury, and 
being ihiis possessed of the primacy, and assured of the royal support 
and assistance, he prepared to execute the grand design which he had 
long meditated, of compelling the secular canons to put away their 
wives and become monks, or of driving them out, and introducing Be- 
nedictine monks in their room. With this view he procured the promo- 
tion of Oswald to the see of Worcester, an(| of Ethelwald to that 
of Winchester; two prelates who were monks themselves, and ani- 
mated with the most ardent zeal for the advancement of their own 
order. This triumvirate, by their arts and intrigues, in the course of 
a very few years filled no fewer than forty-eight monasteries with 
Benedictines. But on the death of Edgar, in 975, they received a 
check. The sufferings of the persecuted canons had excited much 
compassion; and many of the nobility, who had been overawed by 
the power and zeal of the late king, now espoused their cause, and 
promoted their restoration. . Elfric duke of Mercia drove the monks' 
by force out of all the monasteries in that extensive province, and 
brought back the canons, with their wives and children ; while Elfwin 
duke of East Anglia, and Brithnot duke of Essex, raised their troops 
to protect the monks in these countries. To allay these commotions, 
several councils were held ; in which Dunstan was so hard pushed by 
the secular canons and their friends, that he was obliged to practise some 
of Iris holy stratagems; and finally, by dint of miracles, he overcame 
all opposition. St. Dunstan died A. D. 988, in the sixty-fourth of his 
age, having held the bishopric of London, together with tUe arch- 
bishopric of Canterbury, about 27 years. 
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