Edwy the Fair or the First Chronicle of Aescendune

by A. D. Crake

repossessed himself ofthe whole sovereignty--the wise men of Northumberland, with Wulfstanat their head, swore submission to him, but in 948 rebelled and chosefor their king Eric of Denmark. Edred marched at once against them, andsubdued the rebellion with great vigour, not to say riqour. He threw thearchbishop into prison at Jedburgh in Bernicia. After a time he wasreleased, but only upon the condition of banishment from Northumbria,and he was made Bishop of Dorchester, a place familiar to the tourist onthe Thames, famed for the noble abbey church which still exists, and hasbeen grandly restored.

  Although Dorchester is now only a village, it derives its origin from aperiod so remote that it is lost in the mist of ages. It was probably aBritish village under the name Cair Dauri, the camp on the waters; andcoins of Cunobelin, or Cassivellaunus, have been found in goodpreservation. Bede mentions it as a Roman station, and Richard ofCirencester marks it as such in the xviii. Iter, under the name Durocina.

  Its bishopric was founded by Birinus, the apostle of the West Saxons;and the present bishoprics of Winchester, Salisbury, Exeter, Bath andWells, Worcester and Hereford, were successively taken from it, afterwhich it still extended from the Thames to the Humber.

  Suffering grievously from the ravages of the Danes, it became a smalltown, and it suffered again grievously at the Conquest, when theinhabited houses were reduced by the Norman ravages from 172 to 100, andperhaps the inhabitants were reduced in proportion. In consequence,Remigius, the first Norman bishop, removed the see to Lincoln, becauseDorchester, on account of its size and small population, did not suithis ideas, as John of Brompton observes. From this period its declinewas rapid, in spite of its famous abbey, which Remigius partiallyerected with the stones from the bishop's palace.

  viii Anglo-Saxon Literature.

  In the age of Bede, the eighth century, Britain was distinguished forits learning; but the Danish invasions caused the rapid decline of itsrenown.

  The churches and monasteries, where alone learning flourished, and whichwere the only libraries and schools, were the first objects of thehatred of the ferocious pagans; and, in consequence, when Alfred came tothe throne, as he tells us in his own words--"South of the Humberthere were few priests who could understand the meaning of their commonprayers, or translate a line of Latin into English; so few, that inWessex there was not one." Alfred set himself diligently to work tocorrect this evil. Nearly all the books in existence in England were inLatin, and it was a "great" library which contained fifty copies ofthese. There was a great objection to the use of the vernacular in theHoly Scriptures, as tending to degrade them by its uncouth jargon; butthe Venerable Bede had rendered the Gospel of St. John into theAnglo-Saxon, together with other extracts from holy Scripture; and therewere versions of the Psalter in the vulgar tongue, very rude anduncouth; for ancient translators generally imagined a translation couldonly be faithful which placed all the words of the vulgar tongue in thesame relative positions as the corresponding words in the original. AnAnglo-Saxon translation upon this plan is extant.

  Alfred had taught himself Latin by translating: there were fewvocabularies, and only the crabbed grammar of old Priscian. Shakinghimself free from the trammels we have enumerated, he invited learnedmen from abroad, such as his biographer, Asser, and together theyattempted a complete version of the Bible. Some writers suppose theproject was nearly completed, others, that it was interrupted by hisearly death. Still, translations were multiplied of the sacred writings,and the rubrics show that they were read, as described in the text, uponthe Sundays and festivals. From that time down to the days of Wickliffe,England can boast of such versions of the sacred Word as can hardly beparalleled in Europe.

  The other works we have mentioned were also translated by or for Alfred."The Chronicle of Orosius," a history of the world by a Spaniard ofSeville; "The History of the Venerable Bede;" "The Consolations ofPhilosophy," by Boethius; "Narratives from Ancient Mythology;" "TheConfessions of St. Augustine;" "The Pastoral Instructions of St.Gregory;" and his "Dialogue," form portions of the works of thisgreatest of kings, and true father of his people. His "Apologues,"imitated from Aesop, are unfortunately lost.

  ix The Court of Edred.

  All the early chroniclers appear to take a similar view of the characterand court of Edred. William of Malmesbury says--"The king devoted hislife to God, and to St. Dunstan, by whose admonition he bore withpatience his frequent bodily pains, prolonged his prayers, and made hispalace altogether the school of virtue." But although pious, he was byno means wanting in manly energy, as was shown by his vigorous andsuccessful campaign in Northumbria, on the occasion of the attempt toset Eric, son of Harold, on the throne of Northumbria. The angelicapparition to St. Dunstan, mentioned in chapter VII, is told by nearlyall the early historians, but with varying details. According to many,it occurred while Dunstan was hastening to the aid of Edred. Theexigencies of the tale required a slightly different treatment of thelegend.

  x Confession in the Anglo-Saxon Church.

  "On the week next before holy night shall every one go to his shrift(i.e. confessor), and his shrift shall shrive him in such a manner ashis deeds which he hath done require and he shall charge all that belongto his district that if any of them have discord with any, he make peacewith him; if any one will not be brought to this, then he shall notshrive him; [but] then he shall inform the bishop, that he may converthim to what is right, if he he willing to belong to God: then allcontentions and disputes shall cease, and if there be any one of themthat hath taken offence at another, then shall they be reconciled, thatthey may the more freely say in the Lord's Prayer, 'Forgive us ourtrespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us,' etc. Andhaving thus purified their minds, let them enter upon the holyfast-tide, and cleanse themselves by satisfaction against holy Easter,for this satisfaction is as it were a second baptism. As in Baptism thesins before committed are forgiven, so, by satisfaction, are the sinscommitted after Baptism." Theodulf's Canons, A.D. 994 (Canon 36).

  It is evident, says Johnson, that "holy night" means "lenten night," asthe context shows.

  xi Incense in the Anglo-Saxon Church.

  Dr. Rock, in his "Hierurgia Anglicans," states that incense was used atthe Gospel. In vol. i., quoting from Ven. Bede, he writes--"Conveniuntomnes in ecclesium B. Petri ipse (Ceolfridas Abbas) thure incenso, etdicto oratione, ad altare pacem dat omnibus, stans in gradibus,thuribulum habens in menu." In Leofric's Missal is a form for theblessing of incense. Theodore's Penitential also affixes a penance toits wilful or careless destruction. Ven. Bede on his deathbed gave awayincense amongst his little parting presents, as his disciple, Cuthbert,relates. Amongst the furniture of the larger Anglo-Saxon churches was ahuge censer hanging from the roof, which emitted fumes throughout the mass.

  "Hic quoque thuribulum, capitellis undique cinctum,Pendet de summo, fumosa foramina pandens:De quibus ambrosia spirabunt thura Sabaea,Quando sacerdotes missas offerre jubentur."Alcuini _Opera_, B. ii,, p. 550.

  xii Psalm xxi. 3.

  xiii "All were indignant at the shameless deed, andmurmured amongst themselves,"--William of Malmesbury.

  xiv The Welsh were driven from Exeter by KingAthelstane; before that time, Englishmen and Welsh had inhabited it withequal rights.

  xv The earliest inhabitants of Ireland were called Scots.

  xvi Legends about St. Dunstan.

  "It is a great pity," says Mr. Freeman, in his valuable "Old EnglishHistory," "that so many strange stories are told about him [Dunstan],because people are apt to think of those stories and not of his realactions." This has indeed been the case to such an extent that histalents, as a statesman and as an ecclesiastical legislator, are almostunknown to many who are very familiar with the story of his seizing thedevil by the nose with a pair of tongs. Sir Francis Palgrave supposesthat St. Dunstan's seclusion at the time had led him to believe, like somany solitaries, that he was attacked in person by the fiend, and thathe related his visions, which were accepted as absolute facts by hiscredulous hearers. Hence the author has a
ssumed the currency of some ofthese marvellous legends in his tale, and has introduced a later oneinto the text of the present chapter. But the whole life of the saint,as related by his monkish biographers, is literally full of suchlegends, some terrible, some ludicrous. One of the most remarkabledeserves mention, bearing, as it does, upon our tale. It is said that helearned that Edwy was dead, and that the devils were about to carry offhis soul in triumph, when, falling to fervent prayer, he obtained hisrelease. A most curious colloquy between the abbot and the devils onthis subject may be found in Osberne's "Life of Dunstan."

  xvii The Benedictine Rule.

  St. Benedict, the founder of the great Benedictine Order, was born inthe neighbourhood of Nursia, a city of Italy, about A.D. 480. Sent tostudy at Rome, he was shocked at the