leading men of the Midlands. These rebels at once recalled Dunstan, and, supported by Aethelstan Half-king, the great duke of East Anglia, set up Edgar, Eadwig's younger brother, as a rival king. For a time it seemed as if the unity of England was once more in jeopardy. Eadwig retained the support of Oda, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and still controlled Wessex; but the boy Edgar was recognised as king north of the Thames, and in 958 found himself strong enough to secure the bishopric of Worcester for Dunstan, and a little later the bishopric of London as well. Most fortunately, however, open war was avoided, and in 959 Eadwig died, whereupon Oda abandoned his hostility and Edgar, who was now sixteen, succeeded to the undivided sovereignty.
Edgar's reign, though a period of almost profound peace and therefore dull from the narrative point of view, forms a notable epoch. It lasted some sixteen years (959-975), and is memorable not only for a considerable body of secular legislation but as a period, during which churchmen held the reins of power, and used their influence over the king and the leading nobles to promote a much needed ecclesiastical reform. This reform, whether they deliberately designed it or not, so increased the prestige and popularity of their order that, by the end of the reign, the political power and landed endowments of the English Church were not far from doubled. Ever since the coming of the vikings, notwithstanding Alfred's remarkable efforts to provide a remedy, the English clergy, both the regulars and the seculars, had remained sunk in a deplorable condition of ignorance and lack of discipline. Whatever statesmanship had manifested itself under Alfred's successors, had come almost wholly from the warrior and princely classes. In spite of all their energy in securing the payment of tithes and church dues, few of the bishops or parish clergy had followed high ideals or set any worthy standard before their flocks. Lax conditions prevailed also among the regular clergy. Many monasteries had lost their endowments by lay encroachments, and stood practically empty and ruined, while the majority of the foundations which had survived were no longer tenanted by monks living in strict isolation from the world, but by colleges of clerks[1] living under customs which were of varying strictness, but all involving very little of the monk's rigorous discipline. In monasteries, such as these, the obligations of celibacy, poverty, and the common life prescribed by the Rule of St Benedict were by no means insisted on; and the clerks who enjoyed the endowments were as often as not married men living with their families in their own houses and dispensing hospitality to their friends with considerable display and luxury. No doubt there were some devout
- ↑ The English do not seem as yet to have adopted the continental term "canonicus" to distinguish clerks living in communities from the ordinary clergy. Some term however was clearly needed, and "canon" gradually became current. A clause in Aethelred's Laws for example, issued c. 1008, prescribes specially for "canonicas." Liebermann's Gesetze, p. 238.
