A HISTORY OF LONDON Ethelnoth, Ceolberht, and Deorwulf, have been preserved. ^° Of their four successors nothing is known save that one, Heahstan, is noted in the Anglo- Saxon Chronicle as dying in 898." From about 926 to 951, a period of comparative peace and growing prosperity for London, Theodred, afterwards known as ' the Good,' was bishop of the diocese. ^^ Like Earconwald he is remarkable for a long posthumous fame, but there is no contemporary evidence regarding him except his signa- ture to numerous charters and deeds, and his will, by which he left books, relics, and land to St. Paul's and ^10 to be distributed in his bishopric within and without London.^ William of Malmesbury relates that Theodred, according to the tradition of the citizens, went with King Athelstan in his expedition against Anlaf and was called by the common people ' the Good,' pro praerogativa virtutum. He was buried in the crypt of St. Paul's near a window that he might be seen by the passers by.*" During his episco- pate, and probably with his assistance, the ordinances of the London ' Frith- gild ' were drawn up. The main object of this gild was the preservation of peace and order, but it had certain features which were common to the later social and religious gilds. There were common funds and periodical feasts, the remains of which were to be bestowed as alms for the love of God, and on the death of any member alms were to be given for his soul, and each gild brother was to sing or get sung within thirty days fifty Psalms." After Wulfstan and Brihthelm, of whom nothing is known save their names, St. Dunstan was appointed to the see in 959.*^ He held the bishopric of London in conjunction with that of Worcester, and is said by his admiring biographer to have ruled them both in the most excellent way, leading his flocks to the true fold of Jesus Christ, both by example and precept.*^ Later biographers say the citizens prayed to have him as their bishop and acclaimed him with joy, but the earlier and more reliable accounts say nothing of any feeling of the people in the matter." No details of his short episcopate at London are known except the probably well-founded tradition of his restora- tion of the monastery at Westminster.*" Dunstan was promoted to Canterbury in 961, and consecrated as his successor in the see of London ^Elfstan, whose long episcopate of over thirty years covered an eventful period. It began with a disaster, for in 962 ' the great fever was in London, and St. Paul's monastery was burnt, and in the same year again refounded.'" After 980 the City was engaged in a constant and ^' Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, iii, 568, 592, 650. " Tu-o Sax. Chron. i, 91. His death is placed by Florence of Worcester {Chron. 1, 116) in 900. Three MSS. of the Chronicle give Ealhstan, instead of Heahstan. " Stubbs, Reg. Sacrum Angl. 25. " Birch, Cart. Sax. iii, 209 ; Thorpe, D'lpl. Angl. 512-15, gives a translation of the will and assigns to it the date 960, but this appears to be an error.
- " Will, of Malmesbury, De Gestis Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 144. Theodred probably ruled the see of Elmham
before and at the same time as that of London. In his will, mentioned above, as well as the ^^lo to be distributed in his bishopric within and without London he left another j^^io to be distributed in his bishopric at Hoxne in Suffolk. He is often mentioned in Bury St. Edmunds Chronicles and Charters as having been Bishop of both Elmham and London (Dugdale, A/on. iii, 139, 140; Wharton, De Epis. Lond. 29). Will, of ALilmesbury gives several instances of his interest in Bury St. Edmunds ; De Gestis Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 144, 154 ; De Gestis Reg. (Rolls Ser.), i, 265. " Thorpe, Jnct. Laios and Insts. (Rec, Com.), 97 et seq. ; Stubbs, Const. Hist. (ed. 4), i, 450. " Mem. of St. Dunstan (Rolls Ser.), 37 ; Flor. Wigorn. Ckron. i, 137.
- ' Mem. of St. Dunstan (Rolls Ser.), 37. " Ibid. 105, 196, 338.
" See under Westminster Abbey in ' Religious Houses.' " Two Sax. Chron. i, 114.
