Promoted by a Miracle

St. Dunstan's life had its ups and downs, as the Wheel of Fortune predicts. Driven from one king's court because of the jealousy of others, returned to a later king's court, and then driven away by the jealousy of others—his life was developing a dismal pattern.

The second king was Edmund, and he was becoming increasingly disillusioned with Dunstan as a minister because of the lies of others. Dunstan was prepared to leave, even asking representatives of the kingdom of East Anglia to let him go with them when they left Edmund's court.

Before that event, however, Edmund went out hunting in the Mendip Forest. I'll let someone else take it from here:

He became separated from his attendants and followed a stag at great speed in the direction of the Cheddar cliffs. The stag rushed blindly over the precipice and was followed by the hounds. Eadmund endeavoured vainly to stop his horse; then, seeing death to be imminent, he remembered his harsh treatment of St. Dunstan and promised to make amends if his life was spared. At that moment his horse was stopped on the very edge of the cliff. Giving thanks to God, he returned forthwith to his palace, called for St. Dunstan and bade him follow, then rode straight to Glastonbury. Entering the church, the king first knelt in prayer before the altar, then, taking St. Dunstan by the hand, he gave him the kiss of peace, led him to the abbot's throne and, seating him thereon, promised him all assistance in restoring Divine worship and regular observance. [link]

Dunstan's childhood dream of restoring Glastonbury Abbey to its former glory was in his grasp. Edmund also sent Æthelwold to help. The two began to rebuild the abbey (see illustration for how it might have looked before Henry VIII) and established Benedictine Rule, although probably not as strictly as it was being reformed on the continent. Unlike Æthelwold, Dunstan was not opposed to the presence of secular priests.

Dunstan had a brother, Wulfric, who was given responsibility for the material upkeep of the abbey, so that the cloistered monks did not have to "break enclosure." The first project was to rebuild the church of St. Peter.

Things were looking up for Dunstan and Glastonbury. When Edmund was assassinated in 946, his successor's policies looked to make things even better for Dunstan. Eadred promoted unification of all parts of the kingdom, both Saxon and Danish, along with moral reform and rebuilding of churches. Dunstan's position grew in authority. But Eadred died in 955, and Eadwig was a very different kind of king.

The 45-year-old Dunstan clashed with the 15-year-old Eadwig on the very day of the coronation, setting up another turn of the wheel. I'll tell that awkward story next time.

Establishing Monasteries

When Æthelwold was made Bishop of Winchester in 963, the discipline of the priests there had suffered. Records say that priests there did not perform the services properly, that they were lazy, too many had wives, and they were given to gluttony and drink.

In 964, therefore, Æthelwold called on military support from King Edgar the Peaceable to expel all those clerics and bring in disciplined monks from Abingdon Abbey to re-establish proper Benedictine Rule. Although other monastic leaders of his time (including his friend Dunstan) allowed a mix of monks and secular clergy, Æthelwold clearly did not trust priests, whom he saw as undisciplined. In his writings he often referred to clergy as "filthy."

Edgar and his queen, Ælfthryth, offered their support, and Æthelwold wanted them to be involved in the restoration and expansion of monastic foundations. He wanted Edgar's help to restore monasteries, since the king was considered a representative of Christ on Earth. He wanted Ælfthryth to become a supervisor of Benedictine nunneries.

Æthelwold was nicknamed "father of monks" and "benevolent bishop" by others. Under his guidance, the monks of Winchester and elsewhere were better educated than the secular clergy. One modern scholar even claims that Æthelwold's vernacular writings were significant in the development of Standard Old English. [link]

Later, when Æthelred (the Unready) became king, Æthelwold was an advisor during the new king's minority. When Æthelwold died on 1 August 984, Æthelred wrote that the country had lost "one whose industry and pastoral care ministered not only to my interest but also to that of all the inhabitants of the country."

Twelve years after his death, a man claimed to have his blindness cured because he visited the tomb of Æthelwold, which started the process of his canonization. St. Æthelwold's feast day is 1 August.

I said a couple posts ago that I wanted to explore the two men who made St. Swithin famous. Æthelwold was one; the other was Dunstan. We'll explore his life and works tomorrow.

Æthelwold of Winchester

It was a Bishop of Winchester who made a former Bishop of Winchester so prominent. Æthelwold of Winchester decided to rededicate the church at Winchester to St. Swithin instead of Saints Peter and Paul. What was Æthelwold's background?

He was born into a noble family somewhere between 904 and 909 CE, and from the time he was at least a teenager he served in the court of King Æthelstan, supposedly as his very close companion according to Æthelwold's biographer, Wulfstan the Cantor. The king had Æthelwold ordained a priest on the same day as his friend Dunstan by another Bishop of Winchester, Ælfheah the Bald.

Dunstan became Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, and in the late 930s Æthelwold moved there where he studied grammar and other topics, eventually being made dean of the school there. When Æthelwold wanted to travel the continent and study more, the current king, Eadred, refused to give permission for him to abandon his post. Eadred then put him in charge of Abingdon Abbey, which had fallen into the hands of secular priests. Æthelwold established Benedictine Rule at Abingdon.

When Eadred died, Eadwig (reigned 955 - 959) became king, and drove Æthelwold's friend Dunstan into exile. Æthelwold served Eadwig during his short reign, and when Eadwig was succeeded by Edgar the Peaceable, who as a youth had been taught by Æthelwold, Dunstan was brought back and made a bishop.

Æthelwold's interest was in monasteries, not in secular clergy. Æthelwold was named Bishop of Winchester on 29 November 963, and one of his first steps was to, with the help of King Edgar and a military force, drive the priests out of Winchester and establish it as a monastery with monks from Abingdon Abbey.

Tomorrow we'll look more at his work with monasteries and at the role he envisaged for the king and queen.

P.S. Happy New Year!

The Elf Village

I mentioned previously that St. Æthelwold had a single church dedicated to him in England. It is in Alvingham, in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire. Alvingham is old enough to have been listed in the Domesday Book, a record of all towns and territories in England made in 1086, 20 years after the Norman Conquest. In the Book, it is called Aluingeham, which means "Home of the Ælfingas." Ælfingas means "the tribe of Ælf," and ælf means "elf."

Ælf or elf can be found used throughout Germanic languages, and is commonly the first element in a name. Many of those can be found throughout this blog. Some common medieval names incorporating a prefix for "elf" were:

Ælfric - "elf-powerful"
Alfred - "elf-advice"

Alphege - "elf-tall" (mentioned recently)

...and Germanic examples such as Alberich, Alphart, Alphere, Alboin. 

The word also appeared in place-names, such as Alvingham, Elveden ("Elves Hill"), and the Alden Valley, "Valley of Elves." The frequency of usage shows that elves were very much embedded in the culture of Western and Northern Europe.

The earliest references to elves, in fact, were from Old English medical texts. Elves were considered a source of illness in livestock and humans. Mental disorders and sudden sharp pains, for instance, were usually attributed to elves. Tomorrow I'll go into a little more detail, and take a look at an Old English text that dealt with the pain caused by elves.

St. Æthelwold's Miracles

Æthelwold, one of the Three English Holy Hierarchs, saintly figures who spurred the revival of monasticism in England, was a truly saintly man. We know a lot about him from a surviving biography written by Wulfstan the Cantor.

He rebuilt or built many monasteries, including in Milton Abbas in Dorset, Chertsey in Surrey, Peterborough, and Ely. He reformed existing monasteries, driving out undisciplined monks and introducing the Rule of St. Benedict. His severity gives us the first example of miraculous events surrounding him: it is said that some monks who disliked his heavy hand put poison in his food, but he showed no signs of illness whatsoever. Speaking of food, while in Glastonbury, one of the duties he gave himself was cooking. One time, he resolved a scarcity of meat by praying, leading to a miraculous increase in the provisions.

Wulstan reports that he recovered unnaturally quickly from broken ribs after a fall from some scaffolding. Near the end of his life he was gravely ill, but bore his suffering patiently. After his death, on 1 August 984, miracles started taking place near his final resting place, and in response to prayers made to him for aid. A blind man from Wallingford was healed through prayers to St. Æthelwold.

His relics were then taken to the Cathedral in Winchester to signify their (and his) importance. Later, Abingdon Abbey received a finger, some hair, and arm, and his shoulder bone.

There is a single church dedicated to Æthelwold; it is St. Adelwold in Lincolnshire, in what would be fair to call an Elf village. I'll explain that tomorrow.

St. Æthelwold

Æthelwold was born about 910CE to a wealthy Winchester family. He served at the court of King Æthelstan (reigned 924-939), learning as much as he can and yearning toward a religious life. He and his friend Dunstan were ordained about 939 by the Bishop of Winchester, St. Alphege. Æthelwold and Dunstan went to the monastery in Glastonbury in Somerset about 940, where Dunstan was made abbot

At this time, Danish incursions into England had sacked and destroyed many monasteries. Monastic life in England was at a low point. Dunstan, who like Æthelwold was later made a saint, adopted the Rule of St. Benedict (mentioned a few times) for the Glastonbury monastery, and led the revival of monasticism in England. Dunstan, Æthelwold, and Oswald of Worcester and York would be called the "Three English Holy Hierarchs" for their work in reviving English Orthodox monasticism.

Æthelwold wanted to go to Cluny in France to experience their version of monasticism, but Dunstan and then-King Edred did not want to lose him, and they sent him to Abingdon-on-Thames to run the derelict monastery there. The patron saint of the place was St. Helena, because legend had it that she built a church there.

Abingdon became a strong monastic community. Æthelwold brought singers from Corbie in France to teach Gregorian chant, which was not common at the time in England.

When Æthelwold became Bishop of Winchester in 963, the priests were illiterate, lazy, guilty of drunkenness and gluttony; they were not good at the services, and most were married men. Æthelwold expelled the married men, tightened up discipline, and brought in monks from Abingdon as the nucleus of a new "monastery/cathedral" institution.

I'll say a little more about him tomorrow, including about the miracles attributed to him.

Wulfstan the Cantor

Of the countless people who lived in the Middle Ages and accomplished things—writing, building, etc.—a very few are remembered by name. One of them is Wulfstan, known as Wulfstan of Winchester or Wulfstan the Cantor.

A cantor sings liturgical music. The monk Wulfstan was a cantor of the Old Minster in Winchester, who became a precentor. A precentor is responsible for composing liturgical music himself, training the choir, and leading the choir or congregation in the music, singing solo lines to which they respond. He was a poet as well as a musician, and wrote a biography of St. Æthelwold, who was probably his mentor. He wrote several works, making him one of the most prolific Latin authors pre-Norman Conquest.

A 15th century commentary refers four times to a "Wulstan" and his work on musical theory, De tonorum harmonia ("On the harmony of tones"). It is likely that this reference is to Wulfstan; unfortunately, this work of Wulfstan's no longer exists. It would be the only known work on music written by an Anglo-Saxon. He is also responsible for the longest (3386 lines) Anglo-Latin poem extant, the Narratio metrica de S. Swithuno (A metrical narrative of St. Swithin).

The work for which he is best know, however, is the Vita S. Æthelwoldi (The life of St. Æthelwold), the principal source of information on St. Æthelwold, about whom I think we should talk next.