t
reputation, but was at length, by an obscure ruffian, assassinated in
his own palace. Edred, his brother, succeeded to the late monarchy:
though he had left two sons, Edwin and Edgar, both were passed by on
account of their minority. But on this prince's death, which happened
after a troublesome reign of ten years, valiantly supported against
continual inroads of the Danes; the crown devolved on Edwin; of whom
little can be said, because his reign was short, and he was so embroiled
with his clergy that we can take his character only from the monks, who
in such a case are suspicious authority.

[Sidenote: Edgar, A.D. 959.]

Edgar, the second son of King Edmund, came young to the throne; but he
had the happiness to have his youth formed and his kingdom ruled by men
of experience, virtue, and authority. The celebrated Dunstan was his
first minister, and had a mighty influence over all his actions. This
prelate had been educated abroad, and had seen the world to advantage.
As he had great power at court by the superior wisdom of his counsels,
so by the sanctity of his life he had great credit with the people,
which gave a firmness to the government of his master, whose private
character was in many respects extremely exceptionable. It was in his
reign, and chiefly by the means of his minister, Dunstan, that the
monks, who had long prevailed in the opinion of the generality of the
people, gave a total overthrow to their rivals, the secular clergy. The
secular clergy were at this time for the most part married, and were
therefore too near the common modes of mankind to draw a great deal of
their respect; their character was supported by a very small portion of
learning, and their lives were not such as people wish to see in the
clergy. But the monks were unmarried, austere in their lives, regular in
their duties, possessed of the learning of the times, well united under
a proper subordination, full of art, and implacable towards their
enemies. These circumstances, concurring with the dispositions of the
king and the designs of Dunstan, prevailed so far that it was agreed in
a council convened for that purpose to expel the secular clergy from
their livings, and to supply their places with monks, throughout the
kingdom. Although the partisans of the secular priests were not a few,
nor of the lowest class, yet they were unable to withstand the current
of the popular desire, strengthened by the authority of a potent and
respe