a famous saint, and archbishop of Canterbury: of whom the monkish historians give us the following account. He was descended from a noble family in Wiltshire, and educated in the abbey of Glastonbury. Here he studied so hard, that it threw him into a violent fever which brought him to the very point of death. When the whole family were standing about his bed, dissolved in tears, and expecting every moment to see him expire, an angel came from heaven in a dreadful storm, and gave him a medicine which restored him to perfect health in a moment. Dunstan immediately started from his bed, and run with all his speed towards the church to return thanks for his recovery; but the devil met him by the way, surrounded by a great multitude of black dogs, and endeavoured to obstruct his passage. This would have frightened some boys; but it had no such effect upon Dunstan; who pronouncing a sacred name, and brandishing his stick, put the devil and all his dogs to flight. The church doors being shut, an angel took him in his arms, conveyed him through an opening in the roof, and set him softly down on the floor, where he performed his devotions. After his recovery, he pursued his studies with the greatest ardour, and soon became a perfect master in philosophy, divinity, music, painting, writing, sculpture, working in gold, silver, brass, and iron, &c. When he was still very young he entered into holy orders, and was introduced by his uncle Athelhelm archbishop of Canterbury to King Athelstan; who, charmed with his person and accomplishments, retained him in his court, and employed him in many great affairs. At leisure hours he used to entertain the king and his courtiers with playing on his harp, or some other musical instrument; and now and then he wrought a miracle, which gained him great admiration. His old enemy the devil was much offended at this, and prompted some envious courtiers to persuade the king that his favourite was a magician, which that prince too readily believed. Dunstan discovering by the king's countenance that he had lost his favour, and resolving to resign rather than be turned out, retired from court to another uncle, who was bishop of Winchester. This good prelate prevailed upon his nephew to forsake the world and become a monk; after which he retired to a little cell, built against the church wall of Glastonbury. Here he slept, studied, prayed, meditated, and sometimes amused himself with forging several useful things in brass and iron. One evening, as he was working very busily at his forge, the devil, putting on the appearance of a man, thrust his head in at the window of his cell, and asked him to make something or other for him. Dunstan was so intent upon his work that he made no answer; on which the devil began to swear and talk obscenely, which betrayed the lurking fiend. The holy blacksmith, putting up a secret ejaculation, pulled his tongs, which were red hot, out of the fire, seized the devil with them by the nose, and squeezed him with all his strength; which made his internal majesty roar and scold at such a rate, that he awakened and terrified all Dunstan the people for many miles around. Thus far the legend.

Ridiculous as were these fictions, they served, in those times of ignorance, to procure Dunstan a reputation which has been confirmed by the authority of several succeeding historians. It appears that this extraordinary person was called to court by King Edmund, A.D. 941; who bestowed upon him the rich abbey of Glastonbury, which for his sake he honoured with many peculiar privileges. He enjoyed a very high degree of the favour of this prince during his short reign of six years; but he stood much higher in the favour of his brother and successor King Edred, to whom he was confessor, chief confidant, and prime minister. He employed all his influence during this period of court favour in promoting the interest of the monks of the Benedictine order, to which he belonged, and of which he was a most active and zealous patron. Having the treasures of these two princes, especially of the last, very much at his command, he lavisheth them away in building and endowing monasteries for these monks, because almost all the old monasteries were in the possession of secular canons. Not contented with this, he persuaded Edred (who was a bigotted valetudinary) to bestow such immense treasures on the churches and monasteries by his last will, that the crown was stripped of its most valuable possessions, and left in a state of indigence. This conduct of Dunstan, while he was in power, rendered him very odious to Edwi, who succeeded his uncle Edred A.D. 955; and his rude behaviour to himself, and his beloved Queen Elgiva, raised the resentment of that prince so high, that he deprived him of all his preferments, and drove him into exile*. The banishment of Dunstan, the great patron, or (as Malmesbury calls him) the prince of monks, was a severe blow to that order, who were expelled from several monasteries; which were made the impure abodes (according to the same author) of the married clergy. But their sufferings were not of long continuance. For Edgar, the younger brother of Edwi, having raised a successful rebellion against his unhappy brother, and usurped all his dominions on the north side of the river Thames, recalled Dunstan, and gave him the bishopric of Worcester, A.D. 957. From this moment he was the chief confidant and prime minister of King Edgar, who became sole monarch of England A.D. 959, by the death of his elder brother Edwi. In the following year Dunstan was raised to be archbishop of Canterbury; and being thus possessed of the primacy, and assured of the royal support and affluence, he prepared to execute the grand design which he had long meditated, of compelling the secular canons to put away their wives and become monks; or of driving them out and introducing Benedictine monks in their room. With this view he procured the promotion of Oswald to the see of Worcester, and of Ethelwald to that of Winchester; two prelates who were monks themselves, and animated with the most ardent zeal for the advancement of their order. And these three great champions of the order found means, by their arts and intrigues, in the course of a few years, to fill no fewer than 48 monasteries with Benedictines. But on the death of Edgar in 975 they received a check. The sufferings Dunstan's sufferings of the persecuted canons had excited much compassion; and many of the nobility, who had been overawed by the power and zeal of the late king, now espoused their cause and promoted their restoration. Elfere duke of Mercia drove the monks by force out of all the monasteries in that extensive province, and brought back the canons, with their wives and children; while Eltwyn duke of East Anglia, and Brithnot duke of Essex, raised their troops to protect the monks in these countries. To allay these commotions, several councils were held: in which Dunstan was so hard pushed by the secular canons and their friends, that he was obliged to practise some of his holy intrigues; and finally, by dint of miracles, overcame all opposition.*

* See Eng. Land, No. 64.

St Dunstan died A.D. 988, in the 64th year of his age, having held the bishopric of London, together with the archbishopric of Canterbury, about 27 years. As this prelate was the greatest restorer and promoter of the monastic institutions, the grateful monks, who were almost the only historians of those dark ages, have loaded him with the most extravagant praises, and represented him as the greatest wonder-worker and highest favourite of heaven that ever lived. To say nothing of his many conflicts with the devil, in which he often laboured that enemy of mankind most severely, the following short story, which is told with great exultation by his biographer Osbern, will give the reader some idea of the astounding impetuosity and impudence of those monks, and of the least astonishing blindness and credulity of those unhappy times. "The most admirable, the most ineffable Father Dunstan (says that author), whose perfections exceeded all human imagination, was admitted to behold the mother of God and his own mother in eternal glory; for before his death he was carried up into heaven, to be present at the nuptials of his own mother with the Eternal King, which were celebrated by the angels with the most sweet and joyous songs. When the angels reproached him for his silence on this great occasion, so honourable to his mother, he excused himself on account of his being unacquainted with those sweet and heavenly strains; but being a little instructed by the angels, he broke out into this melodious song, O King and Ruler of nations," &c. It is unnecessary to make any comment on this most shocking story.

The violent and too successful zeal of Dunstan and his associates, in promoting the building and endowing so great a number of houses for the entertainment of useless monks and nuns, was very fatal to their country: for by this means a spirit of irrational unmannerly superstition was diffused amongst the people, which debased their minds, and diverted them from nobler pursuits; and a very great proportion of the lands of England being put into hands who contributed nothing to its defence, rendered it an easy prey, first to the insulting Danes, and afterwards to the victorious Normans.