The English Church in the Middle Ages Part 2

An increased spirit of worldliness in the Church was one of the fruits of the Danish invasions. Alfred endeavoured to check this spirit, and bade his bishops disengage themselves from secular matters and give themselves to wisdom. Nevertheless the very work that he and his immediate successors did for the Church tended to strengthen its connexion with worldly affairs. When it seemed to have lost the power of spontaneous revival, new energy was imparted to it by the action of the Crown. Its revival was in the first instance due to external interference, and this naturally led to the gradual discontinuance of ecclesiastical councils. No decline in influence or activity is implied by this change. Legislation was frequent, but it either took the form of canons put forth by bishops or was part of the work of the witan. The relations between the Church and the State grew closer. Some witenagemots almost bore the character of Church councils, were largely attended by abbots as well as bishops, and were mainly concerned with ecclesiastical business. During the tenth century the administration of the kingdom was largely carried on by churchmen; and though the statesmen-bishops did not, as at a later period, subordinate their sacred duties to their secular employments, bishoprics came to be regarded in a secular spirit, and plurality was practised. While it is evident that the spiritual jurisdiction of the bishops was in no degree diminished, and, indeed, that it must have gained by the exercise of judicial functions by archdeacons, the clergy, besides being under the bishop's law, were subject to the general police arrangements of the kingdom, and were equally with laymen bound to provide sureties for their orderly behaviour. In every respect the Church had a national character; its development was closely connected with the national progress; its bishops were national officers; its laws were decreed in the national a.s.sembly, and it was free from papal interference; for throughout the tenth century no appeals were carried to Rome, and no legate appears to have set foot in the country.

[Sidenote: Reorganization.]

Several changes took place in the episcopate of the southern province during the period of invasion. Dunwich ceased to have a bishop, and Elmham, though the succession there was broken, became the only East Anglian see. Little more is heard of the bishopric of Lindsey, and the bishop of Leicester moved his see to the Oxfords.h.i.+re Dorchester, so as to be within reach of West Saxon help. On the other hand, the renewed energy of the Church in Wess.e.x led to an extension of the episcopate south of the Thames. In 909 the sees of Winchester, Sherborne, and South Saxon Selsey all happened to be vacant, and, according to a story that must certainly be rejected as it stands, Pope Formosus, who was then dead, reproached King Eadward the Elder for his neglect in the matter. Eadward had a good adviser in Archbishop Plegmund; with the consent of his witan, he separated Wilts.h.i.+re and Berks.h.i.+re from the see of Winchester, and formed them into the new diocese of Ramsbury, and further created two other new bishoprics for Somerset and Devon, placing the sees at Wells and Crediton.

Five West Saxon bishops, together with two for Selsey and Dorchester, were, it is said, consecrated at once. The extension of the power of the English king brought with it an extension of the power of the Church.

South Wales owned the supremacy of Alfred, and accordingly South Welsh bishops received consecration at Canterbury and professed obedience to Archbishop aethelred. Eadward's victories in East Anglia were followed by the republication of the laws of Alfred and Guthorm, and the diocesan system appears to have been gradually restored in Mercia. Eadward's son, aethelstan, annexed Cornwall, the land of the West Welsh, and this addition to the English kingdom was added to the province of Canterbury; for Cornwall was made an English diocese, and its see was placed at St.

German's, or Bodmin. Lastly, the conquest of Northumbria by aethelstan, who put the Danish prince Guthred to flight and took possession of York, is marked ecclesiastically by his appointment of Wulfstan to the archbishopric. Throughout aethelstan's reign the influence of churchmen is clearly apparent. His ecclesiastical laws, enacted along with others on secular matters in a witenagemot at Greatley, near Andover, for the Mercian s.h.i.+res, and republished elsewhere for other parts of the kingdom, were made by the advice of Archbishop Wulfhelm and other bishops. t.i.thes both of animals and fruits were to be paid from the king's lands, and his reeves and ealdormen were bidden to charge those subject to them to make like payments: the part of the Church in secular jurisdiction was confirmed by the regulation of ordeals by the hallowed bread (or "housel"), by water, and by hot iron, and fresh enactments were made against heathen practices.

[Sidenote: Ecclesiastical revival.]

Although Alfred and his immediate successors did much for the Church, especially as regards its external position, the ecclesiastical revival that distinguished the latter part of the century was primarily effected by means of a monastic reformation. This reformation was necessary for the salvation of society; for as long as monks and nuns remained unworthy of their vocation, the simple priest could never have been brought to live as he was bound to do; and as long as his life was no higher or purer than the lives of his flock, there was no means of elevating the people. While most of those who were foremost in the work of revival were of purely English descent, the bracing influence of the Danish colonization extended to the area of ecclesiastical as well as of civil life. As soon as a Dane was converted he became a member of the English Church, and the Church thus became a powerful instrument in promoting the amalgamation of the two peoples. She reaped her reward in gaining the services of the Danish Oda and his nephew Oswald. At the same time, the reformers of this age, though aided in their work by the Crown, would not have attained their measure of success had it not been for the teaching and encouragement they received from abroad. This connexion between our Church and the monasteries of the Continent was largely due to the foreign alliances formed by the house of Ecgberht. Of late years Alfred had given one of his daughters in marriage to a count of Flanders, and aethelstan had married his sisters to Otto of Germany, to Charles, the king of the West Franks, and other princes.

Accordingly, the monasteries of Northern France and Flanders became the patterns by which our reformers worked; their congregations took deep interest in the affairs of our Church, received liberal aid from England, and held our n.o.blest churchmen in high esteem.

[Sidenote: Archbishop Oda, 942-959.]

Oda, the son of one of the fierce band of Ivar, was converted to Christianity in early life, and was in consequence driven from his father's house. He entered the household of an English thegn, who had him taught Latin, and, it is said, Greek also, persuaded him to be ordained, and took him to Rome. He became one of King Eadward's clerks, and aethelstan made him bishop of Ramsbury and employed him in affairs of state. In 937 Oda, in company with two other bishops, was present at the battle of Brunanburh, and did the king good service either by miraculously obtaining a new sword for him when he had broken his own, or by handing him a weapon as another warrior might have done. Eadmund, who, like his brother aethelstan, chose his ministers among ecclesiastics, offered him the archbishopric of Canterbury. Like his successor, Thomas, in later days, Oda was by nature a statesman and a soldier rather than a priest, but, like him, he determined when he accepted the primacy to act up to the highest standard of ecclesiastical life. He declared that no one ought to be archbishop who was not a monk, and accordingly received the monastic habit from the famous abbey of Fleury. As archbishop, he sought to bring about a reformation of morals. In a pastoral letter he urged all spiritual persons to purity of life; he insisted on the sanct.i.ty of marriage, and in a witenagemot held at London in 944 took part in making laws providing for the protection, maintenance, and dower of wives, and ordering that all marriages should be solemnized by a priest, and that care should be taken that there was no bar of consanguinity. He probably found an efficient ally in aelfheah, or Elphege, the Bald, bishop of Winchester, who appears to have laboured to bring about a faithful discharge of monastic vows.

[Sidenote: Dunstan.]

The work of Oda is overshadowed by that of Dunstan, the kinsman and disciple of Bishop aelfheah. Dunstan was a West Saxon, and was brought up partly at Glas...o...b..ry and partly at the court of aethelstan, for he was connected with the royal house. With a highly strung and imaginative nature he combined much practical wisdom and determination of character.

Full of piety, skilled in music and the other arts, a cunning craftsman, and endued with the power of winning the love and influencing the conduct of others, he was at an early age one of the counsellors of Eadmund. When he was about twenty-one the king made him abbot of Glas...o...b..ry. The abbey had fallen into decay, and he at once began to restore and reform it, though not on the Benedictine model. During the reign of Eadred he held the office of royal treasurer. The king was sickly, and the work of government was carried on mainly by Dunstan and the queen-mother. Eadred wished him to accept a bishopric, but he refused, for he would not leave the king's service, and he evidently considered that a bishopric should not be treated as a mere provision for an officer of state. As the king's chief minister, he must have been largely concerned in the reduction of the north, and it may be inferred, from the policy pursued with regard to the archbishop of York, that he was by no means an a.s.serter of clerical immunity. Archbishop Wulfstan had been foremost in the revolt of Northumbria from the West Saxon king. At last Eadred caught him and put him in prison; and though, after a while, he was released and again acted as bishop, he was not allowed to return to his province.

[Sidenote: His banishment, 956.]

[Sidenote: Dunstan archbishop, 960-988.]

Soon after the accession of Eadwig, in 956, Dunstan incurred the wrath of a powerful enemy. At his consecration feast the boy-king left the hall for the society of a young lady named aelfgifu and her mother, aethelgifu, who wished to make a match between him and her daughter. The great men were wroth at this slight on themselves and on the kingly office, and sent Dunstan to bring Eadwig back to the hall. Now there was some connexion between Eadwig and aelfgifu that would have made their marriage unlawful, and when Dunstan saw them together his zeal for purity was aroused; hot words pa.s.sed between him and the girl's mother, and he forced the king to return to the banquet. In revenge aethelgifu procured his banishment. He found shelter in the abbey of St. Peter at Ghent, where for the first time he saw the rule of St. Benedict fully carried out. While he was there, the people of the north revolted from Eadwig, and chose his younger brother Eadgar as king. Oda took advantage of this revolt to separate Eadwig from aelfgifu, whom he had by this time married, and it is said that either she or her mother--the story is late and uncertain--was cruelly slain by the insurgents. This revolt of England north of the Thames and the division of the kingdom have little or no ecclesiastical significance, for Oda continued Eadwig's subject until his death. Eadgar, the "king of the Mercians," called Dunstan back to England, and he was raised to the episcopate. The circ.u.mstances of his elevation ill.u.s.trate the unsettled state of the custom as regards episcopal elections. Although no see was vacant, the witan decreed that he should be made bishop, and he appears to have been consecrated accordingly. Shortly afterwards the bishop of Worcester died, and Dunstan was appointed his successor. A few months later he received the bishopric of London, which he held along with Worcester. In 959 Eadwig died, and Eadgar became king south of the Thames.

Then Brithelm, bishop of Wells, who had been appointed archbishop by Eadwig, was sent back to his old diocese, and by the counsel of the witan Dunstan was chosen archbishop in his stead.

[Sidenote: Seculars and regulars.]

During the reign of Eadgar the secular clergy were driven out of many of the monasteries south of the Humber, and their places were taken by monks who lived according to the rule of St. Benedict. The chief movers in this change were aethelwold, who, at Dunstan's request, was made bishop of Winchester; Oswald, bishop of Worcester, who had been a monk of Fleury, and had learnt the Benedictine rule there; and the king himself. Dunstan, though he approved of the movement, did not take any active part in it, and did not disturb the secular canons of his own church. Pope John XIII.

wrote to Eadgar, expressing his pleasure at his zeal and authorising the proceedings of aethelwold. In the north no such change was made, and though Oswald was elected archbishop of York in 972, he did not attempt to turn out the clerks there. While the seculars who were expelled from the monastic churches were, as a rule, married men, no general persecution of the married clergy took place. It was unlawful for a man in the higher orders to marry, and if a married man took these orders, he was bound to put away his wife. But the marriage of the clergy prevailed too widely to be attacked with vigour or success, and though celibacy was the rule of the Church, no effectual measures were taken to enforce it. The only penalty p.r.o.nounced against the married priest in the canons for which Dunstan is responsible is, that he should lose the privilege of his order; he ceased to be of "thegn-right worthy," and had no higher legal status than that of a layman of equal birth.

[Sidenote: Dunstan's ecclesiastical administration.]

The general character of Dunstan's ecclesiastical administration may be gathered from the laws and canons of Eadgar's reign. The laws mark a step in the history of t.i.thes, for they contain the first provision for enforcing payment by legal process, by the joint action of civil and ecclesiastical officers, and they declare the right of the parish priest in certain cases to a portion of the payment made by the landowner, independently of any distribution by the bishop. When a thegn had on his estate of inheritance a church with a burying-ground, it was ordered that he should give one-third to the priest; if his church had no burying-ground, he might give the priest what he pleased. The payment of Peter's pence is also commanded. It is evident from the canons that Dunstan endeavoured to make the clergy the educators of the people; priests were to teach each his own scholars, and not take away the scholars of others; they were to learn handicrafts and instruct their people in them, and to preach a sermon every Sunday. The laity were to avoid concubinage and practise lawful marriage. And both in continence, and in every other respect, the necessity of raising the clergy to a higher level of life than that of the society round them was fully recognized; they were not to hunt, hawk, play at dice, or engage in drinking-bouts, and greater attention was to be paid to ritual, especially in celebrating the Eucharist. While they were thus to be brought, as regards both their lives and the performance of their duties, to a deeper sense of the dignity of their calling, they were socially to hold a high place; a priest engaged in a suit with a thegn was not to be called on to make oath until the thegn had first sworn, and the quarrels of priests were to be decided by a bishop, and not taken before a secular judge. In these and other efforts to raise the character and position of the clergy Dunstan did not desire to make the Church less national, or to separate her ministers from the life of the nation and subject them to the authority of Rome. He worked, as the spiritual ruler of the national Church, for the good both of the Church and the nation, and evidently maintained an independent att.i.tude towards the Pope. A n.o.ble, whom he had excommunicated for contracting an unlawful marriage, obtained a papal mandate ordering the archbishop to absolve him. Dunstan flatly refused to obey the order, declaring that he would rather suffer death than be unfaithful to his Lord.

[Sidenote: Coronations.]

As Eadgar's chief minister, Dunstan must have had a large share in establis.h.i.+ng the order and good government that form the special glories of the reign, and the wise policy of non-interference that secured the loyalty of the Danish districts was probably due as much to him as to the king. c.n.u.t seems to have recognized what he had done to make the Danish population part of the English people, for he ordered that St. Dunstan's ma.s.s-day should be kept by all as a solemn feast. Dunstan saw the fruit of his political labours. It has been a.s.serted that Eadgar's coronation at Bath was connected with a penance laid upon him by the archbishop. While it is not improbable that Dunstan imposed a penance on the king for one of the sins of his youth, the story that he forbade him to wear his crown for seven years is mere legend. The coronation at Bath, which was performed by both archbishops, with all the bishops a.s.sisting, was the solemn declaration that all the peoples of England were at last united under one sovereign. On Eadgar's death a dispute arose as to the succession. Civil war was on the point of breaking out between the rival ealdormen of East Anglia and Mercia; the Mercian ealdorman turned the monks out of the monasteries and brought the seculars back, while the East Anglian house, which had ever been allied with Dunstan, and had forwarded the monastic policy of Eadgar, took up the cause of the monks. In this crisis the two archbishops preserved the peace of the kingdom; for they declared for Eadward, the elder son of Eadgar, and placed the crown on his head. His short reign was filled with the strife between the seculars and regulars. After his murder the two archbishops joined in crowning aethelred. Although the increase in the personal power and dignity of the king that marked the age is to some extent to be connected with the teaching of the Church concerning the sanct.i.ty of his person and the duty of obedience, still the Church did not favour absolutism. Indeed, in the rite of coronation, which seems to have been brought into special prominence during this period, the king bound himself by an oath to govern well, to defend the Church and all Christian people, to forbid robbery and unrighteous doings to all orders, and to enjoin justice and mercy in all judgments. At aethelred's coronation Dunstan, after administering this oath, set forth in solemn terms the responsibilities of a "hallowed" king.

[Sidenote: Dunstan's last days.]

Dunstan's pre-eminent position in the State magnified the political importance of his see. In his time Kent and Suss.e.x ceased to be ruled by their own ealdormen, and these s.h.i.+res, together with Surrey, were ruled by the archbishop with the authority of an ealdorman. With the accession of aethelred, Dunstan's influence in the State seems to have ended. During the early years of his reign the king was led by unworthy favourites to seize on some of the possessions of the Church, and among them on some lands of the see of Rochester. The see was in a special manner dependent on Canterbury, and the archbishop may almost be said to have been the lord of the bishopric, an arrangement that evidently sprang from the early dependence of the people of West Kent on the king of the Eastern people.

Dunstan threatened to excommunicate the king. aethelred, however, paid no heed to his threats, and sent his troops to ravage the lands of the see until the archbishop was forced to bribe him to recall them from the siege of Rochester.

Although he was no longer engaged in political matters, Dunstan's last days were not idly spent. As a ruler and judge he was diligent and able.

He took much delight in the services of the Church. He corrected and illuminated ma.n.u.scripts, and practised the crafts in which he excelled, and all who came to him for knowledge found him a patient and gentle teacher. On Ascension Day 988, two days before his death, he celebrated the Holy Mysteries and preached three times. Then he fell sick, and on the following Sat.u.r.day, after commending his soul to the prayers of the monks of his house, he received the Sacrament, and when he had done so he gave thanks to G.o.d and sang, "The merciful and gracious Lord hath so done His marvellous acts that they ought to be had in remembrance. He hath given meat unto them that fear Him"--and with these words he fell asleep.

[Sidenote: aelfric the Grammarian.]

Alfred's attempt to revive learning had met with little success, for no priest, we are told, wrote or understood Latin before the days of aethelwold and Dunstan. Now, however, along with the rule of St. Benedict, the monastic reformers brought into England the learning of the Benedictine houses of the Continent, and famous schools were established at Winchester, Ramsey, and other monasteries. Nor was the work of teaching confined to the monks; for all parish priests were also schoolmasters, and though few of them had much learning, what they taught was enough to show a boy what he could do; and if he wanted to learn more, he would seek admission into some monastic school. Alfred had taught men that the education of the people should be carried on in their own tongue, and this lesson was learnt and enforced by aelfric, abbot first of Cerne about 1005, and later of Ensham. aelfric took much interest in education, and among his other works compiled a Grammar, which he dedicated to the boys of England, and from which he is generally called the "Grammarian." He saw that the people needed religious teaching, and he therefore abridged and translated some of the books of the Old Testament, and compiled two books of homilies, in which, as he says, he used "no obscure words, but plain English, that might come to the hearts of readers and hearers to their souls' good." These homilies and some of his other writings, which must be held to express the doctrines of the English Church in his day and on to the time of the Norman Conquest, differ in some respects from the teaching of the Church of Rome. They contain many declarations against transubstantiation. "The holy housel," aelfric writes, "is by nature corruptible bread and wine, and is by the power of the divine word truly Christ's body and blood; not, however, bodily but spiritually." He does not give St. Peter the pre-eminence among the apostles that is ascribed to him by Rome, and he refuses to recognize bishops as a distinct order in the Church. He wrote canons for the bishop of Sherborne, and a kind of charge for the archbishop of York. These direct that, according to the ancient custom, t.i.thes should be divided between the repair of the church, the poor, and the parish priest; and they also show that, while priests were strongly urged to put away their wives, no means were taken to compel them to do so. The renewed vigour imparted to the Church by the monastic revival was further manifested by a fresh outburst of missionary zeal; and Sigeferth of York and other priests went forth to preach the Gospel in Norway and Sweden.

CHAPTER IV.

_EXHAUSTION._

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PERIOD--RENEWED SCANDINAVIAN INVASIONS--LEGISLATION--ARCHBISHOP aeLFHEAH: HIS MARTYRDOM--END OF THE DANISH WAR--c.n.u.t AND THE CHURCH--THE KING'S CLERKS--SPIRITUAL DECADENCE--FOREIGNERS APPOINTED TO ENGLISH SEES--EFFECT OF THESE APPOINTMENTS--PARTY STRUGGLES--EARL HAROLD--PILGRIMAGES--A LEGATINE VISIT--A SCHISMATICAL ARCHBISHOP--THE PAPACY AND THE CONQUEST--SUMMARY: THE NATIONAL CHARACTER OF THE CHURCH BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST.

[Sidenote: Characteristics of the period, 980-1066.]

From the renewal of the Danish invasions to the conquest of England by the Normans the Church threw itself unreservedly into the affairs of the State, and almost lost all separate life. While churchmen directed the councils of the nation, the conciliar action of the Church ceased altogether. Bishops took a leading part in politics, and the ablest of the clergy were employed in secular administration. The Church did the nation good service during the period of invasion, and finally converted a savage conqueror into a beneficent king. Nevertheless it became worldly, and though it exercised vast power, its own life dwindled and sank with the life of the nation to a lower level. The close union between the Church and the nation strongly affected the history of both alike. The struggle against the foreigners who were promoted by Eadward the Confessor to offices both in Church and State has a strongly marked ecclesiastical side. Foreign bishops brought the Church into new relations with the papacy, and impaired its independence and national character. Still, its close connexion with the State was preserved, and the foreign element which had been imported into it was for a time forcibly crushed by the national party in the kingdom. In the hope of bringing the Church into subjection, Rome blessed the invasion of England, and Church and State alike were prostrated at the feet of the Conqueror. Yet the English Church survived the Conquest, and became a powerful agent in preserving the national life, which before long made the conquerors and the conquered one people.

[Sidenote: Renewed Scandinavian invasions.]

Dunstan's retirement was soon followed by renewed Scandinavian invasions.

After his death he was succeeded at Canterbury by Sigeric, who in 991 took a prominent part in purchasing peace from the Norwegian host. Although this was the beginning of a fatal policy, his action, taken by itself, seems capable of defence. It was a moment of pressing danger, and there was no force ready to meet the invader. Sigeric probably hoped that if the Norwegian fleet received payment it would defend the land from other piratical attacks. The invaders of England found shelter in the harbours of Normandy, and this led to a dispute between aethelred and the Norman duke. War was prevented by the intervention of the Pope, the proper mediator between Christian princes. John XV. sent an envoy to England, and at his request a treaty was made between the king and the duke.

Unfortunately, the peace with the Norwegians was broken. A fleet was fitted out for the defence of the coast; two bishops and two lay n.o.bles were entrusted with the command, and, in spite of treachery, it gained one of the few successes of the reign. Two years later an invasion was made by the combined forces of Olaf of Norway, who, it is said, had already received Christianity from English missionaries, and of Swend, the apostate king of Denmark. After a time, aelfheah (St. Alphege), bishop of Winchester, was sent to treat for peace with Olaf, who was with his fleet at Southampton. The king listened to the bishop's exhortations, and fully accepted the faith into which he had been baptized. He met aethelred at Andover, and there received confirmation, and promised never to return to England as an enemy. He kept his word, sailed away to evangelize his own dominions, and became one of the most heroic figures in early Scandinavian history. This bloodless victory won by the Church gave the land rest for three years, during which the Bernician see at last found an abiding-place. Fear of the Northmen drove Bishop Ealdhun and his monks to flee from Chester-le-Street. Taking the body of their patron with them, they sought shelter at Ripon, and in 995, when the immediate danger had pa.s.sed, settled at Durham. There Ealdhun raised his church on the height above the Wear, in that strong place that has had so great an influence on the history of the see. Even in his time the bishopric began to a.s.sume its special character as a march against the Scots.

[Sidenote: The Church and the witan.]

On aelfric's death aelfheah was translated to Canterbury. The new archbishop appears to have laboured to bring about a national reformation. Two meetings of the witan were held, in which the ecclesiastical element was evidently strong. During one of these the bishops and abbots met each day for prayer and consultation, arranging probably the part they would take in the discussions of the a.s.sembly. Decrees were made enjoining acts of penitence and the observance of the day of the new saint, Eadward the Martyr. All were to live righteously, were to love one G.o.d, uphold one Christendom, and be true to one lord, the king. Measures were also taken for the defence of the kingdom. Thus even a strictly ecclesiastical matter like the observance of a "ma.s.s-day" was made a subject of legislation by the national Council. At the same time the a.s.sembly was largely ecclesiastical in character, and in its efforts after better things, whether with regard to national unity and defence, or repentance and faith towards G.o.d, seems to have followed the guidance of the rulers of the Church.

[Sidenote: Martyrdom of Archbishop aelfheah, 1012.]

Efforts such as this, however, were rendered of no avail by the folly of the king, the treachery of the n.o.bles, and the disorganization of the country. In 1011 Thurkill, who was then in command of a Danish fleet, was promised a large sum of money if he would cease from his ravages. Payment was delayed, and the Danes attacked Canterbury, sacked the city, burned the cathedral, and carried off many captives, and among them the archbishop. For seven months they kept aelfheah in their s.h.i.+ps in chains, hunger, and misery. At first he promised to ransom himself; but he repented of this, for he thought of the sufferings of the people from whom the money must be raised. While in captivity he spoke of Christ to those who guarded him, and his words did not fall to the ground. The fleet lay at Greenwich, and no money came either as tribute or for the ransom of the archbishop. On 19th May 1012, the day on which the ransom was due, the Danes made a feast, and drank deeply of some wine they had brought from southern lands. Then they brought the archbishop forth and demanded the ransom. He replied that he would pay nothing, that he was ready to suffer, and that he commended his soul to G.o.d. Thurkill saw his danger, and tried to save him, offering all he possessed, except his s.h.i.+p, for his life. But they would not hearken, and pelted aelfheah with stones and the bones of the oxen which they had eaten, until at last one who had been converted by the archbishop, and whom he had confirmed the day before, put him out of his agony by cleaving his head with his battle-axe. aelfheah did not die in vain. Soon after his martyrdom Thurkill, whom we may believe he had converted, declared himself a Christian, and brought his s.h.i.+ps and their crews to serve the English king. aelfheah laid down his life for the sake of the poor, and his death gave England an ally who, during the remainder of aethelred's reign, defended her to the utmost of his power against the attacks of his own countrymen.

[Sidenote: End of the Danish war.]

At last aethelred was forced to flee from his kingdom, and Swend was chosen king. His reign was short. He had a special hatred for the memory of Eadmund, the martyred king of East Anglia, and threatened to destroy his church and put its priests to death by torture. As he was on his way thither he was struck by death, and men said that he cried out that the armed figure of the martyred king appeared to him and smote him with his weapon. aethelred returned to his kingdom after Swend's death, and soon after his return held a witenagemot, by the advice of Archbishop Lyfing.

In the decrees of this a.s.sembly the influence of the Church is again strongly marked; they are mainly expressions of desires for national repentance, reformation, and unity. One resolution is especially noteworthy. It seems as if some a.s.semblies had been held which had treated of secular, or perhaps of ecclesiastical, matters exclusively. This was declared to be wrong; Christ's law and the king's law were to be declared together, as in old time. In the struggle between Eadmund and c.n.u.t, which soon followed, churchmen gave their lives for the national cause; for after Eadmund's last battle at a.s.sandun the bishop of Dorchester and other clergy were found among the slain. Some late writers say that they came to pray, and not to fight.

[Sidenote: c.n.u.t and the Church, 1017-1035.]

In the change that came over the character of c.n.u.t, soon after he ascended the throne, we may discern that the Church won a spiritual victory of much the same kind as the conversions of Olaf and Thurkill. The fierce barbarian became a wise and just ruler. This change was, it may be gathered, largely due to the influence of aethelnoth, called the Good, whom c.n.u.t made archbishop after the death of Lyfing. c.n.u.t's ecclesiastical laws consist mainly of repet.i.tions from earlier codes: the "ma.s.s-days" of King Eadward and Archbishop Dunstan were to be observed by all, men were to go to "housel" three times a year at least, and the clergy were to instruct their flocks diligently. One law declares the liability of the laity to maintain churches--"all people ought of right to help to repair the church." c.n.u.t gave largely to monasteries, and, moreover, built at a.s.sandun, in commemoration of his victory, a secular, or non-monastic, church which was served by a priest named Stigand. He made a pilgrimage to Rome in 1026-7, and while he was there wrote a letter addressed to the two archbishops and all the English people, telling them how honourably he had been received by the Pope and the Emperor Conrad; how he had spoken to them of the wants of his people, and Conrad had promised that the merchants and pilgrims of England and Denmark should not be oppressed with tolls when they crossed the Alps. To the Pope he said that he was much annoyed to find that his archbishops had to pay vast sums when they fetched their palls, and it was decreed that this should be so no longer.

He told his people how anxious he was to rule well, and, among other matters, charged the bishops and reeves to see that all t.i.thes, Peter's pence, and church dues were paid up by the time he came back.

This letter was addressed to the archbishops by name, for they were, in virtue of their office, the recognized heads of the people of England.

The authority of the archbishop of Canterbury was, no doubt, strengthened by the influence that aethelnoth exercised over the king. Its extent is ill.u.s.trated by the story that after c.n.u.t's death aethelnoth refused to crown Harold, declaring that the sons of Emma had a prior claim. Although this story may not be true, it at least shows that it was held not to be impossible that the archbishop should have acted thus. The see of Canterbury gained special splendour from c.n.u.t's policy with regard to the different kingdoms under his dominion. He treated England as the head of his northern empire, and carried this policy out in ecclesiastical as well as in civil matters; for he appointed certain English priests to Danish sees, and caused aethelnoth to consecrate them. They must, therefore, have professed obedience to Canterbury. This roused the anger of the archbishop of Hamburg, the metropolitan of the North, and c.n.u.t promised that it should not happen again.

[Sidenote: The king's clerks.]

[Sidenote: Spiritual decadence.]