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and suppress any insurrection on its first appear- c h a p.ance. He obliged also Malcolm , king of Scotland, n.to renew his homage for the lands which he heldin England.

Edred, though not unwarlike , nor unfit foractive life , lay under the influence of the lowestsuperstition , and had blindly delivered over hisconscience to the guidance of Dunstan , commonlycalled St. Dunstan , abbot of Glastenbury, whomhe advanced to the highest offices , and whocovered, under the appearance of sanctity, themost violent and most insolent ambition. Takingadvantage of'the implicit confidence reposed inhim by the king, this churchman imported intoEngland a new order of monks, who muchchanged the state of ecclesiastical affairs, andexcited, on their first establishment, the mostviolent commotions

From the introduction of Christianity among theSaxons, there had been monasteries in England ;and these establishments had extremely multiplied,by the donations of the princes and nobles;whose superstition, derived from their ignoranceand precarious life , and increased by remorsesfor the crimes into which they were so frequentlybetrayed, knew no other expedient for appeas-ing the Deity than a profuse liberality towardsthe ecclesiastics. But the monks had hithertobeen a species of secular priests, who livedafter the manner of the present canons or pre-bendaries, and were both intermingled, in somedegree, with the world , and endeavoured toVol. I. L