i 5 8 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

chap. am! purity os manners, had acquired an ascendantii. over the people. He favoured their scheme fordisposseirmg the secular canons of all the monas-teries ; he bestowed preferment on none buttheir partizans; he allowed Dunstan to resign thefee of Worcester into the hands of Oswald, oneof his creatures , and to place Ethelwold ,another of them, in that of Winchester I,! ; heconsulted these prelates in the administration ofall ecclesiastical , and even in that of many civilaffairs; and though the vigour of his own geniusprevented him from being implicitly guided bythem , the king and the bishops found suchadvantages in their mutual agreement, that theyalways acted in concert,and united their influencein preserving the peace and tranquillity of thekingdom.

In order to compleat the great work of placingthe new order of monks in all the convents ,Edgar summoned a general council of the prelatesand the heads of the religious orders. He hereinveighed against the dissolute lives of the secularclergy; the smallness of their tonsure, which, Itis probable, maintained no longer any resem-blance to the crown of thorns; their negligencein attending the exercise of their function; their

1,1 Chror. Sax. p. 117, 1 ig. W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap.8.Hoveden, p. 425,426. Osberne , p. 112.

W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 8- Hoveden, p. 425.

I4S 6 er vase, p. 1646. Brompton , p. 864. Flor. Wigorn.p. 606. Cluon. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo, p. 27, 28.