EDYTARD THE MARTYR. i6g

kingdom , without farther dispute , submitted c

, I ■ I 17

to rum

It was of great importance to Dunstan andthe monks, to place on the throne a king favour-able to their cause: The secular clergy had stillpartizans in England , who wished to supportthem in the polsefsion of the convents , and ofthe ecclesiastical authority. On the first intelligenceof Edgar’s death, Alfere , duke of INlercia,expelled the new orders of monks from all themonasteries which lay within his jurisdiction” 8 ;butElfwin, duke of East-Anglia, and Brithnot,duke of the East-Saxons, protected them withintheir territories, and insisted upon the executionof the late laws enacted in their favour. In order tosettle this controversy, there were summoned severalsvnods, which, according to the practice of thosetimes, consisted partly of ecclesiastical members,partly of the lay nobility. The monks were able toprevail in these assemblies; though , as it appears,contrary to the secret wishes, if not the declaredinclination, of the leading men in the nation 1 ’ 9 .They had more invention in forging miracles tosupport their cause ; or having been so fortunateas to obtain, by their pretended austerities, thecharacter of piety , their miracles were morecredited by the populace.

1 W. Malm. lib. 2. cap. 9. Hoveden, p. 427. Osbeme,p. 113.

** Chron. Sax. p. 123. W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 9.Hoveden, p. 427. Brompton, p. $70. Flor.Wigorn. p. 6 07,W. Malmes. iib. 2. cap. 9.

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