MEMORIALS OF SAINT DUNSTAN, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY [IN the first seventy-two pages of the Introduction to the 'Memorials of Saint Dunstan' Bishop Stubbs draws attention to the importance of Dunstan as a historical personage, and then discusses the value of the various biographies of the Archbishop. The Priest B., Adelard, Osbern, Eadmer, and William of Malmesbury wrote lives of Dunstan, and their works are here subjected to a careful criticism. The relation of these biographies to the Chronicles-the more weighty and direct evidences of our national history'-is then touched upon. "The determination of the chronology and the identification of the places and persons that come into Dunstan's history' is not, according to Bishop Stubbs, a very easy task, as the authorities are vague on each point.] DUNSTAN is said to have 'sprung to light' in the reign of Athelstan. We may question whether the word 'oritur'1 refers to his birth or to his coming before the eye of history, in what year of Athelstan's reign the event took place, and in what year Athelstan began to reign. All our authorities agree in referring the word to Dunstan's birth. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, which Osbern follows, fix the first year of Athelstan as the date, and for that first year we have to choose between 924 and 925, the former date being given in four MSS. of the Chronicle and by Florence of Worcester, the latter by two MSS. of the Chronicle. Unfortunately the exact date of the death of Edward the Elder is unknown, but, as Athelstan in his charters speaks of 9292 as his sixth year, his first must at all See B. p. 6; Flor. Wig. A.D. 924 ; Chr. S. A.D. 924, 925. 2 Alford had seen a charter in which 925 is called the first year of Athelstan, Annales, iii. 242:-A.D. 929 is the sixth year in Kemble, Cod. Dipl., Nos. 347, 348. A.D. 931, Nov. 12, is in the seventh year, ibid. 353; A.D. 934, May 28, is in the tenth year, ibid. 364; A.D. 931, Mar. 23, is in the seventh year, ibid. 1102; and July 31 also, ibid. 1103; A.D. 932, Aug. 28, is in the eighth year, ibid. 1007. If these B His parents events have begun in 924. Alford places Dunstan's birth in the spring of 925, arguing that if his mother were pregnant in February, as must be supposed to have been the case if Adelard's miracle of the candles has any semblance of truth, and if Athelstan's accession took place about the middle of the year 924, the child must have been born in 925.1 And this computation is borne out by an entry in an ancient Anglo-Saxon Paschal Table, preserved in the Cotton MS., Caligula A. 15, under the year 925, 'on thison geare was sce Dunstan geboren.' The matter is not in itself of great importance, but it is complicated with questions touching the date of archbishop Athelm, and the age at which Dunstan took holy orders. Dunstan's parents were, as the Saxon priest tells us, Heorstan and Kynedritha; his near kinsmen were among the 'palatini' or members of the court and household of Athelstan; Elfege the Bald, nexion with bishop of Winchester, and bishop Kinesige of Lichfield, were also His con the royal house His other relations Kynedritha Wulfric near relations. Dunstan had a brother named Wulfric. The great lady Ethelfleda was also connected with him by the ties of relationship, and she was of royal descent, being Athelstan's niece. These circumstances certainly give some foundation for the statement of Dunstan's nobility, made by the later biographers, who, however, have a strong tendency to define what the earlier writer has left indefinite. Adelard goes further, making archbishop Athelm his uncle. Osbern and Eadmer make his parents noble, and turn the lady Ethelfleda into Elfgifu or Ethelgifu. They also ignore the existence of Wulfric, making Dunstan an only son. The probability is in favour of Dunstan's noble birth. Of Heorstan nothing more is known, but Kynedritha is very probably the same as Keondrud, a lady whose name is found among those members of Athelstan's court who were made partakers of the prayers of the monks of S. Gall, when in the year 929 they were visited by bishop Kynewald of Worcester.2 Wulfric, who is described reign of fourteen years and ten weeks, must have been crowned two years after his reign began, which is improbable. Perhaps the day may yet turn up in some monastic kalendar. It is, however, very curious that all the ancient regnal lists give him a reign of only fourteen years. 2 The form is printed by Goldastus in the Scriptores Rerum Alamannicarum, vol. ii. part II. p. 153, and also in the Appendix to the Report on the Fœdera. It is so closely connected with Dunstan's period that it is worth while to give it entire : 'Anno ab Incarnatione Domini 928, indictione ii. (lege 929) Keonwald venerabilis episcopus profectus ab Anglis, omnibus monasteriis per totam Germaniam, cum oblatione de argento non modica, et in id ipsum rege Anglorum eadem sibi tradita, visitatis, in idibus Octobris venit ad monasterium Sancti Galli; quique gratissime a fratribus susceptus et ejusdem patroni nostri as managing the secular affairs of Glastonbury under the title of præpositus or reeve, may also with some probability be identified with Wulfric, the 'comes' or 'gesith' of the kings Edmund and Edred, to whom many grants of land were made which ultimately became the property of Glastonbury. The estates thus bestowed were situated at Idemestone, Nellington, Grutelington, Langleath, and other places not far from Glastonbury, and the gifts may possibly have been made with the intention of their being appropriated to the monastery; they begin as early as 940, when Dunstan could scarcely have become abbot, and Wulfric the recipient must have been an elder brother, if he were brother at all. Another glimpse of him may be caught in a curious MS. of the Irish collection of canons, now among the Hatton MSS. in the Bodleian, entitled 'Liber Sancti Dunstani,' which belongs to the date, possibly to the school or hand of Dunstan. The scribe has drawn in one place the head of a boy, in rubric, with the name 'Wulfric Cild.' The lady Ethelfleda bears a name too common among the Ethelfieda Anglo-Saxons to furnish any basis for identification, and the fact that she is called Athelstan's niece scarcely helps the inquiry. A certain lady, Elfleda, has, like Wulfric, grants of land from Athelstan and Edmund,' which came to the same monastery. This lady is not to be identified with Ethelfleda of Mercia, Athelstan's aunt, festivitatem cum illis celebrando, quatuor ibidem dies demoratus est. Secundo autem, postquam monasterium ingressus est, hoc est in ipso depositionis S. Galli die, basilicam intravit et pecuniam secum copiosam attulit, de qua partem altario imposuit, partem etiam utilitati fratrum donavit. Posthæc eo in conventum nostrum inducto, omnis congregatio concessit ei annonam unius fratris, et tandem orationem quam pro quolibet de nostris, sive vivente, sive vita decedente, facere solemus pro illo facturam perpetualiter promisit. Hæc sunt autem nomina quæ conscribi jussit vel rogavit: rex Anglorum Adalstean, Kenowald episcopus, Wigharth, Kenwor, Conrat, Keonolaf, Wundych, Keondrud.' A longer list appears in the general catalogue of the Fratres Conscripti (Goldast. p. 156) :— 'Hic regis Angliæ et comitum suorum nomina denotata sunt; Adalsten, Rex. Wolfhelmus, archiepisc. Elwinus, episc. Eotkarus, episc. Winsige, episc. Sigihelm, episcopus. Oda, episcopus. Fridosten, episc. Kenod, abba. cum ceteris. Kenowald, episc. The bishops are Wulfhelm of Canterbury; Elfwin of Lichfield; Edgar of Hereford; Winsige of Dorchester; Sigelm of Sherborne; Odo of Ramsbury; Frithstan of Winchester; and Kynewold of Worcester. Of the abbots, Kenod belongs to Evesham or Abingdon, and Cudret to Glastonbury. Elfric, abbot (Albrich); Osferth, ealdorman; Wulfhun, bishop; Wihtgar, minister; and others may be identified with the witnesses of Athelstan's charters. 'MS. Wood, I. folios 223, 240; Kemble, C. D. No. 389, where she is called ' religiosa fœmina.' |