Long after Alfred's death, St. Dunstan, then Archbishop of Canterbury
and head of the English Church, set out to push forward the work begun
by the great King. He labored to accomplish three things. First, he
sought to establish a higher system of education; secondly, he desired
to elevate the general standard of monastic life; finally, he tried to
inaugurate a period of national peace and economic progress.
He began his work when he had control of the abbey of Glastonbury, in
the southwest of England. He succeeded in making the school connected
with that abbey the most famous one in the whole kingdom (S45). He
not only taught himself, but, by his enthusiasm, he inspired others to
teach. He was determined that from Glastonbury a spirit should go
forth which should make the Church of England the real educator of the
English people. Next, he devoted himself to helping the inmates of
the monasteries in their efforts to reach a truer and stronger
manhood. That, of course, was the original purpose for which those
institutions had been founded (S45), but, in time, many of them had
more or less degenerated. Every athlete and every earnest student
knows how hard it is to keep up the course of training he has resolved
upon. The strain sometimes becomes too great for him. Well, the monk
in his cell had found out how difficult it was for him to be always
faithful to his religious vows. St. Dunstan roused these men to begin
their work anew. He re-created monasticism in England, making it
stricter in discipline and purer in purpose.
Last of all, the Archbishop endeavored to secure greater freedom from
strife. He saw that the continued wars of the English were killing
off their young men--the real hope of the country--and were wasting
the best powers of the nation. His influence with the reigning
monarch was very great, and he was successful, for a time, in
reconciling the Danes and the English (SS53, 56). It was said that he
established "peace in the kingdom such as had not been known within
the memory of man." At the same time the Archbishop, who was himself
a skillful mechanic and worker in metals,[1] endeavored to encourage
inventive industry and the exportation of products to the Continent.
He did everything in his power to extend foreign trade, and it was
largely through his efforts that "London rose to the commercial
greatness it has held ever since."[2] Because of these things, one of
the best known English historians,[3] speaking of that period,
declares that Dunstan "stands forth as the leading man in both Church
and State."
[1] The common people regarded his accomplishments in this direction
with superstitious awe. Many stories of his skill were circulated,
and it was even whispered that in a personal contest with the Evil
One, it was the foul fiend and not the monk who got the worst of it,
and fled from the saint's workshop, howling with dismay.
[2] R. Green's "English People."
[3] E. A. Freeman's "Norman Conquest," I, 65.