The Church historians of England - 1858 Author:John Foxe Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Kent paid them money, and entered into a firm arid binding treaty with them; but as soon as the money which the Kentish men had promised was paid down, they deva... more »stated the whole of Kent. At this period St. Edmund received the crown of an illustrious martyrdom, as may be read in his glorious passion. Hemmed in with these difficulties, archbishop Ceolnoth gave commands to his priests and clerks (with the consent, however, of the monks, and at their request), that they should render the monks devout assistance in God's service, until more monks could be created on the restoration of peace. So, in the midst of much trouble, Ceolnoth sat for forty-one years ; and having died [a.d. 870], he was buried in Christ Church. By the consent of king Ethelred and his brother Alured, Athelard, bishop of Winchester, succeeded to the see of Canterbury, because he had formerly been a monk of that church. Having arrived at Canterbury, and received the pall and the honour of a metropolitan, he was confirmed in his throne by pope Adrian. He was astonished to discover that the clerks sang [service] among the monks, and he resolved to expel them forthwith; but when he had been made acquainted with the truth, he also waited until the arrival of a time of peace and tranquillity. The pagans wandered over the whole of England, sparing neither order, nor sex, nor age; they destroyed the churches, dug down the altars, drove away the monks and nuns; everything was given up to plunder and the flames, cities and towns were destroyed, and with difficulty did any of the monasteries escape, even when emptied of their inmates. Thus it came to pass, as well in the church of Canterbury as in others, that the clerks did not receive the office of monks, nor worthily support it if they did. However, a few of the monks ...« less