Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

98 NEW BISHOPS.
sees. He consecrated three new bishops : (1) for
Wells, (2) for Crediton, and (3) for Wilton.1
King Athelstan, great in worldly renown, also
bore off the palm of a courageous penance. The
crime of fratricide is charged against him, and it is
true that, in feai of his brother Edwin's claim to the
throne, he allowed him to perish out at sea-934.
Iii sorrow and grief at his.sin, he accepted a seven-
years' penance. Death overtook him before it was
completed-940. Atheist an's reign ended a period
of comparative prosperity. The real nakedness of
the land was revealed in the succeeding reigns, revealed
by men who, saints themselves, possessed
the best gifts of mind and heart. First and foremost
in the ranks was St. Dunstaii, but even
Dunstan could hardly have coped single-handed with
the evils resulting O to the Church from the barbarism
of the Danes acting on the incipient civilisation of
the
Saxons.
. Lingarcl, History of the Anglo-Saxon Church, vol. i. p. 80.