Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

104 OURS OF
her ambition-were not vain. Her vengeance pursued
Dunstan, and made England an unsafe place
f
for the courageous Abbot of Glastonbury. Dunstan
took refuge in Flanders, where the monastic life
was flourishing. There, safe from his enemies, he
awaited the hour of security.
In the meantime, affairs did not prosper with
Edwy. The Mercians revolted against him, and
peace was only gained by the division of the king-
dom (958), Edwy retaining the country south of the
Thames, and his brother Edgar taking the rest of
England. Edgar was but sixteen when he became
king, and already he showed some decided character
by recalling Dunstan, the devoted friend of his *
family.
After Dunstan's return to England his life shapes
itself into two principal aspects-his work as an
ecclesiastical reformer, and his labours as a politician,
who had before his mind's eye a great principle to
which he was always singularly faithful. A monk
himself, he founded on the religious life his greatest
hopes for the future of the Church. However, he
began his public' career in his office of prime
minister.
*
More weight was, in the first instance, given to
his position by the episcopal consecration which he
received on his return from Flanders. According to
a custom in force at the time, he was probably consecrated
a shire-bishop, pending the vacancy of a
see. He became Archbishop of Canterbury in 959.