Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

114 CANUTE.
heap of stones. Yet Thrum, a Dane, whom he had
baptised, found him still breathing, and, in order to
put an end to his sufferings, clove his skull with a
battle-axe.1 Elphege laid down his life for his flock
on April 19, 1012.
In daily life many influences seem more powerful
than goodness or even heroic sanctity. The rich
and great do their evil will, whilst the unknown
saint seems to make no impression on his generation.
Yet history reverses the verdict of daily life.
The memory of the rich perishes whilst the holy
deeds trampled down in ignominy live on. So it
was with the martyrdom of blessed Elphege. It did
not stay the Dane's hand ; but the Danes themselves
reaped the harvest of his blood.
On the death of Edmund Ironside, in 1017, Canute,
the son of Sweyn, sat at once upon the English and
Scandinavian throne ; and, during a reign of twenty
years, he cultivated the goods of peace, and strove
to undo the wrongs which his countrymen had inflicted
upon England. Canute went on a pilgrimage
to Kome, and promoted justice and the interests of
the Church. The sons and successors of Canute
were not worthy of him.
At length, in 1042, a reaction against the Danish
yoke set in, and the Saxons determined to elect as
king the eldest surviving son of Ethelred the Unready.
St. Edward the Confessor distinguished him
self even amongst saints by his kindness and gentle
lHutory of Anglo-Saxon Church, ii. 295.