Edward the Martyr

ON SAINT EDWARD THE MARTYR, KING OF ENGLAND.

In the Year 978.

Preliminary Commentary.

Edward, King of England, Martyr (Saint)

BHL Number: 2418

Section I. The royal line of Saint Edward through nearly six centuries. The places and years of the murder, burial, and various translations.

[1] After the Anglo-Saxons occupied the principal part of ancient Britain, it was divided by these conquerors into seven kingdoms, whence posterity devised the name of the English Heptarchy. Of these kingdoms, that which the West Saxons held contained these provinces: Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, The Kings of the West Saxons descended from Cerdic: Wiltshire, Hampshire, and Berkshire; and toward the end of the fifth century of Christ it began with the pagan King Cerdic, and continued in the same family, even after the monarchy of all the English was obtained, until the year 1066, when in Saint Edward the King and Confessor, whose Life we gave on January 5, the day of his birthday, this most serene royal family was extinguished, and from the sixth Christian King Cynegils was most pious, and in promoting the orthodox religion was most fervent in very many of its Kings. Hence very many Kings, inscribed in the catalogue of Saints, obtained sacred veneration: Among them Saints Caedwalla and Ine, of these the first recorded is Saint Caedwalla, of whom Bede in Book 5 of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, chapter 7, writes that on the twelfth day before the Calends of May he was joined to the company of the Blessed in heaven: on which day he will be treated more accurately. His successor was Saint Ine, whose Acts we illustrated on February 6, and in Section 1 we traced his family from the aforesaid Cerdic, the first King, whom we said was the great-great-grandfather of Saint Ine. After the death of Saint Ine, various Kings of the same family reigned, and at length Egbert, descended from Ingild, the brother of Saint Ine (whom the Anglo-Saxon Chronologist, printed at Cambridge with Bede's History, counts as the latter's great-grandfather), who was the great-great-grandfather of Saint Edward the King, Egbert and his descendants, the ancestors of Saint Edward, whom the sacred calendars venerate on this day among the Martyrs as will be evident below. Egbert was succeeded by his son Ethelwulf, Ethelwulf the great-great-grandfather of Saint Edward, whose four sons included the last, Alfred, the great-grandfather of Saint Edward: concerning whom very memorable things are related on March 20 in the History of the Translation of Saint Cuthbert, chapter 1. Alfred, His name is inscribed in some sacred calendars on October 28. He was succeeded by his son Edward, surnamed the Elder, the great-grandfather of Saint Edward: Edward who had three sons who were successively Kings: first Athelstan, then Edmund, the grandfather of Saint Edward, Edmund: whose wife, the grandmother of this Edward, Saint Elgiva, was the restorer of the Monastery of Shaftesbury, to which we shall say below that the body of her grandson Saint Edward was translated.

[2] From these parents was born in the year 943 King Edgar, Edgar surnamed the Peaceful, who after his uncle Edred, ruled together with his brother Edwy from the year 957, having been elected King by the Mercians and Northumbrians, with the Thames River established as the boundary of each kingdom. But when his brother Edwy died in the year 959, he was constituted King of all the English. From this King was born Saint Edith, whose manuscript Acts, published also by Surius but in altered style, for September 16, begin thus: The Blessed Virgin Edith was the daughter of King Edgar and of Wulfthryth, daughter of a royal Duke, He begot Saint Edith from Wulfthryth, whom the King had intended to unite to himself as consort of the kingdom by indissoluble vows, but after giving birth she preferred to live chastely rather than serve allurements, for God's sake, and received the habit of nuns from the hand of Saint Ethelwold the Bishop at Wilton, and advancing in virtues and examples, she merited to become a spiritual Mother to the Virgins. The holy Edith, left under her mother's care, with the consent at last of the King, received the religious habit in the same monastery. So it is there: with which what Simeon of Durham wrote in his History of the Deeds of the Kings of England at the year 964 is in agreement, enumerating the children of King Edgar, and says that he had from Saint Wulfthryth the Virgin most devoted to God, Edith: Saint Edward from Egelfleda where the title of Saint seems wrongly transferred from the daughter to the mother. He also had, says the same author, from Egelfleda Candida, daughter of Duke Ordmer, Edward, afterwards King and Martyr: but when she died in the said year 964, he took in marriage the daughter of Duke Ordgar of Devon, after the death of her husband Elfwold, the glorious Duke of the East Angles: From Elfrida, Edmund who died in 971, from whom he had two sons, Edmund and Ethelred. Then at the year 971 he records the death of the Prince Edmund, son of King Edgar, and of the latter's father-in-law Duke Ordgar of Devon, founder of the Monastery of Tavistock in Devonshire. The rest is explained below in the Acts. From Ethelred, or as others write Aethelred, were descended King Edmund Ironside and other brothers, and Saint Edward the King and Confessor, who died on January 5 in the year 1066. And Ethelred, father of Saint Edward the last King and Confessor. In this King, says Matthew Paris in the Prologue to his English History, the line of the Kings of England came to an end, which from Cerdic, the first King of the West Saxons from among the English, is not read to have been interrupted for five hundred and seventy-one years, except for a few Danes who, as the sins of the English nation demanded, reigned for some time. Harold having been killed in the same year, the victor William the Conqueror, entering England from French Normandy with a fleet, obtained the kingdom and transmitted it to his posterity.

[3] These things concerning the royal family of Saint Edward. He was less pleasing to his stepmother Elfrida, because while he lived her own son would be excluded from the kingdom, and therefore she incited her husband Edgar to have himself solemnly consecrated as King together with her. Which was done in the year 973, as the Anglo-Saxon Chronologist describes: Here Edgar, King of the English, was with great honor consecrated as King in that ancient city of Acemannes-ceaster; Edgar is consecrated in the year 973. but the inhabitants call it by another name, Bath: and great joy was born for all on that favorable day which the common people name and call the day of Pentecost. There had gathered a company of Priests, and a great choir of Monks, and a consultation of wise men. But two years later, at the year 975, the same author writes: He dies in the year 975, Here he ended his life, the wonder of the earth, Edgar, King of the English, and chose for himself another light, fair and joyful, and left behind this frail and transitory life. The unworthy call... the month of July in which he died: and on the eighteenth day the crown of youths was given, Saint Edward succeeds, Edgar departed from life. And thereafter his son seized the throne, a boy immature, yet senior to the Dukes (namely in authority and power), whose name was Edward: and may God Almighty preserve him. On account of which last words the author might seem to have composed his Chronology

while this King was still living, which either he himself or another then continued: as are those things which it has for the year 978: He is killed in the year 978 Here King Edward was killed, and in the same year his brother Ethelred the Prince seized the kingdom. Which Simeon of Durham recounts for the same year as follows: Edward, King of the English, by the command of his stepmother Queen Elfrida, in the place called Corfe Gate, was unjustly killed by his own people, and was buried at Wareham not in the royal manner. Ethelred is consecrated on April 14 Whose brother Ethelred, an excellent Prince, elegant in manners, handsome in face, comely in appearance, in Indiction VI, on a Sunday, the eighteenth day before the Calends of May, after the Paschal feast, was consecrated to the height of the kingdom by the holy Archbishops Dunstan and Oswald and ten Bishops at Kingston. Which things are read in the same words in Hoveden and the writer from Worcester. And the aforesaid chronological markers agree: for with Lunar Cycle 10 and Solar Cycle 8, and the Dominical Letter F, Easter was celebrated on March 31, and April 14; The Sunday after Easter. that is, the above-indicated eighteenth day before the Calends of May fell on the second Sunday after Easter, since the Paschal feast had concluded with the preceding Sunday in Albis. Saint Edward therefore lived from the death of his father only two years and eight months, not indeed three and a half years, as the writer of Malmesbury writes in Book 2 of the Deeds of the Kings of the English, chapter 9, and many after him. Nor is his reign to be established from the year 977 to the year 981; which error has crept into the Acts below and into the Chronicle published under the name of John Bromton. Saint Edward is called above, when he received the kingdom, an immature boy, of about twelve years, since his mother having died in the year 964, he received a stepmother, and in Capgrave he is said to have been killed at the age of fifteen.

[4] The place of the murder is called above Corfe Gate, by others contracted to Corph and Corfe, in the County of Dorset on the British Sea, in the Purbeck peninsula, which is commonly called an island. Saint Edward killed at Corfe, In the midst of this, says Camden, the old castle of Corfe, long struggling with age, now vanquished yields to time, a most remarkable witness of stepmotherly hatred. For Elfrida, to pave the way for her son Ethelred to the kingdom, sent assassins against her stepson Edward, King of the English, when he visited her there, and this most wicked stepmother feasted her eyes on his slaughter. Buried at Wareham in the year 979. Not far from there is the town of Wareham or Werham, surrounded by the rivers Trent, now Piddle, the Frome, and a bay of the sea, ennobled by the first burial of Edward; which was done on February 13 of the following year. And three years later the body is said to have been brought to Shaftesbury: and there buried on February 18. Translated in the year 981, This would be the year 981, for which the year 979 is read in the Durham writer in these words: Elfhere, Duke of the Mercians, came to Wareham with a multitude of people, and commanded the holy body of the precious King and Martyr Edward to be raised from the tomb. When it was uncovered, it was found sound and safe from all injury and decay. Then, washed and clothed in new garments, it was carried to Shaftesbury and honorably buried. To Shaftesbury: Which things at the same year 979 are read in the same words in Hoveden, the Worcester writer, and the Westminster writer. Shaftesbury, called by others Sheptonia, commonly Shaftesbury, is in the northern part of the county of Dorset on the borders of the county of Wiltshire, a place, says the Malmesbury writer in Book 2 of the Deeds of the Pontiffs of the English, situated on the steep of the mountains... In that place lies, or rather lay, Saint Edward, the grandson of this Elgiva through her son Edgar, whom, innocently slain by stepmotherly fraud, heaven received.

[5] The same things, transcribed from the Malmesbury writer, are found in the Monasticon Anglicanum, where that Monastery is treated on page 213, and donations of Kings Edmund and Edred are inserted, and twofold donations of Ethelred, brother and successor of Saint Edward: the first, without mention of the latter, signed in the year 984, the second in the year 1001, and it is inscribed the charter of King Ethelred concerning Bradford, A church dedicated to him: which is testified to be a copy succeeding in perpetuity for the Church of Saint Edward at Shaftesbury. In the charter itself these things are expressed: I Ethelred, King of the English... to Christ and his Saint, namely my brother Edward, whom the Lord himself has deigned to make glorious in our times through the blood shed by him by manifold signs of virtues, with humble devotion I offer the monastery which is commonly called Bradford, that it may always be subject to the holy monastery called Shaftesbury, and to the jurisdiction of the venerable community of nuns dwelling there, so that against the plots of barbarians the religious congregation itself may have an impenetrable refuge for serving God there with the relics of the blessed Martyr and the other Saints... Meanwhile I thought it worthy to note in this document, He is called Martyr so that the aforesaid estate... may always most freely be subject to the venerable and oft-mentioned community, serving Christ and the holy Martyr without ceasing. The subscriptions are of many, and the first is this: By his brother the King I Ethelred the King have offered this generosity to Christ and the holy Martyr Edward with humble devotion: and lest our offering should perhaps be consigned to oblivion in the future, I have commanded everything, as it was done, to be expressed in this document. After the King subscribed the Archbishops Elfric of Canterbury and Ealdulf of York, And fifteen Bishops and six other Bishops, then six sons of the King, then seven other Bishops and seven Abbots, and finally four Dukes and ten other royal ministers: and in the year, In the year 1001, as I said, one thousand and one.

[6] In the above-cited Malmesbury writer and from him in the Monasticon Anglicanum, these things are added concerning the Translation and veneration of Saint Edward: But at a later time, part of the body was carried to Leominster and part to Abingdon. Everywhere he flourishes, and especially at Shaftesbury he shines both by the grace of his virtues and by his most holy choir of Virgins. Below in the Acts it is added: The place at Shaftesbury The lung retained at Shaftesbury where his lung still throbs with vital freshness is called Edwardstowe. The said Leominster, Part of the body is brought to Leominster by others called Leonis Monasterium and Leominster, commonly contracted to Lemster, is a town in the northern part of Herefordshire on the river Wye, which Camden notes was called Lhanlieni by the Britons, that is, the church of the nuns, once built for them by Merwala, King of the Western Mercians and father of the holy Virgins Milburga, Mildred, and Milgith. It is treated in the Monasticon Anglicanum on page 420, where Leland is cited asserting that it is conceded that the Abbey of Shaftesbury exercised jurisdiction over Leominster and possessed some property there: and finally transmitted part of the relics of Saint Edward the Martyr to be venerated there. Afterwards made subject to Reading: But that King Henry I annexed the lands of Leominster to the Abbey of Reading. A cell of monks at Leominster was also established by the Abbot of Reading. Furthermore, Henry I, King of the English, in the year 1125 subjected Leominster and Chelsea to Reading, restored by him, situated in Berkshire, as the Charter of foundation printed in the Monasticon Anglicanum on page 415 demonstrates. Concerning the Monastery of Abingdon, to which the other part of Saint Edward's body was translated, we treated on February 6 in the Life of Saint Ine the King, its co-founder. Part carried to Abingdon, The Abbot of this Monastery had been Saint Ethelwold, in the time of Saint Edward Bishop of Winchester. Abingdon in the said county of Berkshire is still a fairly celebrated city on the river Isis; but the antiquities of the monastery are most extensively described in the Monasticon Anglicanum from page 97 to 108.

Section II. The sacred veneration of Saint Edward. The title of Martyr. The Acts composed.

[7] Michael Alford in his Annals of the English Church places the death of Saint Edward the King in the year 989, because he does not seem to have had the Anglo-Saxon Chronologist, a contemporary author, and Simeon of Durham; but to have estimated the Worcester writer, Hoveden, the Westminster writer, and others without sufficiently weighing the chronological markers, and to have adhered too much to the Malmesbury writer, who attributes to his reign three years and eight months: whom of Malmesbury we judge to have been deceived because, in addition to the two full years of his reign, the eight months should be distinguished into portions of two years. Veneration recorded in various calendars. Whatever may be the case, the Malmesbury writer does not seem to us sufficiently circumspect on all sides, as we have already shown many times: nor is he to be preferred to so many other illustrious and more nearly contemporary writers. But these things concerning the year, on which Alford in number 9 has the following concerning the veneration of the same Saint Edward: England certainly venerated her King devotedly: whence three times each year she recited the pious memory of the Prince: once on the day on which he suffered martyrdom, March 18; again when his body was brought with solemn rite to the Monastery of Shaftesbury, February 18, three years after his passion: finally, June 20, when the sacred relics of his body were translated from the Church of Shaftesbury to that of Glastonbury in the year of Christ one thousand and one, concerning which more there. Thus Alford, who at the said year 1001 does not seem to have been able to fulfill his promise, and only says there in number 7 from Capgrave and the Malmesbury writer about the body of Saint Edward being elevated and more honorably placed in the same Church of Shaftesbury, and about the splendor added to the same monastery and church: which he could have done more magnificently had he seen the diploma of King Ethelred, brother of Saint Edward, signed in the same year 1001: in which the very Church of Saint Edward is said to have existed, and in it the relics of the holy Martyr to have shone with manifold signs of virtues, etc. Moreover, concerning the body of Saint Edward being carried to the Church of Glastonbury, a pure error crept into the English History of Polydore Vergil, who in chapter 6 near the end, having narrated the murder of the King and his low burial and the blind woman illuminated there, adds that many miracles followed, wherefore Edward was not undeservedly reckoned among the Saints. His body was afterwards carried from that lowly place to the Monastery of Glastonbury and there given honorable burial. Behold, Glastonbury is to be corrected to the Monastery of Shaftesbury. Meanwhile, that error from the cited Vergil is embellished in the English Martyrology for the above-indicated June 20, and the body of Saint Edward the King and Martyr is said to have been translated from the Church of Shaftesbury to that of Glastonbury in the County of Somerset with great solemnity in the year 1001, twelve years after the murder, and almost more correctly twenty-two in the second edition. The authority of Jerome Porter in his Flowers of the Saints of England is also cited, as if he on that day treated of a similar translation: but he, making no mention of it then, celebrates at length on February 18 the Translation from the town of Wareham to the Monastery of Shaftesbury, and adds that afterwards part of the body was brought to Leominster or Leominster, with no mention made of the Monastery of Glastonbury.

[8] From the correctly cited Flowers of this Porter, the Translation of Saint Edward from the Church of Wareham to that of Shaftesbury is reported in the later edition of the English Martyrology for February 18. The Translation of the body to Shaftesbury is celebrated on February 18. Edward Maihew went before in the Trophies of the English Congregation of the Order of Saint Benedict; ascribing this King to it because his body had been translated to the Monastery of Shaftesbury: and the Acts testify that this was done on February 18, namely in the year 981. And at last in the twenty-first year after this

Translation a solemn Elevation of the body was made. We judge therefore that this Elevation was made on June 20, Elevation on June 20 and that it is held as a new Translation of the body made in the year 1001, twenty-one years after the former, and is celebrated with a more solemn rite on the said June 20. The ancient tradition of the English Church preserves excellent traces of this matter in the most ancient Breviary according to the use of the Church of Sarum, printed in the year 1499, confirmed in the Breviary of the same Church of Salisbury printed in the year 1558: in which the Ecclesiastical Office on the feast of the Translation of Saint Edward the King and Martyr for June 20 is ordinarily of three Lessons: but if the feast of the martyrdom on March 18 falls within Passiontide, the feast of nine Lessons is celebrated on the Translation, of which six are drawn from the life of the holy King. In the Altemps manuscript, about which we shall shortly treat, the Translation of Saint Edward the King at Shaftesbury is reported, but through the carelessness of copyists the name Confessor has been added. The same is confirmed from the Cologne Martyrology printed in the year 1490, in which year Hermannus Greven also died, who clearly has in agreement with that Martyrology the Translation of Saint Edward the King and Martyr. In the German Martyrology of Canisius it is called the Elevation: in the Florarium manuscript it is the veneration of Saint Edward the King and Martyr in England, with the name of Translation and Elevation omitted.

[9] These things have been said on the occasion of the various Translations. But the principal feast is on March 18, on which day, having been unjustly killed, he is everywhere numbered among the Martyrs in the ecclesiastical calendars. Thus the very ancient manuscript Martyrology, The birthday on March 18: which we have, augmented under the name of Bede, contains the following: On the same day, of Saint Edward the King and Martyr. We found another illustrious manuscript at Rome in the most excellent library of the Duke of Altemps, augmented under the name of Usuard, in which these things are read: The birthday of Saint Edward the King and Martyr, whose death, precious in the sight of the Lord, frequent miracles demonstrate. We also examined in Normandy, among other monasteries on the Seine, that of Jumièges, and found a Missal written about six hundred years ago, in whose Calendar likewise the illustrious memory of Saint Edward the King and Martyr survives. In the manuscript Martyrology of the same monastery: Among the English people, of Saint Edward the King and Martyr. In the Breviary according to the rule of Saint Isidore, called the Mozarabic; printed at Toledo more fully by order of Francisco Ximenes in the year 1502, the feast of Saint Edward the King and Martyr is celebrated with an office of nine lessons, no less than in the Breviaries of the Church of Salisbury indicated above. The same is mentioned by Hermannus Greven in his additions to Usuard, as well as by the author of the Cologne Martyrology printed in the year 1490, and they call him King and Martyr. Molanus designates the place of martyrdom as the passion of Saint Edward the King. In the present Roman Martyrology he is adorned with this eulogy: In Britain, Saint Edward the King, who, killed by the wiles of his stepmother, became famous for many miracles. In Maurolycus he is called by a typographical error Eldebardus the King and Martyr: just as in the manuscript codex of the Carmelites of Cologne he is written Amradus the King and Martyr. In the manuscript Florarium of the Saints this encomium is found: In England, the Passion of Saint Edward the King of the stock of the Carolingians: he was pierced through with a sword by the treachery of his stepmother, who, grieving that her own son had been passed over and her stepson promoted, laid ambushes for Edward, and at the devil's instigation thus contrived that he be pierced through. He was buried without honor at Wareham, and merited to be honored by the Lord with many signs and miracles in the year of salvation 989. Which things, extracted from the manuscript Acts of Rouge-Cloître, we shall shortly indicate. Felicius, Galesinius, Canisius, Porter, Maihew, Wilson, Bucelinus, and others have their own eulogies excerpted from the life. Masini in his description of Bologna asserts that on this March 18 the feast of Saint Edward, King of Britain, is celebrated in his oratory in the greater Palace, Veneration at Bologna, and that some of his relics are held in the church of the Barnabites of Saint Paul. Finally I add the prayer from the Salisbury Breviaries, in which in place of the martyrdom day the Translation is read on June 20, and it is of this kind: O God, triumpher of eternal empire, graciously look upon your family celebrating the martyrdom of King Edward: Prayer. and grant that, just as you deign to glorify him with a heavenly gift, so you may graciously cause us to be inscribed, through his intercession, in eternal happiness. Through our Lord Jesus Christ.

[8] The remaining Ecclesiastical Office is celebrated for one Martyr. And rightly, according to the opinion of Alford in the place named above, Edward is therefore called a Martyr In what sense he is called Martyr: because, slain by a violent death, he is celebrated as a Saint by the glory of miracles, even though he did not die for the faith of the Christian religion. So also his nephew through his brother Ethelred, Saint Edward the King, is called by the surname Confessor, even though he was not challenged before enemies of the faith to profess the faith of Christ. But, even though that word Confessor was thus used only by the ancients; the usage nevertheless afterwards prevailed that all who had lived a holy and praiseworthy life and had finally rested in the Lord with a holy and approved end should be called Confessors: as Baronius notes this in these words for January 2: to which it should be added that in the same way, if they had fallen by an unjust violent death and were celebrated as Saints by the glory of miracles, they were accustomed to be honored with the Ecclesiastical Office of Martyrs. Indeed, for the greater distinction of both Saint Edwards, this one is commonly called Martyr, and his nephew Confessor. Whether a bull was given by Innocent IV concerning his feast? Baronius in his Notes to the Roman Martyrology both on January 5 for Saint Edward the Confessor and on March 18 for Saint Edward the Martyr observes that there exists a letter of Pope Innocent IV in the Vatican Library, in his register, year 2, page 527, concerning the celebration of the feast day of Saint Edward the King. Hence it is doubtful whether it speaks of one or the other of them, and which, or of both.

[9] We have obtained various Acts of Saint Edward, which for the most part agree in those things which pertain to his unjust murder: and first we judge those to be the best from which the ancient English drew the Lessons customarily recited on his feast days in the Ecclesiastical Office, First Acts which are found in the Salisbury Breviaries printed 120 or 180 years ago, extracted from the Acts which survive in the ancient Legend of the Saints, Published from various sources. or the part of the Legend which we have, printed at Louvain in the year 1485, and which Colvenerius asserts was published at Cologne two years earlier. There survive in the Chronicle published under the name of John Bromton, Abbot of Jervaulx, among the Ten Writers of English History published at London in the year 1652, sufficiently long Acts of the same holy King, in which nearly the same things already indicated above are contained; nor do we doubt that they were entirely the same which Surius published in corrected style. In these the beginning is fuller than in the said Chronicle of Bromton, where the things pertaining to the burial, elevation, and translations are contained much more accurately than in Surius, to be published by us from that Chronicle. The beginning of both will shortly be given.

[10] We have other Acts in a Universal Chronicle manuscript compiled about two hundred years ago by Theodoric Pauli of Gorcum. Other fourfold different Acts are omitted Attached to these Acts were the principal items from the above-indicated Life, which the compiler seems to have later added in the margin as more reliable. A third set of Acts can be considered those which survive in Capgrave, collected from earlier ones. A fourth, described from a manuscript codex of Utrecht from the Cathedral Church of Saint Martin. A fifth, which we received from a manuscript codex of the Monastery of Rouge-Cloître of the Canons Regular, inserted in the first part of the Brabantine Hagiologium, because he is said to be of the most noble stock of the Carolingians and uncle of King Louis: who must be Louis d'Outremer, son of Charles the Simple by his third wife Ogiva, daughter of Edward I, commonly called the Elder, whom we showed above to have been the great-grandfather of this Saint Edward. The rest is contracted from other Acts. Other summaries are found in most of the English writers, of whom we made mention above: And summaries. to these can be added Henry Knighton, Canon of Leicester, on the events of England, chapter 1. Some things are also touched upon in the Life of Saint Edith his sister, and of Saint Dunstan the Archbishop, his spiritual father.

Section III. Collected information about the character of Saint Edward: his and his brother Ethelred's coronation: on the transfer of England to the Danes because of his murder: and on the Synods held.

[11] What various writers narrate in different ways concerning the youth of Saint Edward and his succession to the kingdom after the death of his father, we set before the reader in this place, and begin from those things which Surius adds more fully from manuscript exemplars concerning the life and death of his father Edgar. Thus the anonymous author begins: The renowned King Edward was of great splendor of lineage, Prefaced before the Acts shortly to be given, from Surius drawing his origin from the ancient Kings of Britain: and what is far more illustrious, in his tender years, regenerated by the Sacrament of Christ by the most holy Pontiff Dunstan of Canterbury, he began to excel in virtue and probity. He had as his father Edgar the King, very distinguished for deeds done both in war and in peace: and as his mother Elfleda, daughter of a certain very powerful Duke of the East Angles. And indeed Edgar, after he had subdued not a few places of that land to himself, and now seemed to hold the monarchy, alone wielding the power where before many had reigned; at the encouragement of the holy Bishops Dunstan of Canterbury and Ethelwold of Winchester, Concerning his father Edgar he commanded very many monasteries of those regions which he had subjugated, laid waste by others, to be restored at his own expense, and some new ones even to be built from the foundations: to some of which he sent Abbots with a number of Monks to live in accordance with monastic discipline: but to others, nuns to serve Christ. To all of them he assigned estates and properties from which they would have an abundant supply of what pertains to food and clothing. And the pious King himself had resolved to visit the monasteries of monks from time to time and to console the Brethren. Moreover, he wished the Queen to do the same for the women consecrated to God. He had also from another wife a son Ethelred. Meanwhile Edward, the elder son, a boy of excellent character, rejecting all wantonness and the alluring pleasures of this life, so strove to conduct himself toward God and men that he would please God above all by the integrity of mind and body to be pursued, And concerning the character and coronation of Saint Edward, and would show himself agreeable and lovable to men. He was also conspicuous for much industry and prudence. Moved by these qualities, his father Edgar wished him to hold the scepter of the kingdom after himself: and then, having settled the affairs of the kingdom, the most pious King died in the year from the birth of Christ 977, and the sixteenth of his reign, on the eighth day of July. Upon his death, Edward, by the will of his Father, was created King by Saint Dunstan and certain nobles of the realm. But at the very time of his consecration, certain Magnates of the kingdom opposed him. When Saint Dunstan saw this, in no way moved from his purpose, he set the banner of the holy Cross, which was carried before him according to custom, in the midst, and with the other nobles of the realm

Bishops consecrated Edward as King: and he embraced him as long as he lived with truly paternal love, since he had adopted him as a son from his earliest years. These things are found in Surius. But we showed above that his father Edgar died in the year 975, and indeed two years earlier than is said here, nevertheless having reigned sixteen years from the death of his brother Edwy, that is, from the year 959, when he had reigned two years earlier among the Mercians and Northumbrians: moreover, the day of death in the Anglo-Saxon Chronologist, a contemporary author, is set as the eighteenth of July, whereas here only the eighth is assigned. Concerning the monasteries restored and built, there will often be occasion to treat: we said some things on March 6 for the Life of Saints Cyneburga and Cyneswith, and of Saint Wulsin, Bishop of Sherborne, Saint Egwin, Bishop of Worcester, on January 8 and 11, and Saint Oswald, Archbishop of York, on February 28.

[12] The things said about the consecration of Saint Edward as King are narrated thus in the Chronicle of Bromton: Edward the young man, the elder son of King Edgar, And in Bromton. after the death of his father, was chosen by the holy Archbishop Dunstan and certain Princes to take up the governance of the kingdom. But when at the time of his consecration certain Magnates of the country wished to resist, Saint Dunstan seized the banner of the holy Cross, which was customarily carried before him, set it in the midst, and with Saint Oswald, Bishop of York, and the remaining Bishops of the realm, consecrated him as King.

[13] Saint Dunstan is venerated on May 19; we have his Acts in fourfold form. Some of these were written by Osbern, others by Osbert, who flourished in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Extracted from the Life of Saint Dunstan by Osbern. The former we have not yet seen published, and we shall publish them in full on his day; here we give what pertains to Saint Edward, excerpted, and they are as follows: King Edgar, snatched away by an untimely death, left his son Edward as heir both of the kingdom and of his character. When certain Palatine Princes were unwilling to acquiesce in his election, Dunstan, seizing the banner of the Cross, Concerning the coronation of Saint Edward, which he customarily carried before him, stood in the midst, showed Edward to them, chose him, consecrated him, and lavished upon him the affection of a father and teacher as long as he lived: and what a little before they had thought sad was turned to joy for all, since they had supposed the young King would be cruel, would overturn the counsels of the wise, and would act in all things according to his whim. But after they recognized it was otherwise, they too took a different view of the matter: and it greatly displeased them that the King had displeased them. But when he was killed after three years by the fraud of his stepmother, his brother Ethelred obtained the scepter of the kingdom. Although this was done to the displeasure of Dunstan, And of his brother Ethelred, either because he came to the kingdom through the shedding of innocent blood, or because he possessed little prudence and fortitude; yet it was not advisable to resist, because he seemed to be the son of the King and the nearest heir at that time. Nevertheless, on the day of his consecration, after the crown was placed, Dunstan is said to have predicted this to him: Since you aspired to the kingdom through the death of your brother, whom your ignominious mother killed, the sword shall not depart from your house, raging against you all the days of your life, slaying those of your seed, until your kingdom is transferred to a foreign kingdom, whose customs and language the people over whom you preside does not know.

[14] Thus Osbern, Precentor of Canterbury, who flourished around the year 1070 at the coming of the Normans. Most things from Osbern are found transcribed in the afore-mentioned manuscript Acts of Saint Edward in the codex of Saint Martin's at Utrecht. The other writer of the Life is Osbert, a monk of Westminster, who inserts the following: Meanwhile, when the matter was settled which had detained King Edgar from being crowned in the royal manner, Dunstan, Likewise through Osbert, having assembled the Bishops, Abbots, and other Princes with the entire free population of the kingdom, in their presence, with an innumerable multitude of the people standing by, placed upon him the crown of the kingdom, with all rejoicing and jubilating to God with the voice of praise and exultation. When he himself, two years after these things were done, was overtaken by an untimely death, he left to his son Edward the whole kingdom by hereditary right. When this Edward was to be consecrated as King, some of the Princes of the land attempted to oppose his becoming King: Concerning the objections raised before the coronation both because they feared the severity of his character, by which he had been accustomed to rage sharply against the excesses of his people; and because they knew that his mother, although legally married, had not been consecrated to the kingdom any more than his father when he begot him. But Dunstan, trusting in the discretion and industry of the young man, not fearing the one objection, and despising the other in view of the right of paternal inheritance and testament, seized the banner of the holy Cross and stood in the midst: and having overthrown by reasoning all the things that were objected, he constituted Edward King, and took care to provide the constituted King with paternal affection, counsel, and assistance in every matter as long as he lived. The King also so composed his character in all things and through all things, and so ordered the whole kingdom with holy laws, that his deeds both pleased God and that each of those who had opposed him in receiving the kingdom was displeased with himself. But when he was killed after some years through the fraud of his stepmother, Ethelred, the son of that wicked woman, was substituted in the kingdom, endowed more with his mother's infamy than with his father's skill. Whose advancement did not entirely sit well with Dunstan: yet because And with Ethelred substituted. he was the nearest heir of the kingdom, he fulfilled the royal right for him, knowing that he could not transfer it to anyone else without offending the laws and Princes of the land. Nevertheless, when he had gained the royal throne, Dunstan rebuked him with a certain severe thunder of words, because he had obtained the kingdom through the blood of his brother; and predicted that he would live in blood, and his posterity would be devastated by the cruel incursion of barbarians, and the whole land would be depopulated for very many centuries by their savage domination. Which things, although he denied they would happen in his own lifetime, yet he asserted by a most truthful prophecy that they would absolutely come to pass, as we read in the Chronicles and see today. Almighty God will hasten, when it shall please him, the liberation which he promised would follow, through the merits and intercession of so great a prophet of his. And indeed that he was distinguished by the spirit of prophecy, we confirm not only from this but from certain other things which he is known to have truly predicted. Thus Osbert in the manuscript and printed Life at Surius. Vossius treats of him in his Latin Historians, Book 2, chapter 49, and from the Catalogue of Buston of Bury reports that he flourished under King Stephen in the year 1136.

[15] The rest concerning Osbern and Osbert will have to be examined more carefully for the Life of Saint Dunstan. The sad prophecy at the coronation of King Ethelred, recited by Osbern and Osbert, is also reported by the Malmesbury writer in Book 2 of the Deeds of the Kings of the English, chapter 10, Ingulf, Abbot of Crowland, Bromton, Knighton, and commonly by others. Certainly in that same year, as is read in the Durham writer, a cloud was seen throughout all England [Under him, because of the murder of Saint Edward, England was devastated by the Danes,] at midnight, now blood-red, now fiery: then, changed into various rays and diverse colors, it disappeared around dawn. And immediately he says: In the year 980 Southampton was devastated by Danish pirates, and nearly all its citizens were either killed or carried off captive. Then the island of Thanet was devastated by the same, and the province of Chester by the Norwegians, and in the two following years the provinces of Cornwall, Devon, and Dorset were harassed, and the city of London was burned with fire: and thus it is recorded that this continued in nearly every year of that reign, a most heavy tribute being often extorted, now of 16,000, now 24,000, sometimes 30,000 or 36,000, and subsequently 48,000 pounds, which King Ethelred himself commanded to be paid to the Danes. Whose power so increased that when King Ethelred died on the ninth day before the Calends of May in the year 1016, the Bishops, Abbots, Dukes, and all the more noble men of England, gathered together, by common consent chose as their Lord and King The kingdom offered to Canute the Dane: Canute the Dane, and coming to him at Southampton, and repudiating before him and denying all the progeny of King Ethelred, made peace with him and swore fealty to him. Simeon adds the prophecy of Saint Dunstan previously related from Osbern, and after those words, Until your kingdom is transferred to a foreign kingdom, whose customs and language the people over whom you preside does not know, the following is added: Nor shall your sin be expiated, and the sin of your mother, and the sin of the men who participated in her wicked counsel, And the royal family extinguished in the sons of his brother Ethelred. namely that Saint Edward should be killed, except by long vengeance. After Canute his sons Harold and Harthacanute reigned until the year 1042. Meanwhile, when King Ethelred signed the above-mentioned donation to the Monastery of Shaftesbury in the year 1001, six of his sons subscribed: who then from Emma, daughter of Richard I, Duke of Normandy, married to him in the year 1002, begot Alfred, afterwards killed, and Saint Edward, who at length succeeded Harthacanute, and by his holy life most honorably extinguished, after a long series of more than five centuries, the ancient family transferred from the Kings of the West Saxons to the monarchy of the English. Concerning the sons and progeny of Edmund Ironside, the writers of England may be consulted.

[16] That it was also deliberated among the Magnates after the murder of Saint Edward whether Ethelred should be excluded from the succession to the kingdom, is indicated in the Life of Saint Edith his sister: From the Life of Saint Edith his sister, where these things are also related concerning his murder. After the death of her father Edgar, and the succession of his son Edward, still a youth, the holy Virgin dreamed that her right eye had fallen out. Reporting this to the sisters and at the same time explaining it, she said: It seems to me that this vision portends the fall of my brother. And not long after, Edward, while he desired to see his brother Ethelred, was killed by the sons of iniquity, as is clear in his Passion. And when the Magnates strove and insisted on extracting the holy Virgin from the Monastery and raising her to her father's throne, Concerning the kingdom offered to her. as in many nations women hold sovereign power, and finally wished to use force, they could more easily have turned stones into lead than bend her from her purpose and the service of God. These things are in that Life, which Surius acknowledges to be seriously written, in which the word "youth" is used for "adolescent."

[17] From the Gorcum manuscript, the character of Saint Edward is indicated. In the Gorcum manuscript, Theodoric Pauli thus describes the character befitting his age: Saint Edward was a young man very devout and governing well. For he was entirely Catholic, good, and of holy life. Moreover, above all things he loved God and the Church, honoring devout ecclesiastical persons. He was generous to the poor, a refuge for the good, a champion of the faith of Christ, a vessel full of every gift of virtue. His holy father the King taught him (or rather instructed him) to fear God above all things, to keep inviolably the rights of the kingdom, and to follow virtues. The same Theodoric added in the margin the following, received from elsewhere: Saint Edward, the firstborn of the holy King Edgar, a citizen of the eternal kingdom, crowned with the diadem of the temporal kingdom, was a young man very humble and devout: and although young, yet perfectly restraining his mind from youthful allurements, from his youth he served God by living most chastely. He was a young man most lovable and of most lovable grace; and most desired by his whole people for holding and keeping the scepter of the kingdom. He always desired to follow and love the rules of the Catholic Church. He was moreover greatly intent upon religious acts, frequent prayers, and pious almsgiving. The Church defended. He nobly recovered the state of the kingdom and the Church, destroyed by the faithless Danes: namely by religion and industry

to fear God, to keep inviolably the rights of the kingdom, and to follow virtues. The same Theodoric added in the margin the following, received from elsewhere: Saint Edward, the firstborn of the holy King Edgar, a citizen of the eternal kingdom, crowned with the diadem of the temporal kingdom, was a young man very humble and devout: and although young, yet perfectly restraining his mind from youthful allurements, from his youth he served God by living most chastely. He was a young man most lovable and of most lovable grace; and most desired by his whole people for holding and keeping the scepter of the kingdom. He always desired to follow and love the rules of the Catholic Church. He was moreover greatly intent upon religious acts, frequent prayers, and pious almsgiving. The Church defended. He nobly recovered the state of the kingdom and the Church, destroyed by the faithless Danes: namely, by religion and industry he liberated his people from foreign invasion. All the monasteries, Monasteries built: erected and founded by Saint Edgar the King and Confessor, his father, not yet completed, he perfected and endowed with swift diligence and work.

[18] Thus far Theodoric. But that after the death of King Edgar a sedition of the Clergy arose, because they had to yield their monasteries or churches to the monks, all commonly observe. The Anglo-Saxon Chronologist, a contemporary author, deplores that far and wide through Mercia a wasteland was made, the glory of the Almighty was overthrown in many ways, and many of God's wise ministers were disturbed. By Elfhere in Mercia, removed, Which Simeon of Durham exhibits more clearly in these words: Elfhere, Prince of the Mercians, and very many Magnates of the kingdom, blinded by great bribes, expelled the Abbots with their monks from the monasteries in which the peaceful King Edgar had placed them, and introduced Clerks with their wives. But God-fearing men resisted this madness: Ethelwin, Duke of the East Angles, Friend of God, and his brother Elfwold, and Brithnoth the Earl, a religious man, and constituted in a Synod, said they could never endure that monks should be expelled from the kingdom who maintained all religion in the kingdom. Then, having gathered an army, they defended the monasteries of the East Angles with the greatest vigor. Which things are read in the same words in Hoveden and the Worcester writer. In the Chronicle of Bromton it is added: When a celebrated Council was assembled for this matter at Winchester, In the Synod of Winchester, protected by the image of the Crucifix: the image of the Crucifix with a human voice in the old monastery of Winchester asserted before all that Dunstan's way was the true one, saying thus: Let this not be done, let this not be done. You have judged well. It would not be well changed. In memory of which, at the head of the refectory of the same monastery, above the head of the Crucifix, it is metrically written thus:

In human fashion the Cross present uttered from its mouth Divinely spoken words, which you see here graven.

The Malmesbury and Westminster writers mention the speech of the Crucifix: and say that it happened after the death of Edgar, before the election or at least the coronation of Saint Edward.

[19] In the year 977 the Durham writer asserts that in East Anglia, at the estate called Cirding, a very great Synod was celebrated. Hoveden and the Worcester writer have the same, the latter calling the estate Kyrtlinga. Synods held at Cirding Spelman in his Councils calls it Kyrtlington, and judges it to be the same as what is now called Kirtling in Cambridgeshire. Spelman extracted a few items from this Synod from the Saxon language, and published them rendered into Latin, among which the following pertain to this matter: King Edward and Archbishop Dunstan have now ordained that country people should make pilgrimage for the sake of religion to the Church of Saint Mary at Abingdon: which they also did. But since the spirits of the Clergy, or those protecting them, were not yet calmed, the Malmesbury writer reports that a Council was proclaimed at Calne: At Calne, concerning which the three above-named writers, the Durham, Hoveden, and Worcester writers, write the following for the said year 977: Then at Calne, a royal estate, while another assembly is being celebrated, all the elders of all England who had been gathered there, except Saint Dunstan, fell from a certain upper room. Some of whom died, and some barely escaped the danger of death. And at Amesbury. The Worcester writer adds that a third Synod was celebrated at Amesbury. Both are still towns in the county of Wiltshire: concerning the Councils, the matter will need to be treated more accurately in the Life of Saint Dunstan.

History of the Martyrdom and Translations.

Edward, King of England, Martyr (Saint)

BHL Number: 2420

PART I.

Deeds in his life: the occasion of the murder.

[1] Saint Edward the King, raised to the throne of the kingdom, was directed by the King of Kings, the Lord, in every way of justice and truth: and relying on his help, he daily increased with great talent of mind and supreme humility. For having newly attained the honor, Made King, prudent in giving counsel: he immediately added to his former probity these increases of his virtues: namely, to set aside the counsels of the young and less wise, to attend his mind healthfully to the admonitions of Archbishop Dunstan, and according to the counsel of him and other religious and notable men, to exercise his judgments in all things. Having become a most fervent emulator of paternal traditions, Severe against the wicked and devoutly and vigorously intent both on military virtue and on arranging ecclesiastical affairs, he used a certain severity against enemies and wrongdoers: Benevolent toward the good, but those living piously, and especially those constituted in sacred Orders, he protected with diligent care from all molestation, as he had learned from his most pious father. Moreover, he also performed a certain daily custom of practice: to nourish the destitute, to refresh the poor, And the poor: to bestow garments on the naked: counting as great gain what he spent in such work.

[2] Then among the English people there was great joy, great constancy of peace, great abundance of things: since their King, devoted to such principles while still in the first flower of youth, was affable to all, praiseworthy in chastity, comely and cheerful of face, most proven in counsel and prudence. But the devil, enemy of all goodness, envying his happy deeds He incurs the hatred of his stepmother, and desiring to disturb all the joys of the whole kingdom, stirred up his stepmother Elfrida to hatred of him. How execrable was the presumptuous cunning of this woman can easily be perceived from the outcome of the matter. For, inflamed with the zeal of envy and preferring human things to divine, she began to think how she might root out her stepson from the kingdom, Conspiring with her counselors for his murder: so that her son Ethelred might more freely be substituted in the kingdom. While she was long revolving such things in her mind, she opened the secrets of her heart to certain Princes, her counselors, and took counsel with them on this matter, praying and adjuring them to give her their joint assent and to devise in what manner it might be done. Who immediately all consented to his murder, and meditated with fraudulent machination to accomplish this as quickly as possible.

[3] What more? When the venerable man was confirmed in the kingdom, and had now held the hereditary scepter for three years and eight months; one day he went into a forest for the sake of hunting with dogs and horsemen, From a hunt which was considered very large near the estate called Wareham: but now only sparse thickets, not trees, are seen there in the wide open fields of neglected site. When he had been engaged there for some time, remembering his young brother Ethelred, he resolved to go see him: because he loved him with a pure and sincere heart. Now the house of his stepmother was near the same forest, He turns aside to the house of his stepmother, in which the aforesaid boy was being raised, in the place called Corfe by the inhabitants, three miles distant from the aforesaid estate: where now a fairly famous castle has been built. As he set out thither with a small retinue; behold, suddenly in the middle of the way, his men scattered and wandering here and there in the manner of those at play, he was left without any companion. But he, being alone, went toward that house, since he could already see it from afar, like a most gentle lamb: fearing or dreading no one, because he recognized that he had not offended anyone in the slightest. As he approached, it was reported to the most impious Queen by her servants that King Edward was coming there alone. She, with wicked and deceitful thought, rejoicing that she was gaining a suitable time for fulfilling the desires of her wickedness, immediately went to meet him with the servants of iniquity, as if congratulating him on his arrival, received him, and greeting him sweetly and amicably, To see his brother Ethelred: invited him to her house. He refused: but announced that he wished to see and speak with his brother Ethelred.

[4] Immediately the most impious Queen, transforming herself with other pretexts and covering her crime from concealment, commanded that a drink be served to him without delay: so that while he carelessly tasted the drink, she might more conveniently accomplish what she had planned. Meanwhile, one of them also, who was bolder in spirit and greater in crime, imitating the deed of Judas, the betrayer of the Lord, with feigned love, Having received a kiss, offered him the kiss of peace: so that, removing all suspicion and showing him intimate love, he might more easily smother him: While drinking he is killed, which was done. For after he received the cup from the cupbearer and barely touched it with his lips, the one who had given him the kiss, leaping upon him from the opposite side, immediately pierced his bowels with a dagger. He, having turned aside a little from the place of the inflicted wound, suddenly fell from the horse on which he was sitting to the ground. And thus the beloved of God, falling, exchanged earthly things for heavenly, and for a perishable and momentary crown he received the unfading diadem of eternal happiness. This was done in the year of the incarnate Word nine hundred and eighty-one, and, which is abominable to say, in the Lenten season, namely on the fifteenth day before the Calends of April. Which, as we believe, the divine dispensation so preordained for increasing the merits of his soldier: March 18. that he who had prepared himself for the coming day of the Lord's Resurrection by the annual Lenten fast, mortifying his flesh and pursuing other good works according to the praiseworthy custom of Christians, consummated in a good end, should be received by Christ with the very fruit of his good works in the heavenly court.

PART II.

Various translations and elevations of the body. Miracles.

[5] When the aforesaid Queen Elfrida heard that he had fallen from his horse, not yet sated with the fury of her wickedness, she commanded his body to be seized as quickly as possible and thrown into a certain dwelling which was nearby, lest what she had done become public. The body is illuminated by light Whose servants, obeying the most abominable command, immediately ran up and dragged the aforesaid sacred body in beastly fashion by the feet,

and, contemptuously thrown into a dwelling, as she had commanded, they covered it with vile straw. Now there was in the same little house a certain woman blind from birth, whom the aforesaid Queen was accustomed to feed in her almsgiving: who, when on the following night she had spent the night there alone with the sacred body, behold, in the dead of night the glory of the Lord appeared in the same house, A blind woman is illuminated: filling it with immense splendor: whence the aforesaid poor woman, struck with no small terror, when she had more attentively besought the mercy of Almighty God, through the granting of heavenly grace, she merited to receive the light long desired through the merits of the man of God. In which place also afterwards a church was built by the faithful in testimony of the miracle and in his memory, which has endured until our times.

[6] Meanwhile, when dawn was breaking through the darkness, when the Queen learned through that poor woman what had been done, and saw that she whom she had known to be deprived of sight from birth was now illuminated, she was distressed in countenance and changed in various ways in her mind: fearing that her execrable deed might thus be revealed if the body of the man of God were not more carefully removed. The body is cast into a remote swamp. She therefore swiftly commands her servants to carry it away secretly and to cover it with earth in hidden and marshy places, where it would be least expected, so that it could no longer be found by anyone. While they fulfilled her orders without delay, she issued a decree, than which nothing more unmerciful, that no one should lament or speak of his death, and thus she thought to destroy his memory entirely. When these things were done, she immediately withdrew to a certain manor of her own, called Bere, ten miles distant from the aforesaid place, so that no one would suspect her of what she had done. With the supreme grief of his brother Ethelred: Meanwhile, such great grief invaded Ethelred at the cruel death of his brother that he could receive consolation from no one, nor could he restrain either his mourning or his tears: whence his mother, inflamed with rage, since she had nothing else at hand, beat him atrociously with wax candles, so that by many blows she might at last restrain his wailing. Hence, as is reported, for the rest of his life he so abhorred candles that he scarcely ever allowed them to burn in his presence. Some, however, relate in their Chronicles that in his childhood he had frequently seen his mother beat his brother Edward with candles made of wax, and therefore he never permitted a wax candle to burn in his presence: but he always hated such lights.

[7] After this, when a year had passed and it had pleased the heavenly goodness to make Edward its Martyr known to the world and to declare how great his merit was in its sight; A column of fire appearing, the body is found: he deigned to reveal his venerable body to certain faithful persons devoutly seeking it and to demonstrate it by a heavenly sign. For around the very place where the body had been hidden, a column in the likeness of fire, sent from above, appeared: which was seen frequently to illuminate the place on all sides with the rays of its light. When certain devout men from the neighboring town of Wareham, situated not far from the southern sea, discovered this, they gathered together, raised the body from the aforementioned place, Elevated on February 13. and carrying it to their town to the church of the holy Mother of God Mary, they most dutifully buried the sacred body on the eastern side on the day of the Ides of the month of February; where a wooden church, which was afterwards built by religious men, is shown to this day. A spring also, in the place where the body had previously lain, is seen to this day to pour forth sweet and clear waters, whence it is called the spring of Saint Edward, where many benefits are daily rendered to the sick in praise of God.

[8] Meanwhile, as fame spread throughout the whole land of the English, the fraud and impiety of the Queen was made manifest, the renown of the innocent King was extolled, and the marks of his virtues and merits were proclaimed everywhere. Therefore a certain magnificent Earl, Elfhere by name, hearing that the holy body had been found by so remarkable a sign, With solemn pomp it is transferred toward Shaftesbury: filled with immense joy, and desiring to render faithful service to his Lord as though still living, resolved to transfer it to a more worthy place. To perform this work worthily, he invited such Bishops and Abbots with the Magnates of the kingdom as he could obtain, and he warns and beseeches them in the Lord to give their consent and aid in this matter. He also sent a message to the Abbess Wulfrida in the Monastery of Wilton, and announced that she should come with the Virgins committed to her charge to perform the obsequies of so great a man. Now there was in the same monastery a certain venerable Virgin, sister of this same Saint Edward, distinguished for great integrity of life and character, called Edith, who was the daughter of the above-said King Edgar and of his wife Wulfrida, not yet consecrated to God. When these promptly assembled with the greatest diligence and veneration, and the Bishops also with the Abbots were gathered, as we said, the aforesaid Elfhere assembled from Dorset a considerable multitude of men and women, and arrived at Wareham, where the body of the man of God had lain buried for three years. Which, immediately uncovered in the sight of all the people and extracted from the earth, was found so uninjured by any corruption, as if it had been buried that very day. And the Bishops and the other men of rank, seeing this, glorified the mercy of Almighty God in hymns and praises: who had deigned to demonstrate the innocence of his Martyr by such a sign. Then, received by the hands of the venerable men and placed on a bier, with great rejoicing of Clergy and people it was brought to Shaftesbury, that is Shaftesbury, which in the times of the Britons was called Paladur, and was a city built by King Cassivelaunus of great sinuosity, where a monastery dedicated in honor of the holy Mother of God Mary was held in very great celebrity, which had been most fittingly built by the magnificent King Alfred, the great-great-grandfather of this holy man, because the same King, desiring to betroth his daughter, named Haelena, to a heavenly Spouse, had delivered her in the same church, bound to monastic disciplines; for whose love he frequently and lavishly ennobled it with gifts, for among the other marks of his donations, he gave a hundred hides of land, as quiet and free as he himself had held them and better, to be possessed in perpetuity, which to this day the virgins serving Christ there hold.

[9] Meanwhile, when people of both sexes from all sides had flocked together to so unusual a thing from various places, two poor men, so severely afflicted with disease that they could scarcely crawl along the ground on their hands and legs, On the way, two cripples are healed: came among the rest to the sacred body, still being carried along the road toward the said monastery, intending to beseech the holy Martyr for their affliction: who, approaching the bier of the holy man, when those carrying the sacred body had carried it over them for the recovery of their health, they immediately received health in the sight of the people. At this sight, the shout of the people was raised on high, and all together venerated the merits of Saint Edward the King and Martyr.

[10] The aforesaid Queen also, meanwhile hearing the wonders that were being wrought through the holy man, pricked with remorse over what she had done, immediately mounting a horse, resolved to go after him to beg pardon for her crime: but the divine grace resisting her, this was by no means granted. The stepmother is divinely prevented from following: For while she was riding on the road with her servants, behold, by a certain wonderful and inestimable impediment she was so detained that the horse on which she sat tended backwards rather than forward. Trying to restrain it with the bridle, while it turned sometimes this way and sometimes that, and she could prevail neither by threats nor by blows; she perceived that she was thus detained because of her sins: whence she immediately leaped from the horse to the ground and prepared to go on foot, as if out of greater reverence. But again, what is wonderful to tell, she was turned back, and was nonetheless unable to achieve what she had desired: so that it might be plainly evident that these misfortunes befell her because of the crime she had perpetrated against the man of God.

[11] Meanwhile, the venerable body, brought to the aforesaid monastery of Shaftesbury, It is deposited at Shaftesbury: and worthily and laudably received by the Virgins serving God there, was buried with great honor on the northern side of the principal altar on the twelfth day before the Calends of March, where afterwards many benefits were lavished upon the sick through him by divine clemency.

[12] For a certain matron, living in remote parts of England, when she was weighed down with excessive weakness and daily poured forth prayers before God for her health, one night Saint Edward stood before her in a vision, A difficult illness, to whom he is said to have spoken thus: When you rise at dawn, do not delay to go to the place where I was committed to burial, because there you will receive new shoes necessary for your infirmity. For she was, as can be gathered from conjecture, more severely bruised in her feet, and therefore the health of the feet was signified by new shoes. But in the morning, when she had reported the dream she had seen to a certain neighbor, the latter, incredulous of the vision, asserted that it was a phantom. Meanwhile, when the aforesaid matron pretended not to obey the admonitions of the Saint, Saint Edward appearing, again the holy man appeared to her in a vision, saying: Why, spurning my commands, do you so greatly neglect your health? Go therefore to my tomb, and there you will be freed. She, having resumed her strength, said to him: And who are you, Lord, or where shall I find your tomb? To whom he said: I am King Edward, lately slain by the zeal of envy and unjust death, and buried at Shaftesbury in the church of the Mother of God Mary. The woman, waking in the morning, It is removed. having taken the necessities for her journey, soon began to make her way to the aforesaid monastery of Shaftesbury: and at length arriving there, when she had prayed for some time to God and Saint Edward with a humble heart, she was restored to health.

[13] For the murder of this holy King Edward, Two monasteries built by the stepmother. the aforesaid Elfrida, his stepmother, built two monasteries of women, one at Wherwell, where she herself rests, and another at Amesbury near Salisbury.

[14] In the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand and one, when the merits of the glorious Martyr Edward, brother of King Ethelred, were being declared far and wide by the wonders of miracles which were daily being performed at his tomb; and when it had already pleased the heavenly dispensation that his sacred Relics should be raised from the earth; the Saint himself began to make this manifest by certain signs, and to demonstrate by certain visions in what manner this should be done. For the tomb in which he rested was being raised daily from the earth with such ease that it plainly appeared to all that he wished to be transferred from that place. Moreover, he appeared in a vision to a certain religious man and said to him: Go to the monastery which is called by the famous name of Shaftesbury, and bring my commands to the Abbess, the Virgin Elfreda, who presides over the others serving God there. You shall say

to her therefore that I do not wish to remain any longer in the place where I now lie: and command on my behalf that she report this to my brother King Ethelred without any delay. Who, rising in the morning, went swiftly to the Abbess as he had been commanded, At the command of Saint Edward and narrated to her in order all the things that had been shown to him. And she, giving thanks to Almighty God for this, immediately laid everything before the ears of King Ethelred, and also made known the elevation of his tomb with the utmost devotion. The King, however, hearing of the great glory of his brother, was filled with immense joy: and gladly indeed, if opportunity were given, he would have come for such a solemnity, desiring with the whole affection of his mind to be present at his elevation. But since, surrounded on all sides by various and serious incursions of enemies, he could not at all provide his presence for accomplishing this; The body is elevated with solemn pomp: he sent messengers to the most reverend Bishop of Sherborne and to a certain Prelate of great holiness, Ethelsine by name, and to other men of approved life, admonishing and commanding that they should raise the body of the venerable man, his brother, from the earth and place it in a fitting location. Who, according to the royal command, coming with a great crowd of men and women with willing spirit to the aforesaid monastery, when they had opened with the utmost veneration the monument of the glorious Martyr, such a fragrance of odor emanated from it that all who were present thought themselves placed in the delights of Paradise. Then the Pontiffs, approaching devoutly, raised the sacred Relics from the tomb, and carefully arranging them in a venerable place prepared for this purpose, they brought them into the Holy of Holies with other Relics of Saints in a spiritual dance of divine exultation. The sacred body was thus elevated in the twenty-first year from when it had been buried there.

[15] In later times part of his Body was translated to Leominster near Hereford, and part to Abingdon. The place at Shaftesbury Relics carried elsewhere, where his lung still throbs with vital freshness is called Edwardstowe.

p. Sarum. With several things interposed in the Chronicle, these are contained at column 884 from line 14.

q. Ethelsine, by others called Ethelsinus, is recorded to have presided over the Church of Sherborne from the year 982 to 1006.

r. Namely from February 18 of the year 981 to June 20 of the year 1001, by which time four months of the twenty-first year had already elapsed.

s. Concerning Leominster and Abingdon, we treated above.