them a favorable opportunity for shaking off the
yoke; but on Edred's appearance with an army, they made him their wonted
submissions; and the king, having wasted the country with fire and
sword, as a punishment of their rebellion, obliged them to renew their
oaths of allegiance; and he straight retired with his forces. The
obedience of the Danes lasted no longer than the present terror.
Provoked at the devastations of Edred, and even reduced by necessity
to subsist on plunder, they broke into a new rebellion, and were again
subdued; but the king, now instructed by experience, took greater
precautions against their future revolt. He fixed English garrisons in
their most considerable towns, and placed over them an English governor,
who might watch all their motions, and suppress any insurrection on its
first appearance. He obliged also Malcolm, king of Scotland, to renew
his homage for the lands which he held in England.

Edred, though not unwarlike, nor unfit for active life, lay under the
influence of the lowest superstition, and had blindly delivered over
his conscience to the guidance of Dunstan commonly called _St.
Dunstan_, abbot of Glastonbury, whom he advanced to the highest
offices, and who covered, under the appearance of sanctity, the most
violent and most insolent ambition. Taking advantage of the implicit
confidence reposed in him by the king, this churchman imported
into England a new order of monks, who much changed the state of
ecclesiastical affairs, and excited, on their first establishment, the
most violent commotions.

From the introduction of Christianity among the Saxons, there had
been monasteries in England; and these establishments had extremely
multiplied by the donations of the princes and nobles, whose
superstition, derived from their ignorance and precarious life, and
increased by remorses for the crimes into which they were so frequently
betrayed, knew no other expedient for appeasing the Deity, than a
profuse liberality towards the ecclesiastics. But the monks had hitherto
been a species of secular priests, who lived after the manner of the
present canons or prebendaries, and were both intermingled, in some
degree, with the world, and endeavored to render themselves useful
to it. They were employed in the education of youth;[*] they had the
disposal of their own time and industry; they were not subjected to
the rigid rules of an order; they had made no vows of implicit to their
superiors