Baring-Gould’s sources: Found in post-mediasval Martyrologies. In an Anglican Kalendar, published by Martene T. VI,, Wilson, Menardus, Wyon, Greven, Molanus, the Bollandists, a Mass in honour of S, Ethelwold is published by Mabillon, and the Bollandists, Authority: — A life by Wulstan, Abbot of Winchester, a contemporary, d. 990, “in Latin prose, in a style below mediocrity," W right, but interesting, and thoroughly trustworthy. Also, William of Malmesbury, “De Pontif. Anglic.”] Ethelwold, or Ethelwald, whom his contemporaries and followers designated as the “ father of monks,” was a native of Winchester, the son of a noble citizen of that place. He was bom in the reign of Edward the Elder, and, therefore, not later than the year 925; and was trained to learning from his childhood.
While very young he was taken to court, and his talents August i.].S'. Ethelwold. and many good qualities obtained for him the favour of King Athelstan, and of the learned men who enjoyed the favour of that monarch. He received the tonsure [shaving part of the head as a sign of entering the clergy or monastic life] at the hand of Alphege the Bald, Bishop of Winchester.
Ethelwold appears to have beep nearly of the same age as Dunstan; they were ordained to the priesthood at the same time; and when Dunstan became abbot of Glastonbury, towards 943, Ethelwold took the monastic habit, and became the companion of his studies and of his counsels. He then qualified himself as a grammarian and poet, entered eagerly into the deepest mysteries of theology; and probably followed all the various pursuits in the arts and sciences, to which Dunstan showed so much attachment. Ethelwold is said to have been an ingenious mechanic, and an early writer of the abbey of Abingdon mentions two bells which he made with his own hands.
Ethelwold remained but a few years at Glastonbury, for before the eiid of the reign of Edred, who died in 955, he was seized with the desire of visiting France, and of perfecting himself in learning and monastic discipline in the schools and monasteries which flourished in that country. But the queen-mother, Edgiva, a woman of great piety, represented to King Edred the loss his kingdom would sustain if he allowed such an eminent monk to leave it; and when Ethelwold applied for leave to travel, he met with a refusal.
As an excuse for retaining him in England, the king gave him the abbey of Abingdon, in Berkshire, a small monastic house, then deserted and in ruins, which the king and his mother at the same time enriched with lands, and other valuable gifts. Ethelwold induced five monks of Glastonbury, Osgar, Foldbirht, Friwegar, Ordbirht, and Eadric, to accompany him, and they began to erect a new building, more worthy of the purpose for which it was destined. This work was not completed till the beginning of the reign of Edgar, when Ethelwold sent Osgar to Fleury to be instructed in the monastic discipline of that place, and qualified to teach it to the monks of Abingdon.1. There was at Abingdon a simple monk named Hilfstan, who was employed by Ethelwold in the kitchen. Hilfstan had no easy time of it; he had to cook for the monks, and cook for the workmen engaged on the buildings of the new monastery. He was an active, neat, punctual man, who had always meals ready at the right time, the kitchen swept scrupulously clean, the pots and pans, scrubbed, and set in their places. Ethelwold had no idea that Hilfstan was without assistance in the kitchen; by some oversight he had not supplied him with a scullery-monk, but the cheerful, dapper cook did not complain, but went about his work singing and making melody in his heart to God. One day Ethelwold came into the kitchen and found the great cauldron full of bread and meat stewing for the workmen, the floor as clean as a platter, no dusters scattered here and there, and dirty bowls in the sink, on the table, or crumbs everywhere, but all in perfect, scrupulous order. “ Oh, my brother ! thou art a gallant soldier of Christ !’ exclaimed the abbot. “ Thrust thy hand into the cauldron, and fish me up a crust from the bottom, and see if the Lord approveth thee, as I do.”
The obedient Hslfstan took the lid off the simmering copper, put in his arm through the steam, down through the boiling water, and brought up a dripping crust. And his arm was uninjured. “ Tell no man,” said the abbot, rejoiced. Hllfstan, the cook, became eventually Abbot of Abingdon, and afterwards Bishop of Winchester.2 1 The most detailed account of Ethelwold’s works at Abingdon will be found in the extracts from the register of that house, printed by Dugdale in his Monasticon, vol. i 2 Elsewhere called Alfsin or Elfsige; he occupied the episcopal throne of Winchester August i.] S. Ethehniold.
Ethelwold was a mighty builder, never at rest unless superintending and setting his hand to the construction of new buildings; and several times in jeopardy thereby. One day a great beam fell on him whilst he was helping the masons (“the devil seeking to extinguish him,” says Wulstan), and knocked him head over heels into a ditch, where it lay across him. All his ribs were broken, and but for the ditch it would have crushed the life out of him. In 963, about three years after the completion of the monastery at Abingdon, King Edgar promoted Ethelwold to the bishopric of Winchester, left vacant by the death of Brithelm. He was consecrated by S. Dunstan, then Archbishop of Canterbury, on the first Sunday in Advent, November 29th, the vigil of S. Andrew’s Day. Ethelwold had no sooner been advanced to the bishopric of Winchester, thin he joined Dunstan in the great revolution in the Anglo-Saxon Church, which the archbishop had at heart. He found his cathedral served by secular married priests, canons under no strict rule, living with their wives and families near the great church, feeding well, and sometimes taking the convivial glass, chirpy, jovial, worthy souls, very unlike the grave, austere, enthusiastic monks in the abbeys. Not only the Old Minster at Winchester — the monastery attached to the episcopal see — was occupied by these convivial, married canons, but also the New Minster, formed by King Alfred. The former was immediately under the jurisdiction of the bishop; and having obtained the authorization of Edgar, in the second year of his bishopric (a.d. 964), he ejected the priests, their wives and children from the close, and invited his monks from Abingdon to occupy their stalls, and enjoy their emoluments. The last mass sung by the old canons was on the first Saturday in Lent [the forty days of fasting before Easter]. The mass ended, they were singing the communion, when the western door was opened by the arriving black-robed swarm from Abingdon. The words of the communion were: “ Serve the Lord in fear and rejoice unto him with reverence, receive discipline, lest ye perish from the right way.” The monks thought the words appropriate. Osgar, turning in the sunshine at the great gate, exclaimed, “ My brethren ! the canons are calling us to come in and take their places. Why tarry ye without ?” Then an officer of the king stood forth, and ordered the canons to assume the black, monastic robe, or to depart. The canons, bewildered, filled with dismay — the plans of Ethelwold were apparently kept secret till the blow fell — fled from the church, to collect such of their property as they would be suffered to carry off.1 Three only consented to turn their wives and children out of their houses on the world, and embrace the religious life. “ At this time,1' says Wulstan, “ there were no monks in England save at Glastonbury and Abingdon.”
The New Minster soon shared the fate of the Old, and within the same year the secular priests were expelled from Chertsey and Milton — old monasteries which had been gradually invaded by clergy not living under rule, who had brought in with them their wives and children to disturb the silent cloisters.
These vigorous proceedings caused great irritation in the diocese between the old clergy and the new monks, and the biographer of Ethelwold does not hesitate to charge the former with an attempt to poison their prelate at his own table, because after a draught of home-made wine he felt uncomfortable internally.2 1 <f He drave out the clergy of the bishopric, because they would not take the rulfy and he set there monks in their room.” Saxon Chron. sub. ann. 983. 2 The only ground for this charge is that the bishop had a pain in his stomach after drinking some bome-made wine. He was none the worse for it, however, next day. That, Wulstan thinks, was a miracle. But he tells us elsewhere that the saintly bishop was subject to pains in the bowels. <f Vir Dei infirmabatur frequenter in visceribus.”
August x.] S. Ethelwold. 13 Having thus reformed the four monasteries above mentioned, and compelled the Nuns’ Minster at Winchester to adopt a stricter rule, Ethelwold turned his attention to the monasteries which had been deserted during the Danish wars, and the possessions of which had fallen into the hands of the king. This was the case with most of the larger monastic foundations, and it assisted in no slight degree his -favourite project of introducing monks in place of the secular clergy throughout the land. Ethelwold first bought from the king the ancient nunnery of Ely, and having, by the purchase of numerous estates, and by other gifts, made it “very rich,” he placed in it a company of monks under an abbot named Brithnofb.1 He bought and rebuilt, in the ■ same manner, the ruins of Medeshamsted (Peterborough), and Thomey; and he did not desist from prosecuting his. great design until he had established monks in every part of England.
These extensive operations afforded Ethelwold frequent occasions for indulging in his love of the arts. One of his chief architectural works was the rebuilding the cathedral of Winchester, which occupied him some years, and was not finished till the year 980, when, on the 20th of October, it was consecrated with much pomp by Archbishop Dunstan, in the presence of King Ethelred and nine bishops. In the course of this undertaking Ethelwold disinterred the bones of S. Swithun, which he deposited in a new tomb in the interior of the church in a.d. 971.
Ethelwold was likewise skilful in the mechanical arts, and in music, taking after his old friend and fellow pupil, Dunstan. We have already mentioned the bells which he made with his own hands for the abbey of Abingdon. From the early register of the same abbey we learn that he also 1 Saxon Chron. sub. ann. 963. A detailed account of Ethel wold’s benefactions to the minster of Ely is found in MS. Cotton, Vespas. A. xix. made “ a certain wheel full of bells, which he called the Golden Wheel, on account of its being plated with gold, which he ordered to be brought out and turned round onfeast days to excite greater devotion.” He is said to have been eminent as a mathematician; and a treatise on the quadrature of the circle, addressed by him to the celebrated Gerbert, is still preserved.
Under Ethelwold’s superintendence the monastery of Winchester became an eminent school, which produced many of the most remarkable bishops and abbots of the following age. His biographer describes to us the eagerness with which he employed himself in the instruction of youth, and the pleasure he appeared to feel when teaching children the grammar and metres of the Latin language, and reading to them Latin books in English.
He suffered from a tumour on his thigh, and from pains in the bowels, yet he would not eat meat, except for three months, and in his last sickness, at the exhortation of S. Dunstan.
One night a monk named Theodric went to him when the time came for rising to sing the praises of God, and found that instead of having gone to bed after Compline the bishop had sat up reading by a candle he held in his one hand, whilst he shaded his eyes with the other. This was a novel idea to Theodric. How a man could find such delight in a book as to forget his sleep for it was to him amazing. That a man should read by candlelight was a novelty. So he took the candle from the bishop’s hand, drew the book towards himself, and tried to read. But his eyes ached next day, and never, till his dying day, did Theodric afterwards approve of study by candlelight. Another night the old bishop fell asleep over his studies, and the candle he held dropped on the parchment page. He was found by a monk with his head bowed and the August i.j S. Ethelwold. 15 [ candle on the book, and though the grease had swaled over the page the parchment was unconsumed. This was regarded as miraculous.
The chief literary work of S. Ethelwold (or, at least, the one by which he was best known) was a translation into Anglo-Saxon of the Rule of S. Benedict [father of Western monks (d. c. 547), author of the Rule]. This work he is said to have undertaken at the desire of King Edgar, who gave him for it the manor of Southboume, which he immediately conferred upon his foundation of illy. Ethelwold’s munificence appeared in the number and richness of his endowments, probably far exceeding those of any other individual in his age. His charity was exhibited in a no less remarkable manner; when his own diocese was suffering under the visitation of famine, he ordered all the sacred vessels of the Church to be broken up and turned into money, observing that the precious metals were better employed in feeding the poor than in ministering to the pride of ecclesiastics. The Saxon Chronicle calls him “the well-willing bishop.” Ethelwold died on the xst of August, 984, and was buried in the cathedral of Winchester. S. Dunstan was present at his death.
The church of Alvingham in Lincolnshire is dedicated to him under the name of Adwell, which is a corruption of Ethelwold.