DUNSTAN, Saint, English prelate and statesman : b. Glastonbury about 924; d. Canter bury, 19 May 988. His family was a notable one and related to the royal line of the Anglian kings. He was educated in whatever of science and liberal arts existed in that time, by certain Irish scholars settled at Glastonbury, and he was proficient in music (including music com position), in painting and the mechanic arts. At an early age he entered the service of Ring Athelstan and continued in that of his successor Edmund, but his superior accomplishments pro voked the enmity of his rivals at court, by whom he was set upon with outrageous violence and driven out. He then went to his uncle, /Elphea, bishop of Winchester, and when con valescent from an attack of brain fever, took the religious vows, became a monk and was noted for his rigorous asceticism.
At the age of 22 he was made abbot of Glas tonbury by King Edmund, who also appointed him principal state treasurer. Under Edmund's successor Edred (946-55), who was of feeble constitution, Dunstan was in all but name ruler of the kingdom and a wise and vigorous admin istrator. Under Edwy, who succeeded Edred, he courageously sought out the king while he was in the company of his destined bride, Elgiva, and to his face denounced the intended union as incestuous. For this action he was outlawed and spent two years in Flanders; but when Edwy's brother Edgar, a youth, became king of Mercia and Northumberland, he chose Dunstan for his chief minister and at the same time • (957) was appointed bishop of Winchester; also held the see of London from 959; and in 961 he was promoted to the prima tial see of Canterbury. He dispossessed all
married and concubinary priests, supplanting them with monks where he could, made the canons of his own cathedral chapter a monastic college and raised the standard of monastic life. It was part of his policy to make the Danish inhabitants an integral part of the nation; he introduced civil order and preserved external peace. Edgar's successor, Edmund, owed chiefly to Dunstan his elevation to the throne, and the archbishop continued still to be principal minister of state; but when Edmund was mur dered, 979, the archbishop's influence, under his successor, Ethelred,