A.D. 978. PBOPHECY OP SAINT DTTNSTAN. 77 ing a synod, declared that they could never allow the monks to be expelled from the kingdom, inasmuch as it was they who kept all religion within the realm ; after which, collecting an army, they defended the monasteries of East Anglia with the greatest determination. "While this was going on, a dissension about the election of a king arose among the nobles of the realm, as some favoured Edward, the son of the deceased king, and others his brother Egelred. For which reason the archbishops Dunstan and Oswald convened the bishops, abbats, and a great number of the nobles, and, having elected Edward, as his father had commanded, consecrated him, and anointed him king. In the autumn of this year a comet was seen. In the year 977, a very great synod was held in East Anglia, at a town which is called Kirding.85 After this, while another synod was being held at Calne, a royal town, the elders of all England, who were there assembled, fell from an upper chamber, with the exception of Saint Dunstan ; some of them were killed, while some with difficulty escaped death. In the year from the incarnation of our Lord 978, Edward, king of the Angles, was unrighteously slain by his people, by the command of his stepmother, Elfritha, at a place which is called Corvesgate,86 and was buried without royal pomp at "Werham.87 His brother, Egelred,88 succeeded him, a distinguished prince, of elegant manners, beauteous countenance, and graceful aspect. He was consecrated king, at Kingestun, by the holy archbishops Dunstan and Oswald, and ten bishops, in the sixth year of the indiction, on the eighth day before the calends of May, being the Lord's day after the festival of Easter. Saint Dunstan, being filled with the spirit of prophecy, foretold to him that in his reign he would suffer much tribulation, in these words : "Because thou hast aspired to the kingdom through the death of thy brother, whom thy mother hath slain, hear, therefore, the word of the Lord ; thus saith the Lord, ' The sword shaB not depart from thy house, but shaU rage against thee aB the days of thy Bfe, and shall slay thy seed, until thy kingdom shaB be transferred unto another 85 A misprint for Kirtling, now Kirtlington, in Cambridgeshire. The subject discussed by the synod was the marriage of the priesthood. M Corfe Castle, in Dorsetshire. 87 Wareham. 88 V. r. Ethelred, by which name he is generally known.