[*]
These merits of Edgar have procured him the highest panegyrics from the
monks; and he is transmitted to us, not only under the character of a
consummate statesman and an active prince,--praises to which beseems to
have been justly entitled,--but under that of a great saint and a man of
virtue. But nothing could more betray both his hypocrisy in inveighing
against the licentiousness of the secular clergy, and the interested
spirit of his partisans in bestowing such eulogies on his piety, than
the usual tenor of his conduct, which was licentious to the highest
degree, and violated every law, human and divine. Yet those very monks,
who, as we are told by Ingulf, a very ancient historian, had no idea of
any moral or religious merit, except chastity and obedience, not only
connived at his enormities, but loaded him with the greatest praises.
History, however, has preserved some instances of his amours, from
which, as from a specimen, we may form a conjecture of the rest.
Edgar broke into a convent, carried off Editha, a nun, by force, and
even committed violence on her person.[**]
[* Chron. Sax. p. 118. W. Malms, lib. ii. cap.
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