Asty, the 'ejected' clergyman of Stratford, and that Robert Asty of Norwich published a singularly bright and consolatory book called 'Treatise of Rejoicing in the Lord Jesus in all Cases and Conditions ' (1683).
[Calamy and Palmer's Nonconf. Mem.iii. 288; W. Wilson's Dissenting Churches, ii. 537-45; Dr. John Guyse's Funeral Sermon; Harmer, ut supra; for full details on the Asty family, see Browne's History of Congregationalism in Norfolk and Suffolk, Appendix, p. 614.]
ATHELARD of Bath. [See Adelard.]
ATHELM (d. 923), archbishop of Canterbury, is said by William of Malmesbury (Gesta Reg. ii. 184) to have been a monk of Glastonbury. This statement has been disputed (Anglia Sacra, i. 556), but there is no conclusive evidence against it. In 909 Athelm was made the first bishop of Wells. Since 705 there had been two West-Saxon sees, at Winchester and at Sherborne [see Aldhelm]. William of Malmesbury (Gesta Reg. ii. 129) says that Pope Formosus sent a letter to King Edward, excommunicating him and his subjects, because the West-Saxon country had been left wathout a bishop for seven years; that the king held a synod of great men, who divided the land into five instead of two dioceses, and chose five new bishops; and that, in 909, Archbishop Plegmund consecrated seven bishops in one day, one of these being Athelm to the church of Wells, one of the new dioceses. The story is full of anachronism, for Formosus died in 896, and the names of some of the bishops suggest other difficulties. The division of the dioceses, the creation of the see of Wells, and the consecration of Athelm may, however, be accepted. In 914 Athelm was made archbishop of Canterbury, and obtained the pall from John X. Athelm was the brother of Heorstan, the father of Dunstan. He is said to have been Dunstan's patron, but he died about the time of the birth of that saint. Athelm is said by Florence of Worcester to have crowned Æthelstan. This, however, is a mistake, for he died 8 Jan. 923, and was succeeded by Wulflhelm, who must have officiated at the coronation, which took place the next year.
[William of Malmesbury, Gesta Reg. ii. (Eng. Hist. See.); Gesta Pontiff, i. (Rolls Ser.); Florence of Worcester; Wharton, Anglia Sacra, i.; Adelard, Vita Dunstani; Stubbs, Reg. Sac. Anglic, p. 13, note.]
ATHELSTAN or ÆTHELSTAN (895–940), king of the West-Saxons and Mercians, and afterwards of all the English, was the son of Eadward the Elder, and of a noble lady Ecgwyn, according to Florence of Worcester; but another and later story represents his mother as a shepherd's daughter, and not the lawful wife of Eadward. In all probability he was illegitimate, but by a recognised mistress of noble birth. Born during the lifetime of his grandfather Ælfred, Æthelstan was a favourite of the great West-Saxon king, who gave him as a boy a purple cloak, a jewelled belt, and a sword with a golden scabbard, no doubt to mark him out, in spite of his illegitimacy, as a right ætheling. When the young prince was six years old, Ælfred died, and during the stormy years when Eadward was slowly recovering the overlordship of Mercia and Northumbria from the Danish hosts, Æthelstan was sent to be brought up by his aunt Æthelflæd, the Lady of the Mercians, and her husband the ealdorman Æthelred. Probably he took part in the great series of campaigns by which Æthelflæd and Eadward gradually extended the power of the West-Saxon dynasty over the whole of northern England. His education seems to have been sound and literary; the catalogue of his later library (among the Cottonian MSS.) included several good Latin works. In 925, when Æthelstan was aged thirty, Eadward the Elder died, and the ætheling was at once chosen to succeed him. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle specially mentions that he was elected by the Mercians, who still retained their separate national gemót. The West-Saxon election apparently came later. Æthelstan was crowned at Kingston in Surrey (perhaps as being near the borders of Mercia and Wessex), as were most succeeding kings till the building of Eadward the Confessor's abbey at Westminster. Doubts, however, were cast upon the election, on the ground of Æthelstan's dubious legitimacy; and an ætheling named Ælfred (whose exact relationship to the kingly house is unknown) endeavoured to upset the arrangement. A legendary tale in William of Malmesbury states that Ælfred, being accused of conspiracy against the king, went to Rome to clear himself, and there, having sworn a false oath, at once fell down in the pope's presence, and died three days later at the English college. The materials for Æthelstan's personal and regnal history are somewhat deficient. The ‘Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’ and Florence of Worcester (translating from a lost copy of the ‘Chronicle’) are here very meagre, while William of Malmesbury, who is very full on this reign, is uncritical, and evidently derives much of his information from ballads and other legendary sources. It is quite clear, however, that ‘glorious Æthelstan’ was a personally vigorous and able king, a worthy successor of Ælfred and Eadward, and
