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See also: bishop of See also: Sherborne, See also: English See also: scholar, was See also: born before the See also: middle of the 7th century
.
He is said to have been the son of Kenten, who was of the royal See also: house of Wessex, but who was certainly not, as See also: Aldhelm's early biographer Faritius asserts, the See also: brother of See also: King Me
.
He received his first
See also: education in the school of an Irish scholar and See also: monk, Maildulf, Mnldubh or Meldun (d. c
.
675), who.had settled. in the
See also: British stronghold of Bladon or Bladow on the site of the See also: town called Mailduberi, Maldubesburg, Meldunesburg, ' &c., and finally See also: Malmesbury,' after him
.
In 668 See also: Pope Vitalian sent See also: Theodore of See also: Tarsus to be archbishop of See also: Canterbury, and about the same See also: time came the See also: African scholar See also: Hadrian, who became See also: abbot of St Augustine's at Canterbury
.
Aldhelm was one of his disciples, for he addresses him as the " venerable
See also: preceptor of my See also: rude childhood." He must, nevertheless, have been See also: thirty years of age when he bega,n to study with Hadrian
.
His studies included See also: Roman See also: law, astronomy, See also: astrology, the See also: art of reckoning and the difficulties of the See also: calendar
.
He learned, according to the doubtful statements of the early lives, both See also: Greek and See also: Hebrew
.
He certainly introduces many Latinized Greek words into his See also: works
.
See also: Ill-See also: health compelled him to leave Canterbury, and he returned to Malmesbury, where he was a monk under Maildulf for fourteen years, dating probably from 661, and including the See also: period of his studies with Hadrian
.
When Maildulf died, Aldhelmwas appointed in 675, according to a charter of doubtful authenticity cited by See also: William of Malmesbury, by Leutherius, bishop of Dorchester from 671 to 676, to succeed to the direction of the monastery, of which he became the first abbot
.
He introduced the
See also: Benedictine See also: rule, and secured the right of the election of the abbot to the monks themselves
.
The community at Malmesbury increased, and Aldhelm was able to found two other monasteries to be centres of learning at See also: Frome and at See also: Bradford on See also: Avon
.
The little See also: church of St
See also: Lawrence at Bradford See also: dates back to his time and may safely be regarded as his
.
At Malmesbury he built a new church to replace Maildulf's modest See also: building, and obtained considerable grants of See also: land for the monastery
.
His fame as a scholar rapidly spread into other countries
.
Artwil, the son of an Irish king, submitted his writings for Aldhelm's approval, and Cellanus, an Irish monk from Feronne, was lone of his correspondents
.
Aldhelm was 'the first Englishman, so far as we know, to write in Latin verse, and his letter to Acircius (Aldfrith or Eadfrith, king of Northumbria) is a See also: treatise on Latin See also: prosody for the use of his countrymen
.
In this See also: work he included his most famous productions, 101 See also: riddles in Latin hexameters
.
Each of them is a See also: complete picture, and one of them runs to 83 lines
.
That his merits as a scholar were early recognized in his own country is shown by the encomium of See also: Bede (Eccl
.
Hist. v
.
18), who speaks of him as a wonder of erudition
.
His fame reached See also: Italy, and at the See also: request of Pope See also: Sergius I
.
(687-701) he paid a visit to See also: Rome, of which, however, there is no See also: notice in his extant writings
.
On his return, bringing with him privileges for his monastery and a magnificent altar, he received a popular See also: ovation
.
He was deputed by a See also: synod of the church in Wessex to remonstrate with the Britons of Domnonia (See also: Devon and See also: Cornwall) on their differences from the Roman practice in the shape of the tonsure and the date of See also: Easter
.
This he did in a long and rather acrimonious letter to their king Geraint (Geruntius), and their ultimate agreement with Rome is referred by William of Malmesbury to his efforts
.
In 705, or perhaps earlier, Haddi, bishop of Winchester, died, and the diocese was divided into two parts
.
Sherborne was the new see, of which Aldhelm reluctantly became the first bishop
.
He wished to resign the abbey of Malmesbury which he had governed for thirty years, but yielding to the remonstrances of the monks he continued to See also: direct it until his See also: death
.
He was now an old See also: man, but he showed See also: great activity in his new functions
.
The See also: cathedral church which he built at Sherborne, though replaced later by a
' For the disputed etymology of Malmesbury, which some connect with Aldhelm's name, see Bishop See also: Browne, St Aldhelm: his
See also: Life and
Times, p
.
73
.
Norman church, is described by William of Malmesbury
.
He was on his rounds in his diocese when he died in the church of Doulting on the 25th of- May 709
.
The See also: body was taken to Malmesbury, and crosses were set up by the pious care of his friend, Bishop Ecgwine of See also: Worcester, at the various halting-places
.
He was buried in the church of St Michael
.
His biographers relate- miracles due to his sanctity worked during his lifetime and at his shrine
.
Aldhelm wrote See also: poetry in Anglo-Saxon also, and set his own compositions to See also: music, but none of his songs, which were still popular in the time of See also: Alfred, have come down to us
.
Finding his See also: people slow to come to church, he is said to have stood at the end of a See also: bridge singing songs in the vernacular, thus See also: collecting a See also: crowd to listen to exhortations on sacred subjects
.
Aldhelm wrote in elaborate and grandiloquent Latin, which soon came to be regarded as barbarous
.
Much admired as he was by his contemporaries, his fame as a scholar therefore soon declined, but his reputation as a See also: pioneer in Latin scholarship in See also: England and as a teacher remains
.
Aldhelm's works were collected in J
.
A
.
See also: Giles's Patres eccl
.
Angl
.
(See also: Oxford, 1844), and reprinted by J
.
P . See also: Migne in his Patrologiae Cursus, vol
.
89 (285o)
.
The letter to Geraint, king of Domnonia, was supposed to have been destroyed by the Britons (W. of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum, p
.
361), but was discovered with others of Aldhelm's in the See also: correspondence of St Boniface, See also: arch-bishop of See also: Mainz
.
A long letter to Eahf rid, a scholar just returned from See also: Ireland (first printed in Usserii Veterum Epistt
.
Hiber
.
Sylloge, 1632), is of See also: interest as casting See also: light on the relations between English and Irish scholars
.
Next to the riddles, Aldhelm's best-known work is De Laude Virginitatis sive de Virginitate Sanctorum, a Latin treatise addressed about 705 to the nuns of See also: Barking,2 in which he commemorates a great number of See also: saints
.
This was afterwards turned by Aldhelm into Latin verse (printed by Delrio, Mainz, 16o1)
.
The chief source of his Epistola ad Acircium sive See also: liber de septenario, et de metris, aenigmatibus ac pedum regulis (ed
.
A
.
See also: Mai, Class
.
Auct. vol. v.) is, See also: Priscian
.
For the riddles included in it, his See also: model was the collection known as Symposii aenigmata
.
The acrostic introduction gives the See also: sentence, " Aldhelmus cecinit millenis versibus odas," whether read from the initial or final letters of the lines
.
His Latin poems include one on the dedication of a See also: basilica built by See also: Bugge (or Eadburga), a royal lady of the house of Wessex
.
An excellent account of his ecclesiastical importance is given by W
.
Bright in Chapters on Early English Church See also: History (Oxford, 1878)
.
For his position as a writer of Latin verse consult A
.
See also: Ebert, Allgemeine Geschichte d
.
Literatur See also: des Mittelalters See also: im Abendlande,
2 Cuthburga, See also: sister of King See also: Ine of Wessex, and therefore related to Aldhelm, See also: left her See also: husband Aldfrith, king of Northumbria, to enter the nunnery at Barking
.
She afterwards founded the nunnery of See also: Wimborne, of which she became abbess
.
vol. i. new edition (1889); M
.
Manitius, Geschichte der christlichlateinischen Poesie &c . ( See also: Stuttgart, 1891), pp
.
487-496; also H
.
See also: Hahn, Bonifaz and Lul ihre angelsachsischen Korrespondenten, See also: chap. i
.
(See also: Leipzig, 1883)
.
The two last-named works contain many further See also: bibliographical references
.
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