ALDHELM (c. 640-709), bishop of Sherborne, English
scholar, was born before the middle of the 7th century. He
is said to have been the son of Kenten, who was of the royal
house of Wessex, but who was certainly not, as Aldhelm's
early biographer Faritius asserts, the brother of King Ine.
He received his first education in the school of an Irish
scholar and monk, Maildulf, Maeldubh or Meldun (d. c. 675),
who had settled in the British stronghold of Bladon or Bladow
on the site of the town called Mailduberi, Maldubesburg,
Meldunesburg, &c., and finally Malmesbury,
1 after him. In
668 Pope Vitalian sent Theodore of Tarsus to be archbishop of
Canterbury, and about the same time came the African scholar
Hadrian, who became abbot of St Augustine's at Canterbury.
Aldhelm was one of his disciples, for he addresses him as
the "venerable preceptor of my rude childhood." He must,
nevertheless, have been thirty years of age when he began
to study with Hadrian. His studies included Roman law,
astronomy, astrology, the art of reckoning and the difficulties
of the calendar. He learned, according to the doubtful
statements of the early lives, both Greek and Hebrew. He
certainly introduces many Latinized Greek words into his
works. Ill-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 period of his studies with Hadrian. When Maildulf
died, Aldhelm was appointed in 675, according to a charter
of doubtful authenticity cited by 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 Benedictine 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 Frome
and at Bradford on Avon. The little church of St Lawrence at
Bradford dates back to his time and may safely be regarded as
his. At Malmesbury he built a new church to replace Maildulf's
modest building, and obtained considerable grants of 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 Peronne, was one 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 treatise on Latin prosody for the use of his
countrymen. In this work he included his most famous productions,
101 riddles in Latin hexameters. Each of them is a 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 Bede (Eccl. Hist. v. 18), who speaks of
him as a wonder of erudition. His fame reached Italy, and at
the request of Pope Sergius I. (687-701) he paid a visit to
Rome, of which, however, there is no notice in his extant
writings. On his return, bringing with him privileges for
his monastery and a magnificent altar, he received a popular
ovation. He was deputed by a synod of the church in Wessex
to remonstrate with the Britons of Domnonia (Devon and
Cornwall) on their differences from the Roman practice in
the shape of the tonsure and the date of 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.
Continued on page two.
Note
1For the disputed etymology of Malmesbury,
which some connect with Aldhelm's name, see Bishop
Browne,
St Aldhelm: his Life and Times, p. 73.
This article is from the 1911 edition of an
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