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Abington in Berkshire--at which all the bishops and clergy to the south of the Humber attended. This council drew up a body of twentyeight canons for the future regulation of the church, most of them relating to ecclesiastical discipline, the government of monasteries, the duties of the several orders of clergy, the public service of the church, and the observance of the sabbath and holidays.13 The 10th of these canons directs that the priests be thoroughly acquainted with the doctrines of Christianity, and that they shall teach the people the Apostles' creed, and the Lord's prayer, in English. The 26th warns Christians against vainly imagining that by alms-deeds they may atone for their sins, or dispense with the discipline of the church. The 27th is curious, and sufficiently illustrates the tendency of the age. It was a special enactment suggested by the case of a rich layman who, having been excommunicated for gross offences, petitioned to be re-admitted to church privileges on the ground of his having procured several persons to fast in his stead, and thus perform penance in his name, equivalent to a fast of three hundred years by one individual. The canon pronounced this notable device a piece of intolerable presumption, and denied the prayer of the petitioner.

The history of the ecclesiastics of this period forms the most striking portion of the national annals; their influence was every where felt and obeyed. The people and the prince acknowledged their worth with like reverence. They were the arbiters of taste, as well as the sole stewards of knowledge, and society at large was not less under their guidance than the church.

We are now somewhat prepared to introduce our series of ecclesiastical sketches, which, as well for the sake of continuity of narrative, as on account of the interesting nature of our materials, we shall commence with the life of

Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne.

BORN CIRC. A. d. 639.-DIED a. d. 709.

ALDHELM may be regarded as one of the fathers of English literature; and it is with the view of introducing a few brief notices of the state of learning in England during his time, rather than of amplifying any portion of the above rapid sketch of ecclesiastical history, that we devote a distinct memoir to the life of this Saxon prelate.

According to some historians, Aldhelm was the son of Kenrid, brother of Ina, king of the West Saxons; but Malmesbury doubts this, alleging that Ina had no other brother than Inigald, and that if he was indeed the uncle of Aldhelm, then he must have had a nephew nearly seventy years old, when he himself was yet in the flower of youth.' He was born at Caer-Bladon in Wiltshire, and educated partly abroad, and partly in the renowned schoole' of Adrian at Canterbury. To Maidulphus an Irish Scot, he is also said to have been considerably indebted for that learning which afterwards gained for him so high a reputation. On the death of Hedda, bishop of the West Saxons, the king

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dom of Wessex was divided into two dioceses, Winchester and Sherborne, and King Ina promoted Aldhelm to the latter, comprehending Dorsetshire, Wiltshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall. He received consecration at Rome from the hands of Pope Sergius I. whose inconti nency he had the boldness to reprove to his face.2

Aldhelm of course took his part in the great controversy which then divided the English church respecting the celebration of Easter. At the request of a diocesan synod, he wrote a book upon this edifying point, which Bede assures us opened the eyes of a great many Britons to their inveterate error' in not conforming to the Catholic usage. It was published by Sonius in 1576. He likewise wrote a book, partly in prose, and partly in hexameter verse, in praise of virginity, which is inserted amongst Bede's Opuscula. Of his other literary performances, the subjects of a few may be here mentioned as a kind of index to the learning of the times. In the Bibliotheca Patrum' of Canisius, there Is a Latin treatise of Aldhelm's on the eight principal virtues, and the fight of the eight principal vices. Malmesbury mentions a treatise of Aldhelm's on the dignity of the number seven, another in praise of the monastic life, and several rhetorical works. Bale informs us that he wrote a number of homilies, epistles, and sonnets, in the Saxon tongue; and in a letter written to Hedda by Aldhelm himself, we find him speaking in very extravagant terms of the excellence and dignity of arithmetical science.3 In "compounding, pronouncing, and singing verses and songs in his mother-tongue," he is said to have been "admirably excellent." "And in king Elfred's (Alfred) time" says Father Porter, whose quaint language graces such a subject as this-"manie of Saint Aldelme's ditties were yet sung in England. One thing related of this purpose by king Elfred"-continues this zealous Benedictine father" is most worthie of memorie. The people of those times being yet but rude rustiks, and verie negligent in the diuine seruice, seemed to come to church but for fashion sake (as manie now adaies doe) where they made noe long stay, but as soone as the misterie of masse was done, they flocked homewards without anie more adoe. Our prudent Aldelme perceauing this small deuotion in the people, placed himself on a bridge ouer which they were to passe from church to their villages, where when the hastie multitude of people came (whose minds were alreadie in their beef-pott at home) he began to putt forth his voyce with all the musicall art he could, and charmed their ears with his songs. For which, when he grew to be gratefull and plausible to that rude poeple, and perceaued that his songs flowed into their eares and minds to the greate pleasure and contentment of both, he beganne by little and little to mingle his ditties with more serious and holy matters taken out of the holy scripture, and by that meanes brought them in time to a feeling of devotion and to spend the sundaies and holy daies with farre greater profitt to their owne soules." To excel in singing, and in playing upon the harp, are often-mentioned as accomplishments of the ancient Saxon ecclesiastics; and in an ancient chronicle, found by Leland at Barnewell, Aldhelm is described as having been 'citha

This is stated on the authority of Godwin. De Præsul. Angl. Brit.-Bale gives the story a different turn altogether, and reproaches the British prelate for neglect of duty. Henry's Britain, vol. II. p. 320.

Lives of the Saincts, p. 489

rædus optimus, cantor peritissimus,'-an excellent harper and most skilful singer.5

Our bishop, in one of his treatises on prosody, claims for himself the honour of having been the first to introduce the cultivation of the Latin muse into England. "These things," says he, "have I written concerning the kinds and measures of verse. Whether my great labour shall be found useful or not, I cannot tell; but I am conscious that I have the right to boast as Virgil did:

Primus ego in patriam mecum, modo vita supersit,

Aonio rediens deducam vertice Musem.

"I first, returning to my native plains,

Will bring the Aonian choir, if life remains."

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The praise here arrogated for himself by the good bishop has been denied to him by Mr Warton, who, in his History of Poetry' informs us, on the authority of Consingius, that the first of the Saxons who attempted to write Latin verse was the author of a life of Charlemagne. But that excellent investigator of our literary antiquities appears to have forgotten that Aldhelm died above thirty years before Charlemagne was born. There can be no doubt that Aldhelm's acquirements in classical literature rendered him the wonder of his age. A cotemporary of his own, who lived in a distant province of a Frankish territory, in an epistle to Aldhelm, declares that the fame of his skill in the Latin language had even reached his remote quarter; and Artville, a Scottish prince, is said to have submitted his works to Aldhelm's perusal, accompanied with the request that he would give them a last polish, and rub the Scottish rust off them.6 Malmesbury thus criticises the style of this early scholar. "He is very simple in his style, and never introduces foreign words when they can be avoided. He is always eloquent; and in his more vivid passages highly rhetorical. When you read him attentively you might suppose him to be a Grecian for his acuteness, a Roman for his elegance, and an Englishman for his pomp of language." There seems to be a little contradiction in the eulogy of the critic; but it must be allowed that Aldhelm's writings are nowise deficient in the great characteristic of all the ecclesiastical writings of the middle ages, rhetorical ornament. His work 'De laudibus virginitatis' is pronounced by Tanner to be "one tissue of extravagant metaphor,-of inflated, exaggerated, and unprofitable declammation."

Aldhelm died in 709, at Doulting in Somersetshire, whence his body was conveyed to the abbey of Malmesbury, where many miracles were believed to be wrought at his shrine. Malmesbury mentions his hav mg purchased from some French merchant at Dover a copy of the Bible which he himself had often seen; and Bede speaks of Furthere, who succeeded Aldhelm in the bishopric of Sherborne, as being wellversed in the holy scriptures.

5 Collect II. 322.

Leland Apud Tanner, p. 25.

'Hist. of Engl. vol. I. p 391

Venerable Bede.

BORN A. D. 672.-DIED A. D. 735.

THE life of Bede is more closely connected with the literary than with the ecclesiastical history of his country; but, for reasons already stated, we do not hesitate to assign him a place in chronological order in our ecclesiastical series. He was born in the year 672 or 673, in the neighbourhood of Wearmouth, on the estates afterwards belonging to the famous abbeys of St Peter and St Paul, in the bishopric of Durham. This fact we learn from the Saxon paraphrase of his Ecclesiastical History; and it completely refutes the assertions of Hector Boece and others, who would make him a native of Italy, or some other part of Europe, though it is an ascertained truth that he never travelled out of England, and scarcely beyond the bounds of his native place.

At the age of seven he was brought to the monastery of St Peter, and committed to the care of Abbot Benedict, under whom and his suc cessor Ceolfrid, he was most carefully educated for twelve years; and this service he amply repaid by writing the lives of both, which have been preserved to modern times. St Paul's, where he also resided, was situated at a place called Iarrow, near the river Tyne, about four miles from Newcastle; and when this abbey, as well as that of St Peter, were ruined by the Danes, and became cells to Durham, inhabited by only two or three black monks, they still carefully preserved the cell in which Bede dwelt, and were wont to show strangers his oratory, and a little altar which appeared to have been once covered by a kind of serpentine or green marble. At the age of nineteen he was ordained deacon; and from that time he taught and studied with incredible diligence, dividing his whole time between books and devotion, admired of all who knew him, and considered by the monks as their pattern.' The praises of his contemporaries nothing abated his application, or his modesty, which was no less conspicuous than his learning.

In his thirtieth year he was ordained priest, at the express command of his abbot Ceolfrid, by John of Beverly, then bishop of Hexham, a person of exemplary piety, and of eminent repute as a scholar. He had been formerly preceptor to Bede, and always maintained a great affection for his pupil, keeping up a very close correspondence with him. This mutual esteem continued after John became bishop of York, and it was probably from him that Bede took his opinions in reference to the strict discipline, subordination, and fervent zeal of the monastic state. In these points he closely and constantly adhered to the instructions of his master; and Alcuin, who was his contemporary, in a letter to the monks of Wearmouth and Iarrow, congratulates them on the studious, devout, and submissive life adopted by Bede, as a model for the rest of the order. So attached was he to the rules of his house in point of humility and obedience, that he never desired to change his condition, or even affected the honours to which he might have attained; and, in regard to his superiors, he uniformly submitted to their commands, and did what they esteemed fittest for the service of the community to which he belonged.

Bale de Script. Brit. p. 94 -Alcuin apud Leland.

His extensive and various erudition, and his extraordinary abilities, soon rendered him so remarkable, that his fame passed the limits of this island, and became generally known throughout the continent, and more particularly at Rome, from whence Pope Sergius I. wrote, in very pressing terms, to his abbot Ceolfrid, that Bede might be sent to Rome, where he wished to consult him upon many important subjects. This fact is the highest eulogium that could be paid to the talents and genius of this celebrated monk. It is mentioned by William of Malmesbury, a careful and judicious author, who gives us also a part of the pope's letter to the abbot, promising Bede a safe return; and stating as his reason for sending for him, that he wanted his advice in affairs relating to the government of the universal church. Notwithstanding this honourable invitation, it is certain that Bede never undertook the journey in question, though in those days it was far from being uncommon. The cause of his refusal is not well-ascertained. Perhaps the design was laid aside by the death of the pope, which happened in September, 701. Perhaps his modesty and love of retirement, his assiduous application to his studies, and his warm attachment to his country, were the chief motives that induced him to decline; and the great use his labours were of to his brethren, and to all the clergy in the Northumbrian kingdom, could not fail to procure him interest sufficient to excuse him to his holiness. At all events, the venerable historian pursued his literary labours without interruption either in his own monastery, or at Cambridge, as some authors report. His residence at the latter place is one of those obscure points not established by direct evidence. Fuller and Bale speak in the affirmative, and Dr Allcock, bishop of Ely, directed the prayers of the church for the soul of Bede, as having been of that university; and it is farther certain that there was formerly a small low house near St John's college there, that went by the name of Bede's lodgings. These and others are merely presumptive arguments; and they are treated with very great contempt by those who advocate the antiquity of Oxford, though the proofs which they adduce to the contrary are equally trivial. There is no conclusive evidence either way; and perhaps the first step in deciding the controversy would be to ascertain whether the university of Cambridge existed at the time. By remaining thus in his native country, and prosecuting the toils of a monastic life, Bede gained time to make himself master of almost every branch of literature that the circumstances of his age would permit; and this he did, not with any view to fame or preferment, but merely for the sake of becoming useful to society, and advancing the progress of religion. It was from these generous and patriotic motives that he undertook to compile his Ecclesiastical History,' in making collections for which, he spent several years. It was on the same principle that, we find, this national work- -so highly commended in succeeding times, and even in the present day, in which there is so great a difference of manners and customs-to be of great use and authority, and that, too, in the estimation of those who justly condemn the superstitious legends that are inserted in it. It appeared when the author was in his fiftyninth year; and we know that soon after he began to fall into that declining state of health, from which he never recovered, and to which men of sedentary lives often fall martyrs.

6

Lib. i cap. 3.

Biog. Brit. ii. 117.

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