By the Rev. W. H. Jones. il 
liberty of elections granted to all congregations under his go- 
vernment. After a preface, he says, “ Hence it is that I Aldhelm 
after having by the divine goodness been enthroned in the 
episcopal office, unworthy as I am, secretly resolved within my- 
self that my monasteries of Malmsbury, Frome, and Bradanford 
over which as Abbot I long presided, should receive an Abbot 
selected by the spontaneous voice of my establishment. The pious 
determination of my monks opposed this my resolution; and when 
I had several times mentioned this in assemblies of my brethren, 
none of them would listen to my wishes, but said ‘As long as you 
are alive we will most humbly submit to the yoke of your govern- 
ment, entreating only that you will by deed secure to us, that, 
after your death, no king, or pontiff, or any authority claim 
dominion over us, except with our voluntary consent.’” He 
then makes the arrangement requested, and the act is confirmed 
by King Ina.! 
The bishopric to which Aldhelm was appointed a.p. 705 (and 
which he held only for the short space of four years), was one of 
two sees constituted out of the old Bishopric of the West Saxons, 
in the same year. He is spoken of in the Saxon Chronicle as 
Bishop ‘west of Selwood.’ His see comprised the counties of 
Wilts, Dorset, Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall. For more than 
three centuries the see was continued at Sherborne; then it was 
removed, first to Wilton,—then to Old Sarum,—then to Salisbury. 
Few, from all that we read of him, deserved more fairly to be 
canonised by the Church of Rome than Bishop Aldhelm, The 
Chroniclers bear ample witness to his life of earnestness and deyo- 
tion. He was an elegant writer, and left several works. He was 
also an accomplished musician, and in many other respects an able 
and learned man. The name is still preserved in ‘ Hilmarton,’ origi- 
lly written, as indeed we find it in Domesday Book,—Addhel- 
mertone. 
The monastery founded in Bradford by St. Aldhelm, is said by 
illiam of Malmsbury, to have been dedicated to St. Laurence, 
1The document is printed i in the first volume of Kemble’s ‘Codex Diplom? 
r the year 705, 4 Gibson’s ‘Camden’s Britannia,’ i, 196, 
