74 The Life and Times of Aldhelm. 



to hear divine service could with difficulty be persuaded to listen 

 to the exhortations of the preacher, Aldhelm determined to seek 

 to impress the truth of Christianity upon them in another way. 

 He was himself a poet and a musician, and so, watching the occasion, 

 he stationed himself on the bridge over which the people had to 

 pass, and, in the character of a minstrel, recited and sang to them 

 some popular songs. A crowd of listeners soon collected around him, 

 and when he had gained possession of their attention he gradually 

 introduced words of a more serious nature, till he at last succeeded 

 in impressing upon their minds a truer feeling of religious devotion. 

 We all know how much the Reformation was advanced in this 

 country and elsewhere by the use of singing psalms ; though few 

 of us remember, that, in the commencement of Christianity among 

 our Anglo-Saxon forefathers, it was the same use which promoted 

 the knowledge of religion with them, the psalm itself being fre- 

 quently called, from that time, the harp-song. 



Allusion has already been made to the work that was going on 

 in England under Archbishop Theodore. That " grand old man " 

 as the Dean of Chichester rightly terms him, who was well nigh 

 three score years and ten before he entered upon his high office, 

 effected a marvellous change within the twenty -two years during 

 which he held the See of Canterbury. It is no part of our present 

 subject to dwell on Theodore's efforts, except so far as they paved 

 the way for Aldhelm, who was afterwards the means, to a great 

 extent, of conciliating the ancient British Church, that still assumed 

 a hostile attitude towards that established by Augustine. And 

 these cannot better be described than in the words of Dr. Hook : — 

 " Hitherto " he says " the Church in England, whether we have 

 regard to Celtic churches, or to those connected with the Canterbury 

 mission after the expulsion of the British Bishops, was simply a 

 great station for missionary operations. Sometimes on horseback, 

 but oftener on foot, the missionary would go forth from his 

 monastery to the towns in the plain, whither the people would 

 flock to hear the word, and to receive the Sacraments. At other 

 times he would be absent for whole weeks, having scaled the craggy 

 mountain, and having penetrated the recesses occupied by the 



