80 



The Life and Times of Aldhelm. 



the 25th of May appointed as the day for his commemoration. 

 Few, from all that we can learn respecting him, more fairly deserved 

 to be had in grateful remembrance than the first Bishop of Sherborne. 



Aldhelm does not appear to have been a voluminous writer, and 

 several of his productions have perished. Those alone which gave 

 celebrity to his name were his two treatises on "Virginity/' 1 and 

 his " iEnigmata." These are filled with Latinized Greek words, 

 and with awkward expressions which render them obscure, and 

 abound in alliteration and metaphor. Even William of Malmes- 

 bury felt compelled to offer an apology for his style grounded on 

 the corrupt taste of the age in which he lived. 



Aldhelm claims to have been the first Englishman who wrote 

 Latin poetry, and we have a few of his productions remaining 

 to us. Of his Anglo-Saxon verses, which are said to have been 

 much prized by King Alfred, none have come down to us. He is 

 said also to have translated the Psalms of David into the vernacular 

 tongue, but there is no authority for the opinion too hastily adopted 

 by Churton in his history of the " Early English Church," that the 

 Anglo-Saxon version of them discovered in the Library at Paris, 

 and edited by Thorpe in 1855, is to be attributed to him. 



The view in which Aldhelm should be regarded is of course that 

 which brings out the influence which he exercised on the times in 

 which he lived. As far at least as the kingdom of Wessex is con- 

 cerned, it can scarcely be doubted that his was the guiding hand 

 that impressed the character for good upon it of which the evidences 

 are so abundant. Few, it is conceived, will be inclined to withhold 

 from him the just meed of praise for having done his best in planting 

 deeply and surely the true faith in his country. Making every 

 allowance for the exaggerations with which the superstition or 

 credulity of monkish writers have dwelt on the excellencies of his 



1 In the Lambeth Library is a very ancient copy of Aldhelm's work "De 

 Yirginitate," [Cod., 200, fol. 68b,] H. Wharton and Lye, no mean judges, 

 have no hesitation in pronouncing it a work of the eighth century. In the Lam- 

 beth catalogue a fac- simile is engraved of the first leaf of the manuscript, which 

 contains an illustration representing the Bishop in his episcopal chair, giving 

 the book to an Abbess and several attendant nuns. An account of the manu- 

 script is given in the introduction to the Lambeth catalogue. 



