256 A L D 
Edward the Confeffor dying in 1066, Aldred crowned 
Harold his fucceffor. He all'o crowned William the Con¬ 
queror, after he had made him take the following oath: 
“ That he would protect the holy churches of God and 
their leaders; that he would eftablifh and obferve righ¬ 
teous laws; that he would entirely prohibit and fupprefs 
all rapines and unjuft judgments.” He was fo much in 
favour with the Conqueror, that this prince looked upon 
him as a father; and, though imperious with regard to 
every body elf'e, he yet fubmitted to obey this archbilhop. 
John Brompton gives us the following inftancc of the 
king’s fubmiffion, which at the fame time fliews the pre¬ 
late’s haughtinefs":—It happened one.day, as’the archbi- 
fhop was at York, that the deputy-governor or lord-lieu¬ 
tenant, going out of the city with a great number of peo¬ 
ple, met the archbifhop’s fervants, who came to the town 
with feveral.carts and horfes loaded with provifions. The 
governor afked them to whom they belonged ; and, they 
having anfwered they were Aldred’s fervants, the govern¬ 
or ordered that all thefe provifions 1 fliould be carried to the 
king’s ftore-houfe. The archbifhop fent immediately 
fome of his clergy to the governor, commanding him to 
deliver the provifions, and to make fatisfaction to St. Pe¬ 
ter, and to him the faint’s vicar, for the injury he had 
done them ; adding, that, if he refilled to comply, lie would 
excommunicate him. The governor, highly offended, 
ufcd the melfengers very ill, and returned an anfwer as 
haughty as the metfage was. Aldred thereupon v ent to 
London to make his complaint to the king; but in this 
very complaint he afted with his wonted infolence; for, 
meeting the king in the church of St. Peter at Weftmin- 
fter, he fpoke to him in thefe words : “ Hearken, O Wil¬ 
liam : when thou waft but a foreigner, and God, to punifh 
the fins of this nation, permitted thee to become'mafter 
of it, after having fhed a great deal of blood, I confecra- 
ted thee, and put the crown upon thy head with bleftings; 
but now, becaufe thou haft deferved it, I pronounce a curfe 
over thee, inftead of a blefling, fince thou art become the 
perfecutor of God’s church, and of his minifters, and haft 
broken the promifes and the oaths which thou madeft to 
me before St. Peter’s altar.” The king, terrified at this 
difeourfe, fell upon his knees, and humbly begged the 
prelate to tell him by what crime he had deferved fo fe- 
vere a fentence. The noblemen, who were prefent, were 
enraged againft the archbilhop, and loudly cried out he 
deferved death, or at leaf! banifhment, for having offer¬ 
ed fuch an injury to his fovereign, and they preffed him 
with threatenings to raife the king from the ground. But 
the prelate, unmoved at all this, anfwered calmly, “ Good 
men, let him lie there, for he is not at Aldred’s but at St. 
Peter’s feet; he muff feel St. Peter’s power, fince he dared 
to injure his vicegerent.” Having thus reproved the no¬ 
bles by his epifcopal authority, he vouchfafed to take the 
king by the hand, and to tell him the ground of his com¬ 
plaint. The king humbly excufed himfelf, by faying he 
had been ignorant of the whole matter; and begged of the 
noblemen to intreat the prelate that he might take off the 
curfe he had pronounced, and to change it into a blefling. 
Aldred was at laft prevailed upon to favour the king thus 
far; but not without the promife of feveral prefents and 
favours, and only.after the king had granted him to take 
fuch revenge on the governor as lie thought fit. Since 
that time (adds the hiftorian) none of the noblemen ever 
dared to offer Aldred the leaf! injury. It may be queftion- 
ed which was mod furprifing here, the archbifliop’s haugh¬ 
tinefs, who dared to treat his fovereign in fo unbecoming 
a manner; or the king’s ftupidity, who buffered fuch in¬ 
folence from a prieft.—The Danes having made an inva- 
fion in the north'of England in the year 1068, under the 
conduct of Harold and Canute, the fons of king Swane, 
Aldred was fo much affliCled at it, that he died of grief 
the nth of September in the fame year, having befought 
God that he might not fee the defolation of his church 
and country. 
ALDRICH (Robert), bifhop of Carlifle, was born at 
A L D 
Burnham, in Buckinghamfliire, about the year 1493, and 
educated at Eaton-fchool; from whence, in 1507, he was 
elected fcholar of King’s-college, Cambridge, where he 
-took his degree in arts, and was afterwards proClor of the 
univerfity. In 1525, he was appointed mafter of Eaton- 
fchool, then became fellow of that coliege, and finally 
provoft. In 1529, he went to Oxford, where, being firft 
incorporated bachelor of divinity, in the following year he 
proceeded dodtor in that faculty. In 1531, he was made 
archdeacon of Colchefter; in 1534, canon of Windfor; 
and the fame year, regiftrary of the order of the garter. 
He was confecrated bilhop of Carlifle in the year J537, 
and died at Horncaftle in Lincolnfhire in 1556. 
Aldrich (Dr. Henry), an eminent Englilh divine and 
philofopher, born at London in 1647, was educated at 
Weftminfter-fchool under the famous Dr. Bufby, and ad¬ 
mitted of Chriftchurch-college, Oxford. He had a,great 
Ihare in the controverfy with the papifts in the reign of 
James. II. and bifhop Burnet ranks him among thofe who 
examined all the points of popery with a folidity of judg¬ 
ment, clearnefs of argument, depth of learning, and vi¬ 
vacity of writing, far beyond any who had before that 
time written in our language. He rendered himfelf fo 
confpicuous, that, at the revolution, when Maffey dean of 
Cliriftcliurch fled, his deanery was conferred on him. In 
this ftation he behaved in an exemplary manner, aiid that 
fabric owes much of its beauty to his ingenuity: it was 
Aldrich who defigned the beautiful fquare called Peck- 
zuaUr-Quadrangle, which is efteemed an excellent piece of 
architecture. In imitation of his predeceffor Dr. Fell, 
he publifhed, yearly, a piece of fome ancient Greek au¬ 
thor, as a prefent to the ftudents of his houfe. He pub- 
lifiled A Syftem of Logic, with fome other pieces; and 
the reviling Clarendon’s Hiftory of the Rebellion was in¬ 
truded to him and bifhop Spratt; but it doth not appear 
that they made any additions, or confiderable alterations, 
in it, as has been aflerted by Mr. Oldmixon. Befides his 
preferments above-mentioned, Dr. Aldrich was alfo rec¬ 
tor of Wem in Shropfhire. He waschofen prolocutor of 
the convocation in 1702. This worthy perfon died at 
Chriftchurch, on the 14th of December, 1710, in the fix- 
ty-fourth year of his age. As to liis character, he was a 
moft univerfal fcholar, and had a tafte for all forts of learn¬ 
ing, especially architecture. His abilities alfo as a mufi- 
cian rank him, we are told, among the greatest matters of 
the fcience. He compofed many fervices for the church, 
which are well known; as are alfo his anthems, nearly to 
the number of twenty. There are two catches of his ; 
the one, “ Hark the bonny Chriftchurch Bells,” the other 
intitled, “ A Smoking Catch,” to. be fung by four men 
fmoking their pipes, which is not more difficult'to fing 
than diverting to hear. His love of fmoking was, it feems, 
fo exceflive as to be an entertaining topic of difeourfe in 
the univerfity. 
ALDROVANDUS (Ulyffes),• profeffor of philofophy 
and phyfic at Bologna, the place of his nativity. He was 
a moft curious enquirer into natural hiftory, and travelled 
into the moft diftant countries on purpofe to inform him¬ 
felf of their natural productions. Minerals, metals, 
plants, and animals, were the objects of his. curious re- 
fearches ; but he applied himfelf chiefly to birds, and was 
at great expence to have figures of them drawn from the 
life. Aubert le Mire fays, that he gave a certain painter, 
famous in that art, a yearly falary of 200 crowns, for thir¬ 
ty years and upwards; and that he employed at his own 
expence Lorenzo Bennini and Cornelius Swintus, as well 
as the famous engravei* Chriftopher Coriolanus. Thefe 
expences ruined his fortune, and at length reduced him 
to the utmoft neceffity; and it is faid tliat he died blind in 
an hofpital at Bologna, at a great age, in 1605. Mr. Bayle 
obferves, that antiquity does not furnifli us with an in- 
ftance of a defign fo extenfive and fo laborious as that of 
Aldrovandtis, with regard to natural hiftory ; that Pliny 
has treated of more kinds of fubjefts, but only touches 
lightly on them, whereas Aldrovandus has collected all he 
could 
