Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/177

 A L C Y O N I U S. MI f u fc hf loll ink ai.d c!u-rl, a''. ; ' ; - few months after. Alcyonius might have made vances in learning, had he not been too much puffed up with vanity and (elf-conceit, which hiiulrini him from tnkin-j the advice of his friends, lie was likewile too much addicted to detraclion and abule, which railed him m.my encmu s : ct there have been learned men, who have highly praiicd A' - onius and his tranfl.uions. ALDHELM. or ADCI.M (St.) an Englifh divine, who was biftiop of Shireburnjn the time of the Saxon h-pturchv. William of Malmcfbury fays that he was the fon of Kenred, or Kenter, brother of Ina kinm of the Weft-Saxons. He was born at Caer Bladon, now Malmcfbury, in Wiltiliire. He had part of his education abro.id in France and Italy, and w. Mj'- part at home under Maildulphtis an Irifh Scot, who had built""' 111 a little monaftry where M..lmefbury now (lands. Upon the death of Maildulphus, Aldhelm, by the help of Eleutherius bifhop of Winchefter, built a ftately monaHery there, and was himfelf the iirft abbot thereof. When Hedda, bslhi ;^ >t the V/eft Saxons, died, the kingdom was divided into two diocefes, viz. Winchcfter and Shireburn, and king Ina pro- moted Aldhelm 1 to the latter, comprehendine Uorietihirc, V r iltfhire, DevonfJiire, and Cornwall : he was confecr^ted at Rome by popeSergius I. and Godwin telh u;. ::;<it i:- badlntt the courage to reprove his holinefs for having a bairjrd. . helm, by the directions of a diocefan fynod, wrote a book" againft the miftake of the Britons concerning the celebration of Kaftcr, which brought over many of them to the c;uh ufage in that point. He likewife wrote a piece, partly in prole and partly in hexameter verfe, in praife of virginity, dedicated to Ethelburga abbefs of Barking, and piil-.li.i.cd amongft Bede's Opufcula, befides fei-eial other trc;:titVs, which are mentioned by Bale and William of Alalmcfbury, the latter of whom gives him the following clmaticr a; a writer: " The language of the Greeks," fays he, * 4 is c " and concife, that of the Romans fpltndid. at.d that '.! the " Englifh pompous and fweliing : as for Aldhelm, he is . u and never without nectffity ; his catholic meaning is " attention, you would take him for a Grecian by hi " fiefs, a Roman by his elegance, and an Enj,'u;l. " p mp
 * derate in his ftyle ; feldom makes ule of foreign terms,
 * ' cloathed v^ith eloquence, and his moil vchemeni . ons
 * c adorned with the colours of rhetoric: if you read him v.'iih