Page:Anglo-Saxon version of the Hexameron of St. Basil.djvu/12



treatise which is styled by Hickes in his "Thesaurus" the "Hexameron of St. Basil," is by no means a literal translation of the well-known work of that father, but is partly original, and partly compiled from that work, and from the commentaries of the Venerable Bede upon Genesis. The author of it, from internal evidence, may be pronounced to be Ælfric, as frequent references are made to his homilies and to his epistles on "the Old and New Testament," (which were first published by Lisle in the year 1623.) This author, whose remains are so numerous, and concerning whom so many learned men, Bale, Leland, Usher, Parker, Wharton, Spelman, &c., have held such conflicting opinions, appears to have been of noble descent, (see Chron. Abendon:) and Matthew Paris, p. 253, states that he was the son of the earl (comitis) of Kent, and brother of Leofric, also abbot of St. Alban's, who being nominated to the see of Canterbury, requested that his younger brother Ælfric, celebrated for his learning, should be preferred before him. Ælfric passed the early part of his life under the tutelage of one of the secular clergy, a man but little versed in the Latin language (as see preface to Genesis in Thwaites's Heptateuch); and was afterwards transferred to the monastery of Abingdon, of which,