Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/314

 304 Journal of Philology. profitable study of the Scriptures by the impulse which he gave to general literature and more especially the cultivation of the Greek language. Beda thus enlarges on the mighty change which had been wrought by the archbishop and his Roman col- league : " Et quia literis sacris simul et saecularibus, ut diximus, abundanter ambo erant instructi, congregata discipulorum caterva, scientiae salutaris quotidie flumina irrigandis eorum cordibus emanabant ; ita ut etiam metrical artis, astronomioe et arithme- ticae ecclesiasticse disciplinam inter sacrorum apicum volumina suis auditoribus contraderent. Indicio est quod usque hodie [i.e. a.d. 731] supersunt de eorum discipulis qui Latinam GrcB- camque linguam, ceque ut propriam in qua nati sunt, norunt. Neque unquam prorsus, ex quo Britanniam petierunt Angli, feliciora fuere tempora; dum et fortissimos Christianosque habentes reges cunctis barbaris nationibus essent terrori, et omnium vota ad nuper audita coelestis regni gaudia penderent, et quicumque lectionibus sacris cuperent erudiri, haberent in promptu magistros qui docerent" (Bed. iv. 2). 2. Aldhelm, None of their numerous pupils manifested this desire more strongly than the future bishop of Sherborn. Aldhelm was a Southern Saxon, and the very earliest native scholar who was trained among the Roman missionaries. If we follow William of Malmesbury, who says that Aldhelm died in 709 at the age of seventy, he would be no less than thirty years old when he com- menced his studies under Theodore and Hadrian. One of his chief accomplishments is said to have been a perfect knowledge of Greek which he spoke and wrote " quasi Grcecus natione." His devotion to it was certainly considerable, as we may argue from the style of his Latin, which is sometimes rendered almost unintelligible by the Graeeisms 4 it contains: e.g. he used "kata" for " secundum," " archimandrita" for " abbas," and naturalized the word " acedia" (a/o/8ca), which long kept its place in England 4 It is curious to observe that Wil- Moderatius tamen se agit Aldhebnus, liam of Malmesbury (A v<jV,n Surra, n. 7) nee nisi perraro et necpsH.-irio verba ponit thinks the style of Aldhelm purer in exotica." The Camb. Univ. MS. Gg, this respect than that of other writers : v. 35, which contains several works of "Id in omnibus antiquis cartis est ani- Aldhelm, has other pieces even more madvertere quantum quibusdam verbis disfigured by superfluous Grsecisms, abstrusis ex Graeco petitis delectentur. (e.g. 17).