He is said to have been the first who attempted the dissection of a dead body. Diog. Laërt. lib. viii. Clem. Alex. Strom. lib. i. Aristot. Met. lib. i. v. Jambl. Vit. Pyth. c. 23. Cic. de Nat. Deor. lib. i. Plut. Plac. Phil. lib. ii. iv. Stobai Ecl. Fabr. Bibl. Græc. lib. vi. c. 9.-E. sity continued upwards of two hours. milies and Meditations;" the ALCMAN, otherwise ALCMEON, a Greek poet, flourished in the twenty-seventh Olympiad, about B. C. 670. He was of a family of" Mons Perfectionis ad Carthusianos;" "HoSardes, in Lydia, but probably was born and bred at Lacedemon, of which city he was free. He wrote many verses on amatory topics, and is said to have been the inventor of love-songs made to be sung in public companies. He was a man of loose manners, much addicted to the pleasures of the table, which intemperance was probably the cause of his falling into the lousy disease which proved his end. Megalostrata, a poetess, was his mistress. The Spartans were proud of him as a genius of their own growth, and erected a monument to him. The small remains of him extant are quotations in Athenæus and other ancient writers. He made use of the Doric dialect. Another Alcman, of Messene, is mentioned, but there is no certainty that he was a different person. Bayle.-A. ALCOCK, JOHN, an English divine, in the fifteenth century, successively bishop of Rochester, Worcester, and Ely, is entitled to honourable remembrance as the founder of Jesus college, Cambridge. He was a native of Beverley in Yorkshire, and a student in Cambridge, where he took the degree of doctor of laws. His ecclesiastical preferment was various and rapid. He was also honoured successively with the high civil posts of master of the rolls, privycounsellor, ambassador to the king of Castile, and lord-high-chancellor of England. This last office he held only ten months. He is spoken of, in general, as a man of great learning and piety, and singularly eminent for his abstinence and purity. The building of which he obtained a grant from Henry VII. for Jesus college, was a convent, the nuns of which, according to Camden and Bale, were so notorious for their incontinence, that their society was called "Spiritualium Meretricum Coenobium." [A Community of spiritual Harlots.] The good bishop performed a meritorious service in obtaining its dissolution, and converting it into a school of learning and virtue. Bishop Alcock, besides his professional merit, was eminently skilled in architecture, and was on that account made comptroller of the royal works and buildings. He greatly improved the palaces of his several sees. He was famous for preaching long sermons: one of his sermons before the univer ALCUIN, ALBINUS FLACCUS, an English divine of great distinction in the eighth century, was educated first under Venerable Bede, and afterwards under Egbert, archbishop of York. He was successively librarian to that prelate, deacon of the church of York, and abbot of the monastery of Canterbury. Having acquired all the learning which this ignorant age afforded, his high reputation procured him an invitation from Charlemagne, to come into France to superintend his studies, and to assist him in the advancement of science, and the correction of heresy. Towards the close of the eighth century, Felix, bishop of Urgel in Catalonia, advanced an heretical opinion, that Jesus Christ was the son of God not by nature, but by adoption. The opinion was condemned by a synod in 792, but was still maintained by Felix and some other Spanish bishops. It is probable that one principal purpose for which Charlemagne invited Alcuin to France, was to employ his learning and talents against this heresy; for in 793 Alcuin accepted the invitation, and in 794 he accompanied Charlemagne to the council at Frankfort, and was admitted a member of that council in which three hundred bishops decided, that Jesus Christ, as man, ought to be called the proper, not the adopted son of God. The dispute lasted many years; and, after Felix had been anathematised by the pope, Charlemagne, in the year 799, permitted him to defend his opinions before an assembly of the bishops at Aix-laChapelle. In this disputation Alcuin was his opponent, and so successfully refuted the heretic, that he abandoned his opinion and embraced that of the church. Alcuin was employed by the emperor in other services for the support of religion. He exercised his learning and ingenuity in explaining the holy scriptures, in which, however, he took more pains to discover a mys tical sense, than to explain by accurate criticism its literal meaning; as sufficiently appears from his commentaries. He corrected the errors of the Latin translation of the scriptures, which was in common use; and it is to his encouragement and direction that some writers attribute the first German translation of the scriptures. Few of the clergy being at this time capable of explaining the epistles and gospels read in the ritual, he was appointed, together with Paul Diaconus, to compile, from the writings of the fathers, homilies, or discourses upon these portions of the scripture, which the priests might commit to memory, and recite to the people. Other services, certainly, in this ignorant age, not less important than the former, Alcuin, under the patronage, and with the assistance, of the emperor, rendered to the public, in forming and establishing public schools, particularly in France. Whatever France could boast with respect to science and polite literature in this dark age, she chiefly owed to the meritorious exertions of Alcuin. The universities of Paris, Tours, Fulden, Soissons, and many others, were indebted to him for their origin and increase. Even those of which he was not the founder were enlightened by his doctrine, directed by his example, and enriched by the benefits which he procured for them from the emperor. (Cave, Hist. Lit. ann. 780.) A German poet, cited by Camden, thus extols the merit of Alcuin in introducing literature into France: Quid non Alcuino, facunda Lutetia, debes? Instaurare bonas ibi qui feliciter artes, Barbariemque procul solus depellere, cœpit. Let Gallia's sons, nurtur'd in ancient lore, To Alcuin's name a grateful tribute pay; "Twas his, the light of science to restore, And bid barbaric darkness flee away. "We must not," however, as Dr. Warton judiciously observes, "form too magnificent ideas of those celebrated masters of science, who were thus invited into foreign countries to conduct the education of mighty monarchs, and to plan the rudiments of the most illustrious academies their merits are, in a great measure, relative; their circle of reading was contracted; their systems of philosophy were jejune; and their lectures rather served to stop the growth of ignorance, than to produce any positive or important improvement in knowledge." (Warton's History of English Poetry, diss. 2.) At such a period, however, to have been one of the first scholars; to have formed schools and preceptors; and to have instructed a powerful prince, 66 and in many respects a great man, was some honour. Alcuin, in the year 801, obtained leave from the emperor to retire to the abbey of St. Martin's at Tours, where, after three years employed in useful instruction, and honourable leisure, he died. Alcuin is the first historian of the affairs of the metropolitan see of York: his poem, "De Pontificibus et Sanctis Ecclesiæ Eboracensis," first discovered by Mabillon, has been published by Dr. Gale, among his Quindecem Scriptores." (Nicholson's English Hist. Library, p. 135. ed. fol. 1736.) He has left other writings, which are extremely voluminous: they consist of commentaries on scripture; homílies; lives of saints; theological and metaphysical discussions; epistles; verses, and treatises on orthography, grammar, rhetoric, and music: the pieces are fifty-three in number. They were published by Du Chesne at Paris, in folio, in 1617, and afterwards at Ratisbon, in 1777. Contradictory accounts are given of their merit; we are inclined to believe that few mo dern readers would find them very interesting. Leland. Bale de Script. Brit. Cave, Hist. Lit. W. Malmsb. de Gest. Reg. Angl. Dupin. Mosheim. Biog. Brit.-E. ALDEBERT, or ADALBERT, an impostor of the eighth century, a native of France, deluded the people by pretended visions and revelations. He was one of those French divines who refused submission to the church of Rome, and exercised the episcopal dignity without the authority of Boniface, the pope's legate. He boasted that he had received a letter from heaven by the hands of the arch-angel Michael, which was written by Jesus Christ to the human race; and distributed among the people relics of admirable virtue. He remitted sins without confession, and required his followers to quit the churches, and worship God in houses of prayer, which he erected in the fields, and to kneel before crosses, which he placed in woods and by the side of fountains. He became exceedingly popular, and excited tumults among the eastern Franks. At the instigation of Boniface he was condemned by the pontiff Zachary, in a council assembled at Rome in the year 748; he was, in consequence, cast into a prison, where he probably concluded his days. An edition of his forged letter was published by Stephen Baluse in the "Capitularia Regum Francorum,” vol. ii. Moreri. Mosheim, cent. viii.-E. ALDEGRAEF, ALBERT, a painter and engraver, was born at Soest in Westphalia, in 1502. He applied to the art of painting with so much diligence, that there is reason to believe he would have attained to great excellence had he possessed the advantage of an education in Italy. He furnished the churches of his native place, and of Nuremberg, with many valuable pieces, though somewhat in the Gothic manner. His designs are correct, and his expressions graceful. He more particularly excelled, however, in engraving portraits. His own head, and those of the anabaptist John of Leyden, and his associate Knipperdoling, are much admired. His pen drawings are very fine, and he copied many of them with the graver. This artist died poor at his native place. De Piles. Moreri. Nouv. Dict. Hist. —A. ALDHELM, or ADELM, one of the very few luminaries which relieved the darkness of the seventh century, a near relation of Ina, king of the West Saxons in England, was born at Caer-bladon, since called Malmsbury, in Wiltshire. He received instructions from Maildulphus, a learned Irish monk; from Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury; and from Adrian, one of the most learned professors who had ever been in England; or from his pupil Albin. After the death of Maildulphus, who had instituted a school at Malmsbury, Aldhelm built a large monastery, of which he himself was the first abbot Upon the division of the kingdom of the West Saxons into two dioceses, Winchester and Shireburn, the latter see was bestowed by king Ina upon Aldhelm. He was consécrated at Rome by pope Sergius I. Whilst he was with that pontiff, he is said, by Godwin, to have had the courage to reprove him to his face for his incontinency; but Bale gives a contrary account, and blames Aldhelm for not have ing availed himself of his intimacy with the pope in admonishing him. We cannot determine on which side of these contradictory accounts the truth lies. Extraordinary things are related of his voluntary chastity; and still more extraordinary tales are told of his miraculous powers, by which he lengthened a piece of timber which a carpenter had cut too short, and hung his garments upon a sun-beam. It is more deserving of attention, that he was, for the time in which he lived, an eminent scholar, a good writer, a poet of no mean merit, and an excellent musician. From his writings it appears, that he was acquainted with the most celebrated authors of Greece and Rome, and well skilled in the languages in which they wrote. His literary fame was so widely extended that his correspondence was much sought by the learned. Areville, a prince of Scotland, who had employed himself in writing, sent his works to Aldhelm for correction, requesting him to rub off their Scotch rust, and give them the last polish. His love of literature, and the scientific and literary pursuits in which he was engaged, are well represented in a letter which he wrote to Hedda, bishop of Winchester. Of his studies the best idea will be gained from his writings. He wrote, "Against the Mistakes of the Britons concerning the Celebration of Easter;" "On the Fight of the eight principal Virtues ;" "Of the Dignity of the Number Seven, collected from the Flowers of the Old and New Testament, and from the Doctrines of Philosophers;" "Of the Admonition of brotherly Charity;"" Of the Nature of insensible Things, metaphorically said to be indued with Speech;" "Of the Monastic Life;"" Of the Praise of the Saints;" "Of Arithmetic ;" "Of Astrology ;"" Of the Rules of metrical Feet ;" "Of the Figures called Metaplasin and Synaloepha;" "Of the Scanning and Ellipses of Verses;" "A Dialogue concerning Metre ;" "Homilies;" and "Epistles." These pieces, written in Latin, are mentioned by Bede and William of Malmesbury, but are not extant. In verse Aldhelm wrote "Enigmas," consisting of a thousand verses, written in imitation of the poet Symphorius; "Ballads," in the Saxon tongue, with other pieces, which were published, in 8vo. by Martin Delrio of Mentz, in 1601. He also wrote a book, partly in prose, and partly in hexameter verse, in praise of virginity, dedicated to Ethelburga, abbess of Barking, and published among Bede's "Opuscula." sage from one of his treatises on metre, cited by William of Malmsbury, he boasts of himself as the first Englishman who introduced Latin poetry into England. "These things concerning. the kinds and measures of verse, I have written according to my ability, not without much labour, with what profit I cannot say ; but I am conscious that I have a right to adopt the boast of Virgil: (Georg. iii. 16.) In a pas Primus ego in patriam mecum, modo vita supersit, Aonio rediens deducam vertice Musas." I first of Romans to th' Hesperian plain The laudable use which Aldhelm made of his talents for writing English ballads, in polishing the barbarous manners of the people, and disposing them to listen to his instructions, is thus happily described: "Alfred," says William of Malmsbury, "informs us, that Aldhelm composed ballads, such as are still commonly sung ; adding a probable reason why so great a man. employed himself upon such trifles, that the people, at that time half barbarians, were little attentive to divine instruction, and accustomed to run home immediately after the singing of mass; on which account this holy man, placing himself upon a bridge which joined the town and country, would often stop them as they went out, professing himself a good singer: by this artifice he gained the favour of the common people, who flocked about him, and was able, by occasionally introducing more serious discourse from scripture, to produce an effect upon the manners of his townsinen, which he might in vain have attempted by severer methods. (W. Malmsbur. Vit. S. Aldhelm.) 66 Of Aldhelm's writings, his memorialist, William of Malmsbury, if we are to respect his judgment, speaks in terms of high commendation. He acknowledges, indeed, that his style is dess lively than may be desired by those who are more attentive to language than matter; but adds, that if you examine his writings attentively, you will find in them Grecian acuteness, Roman elegance, and English dignity. "His Latin compositions," as we learn from Mr. Warton, whether in verse or prose, as novelties, were deemed extraordinary performances, and excited the attention and admiration of scholars in other countries." A learned contemporary, who lived in a remote province of a Frankish territory, in an epistle to Aldhelm has this remarkable expression,-" Vestræ latinitatis panegyricus rumor. [The panegyrical report of your Latinity has reached us even at this distance, &c.] Áldhelm, with many of the ecclesiastics of his period, was well skilled in music, both vocal and instrumental; and we are told by Bale, that he preferred music to every other delight in the world. We conclude our account of this celebrated prelate with an encomium, copied by Leland from an ancient chronicle if the reader should be disposed to think it too laudatory, he should recollect that the literary merit of the seventh century is not to be measured by the standard of the eighteenth. "Sanctus Aldhelmus, Inæ, regis West-Saxonum propinquus, citharœdus erat optimus, Saxonicus atque Latinus poëta facundissimus, cantor peritissimus, doctor egregius, sermone nitidus, scripturarum tam liberalium quam ecclesiasticarum eruditione mirandus." [Saint Aldhelm, a near relation of Ina, king of the West Saxons, was an excellent harper, a most elegant Latin and Saxon poet, a very skilful singer, a doctor of singular merit, an eloquent speaker, and a wonderful master of sacred and profane learning.] Bale, de Script. Brit. Godwin, de Præsul. Angl. W. Malmsbur. de Vita S. Aldhemi, apud Wharton. Angliæ Sacra. Henry's History of Britain. Biogr. Brit. - E. ALDHUN, an English bishop who lived in the tenth and eleventh centuries, is chiefly memorable as the founder of the bishopric of Durham. In the year 990, he was created bishop of Lindisfarne or Holy Island. After having been frequently disturbed by the incursions of Danish pirates, he determined to remove his station. Accompanied by the monks, and many other persons, and taking with him the body of St. Cuthbert, which had been buried about one hundred and thirteen years, he wandered about for some time, and at last settled at Dunelm, since called Durham, which then consisted only of a few scattered cottages. The spot of ground which he chose for his little colony was covered with a thick wood which his followers cleared away, and a sufficient number of habitations were soon erected. After three years, the building of a church was completed, and it was dedicated to St. Cuthbert, whose bones were deposited within its walls. From this time the episcopal see remained fixed at Durham. The good bishop is highly extolled for his virtues, but the particulars of his life are not known. He died in the year 1018, having enjoyed the prelacy twenty-nine years. Sim. Dunelm. apud Decem Scriptores. Godwin, de Præsul. Angl. Biogr. Brit. - E. ALDRED, an English prelate, of the eleventh century, is more indebted to his dignities than to his merit, for a place in the records of biography. He appears indeed to have been a man of talents and enterprise: for he undertook a journey to Jerusalem, through Hungary, which had never before been attempted by any English bishop; on his return he was employed by Edward the Confessor on an important embassy to the emperor Henry II; and, after remaining a year in Germany, he returned to possess large ecclesiastical preferments, and to aspire at more. But his enterprising and ambitious spirit knew not how to confine itself within any limits. Not contented with possessing the see of Worcester, which he had obtained in 1046, four years before his journey to Jerusalem, he found means to procure the administration of the see of Wilton three years during the absence of its bishop, and of that of Hereford four years after the death of the incumbent. Still grasping at further preferment, he obtained from the king an appointment to the archbishopric of York, and permission, withal, to hold the see of Worcester in commendam: an indulgence which, according to William of Malmsbury, he owed to bribery. It was with great difficulty that the pope, who was informed of his simoniacal practices, could be prevailed upon to confirm the king's nomination; and though Nicholas II. would only consent to grant him the pall upon condition of his resigning the see of Worcester, he detained from his successor, Wolstan, a plain, easy man, twelve valuable manors belonging to that see, and unjustly transferred the benefit of them to the see of York. An anccdote related by his panegyrist, Thomas Stubbs, affords an uncommon instance of manly resolution, mixed with a portion of priestly arrogance. "The high-sheriff of the county of York meeting some of the archbishop's servants, who were conveying provisions to his palace, ordered the officers who attended him to sieze the carriages and provisions, and carry them to the king's granary, in the castle of York. When the archbishop was informed of this assault, instead of seeking legal redress, he sent several of the clergy and citizens to demand restitution, threatening the sheriff, in case of refusal, with excommunication. The sheriff refused; and the archbishop, with a numerous train of ecclesiastics, went up immediately to the king, who was then sitting in council at Westminster. Without returning the customary salutations, he abruptly addressed the king, who had risen to meet him, in this haughty language. Hear me, William! when thou wert an alien, and God had permitted thee, for our sins, and through much blood, to reign over us, I anointed thee king, and placed the crown upon thy head with a blessing: but now, because thou deservest it not, I will change that blessing into a curse against thee, as a persecutor of God and his ministers, and a breaker and contemner of those oaths and promises, which thou madest unto me before the altar of St. Peter.' The king, astonished and terrified, threw himself at the archbishop's feet, and entreated to be informed by what offence he had merited this severe sentence. The nobility who were present expressing resentment at the prelate's arrogance in suffering the king to lie at his feet, Let him alone,' says the archbishop; Let him lie: he is not fallen at my feet, but at the feet of St. Peter.' After some. time, he raised the king, and delivered his complaint. William, more intimidated, as it seems, by the threat of ecclesiastical censure, than induced by a sense of the injustice of his sheriff's concuct, gave orders for the full restitution of the archbishop's goods, and sent him away loaded with rich presents." If this anecdote ilLustrates the extreme tyranny of the regal power at this time, it also shows the abject vassalage in which the minds even of princes were held by superstitious reverence for the priesthood. The injury, which the prelate had received, could not justify so'presumptuous an exercise of his spiritual power. Archbishop Aldred's versatility of principle was fully shown, in his political conduct under the changes of government which happened during the latter part of his life. No sooner was his patron Edward dead, than he assisted Harold to obtain the crown. On the arrival of William the Norman, when Stigand archbishop of Canterbury refused to crown him, Aldred, yielding to the current, performed the ceremony. Upon the Danish invasion, when the citizens of York, and other inhabitants of the northern counties of England, declared in favour of Edgar Atheling's title, the archbishop, whether through vexation or fear, or. from what other cause, is uncertain, fell sick and died. This happened in the year 1069.. Sim. Dunelm. de Gest. Reg. Angl. Th. Stubbs. Act. Ebor. Episc. apud Decem Scriptores. W. Malmsb. post Bedam. Malmsb. post Bedam. Biogr. Brit.-E. ALDRICH, HENRY, an eminent and worthy English divine, and polite scholar, was born in Westminster in 1647, and educated in the college-school of that city under the celebrated Busby. In the year 1662 he was admitted into Christ Church college, Oxford, and from that time to his death continued an ornament of that noble seminary. With high reputation for learning, he passed through the whole series of academic honours, and was first a diligent student, then a useful tutor, and afterwards an excellent master of his college. Having cultivated a taste for architecture, and acquired great skill in that elegant art, he employed his ingenuity in improving the buildings of Christ-church: that regular and beautiful piece of architecture, called Peck-water. quadrangle, was designed by him. He rendered yet more important services to his Alma mater. After his advancement to the deanry of Christchurch, and the presidency of the college, he exerted his respectable talents with industry and zeal for the advancement of learning. To the diligent and ingenuous student he was a liberal patron, and a kind friend. In order to encourage a taste for polite literature, as well as to support the credit of the university for its attention to classical studies, he made it his practice to publish annually some piece of an ancient Greek author, as a new-year's present to the students of his house. Among the works which he edited in 8vo, at Oxford, in Greek. |