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Ireland and the Making
of Britain
"His language," says Haddan, "for enigmatic erudition,
and artificial rhetoric rivals Armada, and Holophernes
1
or Euphues." Taine calls him a Latinized Skald.
Roger has noted the fact that the inflation and grandilo-
quence of Aldhelm's style became still more pronounced
when he was writing either to Irishmen or to men educated
in Ireland. In view of Aldhelm's naive envy of the fame
of the Irish schools to which English and continental
students continued to stream despite the presence of
Theodore and Hadrian at Canterbury, his motive would
seem very evident. It would appear that he wanted to
demonstrate, as Roger notes, that one was quite capable
of being in possession of a beautiful. style without having
to go to Ireland to acquire it. Perhaps also he considered
the school which produced such compositions as His-
perica Famina a fine model and wanted to give satisfac-
tion to those who were among its admirers. On the other
hand, "English magnificence" is the quality of Aldhelm's
Latin prose and verse in the opinion of William of
Malmesbury. 2
4. CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN ALDHELM AND CELLAN
There is in existence a letter written to Aldhelm by
Cellan, the Irish abbot of Perrone, the successor in the
monastery to Ultan, the brother of the famed Fursa. The
of the
mere correspondence gives us a pleasant picture
brotherhood of letters then existing, in which the inter-
communication over a wide area was conducted by such
Irish scholars as attended Hadrian's school at Canterbury,
as well as the Englishmen who went to Ireland, and the
Irishmen who traveled from one country to another. One
of Cellan's letters, which is signed with his name, is
i Remains, 267.
2Gesta Pontiflcum. V. 189.
258