[49] De Laudibus Virginitatis. His “Commendation of Virginity,” was first written in prose: and was printed by H. Wharton, 4to. 1693. He afterwards versified it with occasional amplifications or omissions. Some MSS. give the date as 671: others 672; and others again 675. See Canisius, Antiquæ Lectiones, t. i. 713. Ed. Basnagii. The whole works of Aldhelm have been collected for the first time by the present editor, and form vol. i. of Patres Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ.
[50] Malmesbury afterwards wrote the life of Aldhelm. It ought to form the fifth book “de Gentis Pontificum,” but has never yet been printed in the same volume with the four preceding books.
[51] See Bede, b. iv. c. 15.
[52] The Saxon Chronicle and Florence of Worcester mention his attacks on the South Saxons, but do not notice the East Angles.
[53] See Wilkins’s Leges Anglo-Saxonicæ.
[54] Some manuscripts omit all that follows to “Berthwald, archbishop of Canterbury,” p. 35, and insert in place of it “More especially that at Glastonbury most celebrated in our days, which he erected in a low retired situation, in order that the monks might more eagerly thirst after heavenly, in proportion as they were less affected by earthly things.” Sharpe inserts the shorter passage in his text, and gives the longer in a note.
[55] See Kemble’s Charters, vol. i. p. 85.
[56] The Antiquities of Glastonbury were published about the same time by Gale, vol. iii. and by Hearne.
[57] The 25th of May.
[58] Bede, Eccl. Hist. b. iv. c. 7–10.