That he was born at St. Albans, appears by a certain passage in one of his Latine Poems, cited by Mr. Cambden, and thus Englished by his Translatour, Doctor Holland.
This is the place that knowledge took of my Nativity,
My happy Years, my Days also of Mirth and Jollity.
This Place my Childhood trained up in all Arts liberal,
And laid the ground-work of my Name, and skill Poetical.
This Place great and renowned Clerks into the World hath sent;
For Martyr bless'd, for Nation, for Sight, all excellent.
A troop here of Religious Men serve Christ both night and day,
In Holy Warfare, taking pains duly to watch and pray.
He is thought by some, saith Bale, to have been a Canon Regular, and to have been preferred to the Abbotship of Glocester, as the Continuater of Robert of Glocester will have it.