Ethelred Aelred Ailred

AELRED (AILRED, ETHELRED) ( 1109 I 66) , English theo logian, historical writer, and abbot of Rievaulx, was born at Hex ham about the year 1109. In his youth he was at the court of Scotland as an attendant of Henry, son of David I. He renounced the prospect of a bishopric to enter the Cistercian house of Rievaulx in Yorkshire, founded in 1131 by Walter Espec. He was for a brief period abbot of Revesby, Lincolnshire, but in '146 returned to Rievaulx as abbot. He led a life of the severest asceticism, and was credited with the power of working miracles. In 1164 he went as a missionary to the Picts of Galloway, where he accomplished a great work of pacification. Two years later he died at Rievaulx in the 57th year of his age. In ii9i he was can onized. His writings are voluminous and have never been com pletely published. Amongst them is the tract called Relatio de Standardo, an account of the Battle of the Standard (1138), bet ter known than the similar account by Richard of Hexham but less trustworthy.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.-See

the Vita Alredi in John Tynemouth's Nova Bibliography.-See the Vita Alredi in John Tynemouth's Nova Legenda Anglie (ed. C. Horstmann, 1901, vol. i. p. 41), whence it was taken by Capgrave. From Capgrave the work passed into the Bol landist Acta Sanctorum (Jan. ii. p. 30). This life is anonymous but of an early date. The most complete printed collection of Aelred's works is in Migne's Patrologia Latina, vol. cxcv. ; but this does not include the Miracula Hagulstaldensis Ecclesiae which are printed in J. Raine's Priory of Hexham, vol. i. (Surtees Society, 1864). A com plete list of works attributed to Aelred is given in T. Tanner's Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica (1748), pp. 247-248. The Relatio de Standardo has been critically edited by R. Howlett in Chronicles, etc., of Stephen, Henry II. and Richard I., vol. iii. (Rolls Series, 1886).