, or Adelard, born about the year 753, was son of count Bernard, grandson of Charles
, or Adelard, born about the year 753,
was son of count Bernard, grandson of Charles Martel,
and cousin-german of Charlemagne. He had been invited to the court in his youth, but, fearing the infection
of such a mode of life, had retired; and, at the age of 20
years, became a monk of Corbie in Picardy, and was at
length chosen abbot of the monastery. His imperial relation, however, forced him again to attend the court, where
he still preserved the dispositions of a recluse, and took
every opportunity, which business allowed, for private
prayer and meditation. After the death of Charlemagne,
he was, on unjust suspicions, banished by Lewis the Meek,
to a monastery on die coast of Acquitaine, in the isle of
Here. After a banishment of five years, Lewis, sensible
of his own injustice, recalled Adalard, and heaped on him
the highest honours. The monk was, however, the same
man in prosperity and in adversity, and in the year 823
obtained leave to return to Corbie. Every week he addressed each of the monks in particular 5 he exhorted
them in pathetic discourses, and laboured for the spiritual
good of the country around his monastery. His liberality
seems to have bordered on excess; and his humility induced him to receive advice from the meanest monk.
When desired to live less austerely, he would frequently
say, “I will take care of your servant, that he may be enabled to attend on you the longer.
” Another Adalard,
who had governed the monastery during his banishment,
by the direction of our Adalard, prepared the foundation
of a distinct monastery, called New Corbie, near Paderborn, as a nursery for ecclesiastical laboarers, who.
should instruct the northern nations. Our Adalard now
completed this scheme; went himself to New Corbie
twice, and settled its discipline. The success of this
truly charitable project was great: many learned and
zealous missionaries were furnished from the new seminary, and it became a light to the north of Europe. Adalard promoted learning in his monasteries, for he was
himself a man of great learning; and instructed the people
both in Latin and French: and after his second return
from Germany to old Corbie, he died ill the year 827,
aged 73. Such is the account given us of Adalard,
a character, there is reason to believe, of eminent
piety and usefulness in a dark age. To convert monasteries into seminaries of pastoral education, was a
thought far above the taste of the age in which he
lived, and tended to emancipate those superstitious institutions from the unprofitable and illiberal bondage
in which they had long subsisted. His principal work
work was “A treatise on the French Monarchy;
” but
fragments only of any of his works have come down to our
times. Hincmar has incorporated the treatise on the
French monarchy in his: fourteenth Opusculum, “for the
instruction of king Carloman.
” The ancient statutes of
of the abbey of Corbie, by our author, are in the fourth
volume of D'Achery’s Spicilegium.