Ethelmaer, Elmer, or Aelmer (died 1137), also called Herlewin, was an English ascetic writer. Ethelmaer was made prior of

Christ Church, Canterbury Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England. It forms part of a World Heritage Site. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently Justin Welby, leader of the Ch ...

, in 1128, and is said to have been a man of great piety and simplicity. His simplicity led him to take the part of Archbishop William of Corbeuil in a dispute he had with the convent in 1136 about the church of St. Martin at Dover.Gervase, i. 98 He died 11 May 1137. The name Elmer is evidently a corruption of the old English name Æthelmær. Leland saw two works by him, a book of homilies and a

treatise A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject and its conclusions."Treat ...

, ‘De exercitiis spiritualis vitæ.’ The report on the

Cottonian Library The Cotton or Cottonian library is a collection of manuscripts once owned by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton MP (1571–1631), an antiquarian and bibliophile. It later became the basis of what is now the British Library, which still holds the collection. ...

has under Otho A. xii. ‘Ælmeri monachi ecclesiæ Christi Cantuariensis epistolæ, in quibus tractat de munditia cordis, . . . et querimonia de absentia metus Dei. Liber asceticus et vere pius;’ 100 f. This manuscript was almost entirely destroyed by the fire of 10 July 1865; the few charred fragments that remain form the seventh portion of a volume, marked as above, which begins with some fragments of a manuscript of Asser, the only contents noticed in the Museum catalogue. Another copy is in the library of

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

, Gale MS. O. 10, 16 (Wright). The titles of other works are given by Bale.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herlwin Year of birth missing 1137 deaths 12th-century English writers Priors 12th-century English Roman Catholic priests 12th-century writers in Latin