Aldhelm was a West Saxon nobleman educated by the Irish scholar Maildubh at Malmesbury and at the Canterbury school of Theodore and Hadrian, the most learned Englishman of his generation. Abbot of Malmesbury and in 705 first bishop of Sherborne, he wrote treatises on metre and virginity, a book of riddles, and letters — including his admonition to King Geraint of Dumnonia on the Celtic dating of Easter.