Page "Ealdred (bishop)" Paragraph 28

Ealdred encouraged Folcard, a monk of Canterbury, to write the Life Saint John of Beverley.

This was part of Ealdred's promotion of the cult of Saint John, who had only been canonized in 1037.

Along with the Pontificale, Ealdred may have brought back from Cologne the first manuscript of the Cambridge Songs to enter England, a collection of Latin Goliardic songs which became famous in the Middle Ages.

The historian Michael Lapidge suggests that the Laudes Regiae, which are included in Cotton Vitellius E xii, might have been composed by Ealdred, or a member of his household.

Another historian, H. J. Cowdrey, argued that the laudes were composed at Winchester.

These praise songs are probably the same performed at Matilda's coronation, but might have been used at other court ceremonies before Ealdred's death.