Volume 1 — ALCUIN

(735?-804)

BY WILLIAM H. CARPENTER

lcuin, usually called Alcuin of York, came of a patrician family of Northumberland. Neither the date nor the place of his birth is known with definiteness, but he was born about 735 at or near York. As a child he entered the cathedral school recently founded by Egbert, Archbishop of York, and ultimately became its most eminent pupil. He was subsequently assistant master to Aelbert, its head; and when Aelbert succeeded to the archbishopric, on the death of Egbert in 766, Alcuin became scholasticus or master of the school. On the death of Aelbert in 780, Alcuin was placed in charge of the cathedral library, the most famous in Western Europe. In his longest poem, 'Versus de Eboracensi Ecclesia' (Poem on the Saints of the Church at York), he has left an important record of his connection with York. This poem, written before he left England, is, like most of his verse, in dactylic hexameters. To a certain extent it follows Virgil as a model, and is partly based on the writings of Bede, partly on his own personal experience. It is not only valuable for its historical bearings, but for its disclosure of the manner and matter of instruction in the schools of the time, and the contents of the great library. As master of the cathedral school, Alcuin acquired name and fame at home and abroad, and was soon the most celebrated teacher in Britain. Before 766, in company with Aelbert, he made his first journey to Germany, and may have visited Rome. Earlier than 780 he was again abroad, and at Pavia came under the notice of Charlemagne, who was on his way back from Italy. In 781 Eanbald, the new Archbishop of York, sent Alcuin to Rome to bring back the Archbishop's pallium. At Parma he again met Charlemagne, who invited him to take up his abode at the Frankish court. With the consent of his king and his archbishop he resigned his position at York, and with a few pupils departed for the court at Aachen, in 782.

Alcuin's arrival in Germany was the beginning of a new intellectual epoch among the Franks. Learning was at this time in a deplorable state. The older monastic and cathedral schools had been broken up, and the monasteries themselves often unworthily bestowed upon royal favorites. There had been a palace school for rudimentary instruction, but it was wholly inefficient and unimportant.

During the years immediately following his arrival, Alcuin zealously labored at his projects of educational reform. First reorganizing the palace school, he afterward undertook a reform of the monasteries and their system of instruction, and the establishment of new schools throughout the kingdom of Charlemagne. At the court school the great king himself, as well as Liutgard the queen, became his pupil. Gisela, Abbess of Chelles, the sister of Charlemagne, came also to him for instruction, as did the Princes Charles, Pepin, and Louis, and the Princesses Rotrud and Gisela. On himself and the others, in accordance with the fashion of the time, Alcuin bestowed fanciful names. He was Flaccus or Albinus, Charlemagne was David, the queen was Ava, and Pepin was Julius. The subjects of instruction in this school, the centre of culture of the kingdom, were first of all, grammar; then arithmetic, astronomy, rhetoric, and dialectic. The king himself studied poetry, astronomy, arithmetic, the writings of the Fathers, and theology proper. It was under the influence of Alcuin that Charlemagne issued in 787 the capitulary that has been called "the first general charter of education for the Middle Ages." It reproves the abbots for their illiteracy, and exhorts them to the study of letters; and although its effect was less than its purpose, it served, with subsequent decrees of the king, to stimulate learning and literature throughout all Germany.

Alcuin's system included, besides the palace school, and the monastic and cathedral schools, which in some instances gave both elementary and superior instruction, all the parish or village elementary schools, whose head was the parish priest.

In 790, seeing his plans well established, Alcuin returned to York bearing letters of reconciliation to Offa, King of Mercia, between whom and Charlemagne dissension had arisen. Having accomplished his errand, he went back to the German court in 792. Here his first act was to take a vigorous part in the furious controversy respecting the doctrine of Adoptionism. Alcuin not only wrote against the heresy, but brought about its condemnation by the Council of Frankfort, in 794.

Two years later, at his own request, he was made Abbot of the Benedictine monastery of St. Martin, at Tours. Not contented with reforming the lax monastic life, he resolved to make Tours a seat of learning. Under his management, it presently became the most renowned school in the kingdom. Especially in the copying of manuscripts did the brethren excel. Alcuin kept up a vast correspondence with Britain as well as with different parts of the Frankish kingdom; and of the two hundred and thirty letters preserved, the greater part belonged to this time. In 799, at Aachen, he held a public disputation on Adoptionism with Felix, Bishop of Urgel, who was wholly vanquished. When the king, in 800, was preparing for that visit to the Papal court which was to end with his coronation as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, he invited Alcuin to accompany him. But the old man, wearied with many burdens, could not make the journey. By the beginning of 804 he had become much enfeebled. It was his desire, often expressed, to die on the day of Pentecost. His wish was fulfilled, for he died at dawn on the 19th of May. He was buried in the Cloister Church of St. Martin, near the monastery.

Alcuin's literary activity was exerted in various directions. Two-thirds of all that he wrote was theological in character. These works are exegetical, like the 'Commentary on the Gospel of St. John'; dogmatic, like the 'Writings against Felix of Urgel and Elipandus of Toledo,' his best work of this class; or liturgical and moral, like the 'Lives of the Saints,' The other third is made up of the epistles, already mentioned; of poems on a great variety of subjects, the principal one being the 'Poem on the Saints of the Church at York'; and of those didactic works which form his principal claim to attention at the present day. His educational treatises are the following: 'On Grammar,' 'On Orthography,' 'On Rhetoric and the Virtues,' 'On Dialectics,' 'Disputation between the Royal and Most Noble Youth Pepin, and Albinus the Scholastic,' and 'On the Calculation of Easter,' The most important of all these writings is his 'Grammar,' which consists of two parts: the first a dialogue between a teacher and his pupils on philosophy and studies in general; the other a dialogue between a teacher, a young Frank, and a young Saxon, on grammar. These latter, in Alcuin's language, have "but lately rushed upon the thorny thickets of grammatical density" Grammar begins with the consideration of the letters, the vowels and consonants, the former of which "are, as it were, the souls, and the consonants the bodies of words." Grammar itself is defined to be "the science of written sounds, the guardian of correct speaking and writing. It is founded on nature, reason, authority, and custom." He enumerates no less than twenty-six parts of grammar, which he then defines. Many of his definitions and particularly his etymologies, are remarkable. He tells us that feet in poetry are so called "because the metres walk on them"; littera is derived from legitera, "since the littera serve to prepare the way for readers" (legere, iter). In his 'Orthography,' a pendant to the 'Grammar,' coelebs, a bachelor, is "one who is on his way ad coelum" (to heaven). Alcuin's 'Grammar' is based principally on Donatus. In this, as in all his works, he compiles and adapts, but is only rarely original. 'On Rhetoric and the Virtues' is a dialogue between Charlemagne and Albinus (Alcuin). The 'Disputation between Pepin and Albinus,' the beginning of which is here given, shows both the manner and the subject-matter of his instruction. Alcuin, with all the limitations which his environment imposed upon him, stamped himself indelibly upon his day and generation, and left behind him, in his scholars, an enduring influence. Men like Rabanus, the famous Bishop of Mayence, gloried in having been his pupils, and down to the wars and devastations of the tenth century his influence upon education was paramount throughout all Western Europe. There is an excellent account of Alcuin in Professor West's 'Alcuin' ('Great Educators' Series), published in 1893.

ON THE SAINTS OF THE CHURCH AT YORK There the Eboric scholars felt the rule Of Master Aelbert, teaching in the school. Their thirsty hearts to gladden well he knew With doctrine's stream and learning's heavenly dew. To some he made the grammar understood, And poured on others rhetoric's copious flood. The rules of jurisprudence these rehearse, While those recite in high Eonian verse, Or play Castalia's flutes in cadence sweet And mount Parnassus on swift lyric feet. Anon the master turns their gaze on high To view the travailing sun and moon, the sky In order turning with its planets seven, And starry hosts that keep the law of heaven. The storms at sea, the earthquake's shock, the race Of men and beasts and flying fowl they trace; Or to the laws of numbers bend their mind, And search till Easter's annual day they find. Then, last and best, he opened up to view The depths of Holy Scripture, Old and New. Was any youth in studies well approved, Then him the master cherished, taught, and loved; And thus the double knowledge he conferred Of liberal studies and the Holy Word.

From West's 'Alcuin, and the Rise of the Christian Schools': by

permission of Charles Scribner's Sons.

Disputation Between Pepin, The Most Noble and Royal Youth, and Albinus the Scholastic

Pepin

--What is writing?

Albinus

--The treasury of history.

Pepin

--What is language?

Albinus

--The herald of the soul.

Pepin

--What generates language?

Albinus

--The tongue.

Pepin

--What is the tongue?

Albinus

--A whip of the air.

Pepin

--What is the air?

Albinus

--A maintainer of life.

Pepin

--What is life?

Albinus

--The joy of the happy; the torment of the suffering;

a waiting for death.

Pepin

--What is death?

Albinus

--An inevitable ending; a journey into uncertainty; a

source of tears for the living; the probation of wills; a waylayer

of men.

Pepin

--What is man?

Albinus

--A booty of death; a passing traveler; a stranger on

earth.

Pepin

--What is man like?

Albinus

--The fruit of a tree.

Pepin

--What are the heavens?

Albinus

--A rolling ball; an immeasurable vault.

Pepin

--What is light?

Albinus

--The sight of all things.

Pepin

--What is day?

Albinus

--The admonisher to labor.

Pepin

--What is the sun?

Albinus

--The glory and splendor of the heavens; the attractive

in nature; the measure of hours; the adornment of day.

Pepin

--What is the moon?

Albinus

--The eye of night; the dispenser of dew; the presager

of storms.

Pepin

--What are the stars?

Albinus

--A picture on the vault of heaven; the steersmen of

ships; the ornament of night.

Pepin

--What is rain?

Albinus

--The fertilizer of the earth; the producer of crops.

Pepin

--What is fog?

Albinus

--Night in day; the annoyance of eyes.

Pepin

--What is wind?

Albinus

--The mover of air; the agitation of water; the dryer

of the earth.

Pepin

--What is the earth?

Albinus

--The mother of growth; the nourisher of the living;

the storehouse of life; the effacer of all.

Pepin

--What is the sea?

Albinus

--The path of adventure; the bounds of the earth;

the division of lands; the harbor of rivers; the source of rains;

a refuge in danger; a pleasure in enjoyment.

Pepin

--What are rivers?

Albinus

--A ceaseless motion; a refreshment to the sun; the

waters of the earth.

Pepin

--What is water?

Albinus

--The supporter of life; the cleanser of filth.

Pepin

--What is fire?

Albinus

--An excessive heat; the nurse of growing things; the

ripener of crops.

Pepin

--What is cold?

Albinus

--The trembling of our members.

Pepin

--What is frost?

Albinus

--An assailer of plants; the destruction of leaves; a

fetter to the earth; a bridger of streams.

Pepin

--What is snow?

Albinus

--Dry water.

Pepin

--What is winter?

Albinus

--An exile of summer.

Pepin

--What is spring?

Albinus

--A painter of the earth.

Pepin

--What is summer?

Albinus

--That which brings to the earth a new garment, and

ripens the fruit.

Pepin

--What is autumn?

Albinus

--The barn of the year.

A LETTER FROM ALCUIN TO CHARLEMAGNE

(Written in the year 796)

I, your Flaccus, in accordance with your entreaty and your gracious kindness, am busied under the shelter of St. Martin's, in bestowing upon many of my pupils the honey of the Holy Scriptures. I am eager that others should drink deep of the old wine of ancient learning; I shall presently begin to nourish still others with the fruits of grammatical ingenuity; and some of them I am eager to enlighten with a knowledge of the order of the stars, that seem painted, as it were, on the dome of some mighty palace. I have become all things to all men (1 Cor. i. 22) so that I may train up many to the profession of God's Holy Church and to the glory of your imperial realm, lest the grace of Almighty God in me should be fruitless (1 Cor. xv. 10) and your munificent bounty of no avail. But your servant lacks the rarer books of scholastic learning, which in my own country I used to have (thanks to the generous and most devoted care of my teacher and to my own humble endeavors), and I mention it to your Majesty so that, perchance, it may please you who are eagerly concerned about the whole body of learning, to have me dispatch some of our young men to procure for us certain necessary works, and bring with them to France the flowers of England; so that a graceful garden may not exist in York alone, but so that at Tours as well there may be found the blossoming of Paradise with its abundant fruits; that the south wind, when it comes, may cause the gardens along the River Loire to burst into bloom, and their perfumed airs to stream forth, and finally, that which follows in the Canticle, whence I have drawn this simile, may be brought to pass... (Canticle v. 1, 2). Or even this exhortation of the prophet Isaiah, which urges us to acquire wisdom:--"A11 ye who thirst, come to the waters; and you who have not money, hasten, buy and eat: come, without money and without price, and buy wine and milk" (Isaiah iv. 1.)

And this is a thing which your gracious zeal will not overlook: how upon every page of the Holy Scriptures we are urged to the acquisition of wisdom; how nothing is more honorable for insuring a happy life, nothing more pleasing in the observance, nothing more efficient against sin, nothing more praiseworthy in any lofty station, than that men live according to the teachings of the philosophers. Moreover, nothing is more essential to the government of the people, nothing better for the guidance of life into the paths of honorable character, than the grace which wisdom gives, and the glory of training and the power of learning. Therefore it is that in its praise, Solomon, the wisest of all men, exclaims, "Better is wisdom than all precious things, and more to be desired" (Prov. viii. 11 seq). To secure this with every possible effort and to get possession of it by daily endeavor, do you, my lord King, exhort the young men who are in your Majesty's palace, that they strive for this in the flower of their youth, so that they may be deemed worthy to live through an old age of honor, and that by its means they may be able to attain to everlasting happiness. I, myself, according to my disposition, shall not be slothful in sowing the seeds of wisdom among your servants in this land, being mindful of the injunction, "Sow thy seed in the morning, and at eventide let not thy hand cease; since thou knowest not what will spring up, whether these or those, and if both together, still better is it" (Eccles. xi. 6). In the morning of my life and in the fruitful period of my studies I sowed seed in Britain, and now that my blood has grown cool in the evening of life, I still cease not; but sow the seed in France, desiring that both may spring up by the grace of God. And now that my body has grown weak, I find consolation in the saying of St. Jerome, who declares in his letter to Nepotianus, "Almost all the powers of the body are altered in old men, and wisdom alone will increase while the rest decay." And a little further he says, "The old age of those who have adorned their youth with noble accomplishments and have meditated on the law of the Lord both day and night becomes more and more deeply accomplished with its years, more polished from experience, more wise by the lapse of time; and it reaps the sweetest fruit of ancient learning." In this letter in praise of wisdom, one who wishes can read many things of the scientific pursuits of the ancients, and can understand how eager were these ancients to abound in the grace of wisdom. I have noted that your zeal, which is pleasing to God and praiseworthy, is always advancing toward this wisdom and takes pleasure in it, and that you are adorning the magnificence of your worldly rule with still greater intellectual splendor. In this may our Lord Jesus Christ, who is himself the supreme type of divine wisdom, guard you and exalt you, and cause you to attain to the glory of His own blessed and everlasting vision.