Alcuin

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(Alhwin, Alchoin; LatinAlbinus, alsoFlaccus).

An eminent educator, scholar, andtheologian born about 735; died 19 May, 804. He came of noble Northumbrian parentage, but the place of his birth is a matter of dispute. It was probably in or near York. While still a mere child, he entered thecathedralschool founded at that place by Archbishop Egbert. His aptitude, andpiety early attracted the attention of Aelbert, master of theschool, as well as of the Archbishop, both of whom devoted special attention to his instruction. In company with his master, he made several visits to the continent while a youth, and when, in 767, Aelbert succeeded to the Archbishopric of York, theduty of directing theschool naturally devolved upon Alcuin. During the fifteen years that followed, he devoted himself to the work of instruction atYork, attracting numerous students and enriching the already valuablelibrary. While returning fromRome in March, 781, he metCharlemagne atParma, and was induced by that prince, whom he greatly admired, to remove toFrance and take up residence at the royal court as "Master of the Palace School". Theschool was kept atAachen most of the time, but was removed from place to place, according as the royal residence was changed. In 786 he returned toEngland, in connection, apparently, with importantecclesiastical affairs, and again in 790, on a mission fromCharlemagne. Alcuin attended the Synod ofFrankfort in 794, and took an important part in the framing of the decrees condemningAdoptionism as well as in the efforts made subsequently to effect the submission of the recalcitrantSpanishprelates. In 796, when past his sixtieth year, being anxious to withdraw from the world, he was appointed byCharlemagneAbbot of St. Martin's at tours. Here, in his declining years, but with undiminishedzeal, he set himself to build up a modelmonasticschool, gathering books and drawing students, as before, atAachen and York, from far and near. He died 19 May, 804. Alcuin appears to have been only adeacon, his favourite appellation for himself in his letters being "Albinus, humilis Levita". Some have thought, however, that he became apriest, at least during his later years. His unknown biographer, in describing this period, says of him,celebrabat omni die missarum solemnia (Jaffé, "Mon. Alcuin., Vita," 30). In one of his last letters Alcuin acknowledged the gift of acasula, orchasuble, which he promises to use inmissarum solemniis (Ep. 203). It is probable that he was amonk, and a member of theBenedictine Order, although this also has been disputed, some historians maintaining that he was simply a member of thesecular clergy, even when he exercised the office ofabbot atTours.

Educator and scholar

Of his work as an educator and scholar it may be said, in a general way, that he had the largest share in the movement for the revival of learning which distinguished the age in which he lived, and which made possible the greatintellectual renaissance of three centuries later. In him Anglo-Saxon scholarship attained to its widest influence, the richintellectual inheritance left byBede at Jarrow being taken up by Alcuin atYork, and, through his subsequent labours on the Continent, becoming the permanent possession of civilizedEurope. The influences surrounding Alcuin at York were made up chiefly of elements from two sources,Irish and Continental. From the sixth century onwardIrishmen were busy foundingschools as well as churches andmonasteries all overEurope; and fromIona, according toBede, Aidan and other Celtic missionaries bore theknowledge of the classics, along with the light of theChristian faith, into Northumbria. Both Aldhelm andBede hadIrish teachers. Celtic scholarship appears, however, to have entered only remotely and indirectly into Alcuin's training. The strongly Roman cast which characterized the School ofCanterbury, founded by Theodore andHadrian, who were sent by the Pope toEngland in 669, was naturally reproduced in the School of Jarrow, and from this, in turn, in the School of York. The influence is discernible in Alcuin, on the religious side, in his devoted adhesion to Roman, as distinguished from particular local or national, traditions, as well as, in anintellectual way, in the fact that hisknowledge of Greek, which was a favourite study withIrish scholars, appears to have been very slight.

An important feature of Alcuin'seducational work at York was the care and preservation, as well as the enlargement, of its preciouslibrary. Several times he journeyed throughEurope for the purpose of copying and collecting books. Numerous pupils, too, gathered around him, from all parts ofEngland and the continent. In his poem "On the Saints of theChurch of York", written, probably, before he took up his residence inFrance, he has left us a valuable description of the academic life atYork, together with a list of the authors represented by its catalogue of books. The course of studies embraced, in the words of Alcuin, "liberal studies and the holy word", or the seven liberal arts comprising thetrivium and thequadrivium, with the study of Scripture and the Fathers for those more advanced. A feature of theschool that deserves mention was the organization of studies on the modern plan, the students being separated into classes, according to the subjects and divisions of subjects studied, with a special teacher for each class. But it was when he took charge of the Palace School that the abilities of Alcuin were most conspicuously shown. In spite of the influence of York, learning inEngland was declining. The country was a prey to dissensions and civilwars, and Alcuin perceived in the growing power ofCharlemagne and his eagerness for the development of learning an opportunity such as even York, with all its pre-eminence and scholastic advantages, could not afford. Nor was he disappointed.Charlemagne counted oneducation to complete the work of empire-building in which he was engaged, and his mind was busy witheducational projects. A literary revival, in fact, had already begun. Scholars were drawn fromItaly,Germany, andIreland, and when Alcuin, in 782, transferred his allegiance toCharlemagne, he soon found surrounding him atAachen, in addition to the youthful members of the nobility he was called upon to instruct, a band of older learners some of whom were ranked among the best scholars of the time. Under his leadership the Palace School became what Charles had hoped to make it, the centre ofknowledge and culture for the whole kingdom, and indeed for the whole ofEurope.Charlemagne himself, his queen, Luitgard, his sister Gisela, his three sons and two daughters became pupils of theschool, an example which the rest of the nobility were not slow to imitate. Alcuin's supreme merit as an educator lay, however, not merely in the training up of a generation ofeducated men andwomen, but above all, in inspiring with his own enthusiasm for learning and teaching the talented youths who flocked to him from all sides. Hiseducational writings, comprising the treatises "On Grammar", "On Orthography", "On Rhetoric and the Virtues", "On Dialectics", the "Disputation with Pepin", and theastronomical treatise entitled "De Cursu et Saltu Lunae ac Bissexto", afford an insight into the matter and methods of teaching employed in the Palace School and theschools of the time generally, but they are not remarkable either for originality or literary excellence. They are mostly compilations — generally in the form of dialogues drawn from the works of earlier scholars, and were probably intended to be used as textbooks by his own pupils.

Alcuin, likeBede, was a teacher rather than a thinker, a gatherer and a distributor rather than an originator ofknowledge, and in this respect, it is plain to us now, the bent of his genius responded perfectly to the imperativeintellectual need of the age, which was the preservation and the representation to the world of the treasures ofknowledge inherited from the past, long buried out of sight by the successive tides of barbarian invasion.Disce ut doceas (learn in order to teach) was the motto of his life, and the supreme value he attached to the office of teaching is recognizable in his admonition to his disciples that the idle youth would never become a teacher in his old age (Qui non discit in pueritia, non docet in senectute, Ep. 27). Alcuin was eminently qualified to be the schoolmaster of his age. Although living in the world and occupied much with public affairs, he was a man of singularhumility andsanctity of life. He had an unbounded enthusiasm for learning and a tirelesszeal for the practical work of the class-room andlibrary, and the young men of talent whom he drew in crowds around him from all parts ofEurope went away inspired with something of his own passionate ardour for study. His warm-hearted and affectionate disposition made him universally beloved, and the ties that bound master and pupil often ripened into intimate friendship that lasted through life. Many of his letters that have been preserved were written to his former pupils, more than thirty being addressed to his tenderlyloved disciple Arno, who becameArchbishop ofSalzburg. Before he died Alcuin had the satisfaction of seeing the young men whom he had trained engaged all overEurope in the work of teaching. "Wherever", says Wattenbach, in speaking of the period that followed, "anything of literary activity is visible, there we can withcertainty count on finding a pupil of Alcuin's." Many of his pupils came to occupy important positions inChurch and State and lent their influence to the cause of learning, as the above-mentioned Arno,Archbishop ofSalzburg; Theodulph,Bishop ofOrléans; Eanbald,Archbishop ofYork; Adelhard, the cousin of Charles, who becameAbbot of (New) Corbie, in Saxony; Aldrich,Abbot of Ferrières, andFridugis, the successor of Alcuin atTours. Among his pupils also was the celebratedRabanus Maurus, theintellectual successor of Alcuin, who came to study under him for a time atTours, and who subsequently in hisschool atFulda, continued the work of Alcuin atAachen andTours.

The development of the Palace School, however, important as it was, was only a part of the broadeducational plans ofCharlemagne. For the diffusion of learning, othereducational centers had to be established throughout the kingdom, and for this, in an age wheneducation was so largely, under the control of theChurch, it was essential that theclergy should be a body ofeducated men. With this object in view, a series of decrees or capitulars were issued in the name of the Emperor, which enjoined upon allclerics, secular as well as regular, under penalty ofsuspension deprivation of office, the ability to read and write and the possession of theknowledge requisite for the intelligent performance of theduties of theclerical state. Reading-schools were to be established for the benefit of candidates for thepriesthood, andbishops were required to examine theirclergy from time to time, to ascertain the degree of their compliance with theseeducationallaws. A scheme for universal elementaryeducation was also projected. A capitular of the year 802 enjoined that "everyone should send his son to study letters, and that the child should remain atschool with all diligence until he should become well instructed in learning" (West, 54). Following the decrees of the Council ofVaison, a primaryschool was to be established in every town and village to be taught by thepriests gratuitously. It is impossible to say to what extent Alcuin deserves credit for the organization of the vasteducational system which was thus set up, comprising a central higher institution, the Palace School, a number of subordinateschools of the liberal arts scattered throughout the country, andschools for the common people in every city and village. His hand is nowhere visible in the series of legislative enactments referred to; but there can be nodoubt that he had much to do with the instigation, if not with the framing, of theselaws. "The voice", Gaskoin aptly says, "is the voice of Charles, but the hand is the hand of Alcuin". It was with Alcuin, too, and his pupils that the responsibility rested for carrying out the legislation. True, thelaws were only imperfectly carried into effect; the measures planned and partially put into practice for the enlightenment of the people did not meet with complete success; the movement for the revival and diffusion of learning throughout the Empire did not last. Yet much was accomplished that did endure. The accumulated wisdom or the past, which was in danger of perishing, was preserved, and when the greater and more permanent renaissance of learning came, several centuries later, when the light began to pierce through the storm-clouds offeudal strife andanarchy, the foundations laid in the eighth century were still there, ready to receive the weight of the higher learning which the scholars of the new revival should build up" (Gaskoin, 209). Alcuin's poems range from brief, epigrammatic verses, addressed to his friends, or intended as inscriptions for books,churches, altars, etc., to lengthy metrical histories of biblical andecclesiastical events. His verses seldom rise to the level of real poetry, and, like most of the work of the poets of the period, they often fail to conform to the rules for quantity, just as his prose, though simple and vigorous, shows here and there a seeming disregard for the accepted canons of syntax. His principal metrical work, the "Poem on the Saints of the Church at York", consists of 1657 hexameter lines and is really a history of that Church.

Alcuin as a theologian

Alcuin's work as atheologian may be classed asexegetical or biblical, moral, and dogmatic. Here again the characteristic that has been noted in hiseducational work is conspicuous it is that of conservation rather than originality. His nine Scriptural commentaries — on Genesis, The Psalms, The Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Hebrew Names,St. John's Gospel, the Epistles to Titus, Philemon, and the Hebrews, The Sayings of St. Paul, and the Apocalypse — consist mostly of sentences taken from the Fathers, theidea, apparently, being to collect into convenient form the observations on the more important Scriptural passages of the best commentators who had preceded him. A more important Biblical undertaking by Alcuin was the revision of the text of theLatin Vulgate. At the beginning of the ninth century, this version had displaced inFrance, as elsewhere throughout theWestern Church, the Old Itala (Vetus Itala) and other Latin versions of theBible; but theVulgate, as it existed, showed many variants from the original ofSt. Jerome. Uniformity in thesacred text was in fact, unknown. Every church andmonastery had its own accepted readings, and varying texts were often to be found in the Bibles used in the same house. Other scholars besides Alcuin were engaged in the task of endeavouring to remedy this condition. Theodulph ofOrléans produced a revised text of theVulgate which has survived in the "Codex Memmianus". The original work of Alcuin has not come down to us, the carelessness of copyists and the extensive usage to which it attained having led to numberless, though for the most part unimportant variations from the standard he sought to fix. In his letters he simply mentions the fact that he is engaged, by the order ofCharlemagne, "in emendatione Veteris Novique Testamenti" (Ep., 136). Four Bibles are shown by the dedicatory poems affixed to them to have been prepared by him, or under his direction atTours, probably during the years 799-801. In the opinion of Berger the "Tours Bibles" all represent in a greater or less degree, notwithstanding their variations in detail, the original Alcuinian text (Hist. de la vulg., 242). Whatever the exact changes made by Alcuin in theBible text may have been, the known temper of the man, no less than the limits of the scholarship of the age, makes it certain that these changes were not of a far-reaching kind. Theidea being, however, to reproduce the genuine text ofSt. Jerome, so far as possible, and to correct the gross blunders which disfigured the Sacred writings, the Biblical work of Alcuin was, from this point of view, important. Of the three brief moral treatises Alcuin has left us, two, "De virtutibus et vitiis", and "De animae ratione", are largely abridgments of the writing ofSt. Augustine on the same subjects, while the third, "On the Confession of Sins", is a concise exposition of the nature of confession, addressed to themonks ofSt. Martin of Tours. Closely allied to his moral writings in spirit and purpose are his sketches of the lives ofSt. Martin of Tours, St. Vedast, St. Riquier, andSt. Willibrord, the last being a biography of considerable length.

It is upon his dogmatic writings that the fame of Alcuin as atheologian principally rests. Against the Adoptionistheresy he stood forth as the foremost champion of theChurch. It is aproof of his power of penetration — a quality of mind which some historians appear to deny him altogether — that he so clearly perceived the essentiallyheretical attitude of Felix and Elipandus toward theChristological question, an attitude whoseheterodoxy was shrouded perhaps even from their own eyes in the beginning, by the specious distinction between natural and adoptive sonship; and it was a worthy tribute to the range of his patristic scholarship when Felix, the chiefintellectual defender ofAdoptionism, after the disputation with Alcuin atAachen, acknowledged theerror of his position. The condemnation of the risingheresy by the Synod ofRegensburg (Ratisbon), in 792, having failed to check its spread, another and a larger synod, composed of representatives of the Churches ofFrance,Italy, Britain, and Galicia, was convened atFrankfort by the order of Charles, in 794. Alcuin was present at this meeting and no doubt took a prominent part in the discussions and in the drawing up of the "Epistola Synodica", although, with characteristic modesty, he furnishes no evidence of the fact in his letters. Following up the work of the Synod, he addressed to Felix, for whom he had formerly entertained high esteem, a touching letter of admonition and exhortation. After his transfer toTours, in 796, he received from Felix a reply which showed that something more than friendly entreaty would be needed to stay the progress of theheresy. He had already drawn up a small treatise consisting mainly of patristic quotations, against the teaching of theheretics, under the title "Liber Albini contra haeresim Felicis", and he now undertook a larger and more thorough discussion of thetheological questions involved. This work, in seven books, "Libri VII adversus Felicem", was a refutation of the position of the Adoptionists, rather than an exposition ofCatholic doctrine, and hence followed the lines of their arguments, instead of a strictlylogical order of development. Alcuin urged against the Adoptionists the universal testimony of the Fathers, the inconsistencies involved in thedoctrine itself, itslogical relation toNestorianism, and therationalistic spirit which was forever prompting to just such attempted human explanations of the unsearchable mysteries offaith. In the spring of 799 a disputation took place between Alcuin and Felix in the royal palace atAachen, which ended by Felix acknowledging hiserrors and accepting the teachings of theChurch. Felix subsequently paid a friendly visit to Alcuin atTours. Having sought in vain to bring about the submission of Elipandus, Alcuin drew up another treatise entitled "Adversus Elipandum Libri IV", entrusting it for circulation to the commissioners whomCharlemagne was sending toSpain. In 802 he sent to the emperor the last, and perhaps the most important, of histheological treatises, the "Libellus de Sancta Trinitate", a work which is uncontroversial in form, although probably suggested to him during the discussions with the Adoptionists. The treatise contains a brief appendix entitled "De Trinitate ad Fridegisum quaestiones XXVIII". The book is a compendium ofCatholic doctrine concerning theHoly Trinity,St. Augustine's treatise on the subject being kept steadily in view. It is uncertain to what extent Alcuin shared in the attitude of remonstrance assumed by theFrankish Church, at the instance ofCharlemagne, towards the badly translated and ill understood decrees of the second Council of Nicaea, held in 787. The style of the"Libri Carolini" which condemn, in the name of the King, the decrees of the Council, favours the assumption that Alcuin had at least no direct part in the composition of the work.

Alcuin as a liturgist

Besides his justly merited fame as an educator and atheologian, Alcuin has thehonour of having been the principle agent in the great work ofliturgical reform accomplished by the authority ofCharlemagne. At the accession ofCharles the Gallican rite prevailed inFrance, but it was so modified by local customs and traditions as to constitute a serious obstacle to completeecclesiastical unity. It was the purpose of the King to substitute the Roman rite in place of the Gallican, or at least to bring about such a revision of the latter as to make it substantially one with the Roman. The strong leaning of Alcuin towards the traditions of theRoman Church, combined with his conservative character and the universal authority of his name, qualified him for the accomplishment of a change which the royal authority in itself was powerless to effect. The first of Alcuin'sliturgical works appears to have been a Homiliary, or collection of sermons in Latin for the use ofpriests. The Homiliary which was printed under his name in the fifteenth century was by a different hand, although it is probable, its Dom Morin contends, that a recently discoveredmanuscript of the twelfth century contains the genuine Alcuinian sermons. Anotherliturgical work of Alcuin consists of a collection of the Epistles to be read onSundays and holy-days throughout the year, and bears the name, "Comes ab Albino ex Caroli imp. praecepto emendatus". As, previous to his time, the portions of Scripture to be read at Mass were often merely indicated on the margins of the Bibles used, the "Comes" commended itself by its convenience, and as he followed Roman usage here also, the result was another advance in the way of conformity to the Roman liturgy. The work of Alcuin which had the greatest and most lasting influence in this direction, however, was the Sacramentary, orMissal which he compiled, using the Gregorian Sacramentary as a basis, and to this adding a supplement of otherliturgical sources. Prescribed as the official Mass-book for theFrankish Church, Alcuin'sMissal soon came to be commonly used throughoutEurope and was largely instrumental in bringing about uniformity in respect to the liturgy of the Mass in the wholeWestern Church. Otherliturgical productions of Alcuin were a collection of votive Masses, drawn up for themonks ofFulda, a treatise called "De psalmorum usu", a breviary forlaymen, and a brief explanation of the ceremonies of Baptism.

A complete edition of Alcuin's works, with the exception of some of his Epistles, is to be found inMigne, comprising volumes 100-101 of the "Patrologia Latina". The text of theMigne edition was first published by Froben,Abbot of St. Emmeran, atRatisbon, in 1777, a previous and less complete edition having been published by Duchesne atParis, in 1617. A critically accurate edition of the "Epistles" of Alcuin, together with his poem, "On the Saints of the Church at York", his "Life ofSt. Willibrord and the "Life of Alcuin", composed about 829, is found in the fourth volume of the "Bibliotheca Rerum Germanicarum", under the title "Monumenta Alcuiniana" edited by Jaffé, Wattenbach, and Duemmler (Berlin, 1873). This edition contains 293 of Alcuin's Epistles, against the 230 inMigne.

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