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Alcuin of York c735 to 19 May 804
The life of Alcuin of York
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Headlines are in brown.
Dates are in red.
Hyperlinks to other pages are in dark blue.
References and citations are in turquoise.
Context and local history are in purple.
Geographical context is in green.
Alcuin
of York was a scholar, clergyman, poet, and teacher from York, then part of
the Kingdom of Deira, later Northumbria. He was influential as a writer, as a
mathematician, and in his writing. His work gave rise to the revival of
intellectual life in the area around York which extended across Europe. He is
sometimes referred to as Ealhwine, Alhwin, or Alchoin.
He brought the educational traditions
and teaching methods from York to the court of Charlemagne, extending those
traditions across Europe. He laid the foundations of the educational system,
focused on monasteries and cathedral schools north of the Apls, which prevailed
until the emergence of universities in the twelfth century.
There is an In Our Time podcast on Alcuin, the cleric,
educator and poet from York who put learning
for its own sake at the heart of the Carolingian Renaissance. Another Podcast
in the BBC Series Anglo Saxon Portraits, is an essay on Alcuin, the Scholar by
Mary Garrison.
Humber
730s
Alcuin was born
in Northumbria, probably sometime in the 730s. Little is known of his
parents, family background, or origin. The Vita Alcuini suggests that
Alcuin was "of noble English stock". His descendants possibly
owned land to the east of York, possibly in the area of the Humber. Alcuin's
own work only mentions his wider kinsmen as Wilgils, father of the missionary
saint Willibrord; and Beornrad (also spelled Beornred), abbot of Echternach and
bishop of Sens. Willibrord, Alcuin and Beornrad were probably related by blood.
In his Life of St Willibrord,
Alcuin writes that Wilgils, called a paterfamilias, had founded an
oratory and church at the mouth of the Humber, which had fallen into Alcuin's
possession by inheritance. Since early Anglo-Latin writing paterfamilias
("head of a family, householder") usually referred to a ceorl
("churl"), Donald A. Bullough suggested
that Alcuin's family was of cierlisc ("churlish") status, that is a freeman of low nobility, but subordinate to a
noble lord, and that Alcuin and other members of his family rose to prominence
through beneficial connections with the aristocracy. Alcuin's origins appear to
lie in the southern part of the Kingdom of Deira.
York
735
The Venerable Bede died in Jarrow in 735 CE, leaving
fresh Anglo Saxon learning centred on the
Benedictine study of the Bible. Bede had introduced an educational
system based upon training in Latin and loosely on the liberal
arts (liberalia studia), the basic literary and numerical studies
adopted from Roman education. Pythagoras argued that there was a mathematical
(and geometric) harmony to the cosmos or the universe and his followers linked
the four arts of astronomy, arithmetic, geometry, and music into one area of
study to form the "disciplines of the medieval quadrivium".
Over time, rhetoric, grammar, and dialectic (logic) became the educational
programme of the trivium. Together they came to be known as the seven
liberal arts. However Bede did not wholly embrace the Liberal Arts himself.
The Benedictine monasteries had become
the main focus of learning by the sixth century, following the disintegration
of the Roman empire. Benedictine monasteries were repositories of learning as
they focused on prayer, study and manual labour. Study was intended to assist
an understanding of the Bible through copying scripts alongside a learning of
the liberal arts. Roman knowledge through an understanding of Latin was an
instrument to assist Christian understanding. Over time, this became the basis
of early education.
Among Bede’s pupils was Ecgbert, who
urged him to raise York to an archbishopric and Ecgbert
became Archbishop of York in the year of Bede’s death. It was at York,
that Ecgbert continued Bede’s work.
Ecgbert founded a school attached to the cathedral for the sons
of local nobles.
Education provided moral teaching to
support the aims of Augustine’s Christian Doctrine. Augustine advocated the
harnessing of education to Christian ends.
These were peaceful and stable years in
Northumbria, before the arrival of the Vikings at Lindisfarne in 793 CE.
750s
As Ecgbert’s responsibilities increased,
he entrusted the running of the school to his kinsman and pupil, Aethelbert. The fame of the
school grew under Aethelbert and pupils came from across the country and
from overseas. Aethelbert travelled to the Continent to collect books and he
spread knowledge of the school. He made it his mission to collect books from
across Europe and used his own private wealth to amass a remarkable
library. Alcuin, in his longest poem, later included a bibliography of this
remarkable library.
Where books are kept
Small roofs hold the gifts of heavenly
wisdom;
Reader, learn them, rejoicing with a
devout heart.
The Wisdom of the Lord is better than
any treasures
For the one who pursues it now will have
the pathway of light
(Alcuin,
Carmen, 105, i: Dümmler 1881, p. 332)
Aethelbert saw
wisdom as part of human godliness. He was primarily a scientist. Because York
was a cathedral, and not a monastery like Bede’s Jarrow, students came from far
places such as Ireland and Freisland, and then left again with their learning.
A cathedral school was able to attract bright individuals from afar. He
attracted young men Indolis egregiac iuvenes quoscumque videbat Hos sibi
coniunxit, docuit, nutrivit, amavit, “of "distinguished talent,
attaching them to himself by his teaching, his affectionate, his fatherly
care."
Prior to this period of Renaissance at
York, Education had contracted to a narrow range of studies, for purely
religious purpose. What stands out at York was the evolution of a range of
learning far wider than a focus on salvation and the saving of souls.
Aethelbert was particularly interested in natural science and studied plants
and animals. His view was that the rationality of the universe had been
divinely created, and so human activity to understand it was also theologically
justified. He believed that reason had a divine purpose and envisaged the five
zones of heaven – the seven planets; the regular motions of the stars; the
rising and setting of celestial objects; movement of the air and tremors of
earth; and the nature and diversity of men, livestock, and wild beasts and
birds.
It was during Aethelbert’s time that Alcuin joined the school and became Ecgbert and
Aethelbert’s favoured pupil and a great friend of Aethelbert.
The young Alcuin therefore came to the
cathedral church of York during the golden age
of Archbishop Ecgbert and his brother, the Northumbrian King Eadberht. King
Eadberht and Archbishop Ecgbert oversaw the re-energising and reorganisation of
the English church, with an emphasis on reforming the clergy and on the tradition
of learning that Bede had begun. Ecgbert was devoted to Alcuin, who thrived
under his tutelage.
York became an exceptional centre of
leaning during the second half of the eight century.
Ecgbert promoted learning for its own
sake at York, beyond merely religious learning.
Silver coin of King Eadberht and
Archbishop Ecgbert from Fishergate, York, circa 758 CE (Yorkshire Museum)
Alcuin had a profound love of poetry. He
studied the liberal arts and Latin authors such as Pliny (for natural history),
Cicero (for rhetoric), the Anglo Saxon Aldhelm (for grammar) and poets
including Virgil, Lucan and Statius. He studied the Bible, and the works of
Gregory the Great, Cassiodorus and Bede. The study was not particularly
original, but aimed at conserving and digesting the heritage of the past into
handbooks for the survival of established teaching as a tool for Christian
knowledge.
Alcuin accompanied
Aethelbert on his travels
at least once, and as Aethelbert grew older, Alcuin became involved in
teaching.
Alcuin graduated to become a teacher
during the 750s by which time Alcuin taught an extraordinarily wide
curriculum.
The York school was renowned as a centre
of learning in the liberal arts, literature, and science, as well as in
religious matters. From here, Alcuin drew inspiration for the school he would
lead at the Frankish court. He revived the school with the trivium and quadrivium
disciplines, writing a codex on the trivium, while his student Hraban
wrote one on the quadrivium.
766
Charles I became King of the Franks.
767
Aethelbert succeeded Ecgbert as
Archbishop on 24 April 767.
Alcuin’s ascendancy to the headship of
the York school, the ancestor of St Peter's School, began after Aethelbert
became Archbishop of York. Around the same time, Alcuin became a deacon in the
church. He was never ordained a priest and there is no evidence that he took
monastic vows, though he lived as if he had. Religious boundaries were fluid at
that time without a sharp division between disciplines.
Alcuin taught the
seven Liberal Arts.
He stressed the correct use of Latin and wrote textbooks in Latin. He
followed Bede’s method of question and answer.
He promoted the study
of the calendar, the computus, and especially the once
controversial calculation of the date of Easter.
He gave elementary instruction in music, arithmetic and geometry.
He enjoyed riddles,
jokes and puns in his teaching methods. He made arithmetical
puzzles and seems to have been an excellent communicator. This was a very
Anglo Saxon teaching technique. The BBC Discovery podcast, Alcuin of York, is an
examination by Philip Ball of Alcuin’s famous river crossing riddle.
Alcuin developed a friendly literary
circle where its members had nicknames,
Alcuin was called Flacchus and a favoured pupil, Sigewulf, was known as
Vetulus, ‘little old fellow”.
Alcuin wrote about the beautiful
inscriptions given to the Church in York by Bishop Wilfred – this one reads “Hail,
gracious priest, on account of your merits”, from St Mary’s Church,
Bishophill, York (Yorkshire Museum)
The minster was rebuilt at this time.
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My heart is set to praise my home And briefly tell the ancient cradling Of York's famed city through the
charms of verse. It was a Roman army built it first , High-walled and towered, and made the
native tribes |
Of Britain allied partners in the task
– For then a prosperous Britain rightly
bore The rule of Rome whose sceptre ruled
the world – To be a merchant-town of land and sea, A mighty stonghold for their
governors, |
An Empire's pride and terror to its
foes, A haven for the ships from distant
ports Across the ocean, where the sailor
hastes To cast his rope ashore and stay to
rest. The city is watered by the fish-rich
Ouse |
Which flows past flowery plains on
every side; And hills and forests beautify the
earth And make a lovely dwelling-place,
whose health And richness soon will fill it full of
men. The best of realms and people round
came there |
In hope of gain, to seek in that rich
earth For riches, there to make both home
and gain |
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Alcuin’s letters are a rich historical record of a time
of profound historical change in Europe. He revealed his inner thoughts and
longing for Northumbria. They tell much of the history of Northumbria. Alcuin’s
letters make the late eighth century the most documented period of this era. We
learn personal information about Alcuin from his letters, such as his favourite
food which was porridge with butter and honey.
778
Eanbald became Archbishop of York and
Alcuin became sole head of the school.
Rome
781
In 781, King Elfwald sent Alcuin to Rome
to confirm the election of the new archbishop, Eanbald I through the collection
of his vestment, pallium. He had already been to continental Europe at
least once, and probably had previously met Charlemagne.
On his way home, on 15 March 781, he met
Charlemagne, this time in the Italian city of Parma. At this time, Charlemagne
was King Charles of the Franks, but he later became Charlemagne, the Great,
after his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor in 800.
Charlemagne meeting Alcuin (British Library, MS Royal 16 G VI f 153v)
At the invitation
of Charlemagne, Alcuin became a leading scholar and teacher at the
Carolingian court, where he remained a figure in the 780s and 790s.
Charlemagne had already gathered a
circle of poets and scholars and asked Alcuin to direct the education of the
royal and noble children. Charles I had conquered the Lombards, so the first
scholars he gathered were generally Italian. Charles was first a warrior, but
also sought to grow the cultural authority of his kingdom: fortitudo et
sapientia, wisdom and might, an idea derived from the Virgilian hero.
Since the beginning of his reign,
Charles had been focused on successfully fighting Lombards, Saxons, and
Saracens. In boyhood he would have been engaged in the usual routine of
hunting, riding, swimming, and the use of weapons. Yet he had an eye for scholarship
and the development of national culture.
Alcuin later wrote to Charlemagne "I
knew how strong was the attraction you felt towards knowledge, and how greatly
you loved it. I knew that you were urging everyone to become acquainted with it
and were offering rewards and honours to its friends in order to induce them to
come from all parts of the world to aid in your noble efforts."
Aachen,
Francia
782
Alcuin left York for Charlemagne’s court
in 782. There is a suggestion that he was in York for a while longer and didn’t
leave for Charlemagne’s court until 786.
Alcuin's joined an illustrious group of
scholars whom Charlemagne had gathered around him, the mainsprings of the
Carolingian Renaissance: Peter
of Pisa (Latin Grammarian), Paulinus of Aquileia, Rado, and Abbot Fulrad, Paul
the Deacon (a Lombard historian). Alcuin would later write, "the
Lord was calling me to the service of King Charles".
Alcuin became master
of the Palace School of Charlemagne in Aachen (Urbs Regale) in 782. It
had been founded by the king's ancestors as a place for the education of the
royal children (mostly in manners and the ways of the court). However,
Charlemagne wanted to include the liberal arts, and most importantly, the study
of religion.
Alcuin continued and built upon his
methods of teaching which had been developed at York. He brought his Anglo
Saxon teaching techniques, including his riddles to liven up the rather dry
Lombard teaching methods. He made learning attractive. The collection of
mathematical and logical word problems, Propositiones ad acuendos juvenes
("Problems to Sharpen Youths") has been attributed to Alcuin.
789
Alcuin helped Charlemagne to write
official decrees, including those aimed at the development of literacy across
the Kingdom. He pioneered Charlemagne's Admonitio generalis, a
collection of legislation issued in 789, which covered educational and
ecclesiastical reform within the Frankish kingdom. This framed what Charlemagne
sought to achieve, including the establishment of schools throughout Francia.
It was generally felt that a successful
kingdom required warriors, workers, and those who would pray and converse with
God, through an understanding of wisdom, including by understanding Latin.
Alcuin was called upon to lead the development of the third of these
requirements.
Alcuin became interested in Aachen in logic and abstract philosophical reasoning, which
were applied to theological questions, such as proving God’s existence or
defining his nature. He wrote a text on logic and revised the study of Boethius’ works.
Alcuin engaged
with women in the court through his letters, in Francia, Northumbria and
Mercia. He saw engagement with women in correspondence as a means to influence
those in places of power. He engaged in correspondence on scholarly matters and
they exchanged gifts. These letters tell us about the politics of the court.
Women were also his pupils.
He wrote
poems. They were not always of the highest standard. They were often
long poems. He also wrote private poems in his letters.
He also focused on theology and wrote treatises, including two
against the Adoptionist
heretics in Spain; and on the Trinity. He revised the Latin version of the
Bible. There was a revision of the liturgy.
Alcuin established a new curriculum and teaching methods, which were then
adopted across Charlemagne’s empire. Royal decrees founded schools in each
diocese and monastery. There was a standardisation of handwriting through the
adoption of the new Carolingian miniscule.
He continued the question and answer
technique of learning, exemplified in "The Disputation of Pepin the most
Noble and Royal Youth with Albinus the Scholastic,"
"What is Language? "The
Betrayer of the Soul." "What generates language? "The
tongue." "What is the tongue? "The Whip of the Air."
"What is Air? "The Guardian of Life." "What is Life? "The
joy of the happy; the expectation of Death." "What is Death? "An
inevitable event; an uncertain journey; tears for the living; the proving of
wills; the Stealer of men." "What is Man? "The Slave of Death; a
passing Traveller; a Stranger in his place."
Alcuin helped Charlemagne to lay the foundations for a European system of education,
which kept learning alive during the turbulent ninth and tenth centuries.
Alcuin was "The most learned man
anywhere to be found", according to Einhard's Life of Charlemagne (c. 817–833).
Alcuin is considered among the most important intellectual architects of the
Carolingian Renaissance.
Among his pupils were many of the
dominant intellectuals of the Carolingian era.
Alcuin established a great library at
Aachen, for which Charlemagne obtained manuscripts from Monte Cassino, Rome,
Ravenna and other places. Books are naturally attracted to centres of power and
influence, like wealth and works of art and all that goes with a prosperous
cultural centre.
During this period, he perfected Carolingian minuscule, an easily read manuscript
hand using a mixture of upper and lower case letters. Carolingian minuscule was
already in use before Alcuin arrived in Francia. However there was a diversity
of script between monasteries. Most likely Alcuin was responsible for copying
and preserving the script while at the same time restoring the purity of the
form. Alcuin spread correct Latin learning and common script which was mutually
legible. The script is the basis for the script used today and Times New Roman
font has origins in the common text developed at this time. Each letter is
distinctly formed, separated and unique from another, so it became the tool for
print many centuries later.
"The use. . . of a script more
compact in the body and needing less time to write, may have been decided upon
in view of the plans to proceed with a State educational project, the greatest
ever undertaken in the West, or perhaps anywhere at any time in the Roman
Empire. For such an enterprise the employment of an accelerated script would
become an interest of State, or, to be accurate, of State and Church"
(Morison, Politics and Script. . . . Barker ed.
[1972] 143).
Alcuin wrote many theological and
dogmatic treatises, as well as a few grammatical works and a number of poems.
Rabanus Marus (left), Alcuin (middle)
and Archbishop Odgar of Mainz (right) (Carolingian
manuscript)
At Aachen, Alcuin composed a trialogue
between a master, a 14 year of Frank and a 15 year old Anglo Saxon. He also
compiled a textbook of synonyms.
From 782 to 790, Alcuin taught
Charlemagne himself, his sons Pepin and Louis, as well as young men sent to be
educated at court, and the young clerics attached to the palace chapel.
Bringing with him from York his assistants Pyttel, Sigewulf, and Joseph, Alcuin
revolutionised the educational standards of the Palace School, introducing
Charlemagne to the liberal arts and creating a personalised atmosphere of
scholarship and learning, to the extent that the institution came to be known
as the 'school of Master Albinus'.
In this role as adviser, he dissuaded
the emperor's policy of forcing pagans to be baptised on pain of death,
arguing, "Faith is a free act of the will, not a forced act. We must
appeal to the conscience, not compel it by violence. You can force people to be
baptised, but you cannot force them to believe." His arguments seem to
have prevailed. Charlemagne abolished the death penalty for paganism in 797 CE.
Charlemagne gathered the best men of
every land in his court, and became far more than just the king at the centre.
It seems that he made many of these men his closest friends and counsellors.
They referred to him as 'David', a reference to the Biblical king David. Alcuin
soon found himself on intimate terms with Charlemagne and the other men at
court, where pupils and masters were known by affectionate and jesting
nicknames. Alcuin himself was known as 'Albinus' or 'Flaccus'. While at Aachen,
Alcuin bestowed pet names upon his pupils – derived mainly from Virgil's
Eclogues. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, "He loved
Charlemagne and enjoyed the king's esteem, but his letters reveal that his fear
of him was as great as his love."
York
789
Alcuin returned briefly to York.
790
In 790, Alcuin again returned from the
court of Charlemagne to York, and he lived at York until 793 CE.
Francia
793
Charlemagne invited Alcuin back to help
in the fight against the Adoptionist heresy,
which was at that time making significant progress in Toledo, the old capital
of the Visigoths and still a major city for the Christians under Islamic rule
in Spain. He is believed to have had contacts with Beatus of Liébana, from
the Kingdom of Asturias, who fought against Adoptionism.
Alcuin had been reluctant to leave York,
but the first Viking attack at Lindisfarne in 793 CE, followed by Jarrow in 794
CE and mounting anarchy culminating in the murder of the Northumbrian King
Ethelred in 796 CE caused him to remain in Francia, under the strong rule of
Charlemagne. His distress and horror at the fate of Lindisfarne in
793 comes over very strongly in his letters both to the Bishop of Lindisfarne
and the Northumbrian king. Having failed during his stay in Northumbria to
influence King Æthelred in the conduct of his reign, Alcuin never returned
home.
He returned to Charlemagne's court and
wrote a series of letters to Æthelred, to Hygbald, Bishop of Lindisfarne, and
to Æthelhard, Archbishop of Canterbury in the succeeding months, dealing with
the Viking attack on Lindisfarne in July 793. These letters and Alcuin's poem
on the subject, "De clade Lindisfarnensis monasterii", provide
the only significant contemporary account of these events. In his description
of the Viking attack, he wrote: "Never before has such terror appeared
in Britain. Behold the church of St Cuthbert, splattered with the blood of
God's priests, robbed of its ornaments."
'When I was with you, the closeness of
your love would give me great joy. In contrast, now that I am away from you,
the distress of your suffering fills me daily with deep grief, when heathens
desecrated God's sanctuaries, and poured the blood of saints within the compass
of the altar, destroyed the house of our hope, trampled the bodies of saints in
God's temple like animal dung in the street ...' (Letter from Alcuin to
Hygbald, Bishop of Lindisfarne).
Alcuin saw the Viking horrors as divine
retribution for the moral decline of the Northumbrian people.
‘What security is there for the churches
of Britain if St Cuthbert with so great a throng of saints will not defend his
own? Either this is the beginning of greater grief or the sins of those who
live there have brought it upon themselves.' (Letter from Alcuin to
Higbald, Bishop of Lindisfarne).
794
At the Council of Frankfurt in 794 CE,
Alcuin upheld the orthodox doctrine against the views expressed by the heretic,
Felix of Urgel.
795
Alcuin was pressured to return to York
by the Archbishop of York in 795. However Alcuin saw 796 as a year of misery
and the death of Kings. Ethelred’s successor was expelled after only a month.
Charlemagne perhaps later gave Tours to Alcuin as compensation for his lands in
Northumbria.
Tours
796
In 796, Alcuin was made abbot of Marmoutier Abbey, in Tours, in Western
Francia, near Orleans, where he remained until his death. Upon the death of
Abbot Itherius of Saint Martin at Tours, Charlemagne put Marmoutier Abbey into
Alcuin's care, with the understanding that he should be available if the king
ever needed his counsel.
In 796, Alcuin was probably in his 60s.
Tours was very well resourced. There,
Alcuin encouraged the work of the monks on the beautiful Carolingian minuscule
script, ancestor of modern Roman typefaces.
Alcuin suffered from fever (malaria),
failing eyesight, and arthritis. His old friend Eanbald died that year. There
is a suggestion of melancholy in Alcuin’s years at
Tours. His letters suggest a sense of isolation. There is a sense of
longing for his former home. He wrote of struggling with the uncultured
minds of Tours and of boys pesting me with their little questions.
He wrote the rather sad poem:
All the beauty of the world is quickly
upturned,
And all things in their time are
transformed.
For nothing remains forever and nothing
is immutable,
Dark night obscures even the clearest
day.
A freezing winter cold strikes down
gorgeous flowers,
And a bitter wind unsettles calm seas.
On fields where the pious boy once
hunted deer,
A tired old man now stoops with his
walking stick.
Why do we wretched ones love you, O
fleeing world?
Always crashing down, you still flee
from us.
Whilst at Tours Aluin wrote further
works on the Trinity and another revised version of the Bible. There was
concern that the Bible text was becoming less pure. Tours started to produce
complete volumes of the Bible in one volume.
Much of the surviving written material
about Alcuin, including two thirds of his letters, come from his period at
Tours.
He was increasingly drawn to a monastic life of prayer, fasting and stricter
observance.
800
After the death of Pope Adrian I, Alcuin
was commissioned by Charlemagne to compose an epitaph for Adrian. The epitaph
was inscribed on black stone quarried at Aachen and carried to Rome where it
was set over Adrian's tomb in the south transept of St Peter's basilica just
before Charlemagne's coronation in the basilica on Christmas Day 800.
Charles became Emperor of the Holy Roman
Empire on Christmas Day 800. Alcuin was at Tours, which was distant from
Charlemagne’s court. Charles had been peripatetic as other kings of that time,
but by about 795 CE he invested in his centre of power at Aachen. In the build
up to his coronation. Charlemagne toured his Kingdom and went to Tours where he
spent a considerable period of time with Alcuin. So at this pivotal moment,
Charles sought Alcuin’s advice, although Alcuin did not travel with Alcuin to
Rome as his health was failing.
The idea of reviving the Western Empire,
since the end of the Roman Empire and the emergence of an empire in the East,
must have been in the minds of both Pope and King long before the stirring
events of the year 800 CE. Alcuin,
as adviser both in temporal and spiritual affairs to the Frankish Court, was
well aware of the intended project.
804
Alcuin died on 19 May 804 and was buried at St. Martin's Church.
His epitaph was composed by Alcuin himself:
"O thou who passest by, halt here a
while, I pray, and write my words upon thy heart, that thou mayst learn thy
fate from knowing mine. What thou art, once I was, a wayfarer not unknown
in this world; what I am now, thou soon shalt be. Once was I wont to pluck
earthly joys with eager hand; and now I am dust and ashes, the food of worms.
Be mindful then to cherish thy soul rather than thy body, since the one is
immortal, the other perishes. Why dost thou make to thyself pleasant abodes?
See in how small a house I take my rest, as thou shalt do one day. Why wrap thy
limbs in Tyrian purple, so soon to be the food of dusty worms? As the flowers
perish before the threatening blast, so shall it be with thy mortal part and
worldly fame. O thou
who readest, grant me in return for this warning, one small boon and say: 'Give
pardon, dear Christ, to thy servant who lies below.’ May no hand violate the
sacred law of the grave until the archangel's trump shall sound from heaven.
Then may he who lies in this tomb rise from the dusty earth to meet the Great
Judge with his countless hosts of light. Alcuin, ever a lover of Wisdom, was
my name; pray for my soul, all ye who read these words.”
814
Charlemagne died and was succeeded by
Louis the Pious, who had been influenced by Alcuin’s teachings.
866
The Great
Library of York was either exported to mainland Europe or destroyed in
the devastating Viking attacks on York and Northumbria in 866 and 867. The
school and library of York were the finest in eighth-century Europe.
Sources
The majority of details on Alcuin's life
come from his letters and poems. Also, autobiographical sections are in
Alcuin's poem on York and in the Vita Alcuini, a hagiography written for him at
Ferrières in the 820s, possibly based in part on the memories of Sigwulf, one
of Alcuin's pupils.
Alcuin of York and the
Foundations of Medieval Education, Gordon Leff, Kirkdale Lecture 1994.
Alcuin, Ethel Mary Wilmot Brown, 1922.
Alcuin of York, Lectures delivered at Bristol
Cathedral, 1907 and 1908.
Two Alcuin Letter Books, edited by Colin
Chase, 1975.
The Life of Alcuin, 1837, Dr Frederick Lorenz,
translated by Jane Mary Slee.
Alcuin of York, his life and letters, Stephen
Allott, 1974.
Alcuin and Beowulf, an Eighth century View, W
F Bolton, 1978.
The Canadian Literary society, the Alcuin Society, was
founded in Vancouver in 1965, inspired by Alcuin’s story. Alcuin wrote 'Oh
how sweet life was when we sat quietly... midst all these books'.
This was the age of Beowulf.