Alcuin

ALCUIN. - Counsellor of Charlemagne. The Anglo-Saxon name, Alhwin (Alchoin, Alcuin, Alclavine, that is Ealh-wine "friend of the temple"), was Latinized as Alcuinus (Alcivinus) and Albinus. Following the academic custom that he himself introduced into the palace school, he called himself Flaccus, hence Flaccus Albinus.

LIFE

Born around 735 in Northumbria into a noble Anglo-Saxon family, a relative of St. Willibrord, he was educated at the episcopal school of York, where he learned Latin, Greek and Hebrew under the direction of Archbishop Egbert and of Aelbert, with whom he made a journey to Rome. When Aelbert became Archbishop of York in 767, he ordained him deacon, a rank in which A. was to remain all his life, and left him the direction of the school, whose prestige and fame he increased. In the spring of 781, having gone to Rome to ask Pope Adrian I for the pallium for his new archbishop Eanbald, he met Charlemagne at Parma, who urged him strongly to settle at his side. Having obtained the consent of his own ordinary and of King Ethelred, A. arrived at Aachen at the end of that same year or in the early days of 782. Having taken over the direction of the Schola Palatina, he introduced there the system of the "trivium" and the "quadrivium" already held in honor at York, and also founded a kind of literary academy, of which Charlemagne himself was a member. According to Einhard, A. was the sovereign's "tutor" in all the sciences (Vita Caroli M., 25). While at court he formed friendships with the Lombards Paul the Deacon and Peter of Pisa, with the Visigoth Theodulf, and above all with Paulinus, the future Patriarch of Aquileia.

In 790 he returned to his homeland on a political mission to Offa, king of Mercia, whom he reconciled with Charlemagne. Urged on by the latter, however, in 793 he returned to his side and took an active part in the theological questions that were then troubling the Frankish kingdom: Spanish Adoptionism (v.) and the controversy over the images. He therefore took part in the two great Councils of Frankfurt (794) and of Aachen (799). At Charlemagne's wish he was given the government of various abbeys: of Ferrières, of Troyes, of Saint-Josse-sur-Mer and finally, in 796, of the famous monastery of St. Martin of Tours, where he went in that same year for reasons of health and to restore its fortunes. He at once enriched the precious library and also restored that school to great splendor, which remained famous thereafter in the history of medieval paleography (Carolingian minuscule). Among his pupils there were, among others, Amalarius and Rabanus Maurus. It was his care to complete the foundation of the monastery of Cormery, near Tours, and there he began the community with twenty monks of the reform of St. Benedict of Aniane.

He died at Tours on the day of Pentecost, 19 May 804.

Rabanus Maurus included him in his martyrology (19 May); chroniclers and historians gave him the title of blessed: but, as far as is known, public cult has never been paid to him. We do not know with certainty whether A. was a monk, as many believe with Mabillon.

WORKS AND DOCTRINE

A. has a multiform literary output, which in various respects recalls that of Bede.

I. Pedagogy

As a teacher, A. left several writings, didactically interesting for their dialogic method: «per interrogationes et responsiones, memoriae causa» (PL. 101, 854 B). It seems that he composed, on the example of Cassiodorus, a complete treatise on the seven liberal arts, but of it there remain to us only the first parts, those of the Trivium: the De grammatica, with a moral introduction in dialogic form, and the two little works De dialectica and De rhetorica. Of the De musica, the first discipline of the Quadrivium, a fragment is preserved, which was published by Gerbertus in the Scriptores eccl. de Musica (I, pp. 26-27): a very important fragment, because it is the first writing in the West that gives the classification of the eight musical tones, 4 authentic and 4 plagal.

Mathematical and astronomical questions are treated in the little work De cursu et de saltu lunae ac bis-sexto, and in various letters to Charlemagne, who took great delight in astronomy (MGH, Epist., IV, Epp. 126, 148, 149, 155, 170, 171).

Then to be remembered is the little work De Orthographia, arranged according to the letters of the alphabet, and the brief but important Pappini (the son of Charles) disputatio cum Albino scholastico, in 106 questions and answers, whose catechetical procedure favors ingenious expressions very close to the riddle so dear to the Anglo-Saxons.

Some codices of the 9th century preserve, among the works of A., the Disputatio puerorum per interrogationes et responsiones, which Frobenius regards as of doubtful authenticity (PL. 101, 1097-1144). Silva-Tarocca, however, considers it at least of the school of A., who, according to him, would likewise have composed an entire Catechism in questions and answers (Fontes historiae ecclesiasticae, p. 327, note 5).

Also seemingly by A. are the celebrated Propositiones ad acuendos iuvenes, already placed by Frobenius among his doubtful works (PL. 101, 1143-60), and a commentary on Priscian (Excepciones super Priscianum), preserved in three codices (cf. Manitius, I, pp. 282 and 286).

II. Philosophy

To the little work De dialectica are to be added two short treatises: 1) De animae ratione, «ad Eulaliam virginem», which, inspired by St. Augustine and by Cassian and written around 801, represents the first attempt at a medieval psychology; 2) De virtutibus et vitiis, «ad Widonem comitem» (ca. 801), an example of a medieval ethics.

III. Poetry

Many compositions has A. left us, generally brief, at times poor, but often well achieved: hymns, epigrams, inscriptions for churches and altars, didactic compositions, occasional verses, eclogues, riddles, some prayers. Particularly noted in literature are the Oratio in nocte, the De cuculo and the Certamen or Conflictus Veris et Hiemis. The short poem De clade Lindisfarnensis monasterii or De rerum humanarum vicissitudine (PL. 101, 805-812) is an elegiac poem, which recalls the sack of the church of St. Cuthbert, carried out by the Northmen in 793. As a rule A. employs the classical meters, especially the hexameter, and has a sure sense of technique. Although not being a great poet, however, he was much admired by his contemporaries, who called him nostrorum gloria notus (Theodulf, Carm., 15, vv. 131-40; MGH, Poetae Aevi Carol., I, 486; cf. p. 162).

IV. On history and hagiography A. wrote in prose and in verse. Excellent for its importance is the poem, inspired by the love of his country: De sanctis Euboricensis (or Eboracensis) Ecclesiae, which (composed between 780 and 782) narrates the history of the church of York and of its bishops.

Between 782 and 789 or after 793, he wrote the Life of St. Willibrord, founder of the monastery of Echternach, in two books, one in prose for liturgical use, the other in poetry for the exercise of schoolboys. He wrote furthermore in prose the life of St. Martin of Tours, of St. Vedast (Vaast) of Arras and of St. Richarius (Riquier).

V. Theology

In refutation of Adoptionism A. wrote: Liber adv. haeresim Felicis; Adv. Felicem libri VII; Adv. Elipandum libri IV, and some Polemical Letters. For the emperor he composed the treatise De fide sanctae et individuae Trinitatis: he himself calls this work of his libellus de catholica fide (Ep. 258; MGH, Epist., IV, 416). Furthermore XXVIII Quaestiones de Trinitate, a kind of higher catechism, and the short treatise De pretio salutis in the form of a letter to Charlemagne (Ep. 165; PL. 100, 431-37).

The Libellus de processione Spiritus Sancti, placed by Frobenius among the genuine works of A. (PL. 101, 63-84), according to Dimmler is not authentic (MGH, Epist., IV, 482). On the other hand, according to the investigations of Bastgen, the celebrated Libri Carolini (v.) on the controversy of the images would be by A.

A. exalts the authority of the Roman Church, which he calls Apostolica sublimitas (cf. Epp. 90 and 95; PL. 100, 293 and 301), admits purgatory (De fide S. Trinit., 3, 21) and the value of suffrages (Ep. 178; PL. 100, 449); he upholds the intercession of the saints, the efficacy of relics (Epp. 23, 26, 34; PL. 100, 177, 181, 191) and the beatific vision for the just not delayed to the universal judgment (Ep. 113; PL. 100, 342); he combats superstition (Ep. 267; MGH, Epist., IV, 425 f.) and simony (cf. ibid., p. 416, note 1). He clearly teaches transubstantiation (Ep. 41; PL. 100, 203), defends the Roman use of unleavened bread and without salt for the eucharistic sacrifice (Ep. 90; PL. 100, 289), and induces the sovereign to repress the very bad habit, established in some parts, of celebrating Mass without Communion (Adm. gen. of 789, n. 6; MGH, Capit., I, 54). Against the error spread in Languedoc (Gothia) he opposes the dogmatic necessity of auricular confession (Ep. 112; PL. 100, 337-41).

VI. Law

The juridical science of A. is revealed by his writings. Of particular interest is Epistola 245 (MGH, Epist., IV, 393-98), with which he defends the right of asylum. In letters 174 and 255 he sets out the fundamental principles of public ecclesiastical law; and in 137 he alludes to the Regestum of St. Gregory the Great received from Rome. This, however, as it seems, was in a reduced edition, and A., not finding in it the letter of which the supporters of single immersion for baptism availed themselves, confirmed himself in his erroneous opinion that instead three immersions were necessary for the validity of the sacrament. The question, having become grave because of the weight of his authority, was later settled at the Council of Worms of 868 (can. 5; Mansi, 15, 869-71). To be remembered furthermore is the Admonitio generalis, capitulary of Charlemagne of 789 (MGH, Capit., I, 52-62). An Alcuinian fragment — De virtutibus et vitiis, chap. 17: De eleemosynis — has passed into the Corpus Iuris Can. (Decretum of Gratian, Dist., 45 chap. 12).

VII. Missiology

Active was his part in the evangelization of the pagan world, inciting bishops, settling doctrinal controversies, giving directives for the apostolate. While encouraging Charlemagne to be like the missionary of Christ among the barbarians by sending them «pios praedicatores», he censures their forced conversion to Christianity (Epp. 110 and 113; MGH, Epist., IV).

The principles of A. triumphed in the synod convoked by Pepin, king of Italy, in 796 «ad Ripas Danubii», under the presidency of Paulinus of Aquileia, to establish the conduct to be followed in the evangelization of the Avars, and in the diet of Aachen in 797, in which the second Capitulary for Saxony was issued, inspired by mildness and equity (MGH, Capit., I, 71-72).

VIII. S. Scrittura

1. Old Testament: Interpretationes et responsiones in Genesis: 281 brief answers to as many questions; the last, De benedictionibus Patriarchorum, longer than the others, also appears as a separate pamphlet, falsely attributed to Eucherius and to St. Augustine (PL 35, 2199-2206), as well as to St. Jerome (PL 23, 1307-18); Enchiridion, seu expositio pia ac brevis in Psalmos poenitentiales, on Ps. 118, and graduales; Compendium in Canticum Canticorum, extracted from the work of Cassiodorus and Bede; Commentaria super Ecclesiastes, in which he has St. Jerome as his guide.

2. New Testament: Commentaria in s. Ioannis Evangelium in seven books, A.'s principal exegetical work;

Tractatus super tres s. Pauli ad Titum, ad Philem, et ad Hebraeos Epistolas, in which he makes use of Chrysostom for the last and St. Jerome for the first; Commentariorum in Apocalypsin libri V, on the first 12 chapters, of uncertain authenticity according to A. Wilmart (Auteurs spir., Paris 1932, p. 52, note 6). Finally the Interpretationes nominum hebraicorum progenitorum D. N. Iesu Christi, according to the literal, allegorical and moral sense, and three letters (PL 100) that deal with biblical questions: Ep. 163 on Lk. 22, 36; Ep. 164, particularly interesting, on the hymn sung after the Lord's Supper; Ep. 203, «de comparatione numerorum Veteris et Novi Test.»; furthermore Ep. 204 on the nature of visions.

3. But A. is famous especially for the revision of the Vulgate, carried out «by order» of Charlemagne (cf. In Ioan., I. VI, beginning). He collated exclusively Latin codices, above all with orthographic and grammatical aims; but having based himself on the models of York (Amiatinus type), he also gave at the same time an excellent text as regards the substance as well. The Bible of Alcuin or of Charlemagne, spread throughout the empire and served as a model for many books down to the 13th century.

IX. Liturgy

1. His first liturgical work, on the commission of Charlemagne, was the revision, above all orthographic, of the Lectionary or Epistles of the Mass (Comes Albini), completed before the Roman Gregorian Sacramentary reached the court of Aachen. Furthermore A. «collegit multis de Patrum operibus homiliarum duo volumina» (Vita, col. 12), which were believed lost; but Morin has rediscovered at least one copy of it.

But the work that places A. in the first rank in the history of the Roman liturgy and of liturgical books is the «critical edition» of the Gregorian Sacramentary, undertaken not before 801. Having first corrected the text of the Sacramentary «artis stylo», he added to it a Supplementum making use of Gallican elements and of the Gelasian Sacramentary, widely diffused in France. According to the important observation of A. Paredi (I Prefazi Ambrosiani, Milan 1937, p. 90), of the prefaces reported in that appendix about seventy are also Ambrosian prefaces.

2. For the fostering of private piety, A. also composed a Liber Sacramentorum (PL 101, 445-66) or weekly Missal, without relation to the liturgical cycle; the Masses proper to each day are followed by common and votive Masses. Although a work of private devotion, it greatly influenced the official liturgy. The consecrations of Sunday to the Trinity, of Friday to the Cross, of Saturday to the Virgin, passed at once into use and became an expression of Catholic piety: today's Mass of the Most Holy Trinity, with its collects and its preface of Gelasian origin, is the very one of A.; likewise his Mass in honor of the Blessed Virgin and most of his common and votive Masses.

3. The De Psalmorum usu and the Officia per ferias (PL 101, 465-508, 509-612) are not authentic (cf. A. Wilmart, in Rev. Bénéd., 48 [1936], pp. 262-65).

4. The little treatise De Baptismi caeremoniis (PL 101, 611-14; MGH, Epist., IV, 202 ff.) explains to the priest Oduin the order and meaning of the baptismal rite.

5. In 798 A. had an exchange of letters with Charlemagne on the addition of the three weeks to Lent (Ep. 80 and 81: PL 100, 259-66).

6. His poem or invocatio to the Most Holy Trinity (PL 101, 54-56 and 1409 ff.), has furnished almost all the antiphons for the festal office of the august mystery.

By adapting the Roman books to Franco-German use, A. contributed powerfully to that liturgical uniformity of the Carolingian empire, which marks as it were the starting point for the liturgical unity of the West.

X. Ascetics

Not only the De virtutibus et vitiis and the hagiographic works mentioned above, but almost all his writings have a marked ascetic character, especially the letters. Most interesting is the pamphlet De confessione peccatorum ad pueros s. Martini (PL 101, 649-56; MGH, Epist., IV, n. 131, pp. 193-98), with which A. exhorts the students of St. Martin of Tours to confess often.

According to ms. S. 17 sup. of the Ambrosian library of Milan, A. would also have composed a pamphlet for aspiring monks, published for the first time in 1928 by C. Ottaviano under the title De conversorum acceptione (in Aevum, 2 [1928], pp. 3-16).

For A. the cornerstones of Christian asceticism are: love of Christ Our Lord: «Ille cibus, potus, carmen, laus, gloria vobis» (Carm. 59, v. 30: MGH, Poetae aevi Carolini, I, 273); devotion to the Virgin, ark of salvation: he, as it seems, is the first Western writer to honor her with the title of queen (cf. Carm., 203, v. 2: PL 101, 774); prayer: «Demones adversus magna est oratio virtus» (Carm. 62, v. 13: MGH, Poet., I, 275); study, delight of the spirit and weapon against the passions: «Nihil ad beatam vitam sublimius adipiscendam, nihil ad exercitium iucundius, nihil contra vitia fortius» (Ep. 43: PL 100, 209). For him, a library rich in books is like a garden of flowers with the fragrance of paradise (cf. ibid., col. 208). He extols the study of astronomy, of arithmetic and of every science, inviting us to thank the Lord for the «iucundissimam naturalium rerum cognitionem» (Ep. 83), but above all he invites us to the study of Sacred Scripture, from which «schortamur ad sapientiam discendam» (Ep. 43). He exhorts to the generosity of the Lord: «Non est claudicandum in Dei servitio, sed via regia gradiandum» (Ep. 184: MGH, Epist., IV, 309).

XI. Epistolary

The approximately three hundred letters of A. are a historical source of the first order for the knowledge of those times. But most of the epistolary has been lost; of what remains the greater part belongs to the last period (796-804).

XII. Doubtful or apocryphal works

To those already mentioned must be added the Confesio fidei (PL 101, 1003-1098) which Wilmart (Auteurs spirituels, p. 128) has shown to be a work of John of Fécamp; the Commentary on St. Matthew, unpublished, which Wilmart (loc. cit., p. 52, n. 6 and p. 601), considers of uncertain authorship; the commentary of Ps. Rufinus on the first 75 Psalms (PL 21, 641-960), which Wilmart has shown to be a work of Letbert, abbot of Saint-Ruf near Avignon, at the beginning of the 12th century (Revue Bénéd., 31 [1914], pp. 258-76); the De divinis officiis, important but certainly apocryphal (PL 101, 1169-1286); the De officio Missae, recently published by Lowe (cf. Wilmart, Ephém. Liturg., 20 [1936], pp. 133-39); the Notitia Ecclesiarum urbis Romae, published in the appendix to the works of A. (PL 101, 1359-65) for which v. G. B. De Rossi, Roma sotter., I, Rome 1864, pp. 136-144; the epistle De ortu Beneventanorum to Charlemagne, published by G. Waitz in Nenes Archiv., 1 (1876), pp. 169-72.

PERSONALITY AND INFLUENCE

His doctrine, as an expression of ancient thought, does not display much originality. Nevertheless, as an organizer and sower of ideas, A. retains a character entirely his own. A man of science and of action, he was the soul of the religious, cultural and artistic movement that goes under the name of the Carolingian Renaissance.

His passion for study led him to multiply manuscripts, admirable codices with gilded letters and miniatures. With A., notes Delisle, the art of calligraphy took up residence in France. And he formed masters who in turn founded or gave impetus to other important schools: Leidrad at Lyon, Theodulf at Orléans, Haimo at Halberstadt, Rabanus Maurus at Fulda and at Mainz. Thus, through his influence, centers of learning made possible the scientific speculation of later centuries. The very term scholasticus is already used by A. to characterize the science taught in the schools (Ep. 121: MGH, Ep., IV, 177, and the index p. 634).

A. willingly took upon himself many sacrifices in the service of the Frankish king, because he recognized in him the Ecclesiae defensor et amator (cf. Carm. 228, v. 6: PL 101, 780); and he used his influence over the great emperor only for the cause of good: to spread knowledge, to reform the morals of the clergy, to strengthen the Church within and without. - See Pl. LVIII.

Editions. - Still today the best is that of Frobenius Forster, Ratisbon 1777 (reproduced with additions in PL 100-101). Philipp Jaffé devoted to A. vol. VI of his Bibliotheca Rerum Germanicarum: Monumenta Alcuiniana, Berlin 1873. It contains the Vita Alcuini auctore anonimo sac, IX (of which cf. above), the Vita v. Willibrordi, in prose and in verse; the De Pontificibus et Sanctis Ecclesiae Eboracensis carmen, and the Epistolae. - The Monumenta Germaniae Historicae give the critical edition of the Carmine (Poetae Latini Medii Aevi, I) and of the Epistolae (Epistolorum, IV); of the Vita Vodiatis (Scriptores rerum Microsingitarum, III, pp. 414-27), and of the Vita Richneri (ibid., IV, pp. 381-401); of the Vita v. Willibrordi, in prose (ibid., VII, 81-141). - For the Roman Sacramentary, v. H. A. Wilson, The Gregorian Sacramentary and Charles the Great, London 1915; and for the Lectionary (Comes), A. Wilmart, in Ephemer, Liturg., 51 (1937), pp. 151-64.

General studies. - F. Monnier, Alcuin et Charlemagne, avec des fragments d'un commentaire inédit d'Alcuin sur s. Matthieu et d'autres pièces publiées pour la press. 2e ed., Paris 1864; K. Werner, Alcuin und sein Jahrhundert, 2e ed., Vienna 1881; J. B. Laforêt, Histoire d'Alcuin, Namur 1898; G. N. Browne, Alcuin of York, London 1908; E. M. Wilmot-Buxton, Alcuin, London-New York 1922. Cf. also M. Manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters, I, Munich 1911, pp. 273-288; P. Moncelle, s. v. in DHC, II, coll. 30-40; A. Kleinclauss, Alcuin (Annales de l'Université de Lyon, 3e serie, XV), Paris 1948.

Special bibl. - J. B. Laforêt, Alcuin restaurateur des sciences en Occident sous Charlemagne, Louvain 1851; B. Hauréau, Charlemagne et sa cour, Paris 1868; A. Dupuy, Alcuin et la souveraineté pontificale au VIIIe siècle, Tours 1872; G. Morin, L'Homélise d'Alcuin retrouvé, in Revue Bénédictine, 9 (1892), pp. 491-97; id., Une rédaction inédite de la Préface au Supplément de Comes d'Alcuin, ibid., 29 (1912), pp. 341-48; S. Berger, Histoire de la Vulgate pendant les premières siècles du Moyen-Âge, Nancy 1893, pp. 185-242 e passim; M. Roger, L'enseignement des lettres classiques d'Ausone à Alcuin, Paris 1905; H. Liezmann, Das Sacramentarium Gregoriorum nach dem Aachener Ursensplar (in the coll. Liturgiegeschichtliche Quellen), Münster in V, 1921, pp. XVII-XVIII; id., Handschriftliches zu Alcuins Ausgabe und Sacramentarium, in Jahrbuch für Liturgiewissenschaft, 5 (1925), pp. 68-79; H. Quentin, Mémoire sur l'établissement du texte de la Vulgate, Rome-Paris 1922, pp. 267-97 e passim; A. Wilmart, Le Lectionnaire d'Alcuin, in Ephemer, Liturg., 51 (1937), pp. 136-97; J. F. Rivera, A proposito de una carta de Alcuino recientemente encontrada, in Revista Española de Teología, 1 (1940-41), pp. 418-33.

Igino Cecchetti