ALCUIN (ALCHUINE), a celebrated ecclesiastic and man of
learning in the 8th century, who liked to be called by the
Latin name of ALBINUS, and at the Academy of the palace
took the surname of FLACCUS, was born at Eboracum (York)
in 735. He was related to Willibrord, the first bishop of
Utrecht, whose biography he afterwards wrote. He was
educated at the cathedral school of York, under the celebrated
master AElbert, with whom he also went to Rome in search of
manuscripts. When AElbert was appointed archbishop of York in
766, Alcuin succeeded him in the headship of the episcopal
school. He again went to Rome in 780, to fetch the pallium
for Archbishop Eanbald, and at Parma met Charlemagne, who
persuaded him to come to his court, and gave him the possession
of the great abbeys of Ferrieres and of Saint-Loup at
Troyes. The king counted on him to accomplish the great
work which was his dream, namely, to make the Franks familiar
with the rules of the Latin language, to create schools
and to revive learning. From 781 to 790 Alcuin was his
sovereign's principal helper in this enterprise. He had
as pupils the king of the Franks, the members of his family
and the young clerics attached to the palace chapel -- he was
the life and soul of the Academy of the palace, and we have
still, in the Dialogue of Pepin (son of Charlemagne) and
Alcuin, a sample of the intellectual exercises in which they
indulged. It was under his inspiration that Charles wrote his
famous letter de litteris colendis (Boretius, Capitularia,
i. p. 78), and it was he who founded a fine library in the
palace. In 790 Alcuin returned to his own country, to which he
had always been greatly attached, and stayed there some time,
but Charlemagne needed him to combat the Adoptianist heresy,
which was at that time making great progress in the marches of
Spain. At the council of Frankfort in 794 Alcuin upheld the
orthodox doctrine, and obtained the condemnation of the heresiarch
Felix of Urgel. After this victory he again returned to his
own land, but on account of the disturbances which broke out
there, and which led to the death of King AEthelred (796),
he bade farewell to it for ever. Charlemagne had just given
him the great abbey of St Martin at Tours, and there, far
from the disturbed life of the court, he passed his last
years. He made the abbey school into a model of excellence,
and many students flocked to it -- he had numerous manuscripts
copied, the calligraphy of which is of extraordinary beauty
(v. Leopold Delisle in the Memoires de l'Academie des
Inscriptions, vol. xxxii., 1st part, 1885). He wrote
numerous letters to his friends in England, to Arno, bishop
of Salzburg, and above all to Charlemagne. These letters,
of which 311 are extant, are filled chiefly with pious
meditations, but they further form a mine of information as
to the literary and social conditions of the time, and are
the most reliable authority for the history of humanism in
the Carolingian age. He also trained the numerous monks of
the abbey in piety, and it was in the midst of these pursuits
that he was struck down by death on the 19th of May 804.
Continued on page two.
This article is from the 1911 edition of an
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