Chapter I: Preface

No attempt has been made to correct the various forms of many of the proper names so as to make the spelling uniform. It is true to the period to leave the curious variations as Alcuin and others wrote them. In the case of Pope Hadrian, the name has been written Hadrian and Adrian indiscriminately in the text.

While Alcuin’s style is lucid, his habit of dictating letters hurriedly, and sending them off without revision if he had a headache, has left its mark on the letters as we have them. It has seemed better to leave the difficulties in the English as he left them in the Latin.

The edition used, and the numbering of the Epistles adopted, is that of Wattenbach and Dümmler, _Monumenta Alcuiniana_, Berlin 1873, being the sixth volume of the _Bibliotheca Rerum Germanicarum_.

CONTENTS

PAGE

CHAPTER I

The authorship of the anonymous Life of Alcuin.—Alcuin’s Life
of his relative Willibrord.—Willibrord at Ripon.—Alchfrith and
Wilfrith.—Alcuin’s conversion.—His studies under Ecgbert and
Albert at the Cathedral School of York.—Ecgbert’s method of
teaching.—Alcuin becomes assistant master of the School.—Is
ordained deacon.—Becomes head master.—Joins Karl 1

CHAPTER II

Alcuin finally leaves England.—The Adoptionist heresy.—Alcuin’s
retirement to Tours.—His knowledge of secrets.—Karl and the
three kings his sons.—Fire at St. Martin’s, Tours.—References
to the life of St. Martin.—Alcuin’s writings.—His interview
with the devil.—His last days 23

CHAPTER III

The large bulk of Alcuin’s letters and other writings.—The
main dates of his life.—Bede’s advice to Ecgbert.—Careless
lives of bishops.—No parochial system.—Inadequacy of the
bishops’ oversight.—Great monasteries to be used as sees for
new bishoprics, and evil monasteries to be suppressed.—Election
of abbats and hereditary descent.—Evils of pilgrimages.—Daily
Eucharists 51

CHAPTER IV

The school of York.—Alcuin’s poem on the Bishops and Saints
of the Church of York.—The destruction of the Britons by
the Saxons.—Description of Wilfrith II, Ecgbert, Albert, of
York.—Balther and Eata.—Church building in York.—The Library of
York 68

CHAPTER V

The affairs of Mercia.—Tripartite division of England.—The
creation of a third archbishopric, at Lichfield.—Offa and
Karl.—Alcuin’s letter to Athelhard of Canterbury; to Beornwin
of Mercia.—Karl’s letter to Offa, a commercial treaty.—Alcuin’s
letter to Offa.—Offa’s death 87

CHAPTER VI

Grant to Malmesbury by Ecgfrith of Mercia.—Alcuin’s letters to
Mercia.—Kenulf and Leo III restore Canterbury to its primatial
position.—Gifts of money to the Pope.—Alcuin’s letters to the
restored archbishop.—His letter to Karl on the archbishop’s
proposed visit.—Letters of Karl to Offa (on a question of
discipline) and Athelhard (in favour of Mercian exiles) 106

CHAPTER VII

List of the ten kings of Northumbria of Alcuin’s
time.—Destruction of Lindisfarne, Wearmouth, and Jarrow, by the
Danes.—Letters of Alcuin on the subject to King Ethelred, the
Bishop and monks of Lindisfarne, and the monks of Wearmouth and
Jarrow.—His letter to the Bishop and monks of Hexham 122

CHAPTER VIII

Alcuin’s letters to King Eardulf and the banished intruder
Osbald.—His letters to King Ethelred and Ethelred’s mother.—The
Irish claim that Alcuin studied at Clonmacnoise.—Mayo of the
Saxons 140

CHAPTER IX

Alcuin’s letter to all the prelates of England.—To the Bishops
of Elmham and Dunwich.—His letters on the election to the
archbishopric of York.—To the new archbishop, and the monks
whom he sent to advise him.—His urgency that bishops should
read Pope Gregory’s Pastoral Care 157

CHAPTER X

Summary of Alcuin’s work in France.—Adoptionism, Alcuin’s seven
books against Felix and three against Elipandus.—Alcuin’s
advice that a treatise of Felix be sent to the Pope and
three others.—Alcuin’s name dragged into the controversy on
Transubstantiation.—Image-worship.—The four _Libri Carolini_
and the Council of Frankfurt.—The bearing of the _Libri
Carolini_ on the doctrine of Transubstantiation 172

CHAPTER XI

Karl and Rome.—His visits to that city.—The offences and
troubles of Leo III.—The coronation of Charlemagne.—The Pope’s
adoration of the Emperor.—Alcuin’s famous letter to Karl prior
to his coronation.—Two great Roman forgeries, the Donation of
Constantine and the Letter of St. Peter to the Franks 186

CHAPTER XII

Alcuin retires to the Abbey and School of Tours.—Sends
to York for more advanced books.—Begs for old wine from
Orleans.—Karl calls Tours a smoky place.—Fees charged to the
students.—History and remains of the Abbey Church of St.
Martin.—The tombs of St. Martin and six other Saints.—The
Public Library of Tours.—A famous Book of the Gospels.—St.
Martin’s secularised.—Martinensian bishops 202

CHAPTER XIII

Further details of the Public Library of Tours.—Marmoutier.—The
Royal Abbey of Cormery.—Licence of Hadrian I to St. Martin’s to
elect bishops.—Details of the Chapter of the Cathedral Church
of Tours 219

CHAPTER XIV

Great dispute on right of sanctuary.—Letters of Alcuin on the
subject to his representatives at court and to a bishop.—The
emperor’s severe letter to St. Martin’s.—Alcuin’s reply.—Verses
of the bishop of Orleans on Charlemagne, Luitgard, and Alcuin
231

CHAPTER XV

Alcuin’s letters to Charlemagne’s sons.—Recension of the
Bible.—The “Alcuin Bible” at the British Museum.—Other supposed
“Alcuin Bibles.”—Anglo-Saxon Forms of Coronation used at the
coronations of French kings 246

CHAPTER XVI

Examples of Alcuin’s style in his letters, allusive,
jocose, playful.—The perils of the Alps.—The vision of
Drithelme.—Letters to Arno.—Bacchus and Cupid 264

CHAPTER XVII

Grammatical questions submitted to Alcuin by Karl.—Alcuin and
Eginhart.—Eginhart’s description of Charlemagne.—Alcuin’s
interest in missions.—The premature exaction of
tithes.—Charlemagne’s elephant Abulabaz.—Figures of
elephants in silk stuffs.—Earliest examples of French and
German.—Boniface’s _Abrenuntiatio Diaboli_.—Early Saxon.—The
earliest examples of Anglo-Saxon prose and verse 280