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Digitized by the Internet Archivein 2007 with funding from

IVIicrosoft Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/alcuin OOwilm

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CATHOLIC THOUGHT AND THINKERSPress Opinions

As the industry of Lecky produced a History of Ration-alism in Europe, a work marred by the author's inadequateacquaintance with the intellectual history of Christianity,so it is now the object of a group of Catholic scholars towrite in successive monographs an account of the develop-ment of Catholic thought from the dawn of the Christianera, and this seriescalled Catholic Thought and Thinkershas been started by Father C. C. Martindale in a volumestyled Introductory. In five chapters the author surveysthe interplay between orthodoxy and heterodoxy duringfive distinct periods of Church historyfrom the beginningto the death of Origen (254), from Origen to the deathof Augustine (430), from the Sack of Rome (476) to thedecHne of the Middle Age (1303), thence to the Revolution(1789), and, finally, in the Modern era. Thus the frame-work is erected in which the various great Catholic thinkerswiU find their respective places, showing the continuityof Christian tradition and its orderly process of development.But Father Martindale's work is more than a frameworkbrilliant Httle pen pictures of the leaders of Christian thought,illuminating aperfus of their historical surroundings, aptsummaries of the inheritance and legacy of each epoch,make the book exceedingly interesting, and will make, wehope, the public for which the series is designed eager forits speedy and regular appearance. THE MONTH.A series of volumes which ought to prove of great interest

to the general educated public. Their aim is to providea more or less complete account of Catholic thought fromthe earliest times down to the present day, and thinkerswhose orthodoxy is not beyond suspicion will be includedin the series. Father Martindale is responsible for theIntroductory volume, and his historical survey, as weshould expect from him, is able and broad-minded.

THE CHURCH TIMES.

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CATHOLIC THOUGHT AND THINKERSTruly an ambitious scheme Yet if we may conjecture

from the success of Father Martindale's Introductory^ thescheme is likely to be achieved with distinction. To com-press within one hundred and sixty pages an account ofCatholic thought from the days before the Councilof Ephesus to the last Ecumenical Council of the Vaticanis in itself something of an intellectual feat. Needless toremark, in so comprehensive a sketch little can be said inparticular of the individual Thinkers. Father Martin-dale has fortunately a very happy manner of saying the littlethat is just enough to indicate the Catholic Thinker's placein the historical setting. THE CATHOLIC TIMES.

Rarely have we read a book with so much pleasure asthat which we have received from Catholic Thought andThinkers, by C. C. Martindale, S.J. The purpose of theseries of which this is the title is to provide us with a con-tinuous feast of Catholic thought, displayed in the makersof thought in each succeeding age. This programme hashappily called forth an Introductory volume which providesexactly what was wantedan explanation of the series anda rapid panoramic view of the procession of thinkers. Thisby no means easy task has been well performed by FatherMartindale ; the present volume, besides being of valueto every cultured reader, will prove a most serviceable aidto the student in his theology and especially in the history ofphilosophy, and readers of the series w^ill do well to keepthis Introduction always by them.CATHOLIC BOOK NOTES.

It gives a clear view of the development of Catholic thoughtfrom Justin Martyr through the Controversies to Aquinasand the Reformation, and then through the great Romanmystics and theologians to the Catholic renaissance, butit links the general development of European morals andphilosophy, and shows how Catholic influence reacted onthe general tendencies of the Christian era.THE GLASGOW HERALD.

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CATHOLie THOUGHT 6- THINKERS SERIESEdited hy C. C. Mariindah, S.J., M.A. ^,,.,

Al cuin

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IN THE SAME SERIES

SufruHnm Martyr : C. C.Mc.rMaUSJ.. M.A.Solovieff: E. I. Watldn. M.A. (^n the press)Bellarmine ' preparation.PascalTertullianSt. AnselmDescartesBoethius and the Transitiomsts

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Editor's PrefaceTHE scope of this series can be veryaccurately defined.It is not meant to be a history of the

Christian Church, nor even of Christiantheology. Nor is it intended to set outthe influence exercised in the world by theCatholic Church in every department alike,social, for example, artistic, or even moral.But Christian men have thought abouttheir Faith in itself ; and about the worldthey live in, because of their Faith, andin relation to it. These volumes, there-fore, aim at giving the reader pictures ofeminent Catholic thinkers,^ and a sufficientstatement of what they thought, and of thesubstantial contribution which they thusmade to the history of ideas in the world,and to Christian civilisation in particular.The writers have aimed at allowing

their subjects, as far as possible, to speakfor themselves : only a necessary minimumof comment or criticism has been supplied.On the other hand, it has been wished thatnot bloodless schemes of thought, merely,

1 This is not meant to preclude this series from containing,if desirable, studies of men who, like Origen or JohnEriugena, may not have been fully orthodox, or who, likeLamennais, have ended in rupture, even, from Catholicobedience.

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PREFACEnor abstract theories, should be madeavailable to our readers ; nor again,detached ** lives *' of men and isolated per-sonalities. Therefore a preliminary and aconcluding volume have been planned, inwhich, respectively, are set out the massivehistorical movement within which thesemen were born, developed, and exertedtheir influence ; and, the continuous cur-rents of thought which they necessarilycreated, deflected, accelerated, or checked.It should be added that the respectiveauthors have freely formed and expressedtheir own estimates of their subject-matter,and that the series as such is not responsiblefor these. Nor has it been intended thatthe method of treatment and its applicationshould be absolutely homogeneous in allthe volumes alike.Thus these volumes arenotmeant,then,at

all as propaganda or apologetic. They hopeto supply an organic survey of Catholicthoughtand a *'live genealogy of Catholicthinkers; so that from a comprehensive viewand continuous vital contact, each readermay draw such general conclusions as he isable ; or enrich, substantiate, or- correct,what he already possesses. The Editor.

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ContentsEDITOR'S PREFACE . . . p. 7Chap ter ITHE SIGNIFICANCE OF ALCUIN p. 11Chapter IITHE MORAL AND INTELLECTUALWORLD OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY

p. 18Chapter IIITHE FRANKS . . . . p- 50Chapter IVALCUIN AT YORK ... p. 64Chapter VTHE PALACE SCHOOL . . p. 85^Chapter VITHE WIDER INFLUENCE OF ALCUIN

P- 113

Chapter VIIALCUIN AS DEFENDER OF THE FAITHp. 127

Chapter VIIITHE SCHOOL AT TOURS . p. 1489

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COXTEXTSChapter IXTHE SECOND EMPIRE OF THE WESTp. i6iChapter XTHE LAST YEAPvS OF ALCLTN p. 172Chapter XIAFTER YEARS: EDUCATIONAL IN-FLUENCE p. 1 86Chapter XIITHE LEGACY OF ALCLTN TO EUROPEp. 204INDEX p. 221

References to Introductory Volume are made thus : I. V.,p. 10, etc. Ed.

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AlcuinScholar of the Eighth Century

A.D. 735-804

Chapter ITHE SIGNIFICANCE OF ALCUINHE position of Alcuin

as a Catholic thinker is[very much more signifi-cant than is generallyrecognised by the casualreader of history. Mostpeople are aware that he

kept alight the flickering torch of Romanlearning in Gaul ; a smaller numberknow that by his teaching and his writingshe also exercised a quite remarkablyappreciable effect upon at least the twosucceeding centuries and, in a less ap-parent form, upon a much longer period.Those who are already acquainted withhis singularly modest estimate of himselfmight hesitate to consider him the mostimportant figure of his century ; othersfrankly state that his chief, if not his only

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ALCUINclaim to celebrity is his close connectionwith the Emperor Charles the Great.Most English history books dismiss himwith brief reference as the English tutor*of the sons of Charlemagne ; and one hasan uneasy suspicion that but for a nation-ality that reflects a slight ray of glory ona rather submerged era of our history, hewould have escaped mention in most ofthem altogether.

Yet the fact is true that when we get aclose combination of a man of action witha man of learning, the interaction of willand intellect that follows is likely to providesome intensely interesting results. Thetask of Charles at the time at which hewas connected with Alcuin was the pre-servation of the outward unity of WesternEurope, sorely threatened by the tribalconquests of the Northern and Centralraces. What the Catholic Church haddone and was still doing, by means of herunique spiritual organisation, for the soulof Europe, Charles was engaged in doingfor the mass of mingled races that formedher unwieldy body, by means of the sword.Force alone could never have accomplished

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THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ALCUINeven an outward and hollow form of unity.Mind and will cannot be bent by sheerweight of conquest, nor the powers of thesoul harnessed to a victor's chariot. It washere that Alcuin played his part.On the Hill of Learning, even on itslowest slopes, all minds are free, thoughall are bound by the chains of intellectuallaw. It was by pointing the road thither,as well as by helping lame and laggard soulsto climb its heights, that Alcuin gaveindispensable assistance to Church andEmperor. He succeeded thereby not onlyin preserving the international oneness ofEurope at that particular time, but increating, or rather re-creating, a system ofeducation that was to prove a strong bondof unity, and a most effective instrumentof civilisation through troubled andchaotic ages, long after his own agehad passed away.At a superficial glance, these things are

not apparent ; and those who are contentto think that the chief importance of thetask of Alcuin lies in the linking up ofthe intellectual life of England in theeighth century with that of the Continent,

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\y

ALCUINwill tell us that that task ended with theera of the sons of Charlemagne. Sucha view is impossible in face of the factthat, not only did the system of Alcuinand the textbooks he wrote become partof the common life of educated Europe,at least till the days of the Renaissance,but that a far more intangible thing, thespirit of the Prankish schools, of whichhe was the actual founder, permeatedmediaeval Europe and modified her wholeintellectual history.

It has been said, indeed, that the historyof Charles the Great enters into that ofevery modern European state, and it isequally true to say that all that was mostpermanent in his Empirenot his con-quests, nor his forced conversions, but thehigh ideal of mental culture in the midstof a most material world, the ideals ofknightly chivalry, of domestic purity,of national well-being, as well as of truedoctrine and practice of religion, thatbelong to his erawas inspired by Alcuin,Father in God, Minister of Educationadviser and teacher of the most strikinfigure of mediaeval Christendom. \

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THE SIGNIFICANCE OF AECUINCurious indeed was that alliance

that of a gentle, self-disciplined Englishscholar with a gigantic soldier, full ofstrong passions and violent impulses, whoseundoubted attraction to learning musthave been half superstitious in originthat respect for the unknown and themysterious so strong among the Teutonswho, to the end of his days, could withdifficulty tame his sword-hardened handto the cramping servitude of the pen, whobut for those gleams of intuition thatopened up a new and wider world, mightwell have been content with his achieve-ment of *' creating an army out of a crowdof men, and of calling into existence theSecond Empire of the West.More curious still is the fact that the

part of Alcuin in their joint task of uphold- -ing civilisation at a critical epoch, and of ^laying the foundation of future stabilityin law and government, education andmorality, was played by a man who hadno gift of originality, who shrank from theidea of innovations, who expressly dis-claimed either wish or intention of tem-pestuous reform.

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ALCUINThere are few more striking examples

of vthe motive-power of the *' still smallvoice '' in an age of violence. The cryingneed of that particular epoch was notinnovation, nor originality in thought oraction, but a clear call to follow the well-marked paths of doctrine and learningalready trodden by the Catholic Churchof Christendom for seven centuries. Inan age of disruption, of sudden violentconquests, of the mushroom growth of newnations, the one and only bond of peaceand union was loyalty to the authority ofthe Church and her teaching ; and with-out this even the outward manifestationsof civilisation were threatened. Andthe greatest fatality which could havehappened would have been the dominationof the new races of that age by a mastermind of egotistic fanaticism, a Moham-med who might have drawn all WesternEurope after him, posing as the Messengerof God and His Prophet.

Fortunately for Christendom the actualmaster-mind of the time was content tosink his own personality, and to draw menby the cords of love to the old ways, the

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THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ALCUINwell-trod roads of inspired authority andmethods of intellectual activity.And if, to modern readers, the methodsof Alcuin seem trivial and timid, itshould be remembered that during hisimmediate period of mind history, thenorthern and extreme western part ofEurope, \yith which he had to deal, wasat the kindergarten level of psychology, alevel liable to be broken up easily enoughby methods of force and daring originality.

Later on, when the foundations hadbeen firmly laid by his initial efforts, camethe need for stronger stuff, which awokein that same quarter of the world theintellectual cravings of Scholasticism.One may, however, question whetherthose cravings would ever have arisen

apart from the need of combating Moham-medanismhad it not been for the quietwork of a schoolmaster genius of theeighth century (see I. V., p. 69).

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Chapter IITHE MORAL AND INTELLEC-TUAL WORLD OF THE EIGHTHCENTURYOME understanding of

the moral and intellec-tual world of Alcuin*sday is, of course, neces-sary in order to realisehis position when helanded in Gaul in the

year 782. In a succeeding chapter we willtake a brief survey of the history of thatremarkable people which was to form themedium through which his influence wasto spread throughout Western Christen-dom.At this point, however, it is importantto remind ourselves of the fact that this

young and vigorous Prankish race, thoughpermeated, like all others which had oncecome into touch with Rome, with themilitary traditions, the ideals, and in somepart at least with the civilisation of theEmpire, tended by the force of its strongracial instincts, as well as by its mentalalienation from the conquered people of

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THE EIGHTH-CENTURT WORLDGaul, to break off into isolation and inde-pendence, especially in matters of faithand morals. In those days the one bondthat could draw together a shatteredEurope, in her darkest period of disruptionand fierce tribal animosities, was the faith,the moral influence, and the intellectualculture of the Catholic Church, and theimportance therefore of bringing theFranks into close touch with her couldhardly be over-estimated.The strength of that bond, however,

depended upon the loyalty, the morality,and also to a very large extent upon theintellectual equipment of the ministersand exponents of her Faith ; and just ata time when a singularly material-mindedrace, whose religion had for centuriesbeen the sword, had, as it were, swung intothe forefront of Christendom, the dangerwas that an ill-equipped priesthood wouldbe swamped by an altogether illiteratelaity, to the moral and spiritual confusionof both. To realise the position of theeighth century in this respect, we musttake a rapid glance at the history of theeducational world of Europe up to that

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ALCVINperiod, with special reference to Frank-land.From the first the Catholic Church hadmade the question of education, bothreligious and secular, in a very realsense her own. From the first she hadrealised that her ideal must be a reasonedfaith arising out of trained and disciplinedmethods of thought, since doctrines im-posed upon ignorant minds are apt todegenerate into meaningless superstitions.The real bone of contention was neverthe need of education, but the kind ofeducational system that would best meetthat need ; the result was a veritableBattle of the Books, a battle which, underdifferent aspects, has lasted down to thepresent day.

For the modern man, accustomed toaccept as a matter of course Greek methodsof thought as the finest vehicle of literaryor scientific expression, it is hard to under-stand the fierce contest that raged betweenthe pagan world of education in the lastcenturies of the Empire, and the rapidlygrowing organisation of the ChristianChurch. It is impossible to judge tl^i'

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THE EIGHTH-CENTURT WORLDcontest by the conditions of to-day.What one has to keep in mind is the factthat those early centuries saw a constantand absolutely necessary conflict betweenChristianity and paganism ; and everyform of literature or philosophy that hada pagan origin was as suspect as thewritings, some of them possibly harmlessenough, of a modernist of to-day. More-over, in dealing with people only justemerging from pagan beliefs, a clear-cutline was as much a necessity as that drawnbetween a modern *' convert '' and hisprevious place of worship. There mustbe no playing fast and loose with the oldbeliefs ; they must be rejected once andfor all. Later on, when Europe hadaccepted the Faith, and when paganism, inits old sense, was dead, the Church, as weshall see, turned readily enough to thestores of the classic world, '* christened Aristotle by the hands of St. Thomas ofAquin, and was among the first to revivethe study of Greek literature. But duringthe first four centuries of the Christian era,although the speech, the civilisation, even

\iv a few details of the religious rites of pagan21

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ALCUINRome were absorbed and turned by herto the advantage of the Faith, the Churchgrew steadily more and more antagonisticto the use of pagan literature in her edu-cational system.To the minds of Tertullian, of Origen,of Jerome, even of Augustine, though hecould not altogether condemn his earlierlove, classic literature was permeated withevil. '' Refrain, cried the voice ofAuthority, ** from all the writings of theheathen. For what hast thou to do withstrange discourses, laws, or false prophets,which in truth turn away from the Faiththose that are of weak understanding ?Dost thou long for poetry ? Thou hastthe Psalms. Or to explore the origin ofthings ? Thou hast the Book of Genesis.When this was the opinion of the Chris-tian educators one can scarcely be sur-prised at the line taken by the ApostateEmperor Julian, who bade them cease touse the works of Homer if they only readhim in order to show that his gods wereevil spirits, and to leave the schools to-pagan teachers and pagan books, requiringithem to confine themselves to the Sacred

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THE EIGHTH-CENIURT WORLDBooks of their religion and to the childrenof their own faith.

This may have been the logical course,but one may be thankful that the Churchsaw two insuperable obstacles to follow-ing it.

In the first place, as Tertullian himselfhas naively confessed, the pupil wasobliged to use the pagan textbook, sincethere are no others from which he canlearn [quia aliter discere non potest)^

In the second, the rapidly developingChurch had no mind to have her limitsthus circumscribed. Her mission was tothe unconverted, and she had no intentionof being shut out from the schools. Withthat remarkable wisdom which had al-ready led her to use so many of the paganrites and customs in her ceremonial, shedecided not to leave the superlative mentaltraining afforded by *' grammar and'' rhetoric '' to the foe, even if it involveda study of such heathen writers as Cicero,and Horace, and Virgil. As a fifth-centurybishop, Sidonius of Lyons, declared, ** Wemust press pagan science and philosophy

\ into the service of the Church, and thus23

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ALCUINattack the enemies of the Faith with theirown weapons.

Already, a century earlier, St. Augustinehad faced the situation, revised theopinions of middle life, and written in hisseventy-second year a treatise On ChristianInstruction which indicates in the clearestway the line he felt should be taken bythe Church. ** Quisquis bonus verusqueChristianus est, Domini sui esse intelligat,ubicumqueinveneritveritatem let everygood and true Christian know that Truthis the truth of his Lord, wherever found.Let the Christian, escaping from the bon-dage of paganism, spoil the Egyptians. Lethim appropriate the liberal disciplines,well suited to the service of the truth.'*Let him take the best of the secular cultureof the ancient world, and use it in theservice of his Faith and to the better under-standing of divine truths.

This, then, was the compromise adoptedby the early Church. Let us see what itsacceptance amounted to.

In the days when the Empire was stilla flourishing organisation, Grammar,the first of the liberal arts taught in her

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THE EIGHTH-CENTURT WORLDschools, had comprised a close and criticalacquaintance with the chief Latin writersof the classic age. Gradually, however,as the rage for oratory usurped the place ofsolid scholarship, grammar had becomesubservient to ** rhetoric in the schools,and mental training retired before a crazefor ingenious forms of speech.The chief use of the classic writers, inconsequence, was as material for memoris-ing long passages, which could be workedup as declamations ; a system which natu-rally cultivated the memory at the expenseof the reasoning faculties. Even the artof Composition often became a mere trickthe skilful blending of well-worn phrasesand cliches^ fantastic and unreal as vehiclesof thought.A reformer who would combine enthu-siasm for the Faith with zeal for a bettersystem of education was a crying need inthat early era ; but the Church in herlingering distrust of pagan taints, half-hearted, too, in her condemnation of theclassics, failed to produce the man. Manyof her foremost men, indeed, favouredmore or less openly the empty rhetorical

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ALCUINtraining in which they had themselvesbeen educated. Sidonius confessed thepleasure he experienced from readingTerence, though he half suggests that heregards it as a sin of youth. St. Hilaryof Aries, Felix of Clermont, St. Remy,all educated in the strictly classic schoolsset up by Imperial Rome in SouthernGaul, approved of the old system muchas a modern public school man of the lastgeneration upholds Euclid and the EtonLatin Grammar against the claims ofgeometry and the direct method.The early years of the fifth century,therefore, saw the work of three educa-tional writers who show the result of anattempt to crystallise this rather chaoticsystem in textbooks which must have exer-cised a strong influence over the educationof their own and succeeding generations,since they became the foundation of thoseused throughout Europe during the wholemediaeval period.One of these, Boethius (481-525), be-came the link between the classic litera-ture of Greece and the mediaeval learner,since he translated, or adapted, versions

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THE EIGHTH-CENTURr WORLDof Aristotle for use in schools, and thusfurnished the standard textbook on logicfor one generation of schoolboys afteranother. He ranks among the last of thepagan philosophers rather than as a Chris-tian writer, though succeeding copyistsmanaged to tinge his works with Christianhues.^ His book, De Consolatione Philoso-phiae^ tells the old myths of Greece andRome with much grace and charm, and wasamong those translated by our EnglishAlfred, as being '' one of the mostnecessary for all men to know,'* for usein his Anglo-Saxon schools. His con-temporary, Cassiodorus, was a Romansenator who, in his old age, became amonk, and gave his whole time, apartfrom his religious duties, to writing aCompendium, designed to cover the wholeeducational system of that day.

Therein is grammar, adapted from thetextbook of the Roman Donatus ; rhe-toric, based on Cicero ; dialectics,borrowed for the most part from Boethius.

1 This quite legitimate view of Boethius is stated with-out prejudice of the opposite view, namely, that Boethiuswas a genuine Christian. Cf. p. 8, and I. V., pp. 63-65. Ed.

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7HE EIGH7H-CEN7URr WORLDsecular State schools were concerned, upto the end of the sixth and during part ofthe seventh century. Before that time,however, we find a new influence at work,and the gradual disappearance of thesecular school from the scene, as far as Gaulwas concerned. This new influence cameoriginally from the Eastern Deserts, thedwelling-place of those hermits whoseascetic ideals had made deep impressionon the imagination of one Cassian,pupil of St. Chrysostom and friend ofSt. Germanus, the missionary of Gaul.As the founder of the monastery of

St. Victor at Marseilles, Cassian may claimto have been the founder of monasticdiscipline in that country as early as theend of the fourth century, and to havepointed out the road travelled by thesons of St. Benedict in later days. Hisrule of hard, unremitting toil, the energeticwork of his monks as farmers, teachers,students, made powerful appeal to theactive instincts of the as yet but halfcivilised Franks, and the walls of severalmonasteries began to rise throughout therapidly extending Frankland. St. Martin

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ALCUINChrysostom, Cassian himself had soakedhis mind in the incomparable literature ofGreece. But in other years, in his famousCollationes^ he makes his friend Germanusdeplore the memories of the literaturewhich, he said, dragged his soul fromheavenly contemplation. Consulting theAbbot Nestorius as to the remedy, he wasdrily recommended '* to read the SacredBooks with the same ardour that thou oncedidst those of heathen writersthen shaltthou be freed from their influence.From this standpoint it naturally cameabout that the system of education laid

down by Cassian's rule was extremelylimited in extent. No provision whateverwas made for boys who were not destinedto become monks. All learnt to read inorder to study the Scriptures and to followthe Breviary and Missal, to write thatthey might copy the Psalter, and to singthat they might do justice to plain chantas interpreted by St. Ambrose. A modicumof arithmetic was allowedbased upon thecalculations determining the dates of Easterand the feasts dependent upon it. Ofmental trainingthe gymnasia of Greece

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THE EIGHTH-CENTURT WORLDthere was little trace. Yet one is bound toconfess that the men produced by such asystem were those to whom the conqueringTeutons looked with awe and deferencefor their effect of moral force, strong

* organisation, and social weight. Neitherpagan remnant nor Arian heretic, popularas the latter was elsewhere, attracted thenewcomers ; and when Clovis, findinghimself conqueror of Gaul, looked roundhim for a worthy ally, it was to St. Remy,the Gaulish bishop, representative ofChristian Rome, that he turned.At that particular time, then, the monas-

tic and cathedral schools of Gaul, by theirupholding of a striking, though narrowideal, fulfilled the particular needs of theirown day. The system in itself, however,possessed elements of weakness too markedfor long endurance. Neglect of the partplayed by the intellect in soul develop-ment weakened the powers of thought andreasoning ; theological learning began todisappear ; all but the most far-fetched andfanciful interpretation of the Scripturesceased ; literature and philosophy alikevanished from the schools. It seemed,

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ALCUINindeed, as though the old gibe of Julianthe Apostate, that when men exchangedthe study of the Ancients for that of theEvangelists, they would descend to themental level of the slave, was to be ful-filled. Education, in the real sense, nolonger existed ; instruction on the mostnarrow and elementary lines took itsplace. The only scope for originalityof any kind survived in the rage forfantastic parallels and curious metaphorsby which well-nigh every passage of theSacred Books was illustrated.The condition into which the learning

of Gaul, once so celebrated, had fallen bythe end of the sixth century, is described,vividly enough, though in very badLatin, by Gregory, Bishop of Tours(544-595), in his Historia KcciesiasticaFrancorum, Rightly enough, he connectsits decay with the political condition ofthe time, a cause of weakness inevitable inthe wild days of the Merovingian dynasty.

Inasmuch as, he says, the cultivationof letters is disappearing, or, rather, perishing,in the cities of Gaul, while goodness and evilare committed with equal impunity, and the

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7HE EIGHTH-CENTURT WORLD .ferocity of the barbarians and the passions ofkings rage alike unchecked, so that not a singlegrammarian skilled in narration can be found todescribe the general course of events, whetherin prose or verse. The greater number lamentover the state of affairs, saying : ' Alas, for ourage For the study of letters has perished fromour midst, and the man is no longer to be foundwho can commit to writing the events of thetime.'

'' These and like complaints, repeated dayby day, have determined me to hand down tothe future the record of the past ; and thoughof unlettered tongue I have nevertheless beenunable to remain silent respecting either thedeeds of the wicked or the life of the good.That which has more especially impelled me todo this is that I have often heard it said that fewpeople understand a rhetorician who usesphilosophical language, but nearly all under-stand one speaking in the vulgar fashion.The somewhat peevish complaints of

this bishop *' of unlettered tongueeffected no reform, and during the seventhand eighth centuries a great darknessdescended upon the schools of Gaul.Their guardians were themselves in

sorry case. The monasteries, weakenedby the fact that they stood outside episco-

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ALCUINpal control, were held in lessening honourand respect as the power of the bishopincreased. And the bishops, once theguardians of both spiritual and temporallaw and discipline, the protectors of theirflock, had unfortunately shaken themselvesfree, to a large extent, of the jurisdictionof the Pope, and, unfettered by religiousresponsibility to a central power, tendedto develop more and more into feudalmagnates, or warriors, gaining in wealthand temporal power what they lost inspiritual prestige.Hence tiie half-civilised Prankish chiefswho ruled them, often with clash of temperand of sword, saw no reason why theyshould not interfere even in religiousmatters. One of these, Chilperic I, evenproposed to the Church in Gaul a newConfession of Faith, in which all ^dis-tinctions between the three Persons ofthe Blessed Trinity were to be omitted.Another tried to impose a new alphabet, or,rather, an extended version of the originalan innovation which would have in-volved the destruction, as no longer upto date, of all manuscripts before his

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fHE EIGHTH-CENTURT WORLDtime. Even in the days of the Carlovin-gians, and in the time of Charlemagnehimself, such tendencies were by no meansuncommon, were indeed inherent in thecharacter of the Prankish rulers, with theirnaive egotism and mingled ignoranceand intelligence. It is scarcely necessaryto point out the pitfalls thus threatened,and the dangers of future heresy, dangerswhich it was in great part the work ofAlcuin to avert.While Gaul was in this parlous state,

the torch of learning had been rekindledelsewhere in a striking manner. OnMonte Cassino, in the year 528, the firstBenedictine monastery had opened itsdoors ; by the end of the sixth century thesons of Benedict were ready to go forthinto the world and to instruct allnations.'' Study, both as a duty and aprivilege, played a conspicuous part in theBenedictine Rule ; and though it madeno explicit mention of the classics ofantiquity, there was strong recommenda-tion of '* such expositions of the HolyScriptures as the most illustrious doctorsof the orthodox faith and the Catholic

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ALCUINFathers had compiled. This, at anyrate, sent the student to originals instead ofto a Compendium, in theory, if not inpractice. Moreover, such studies wereto be undertaken for the refutation oferrors ; which suggests that books con-taining such errors, be they pagan ormore strictly '' heretic, must be read inorder to be condemned.The most important reform, however,

lies in the fact that the high place accordedto study by the Benedictine Rule, raisededucation, with its methods, from themire, and set it among the seats of themighty. (Cf. I. V., p. 65.)Not for many a long day was its benigninfluence to touch directly the land of theFranks. Yet many years before thecoming of the Benedictine Alcuin, therehad appeared in Frankland a reformerfrom another quarter, representing aSchool that in the future was to affectboth Charlemagne and his tutor in acurious fashion.This was St. Columban, who, in the

early years of the seventh century, ap-peared as a monastic zealot among the

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THE EIGHTH-CENTURT WORLDVosges mountains which bordered thecountry then known as Austrasia. Colum-ban hailed from Ulster, famous for thelearning of its monasteries and schools,though the source of its erudition is stillsomething of a mystery, as is the fact thatthe one country of Western Europe whichnever came under the discipline of theEmpire, yet received with joy the Faithas taught by St. Patrick, and neverswerved from it in spite of storms andstress.The monastic system of Ireland was a

legacy from the teaching of the fourth-century Cassian, as taught in the school ofSt. Martin at Tours, the future home ofAlcuin, and carried thence to the Irishby St. Patrick during the fifth century.The Rule in force there closely followedthat laid down by the ascetic Cassian, andas taught by Columban was even moreaustere, and still closer to that of theDesert Fathers of the Thebaid. (Cf. I. V.,p. 66.)

For the moment the enthusiasm of theIrish Saint bore good fruit in Gaul, as hisflourishing institutions at Luxeuil and

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ALCUINSt. Gall bore witness ; but the tempera-ment of Northern Gaul was not suited togreat austerity, and the rigid rule of theCeltic monk was quickly exchanged forthat of the sons of Benedict, with itsgreater elasticity, when the latter camefirst into touch with Gaul.

In days to come the school representedby Columban was to reappear in a curiousconnection with Alcuin and the ImperialCourt, in connection with a suspicion ofunorthodoxy, which seems to have hungabout the skirts of the Church in Irelandin those days, and was, perhaps, a result Iof that country's early lack of disciplineat the hands of Imperial Rome. Even |during the seventh century Columbanhimself was summoned before a synod ofPrankish bishops on a charge of heresywith regard to the observance of Easter.For the Franks, after the conversion ofClovis, were strictly orthodox in details,and saw in an apparently trivial matterthe underlying principle that was to beso strongly emphasised in England bySt. Wilfrid and the Venerable Bede. Thekeeping of Easter at the date appointed

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THE EIGHTH-CENTURY WORLDby Rome signified a loyal acceptance ofpapal authority ; and the holding to localtraditions in this matter, even when com-bined with enthusiastic acceptance ofCatholic doctrine as a whole, weakenedthe position of the Celtic Church both inBritain and Ireland, and became a cause ofcontention and suspicion for many a year.

In the end, good sense and loyalty com-bined to make Ireland one of Rome'smost faithful daughters ; but the positionof Columban, as representing the IrishChurch of the seventh century, sufficientlyaccounts for the swift passing of hisinfluence in Gaul.As far as classical education was con-

cerned, the teaching of the Celtic schoolwas, in some respects, more liberal thanthat of the rest of monastic Europe.St. Patrick and his followers taught theremnant of classic lore that had survivedthe schools of Cassiansomething ofGreek, a trace, at least, of Aristotle, Cicero,Virgil. They used, too, the textbook ofMartianus Capella of Carthage, speculativeand tinged with pagan theories, thoughinterpreted by Christian teachers and

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ALCUINedited by them. The need, moreover,of justifying their views as to the correctdate of Easter by reference to the starshad made the Irish monks astronomers ofa kind, though the science they practisedwould more correctly have been calledastrology. Altogether, save for the onepoint of difference with Roman discipline,the spirit of Irish learning contrasted mostfavourably with the dull and ossified systemthen prevalent in the schools of Gaul.Now before this time, the torch of theFaith had been handed on from Irelandby way of lona, to England, by Celticteachers such as St. Aidan and St. Cuth-bert, only to be extinguished by the shockof Anglo-Saxon invasions and conquests,save in Holy Island and among the moun-tains of the West. Yet before the daywhen Columban appeared in Gaul, theflame had been rekindled in this land, andstraight from the central and undyingfire of Christendom.A few years after the decay of learningamong the Franks had called forth thewail of Gregory of Tours, another Gregory,well named the Great, had set on foot

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THE EIGHTH-CENfURT WORLDthe work, not only of conversion butalso of education, among the uncivilisedand unlettered settlers in Britain (a.d.597). With Gregory a new life was in-fused into education, all the more importantbecause it was to permeate the system andRule of St. Benedict, which he so ardentlyupheld, and which was soon to supersedeall the other monastic ideals of Europe.The character of the education approved

by St. Gregory will be easily understoodif we realise the circumstances of his time.Given a chief bishop full of enthusiasticzeal for religion, burning with love ofsouls, living at an epoch when socialdisorganisation, anarchy, and the desola-tion inseparable from the constant inva-sion and harrying of the Lombards, hadreduced Italy almost to ruins, it wasinevitable that his aims must be strictlyand unswervingly directed towards oneend. What did the art of rhetoric matterwhen souls were perishing for lack of theGospel message ? What were the nicetiesof logic when the lambs of the Church werestarving spiritually and physically in themidst of universal woes ^,

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THE EIGHTH-CENfURT WORLDhad landed on British shores, we find Theo-dore of Tarsus, the Greek, sitting as seventhArchbishop in the episcopal seat of Canter-bury, and introducing the study of hisnative language and literature into theCathedral school. Within a few yearsthis Canterbury learning '* had becomeas famous as that of Gaul, and Ireland, andRome, and, rapidly spreading, had beenwelcomed in the school at York, soon torank as one of the most famous in England.And now we can see the beginnings ofAlcuin's spiritual and literary genealogy.Among the renowned schools of theNorth were those founded at Wearmouthand Jarrow by Benedict Biscop ; andthe pupil of Benedict was Bede, theVenerabilts^ our first annalist, who claimsfor St. Gregory the title of ** Apostle ofthe English.'* Bede had among his pupilsat Jarrow one Egbert ; and this Egbertbecame in later days the teacher of the boyAlcuin, in the school of York. Twentyyears after the death of Bede in 73 5, thereperished in a pagan outburst against theFaith one who was to prepare, in a veryspecial manner, the path of Alcuin in the

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ALCUINland of the Franks. St. Boniface, theApostle of Germany, had gone forth fromhis Benedictine monastery near Exeterin the early years of the eighth century,to convert the heathen tribes of thatlandan ascetic figure, with eager voiceand burning eyes, urging, persuading,living and dying a martyr to the Faith.

In that part of Germany which theEastern Franks inhabit, wrote Rudolf, acentury later, '' there is a place called Fulda,from the name of a neighbouring river, whichis situated in a great forest. The holymartyr Boniface, who was sent as an ambassadorfrom the Holy See into Germany and ordainedBishop of the Church of Mayence, obtainedthe woodland, inasmuch as it was secluded andfar removed from the goings and comings ofmen, from Carloman, King of the Franks, andby authority of Pope Zachary founded amonastery there in the tenth year before hismartyrdom.

The school connected with this monas-tery was destined to be the spiritual andintellectual home of one of Alcuin's mostfamous pupils, and to be closely affected byhis influence. At the time of its founda-

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THE EIGHTH-CENTURY WORLDtion, however, Boniface was more con-cerned with the reform of life than oflearning, as far as the Franks were con-cerned. To him, full of zeal for the Bene-dictine rule of loyalty to the Holy See,the condition of the Church in Gaul atthe middle of the eighth century was ascandal and a shame. He wrote to PopeZachary imploring him to draw mentogether by his rule, now there was nodeference paid to canon law, and nowmatters of practice and doctrine wereneglected owing to there having been noEcclesiastical Council called for over eightyyears. Bishops were accused of being*' drunken, injurious brawlers, bearingarms in regular battle, and shedding withtheir own hands the blood of their fellowmenheathen or Christian. '' The lawof God and the religion of the Church hadfallen to pieces.'*

Although much of this state of affairsmight have been traced to the demand ofthe Prankish kings that bishops shouldshoulder the feudal burdens and givemilitary service in their own person, if theycould not provide substitutes, the keen

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7HE EIGHTH-CEN^URT WORLDlad, Charles, the young son of Pepin. It is,perhaps, not too fanciful to think that thereason for the deliberate choice made byCharles of an English monk, as his futureadviser and minister of education, was his.boyish remembrance and admiration ofthe strong and authoritative personalitywhich had then captured his youthfulimagination. For hero-worship belongsto the earliest as well as the most moderndays ; and it was the admiring memoryof Boniface that led to the call of Alcuinto Frankland. (Cf. I. V., pp. 66-68.)

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7HE FRANKS3. foremost place as a fighting nation, andhad made frequent invasions of Gaul. Inthe fifth century Clovis, chieftain of theSalians, their leading tribe, made himselfmaster of the northern province of thekingdom of Burgundy, and of the southernprovince of Aquitaine. In the sixth cen-tury the Prankish Empire stretched fromthe River Inn to the Bay of Biscay, formingby no means a united kingdom, but a massof petty States linked up by the dominantpersonality of the Merovingian rulers, who,in Gaul, were as kings over a conqueredpeople, and in Germany as chieftainsamong lesser chieftains.The first appearance of the Franks in

Gaul had been in the role of an almosttotally uncivilised horde of savages ; but,like all other tribes which came into touchwith the Empire, they had rapidly ab-sorbed all that Rome could teach them ofdiscipline and military skill, as well asa certain rough kind of primitive civilisa-tion. In the days of Clovisthat is, inthe fifth centurywe see them not so muchas barbarian raiders as hard bitten, well-trained soldiers serving under a military

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ALCUINgenius as their chieftain. Their type ofcharacter is reflected in that of Clovishimself, that strange mixture of savagecruelty and hardly acquired self-discipline.The History of the Franks^ written bySt. Gregory of Tours in the latter halfof the sixth century, gives an apt illustra-tion of his type of temperament.The warriors of Clovis had plundered a

church and carried off, among otherthings, a large and richly wrought bowl.Forthwith the bishop of that district sent -a message entreating the chieftain toreturn at least this one vessel ; to whichClovis made reply that he himself musttake his chance with the rest, but that if,when the booty was divided, the bowl fellto his share, he would return it to thebishop. With a genuine wish to do hisbest for the Church, the chieftain onlyawaited the division of the spoil to makepetition that the bowl should be handedover to him apart from that which fell tohim by lot ; upon which his warriorsmade respectful reply that, since every-thing really belonged to the man who hadled them into danger and victory, he

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THE FRANKSmust take what he wished. But one surlyfellow chose to cavil at this decision and,raising his battle-axe, he smote the bowla devastating blow, saying, Naughtshalt thou have beyond what the lot maygive thee. Amazement fell upon hiscompanions at this behaviour, but thechieftain said not a word. Taking thehacked and dinted bowl he handed it tothe bishop's messenger, bidding him returnit to his master, and forthwith turnedaway to brood over the incident for thespace of a whole year. At the end of thattime he ordered a parade of his regimentto be made, and walked among theirranks until he saw the man who hadsmitten the bowl. ** What weapons arethese ? he cried, pointing to the soldier'sequipment. '* Neither spear nor hatchetis fit for use. And snatching the latterhe threw it to the ground. Then, as thefellow stooped to recover it, Clovis buriedhis own axe deep in the fellow's skull.'' Thus, said he, didst thou to that bowla year ago.The story of this people, apart from

their strange characteristic of mingled53

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ALCUINsavagery and chivalry, is full of romanticincidents. The marriage of Clovis, how^-ever, to the Burgundian princess Clotilda,only a child but a fervent Catholic, is nomere detail of romance. It was the imme-diate cause of a conversion which provedthe turning-point of Prankish history.In days when the tenets of Arianism hadcaptured the greater part of Europe, itsecured the faith of Gaul, and won forthe land, one day to be known as France,the title of Eldest Daughter of the Church.The baptism of Clovis, moreover, securedfor the Franks the alliance of the CatholicChurch, and so proved the foundationstone upon which the future Empire ofCharlemagne was to rise. The day, there-fore, upon which St. Remy, Bishop ofRheims, bade the fierce warrior Mitisdepone colla Sicamber ; adora quod tncen-disti, incende quod adorasti^^^ and lavedhim in the waters of baptism, may trulybe called the birthday of the FrankishChurch and of the Empire of the Franks.From that time Clovis was styled *' Rex

Christianissimus ; and when Romelooked outside her borders for aid in the

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ALCUINposing as the supporters of the CatholicFaith and of the civilisation of ImperialRome, and in their mental and spiritualill-equipment for their great task lay oneof the most insidious difficulties with whichCharlemagne and Alcuin had to deal.

Henceforth, the regular yearly cam-paigns which formed the ordinary routineof the nation, were directed openly againstthe Arians, either in Gaul or elsewhere.Into the details of that long struggle thereis no need to enter here. It is enoughto realise that it was as the adherentsof the Faith and civilisation of Romethat the Teuton people gradually madethemselves masters of the West. Aftera great victory over the Arian Visigothsof Southern Gaul, we see the palace inLutetia, in which the Emperors Julian andGratian had once dwelt, occupied byClovis, acting as Roman pro-consul, thoughlong years were yet to pass before Lutetiabecame Paris, and before she became thecapital even of Western Frankland. Therehe maintained his supremacy by a seriesof bloody deeds and treacherous designs,which cleared all relatives likely to be

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ALCUINFranks were now the leaders, to preservethe institutions of Rome, and the tendencyto revert to the customs of their ownbarbaric origins. Fortunately for Europe,Roman administration and organisation,military and civil, had been too wellabsorbed in Gaul ever to be entirely lost,even when the Western Empire, shaken bybarbaric inroads, appeared to be totteringto her fall. For tw^o mighty and enduringwitnesses to her greatness remained. Asthe Empire weakened and lost her tightgrip upon her provinces, the CatholicChurch had strengthened her bonds ofunity, brought in new nations to theFaith, made her influence felt in everydepartment of life. It was the conversionof England straight from Rome in theend of the sixth century that saved our owncountry when the shock of the Anglo-Saxon invasion seemed for the moment tohave wiped out all traces of Roman civili-sation ; it was the close connection ofRome and Gaul through the alliance ofPopes with Frankish kings that decidedthe fate of the future France.And although in every case the new-

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THE FRANKScomers retained to some extent the cus-toms, primitive laws, and memorials oftheir ancestors, the actual system underwhich men were ruled and judged was thecivil and ecclesiastical law of Rome.

Thus, even after the First Empire of theWest had passed away, it was still to Romethat men turned their eyes, and from Romethat they expected a leader and delivererduring the dark years of the sixth andseventh centuries. Dark indeed theywere, for the civilisation of Clovis, primi-tive enough in its characteristics, haddegenerated almost into barbarism amonghis descendants. The fifty years thatfollowed his death were, it is true, markedby rapid conquests of territory ; but withthem a period of bloodshed and savagetreachery set in which lasted well intothe eighth century. These were the trueDark Ages of history, and not until thefall of the Merovingian line of Clovis dowe find any sign of light in the gloom.The condition of the Church and itsministers has already been noted in thedescription of Gregory of Tours, and it didnot improve in the century that followed

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ALCUINhis period. We have seen the fate ofeducation under these conditions in thelast chapter ; that it did not altogetherdie out is probably due to the fortunatechange of dynasty in the year whichbrought the new line of the Carolingiansinto the foreground.The founders of this dynasty, Pepin of

Herstal, and Charles Martel, his son,Mayors of the Palace in the days of the lastMerovingians, were not content to bemerely the nominal rulers of a looselyconnected group of principalities. Theirfirst object w^as to rule the Franks asmonarchs rather than chieftains ; andwhen this was once attained they wereprepared to use their power outside theirown boundaries. It was by his successfulattack upon the Saracens of the southernprovinces that Charles Martel preventedan influx of infidels from northern Spaininto Gaul ; and it was naturally to himthat Pope Gregory III turned when sorebeset by Lombard foes.From the moment that the Embassy

from Rome reached the Prankish Courtdates the connection foreshadowed in the

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ALCUINWith his reign we see the commence-

ment of a new era for the Franks. Forthree centuries they had ruled in Gaul,on both sides of the Rhine, in more or lessclose contact with the civilisation of Romeand the discipline of the Faith. For atime they had reverted in some degree atleast to their former condition of profes-sional militarism ; but after the era of theMerovingians had passed away, the Fran-kish people began to show distinct signsof development. Traces of social comfortand refinement were to be found, togetherwith an elementary knowledge of art andcraftsmanship, and a respect, if not a love,for the learning as yet almost unattainablein their land. The incessant militaryactivity of that day was still an obstaclein the way of anything like intellectuallife ; but signs of mental activity were notwanting, together with healthy curiosityas to the unknown.

All these germs of mental life must havebeen quickened by the coming of St.Boniface, newly arrived from a land thathad kept its reputation for learning. Andthe Frankish sense of loyalty to Rome

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THE FRANKSserved meantime as his chief support inhis zealous work of conversion among theGerman tribes subdued by the Prankishking.

It was, moreover, from the hands ofSt. Boniface, the representative of Englishlearning and civilisation, that Pepin re-ceived his crown ; and, as we have alreadyseen, it was the love and veneration stirredby the missionary saint in the breast ofa thirteen-year-old boy, Charles, son ofPepin, that first shaped the idea of aRenaissance of learning in the Court ofthe future Emperor of the West.

Such is the story, in outline, of the racewhich was to form the material of Alcuin'swork. And if it seems out of place in abook dealing with the Thinker himselfrather than with the history of his time,it must be remembered that, in days soremote from the present, it is necessaryto know in some detail the circumstanceswith which he had to deal, since these arebound to modify profoundly the form andpresentment of his thoughts.

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Chapter IFALCUIN AT YORKEANTIME, while these

''various forces were con-verging upon his uncon-scious personality, Alcuin>was born, somewherelabout the year 735, ofnoble parents, in the

neighbourhood of York. Of his actualchildhood we know nothing directly,but a reference in one of his letters showsthat, as a very young boy, in accordancewith the pious custom of the time, he wasdedicated to the Church and put underthe charge of the household of a bishop orof a monastery. In this letter he thanksthe Brotherhood of York, which, hesays, had watched over the tender yearsof childhood with a mother's love, bornewith pious patience the thoughtlessnessof boyhood, and, with fatherly chastise-ment, had brought him to man's estate.The Cathedral School of York, to which

he evidently refers, was, at that period,second only to Canterbury in importance,

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ALCUIN A7 rORKas far as English schools were concerned.There, through the zeal of Paulinus, firstbishop of the city, the Rule of St. Bene-dict, the high ideals of St. Gregory, thediscipline approved by St. Augustinehad been introduced, and had been de-veloped by learned and pious ecclesiastics.For a time there had been a danger thatthe loyalty of the northern diocese to theSee of Rome might be affected by theinfluence of the Celtic Church, once sostrong in the North. But this dangerhad been removed once and for all by theenergy of Wilfrid and the wisdom ofTheodore of Canterbury. From else-where than lona another influence hadbeen brought to bear upon the Schoolof York during the eighth century. Thelatter years of the seventh century hadseen Benedict Biscop founding the twinmonasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow,and, in his zeal for these children of hisheart and brain, ransacking Gaul andRomefor builders and glass workers, for carvingsand wall-paintings, that his people mightlearn, through eye as well as ear, che mys-teiies of their Faith. Books and teachers

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ALCUINwere an even more pressing necessity, andfor them he went to the Schools of Ireland,to Lerins in Gaul, to Canterbury, and, ofcourse, to Rome. Hence it came to pass thatBede, his most famous pupil, educated byhim and by his successor Ceolfrith fromthe age of seven, reaped the advantage ofthe widest culture of his day. LearnedIrish scholars, passing as missionariesthrough England to the Continent, wouldsojourn for a while at the northern monas-teries and give from their abundance to theeager young scholar. Benedict himselfwas soaked in the atmosphere of Rome andever ready to share his knowledge withhis pupil. Canterbury, through Arch-bishop Theodore, had handed on a price-less legacy of discipline and organisation.Lerins and other Gallic monasteries hadprovided some of the rare books of that day.

All my life, wrote Bede of Jarrow, Ispent in that same monastery, giving my wholeattention to meditating on the Scriptures ; andin the interval, between the observance ofregular discipline and the daily duty of singingin the church, I made it my delight either tobe learning, or teaching, or writing.

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ALCUIN A1 YORKHere, then, we find the source of the

atmosphere in which Alcuin was broughtup ; for the close friend and literary part-ner of Bede was i\lbinus, and his favouritepupil was Egbert, both of whom were tobe the future masters of the school of York.

Life in that school, in days when Egbertwas archbishop and director of studies, hasbeen described by his pupil in a graphicway. All the morning he taught hispupils, instructing them in Latin litera-ture, in Greek, in Roman law, astronomy,and music, but most of all in theology.At noon he celebrated the chief Mass ofthe day, which was followed by dinnerand recreation. The latter was enlivenedby the discussion and debate of variousliterary questions arising out of the morn-ing studies. Some form of physical exer-cise followed, and then came study of alighter kind, such as '' the nature oif man,of cattle, birds, and beasts, and of the'* properties of numbers.'* This was fol-lowed by Vespers, after which the studentsknelt to receive the blessing of the arch-bishop at the close of the day.The actual teaching at York during

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ALCUINAlcuin's boyhood appears to have beenshared between Archbishop Egbert andElbert, the former expounding the NewTestament, the latter giving instruction inrhetoric, grammar, jurisprudence, poetry,astronomy, a kind of physics, and the OldTestament. In the really delightful versesin which he describes his life there,Alcuin says that Elbert knew well how to rejoice their thirsty minds with thewaters of doctrine and the dew of heavenlylearning. That he made grammar clear,poured forth copious streams of rhetoric,'*made some rehearse the rules of juris-prudence, others recite verse, or on swiftlyric feet mount the slopes of Parnassusas embryo poets. As to the lighter subjectsof the course, he turns their eyes to viewthe sun and moon and sky with planetsseven, expounding the cause of storms, ofearthquake shocks, and the distinctionsbetween man and beast and bird. Heexpressly mentions the study of numbersas a means of fixing the date of Easter, nosmall arithmetical task, into the depthsand mysteries of which he guides theiryouthful minds.

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ALCUIN AT rORKThis list seems to exclude two very

ordinary subjectsmusic and geometry.But music is hinted at in a line referringto the cadence sweet of Castalia's flutes ;and geometry, or measurement of theearth, probably included the natural his-tory and geography already mentioned.Evidently this Elbert was a born teacher,attracting boys of *' distinguished talent,attaching them to himself by his teaching,his affectionate, his fatherly care.'*

Indolis egregiac iuvenes quoscumque videbatHos sibi coniunxit, docuit, nutrivit, arnavit.So says his pupil Alcuin, one of those

very lads of distinguished talent, who,with his friend Eanbald, requited his affec-tion for them by a devout hero-worshipthat found expression in One of the poemsof the former, written in his old age. Inthis he tells how Egbert's love of new ideasin education and literature sent him onmany occasions to the monasteries of theContinent in search of books and informa-tion from other sources, and there is littledoubt that the famous library of York wasthe fruit of his passion for knowledge.69

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ALCUINIn later years, when Alcuin, the student,

had become. Alcuin the Master of thePalace School and Minister of Educationto the most renowned prince of Christen-dom, he writes begging for leave to sendyouths to England who may obtain therLce,necessary books and so bring into Francethe Flowers of Britain, that the Gardenof Paradise be no more confined to York.''And in this poem of his later years he givesa description of its contents, most valuableas a source of information as the contentsof an eighth-century library. It must beremembered, however, that in this respectYork was exceptional. A scholarly writerof our day says, indeed, that the library ofYork at this period far surpassed anypossessed by either England or France inthe twelfth century, whether that ofChrist Church, Canterbury, of St. Victorat Paris, or of Bee in Normandy.

For as yet the heavy hand of theNorthman had not fallen upon England,and the days of Alcuin were those of whichAlfred the Great was to write wistfully inhis Preface to St. Gregory's Cura Pastor-alts a century later, reminding you, my

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ALCUIN AT l^ORKbishops, how in former times foreignerssought wisdom and learning in this land,though we should have to seek it abroadnow if we wanted to have it.'*The list of books mentioned by Alcuin

in his poems is remarkably eclectic inscope. It includes the works of the ** an-cient fathers of the classic days of Greeceand RomeAristotle, Cicero, Virgil,Lucanor at least some portions of thesewritings. The *' fathers of the Church,Jerome, Ambrose, Hilary, Athanasius,Augustine, Orosius, Leo, Gregory theGreat, and Chrysostomare there, withmodern historians, such as Bede and Aid-helm, and grammarians such as Donatus,Probus, Phocas.The poem reads, indeed, as though the

precious books, inscribed on sheepskinand enclosed between richly ornamentedboards, were actually catalogued by thewriter according to their positions on theshelves or recesses of the library. For weget first the group of Catholic Fathersfrom Jerome to Fulgentius ; then a shelfof historiansthe two modern historians,Bede and Aldhelm, and next to them a

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ALCUINgroup of ancient history writers, repre-sented by Boethius and Pliny. Nextcomes the shelf of logicians and rhetori-cians, Aristotle and Cicero, with lesserlights such as Sedulius and Juvencus,Clement, Prosper, Lactantius.Then we get back to pure literature in

Virgil, Statius, Lucan, followed by agroup of books dealing with the art ofgrammar and literary styleProbus,Donatus, Priscian.The verses conclude with an assurance

to his readers that '* many more bookswould be found there, masters of art andspeech and clear style in prose ; but thattheir names would weary the pen of thewriter to declare.''

This catalogue is not only interestingin itself, it also shows pretty plainlythe stage which education had reached inEngland, as well as in the more enlight-ened parts of the Continent, in the eighthcentury. The books named include somefew Greek writers, and though it is pos-sible the latter may have been read in aLatin translation, the impetus alreadygivento the study of Greek by Theodore of

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ALCUINcoming tempest, when the arts of peacewere first threatened and then destroyedby uncivilised hordes from the North,was making itself felt ; and there was soreneed of enthusiastic book-lovers in Eng-land as well as across the Channel. '' Mymaster, Egbert, wrote Alcuin in laterdays, used often to tell me that the artswere discovered by the wisest of men, andit would be deep and lasting shame if weallov/ed them to perish for want of zeal.But many are now so faint-hearted as notto care about knowing the reason ofthings.''

It was this keenness of questioning, theeternal why, that gives us, in a nutshell,the secret of Alcuin's success as a school-master, both at York and across the seas.For the fact must be faced that most of thetextbooks used by him, apart, of course,from the Catholic Fathers and theclassics, were hopelessly, intolerably dull.Even the luminous reasoning of Aristotlehad been obscured by the interpretationof lesser men, and by its presentation ina meagre abridgment such as was that ofCassiodorus ; and the wide outlook of

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ALCUIN AT rORKliterature, science, and theology, had suf-fered most cramping condensation in theencyclopaedic and inaccurate work of Isi-dore.Only a teacher of real genius could make

such dry bones live. But if it be true, assome men say, that in training the mind itmatters very little what subject is taught,and very much how it is taught, the debtof mediaeval education, and even that oflater days,to Alcuin and his teachers isverygreat. For lifeless textbooks in the handsof a dull teacher produce a degree of bore-dom and mental dyspepsia that destroysthe very hope of knowledge. Therefore,when we read in those days of scholarsflocking from the Continent, as well asfrom all parts of Britain, to sit at the feetof Alcuin, we may rightly conclude thathis method for finding the '* reasons ofthings was not only original but attrac-tive, and that his own keen enthusiasm forknowledge had proved infectious to theyounger generation.Those of his pupils whose names have

been preserved are all men of note in oneway or another. Luidger, one of the

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ALCUINmany who hastened from overseas toYork, became Bishop of the new-made Seeof Munster in Saxony. Eanbald, one ofhis favourite English pupils, became inlater days Archbishop of York. Witzo,Fredegis, and Sigulf, loved him with sodeep an affection that they gave up hopesof preferment in their native land to bewith him in the unknown Frankland.Another, Osulf, who was one of the samegroup, was to prove the Judas of the littleband and to call forth pathetic letters fullof fatherly grief from his former master.Not that his whole time was spent intheir actual instruction. Difficult as wasthe travelling of those days, the stronginternational current that pulsed from theheart of Rome through the arteries ofChristendom, made journeys to that city amatter of course for most men of letters andaffairs. And to educationists internationalcommunication was a sheer necessity, anecessity to whose urgency the world of to-day is only beginning to awake. So whenwe find the scholasticus Elbert travel-ling to Rome through the land of theFranks, accompanied by his favouritepupil,

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ALCUIN A7 rORKthen perhaps twenty years of age, we mayimagine him pointing out to the interestedAlcuin the comparative rudeness andignorance of its inhabitants. That theyoung man probably showed unusualinterest in them may be conjectured fromthe dying Vv^ords of Elbert, fourteen yearslater. He speaks of his desire that Alcuinshould fetch from the Pope the palliumfor Eanbald, his successor, and adds : '* Iwant that you, on your return from Rome,should revisit the Frankland ; for I knowthere is much for you to do there.Two years after that first journey, suppos-ing it took place, as seems likely, in 766^Charles the Great, Alcuin's future friendand pupil, had become King of the Franks.Whether they had actually met face to facein the interval between his accession andAlcuin*s journey to Rome for the pallium^is doubtful. The anonymous biographerof the latter says Charles had '* known him before this last occasion of meeting ; ifso, the young king, though far too busyat that time to take any steps for the reformof education among the Franks, mayhave begun to lay his plans for the future.

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ALCUIN at: YORKprobably other reasons of attraction to-wards him. Even in those days it musthave been possible for the young King toget a glimpse of the pleasant wit and warmhuman sympathy that were the markedcharacteristics of the English scholar inlater years ; and from that time it isprobable that the King marked him downfor further acquaintance.

Six years after his accession Charlespaid his first visit to Rome, and wasreceived in a manner that foreshadowedfuture events. Not only as the firstKing of the Franks to enter the city washe honoured, but as the Defender of theFaith of Christendom, the Conqueror of theLombards, those persistent foes of Rome,and the prince who had brought in theheathen Saxons, vanquished by his arms,to the Church. Crowned with the famousIron Crown of Lombardy, and hailedas '* Dux of Rome, he gave to theChurch in return for these marks of honourthe conquered exarchate,'' certain citiesand provinces of Lombardy, and pre-pared to return to Frankland. But thathis visit vv^as not entirely removed from

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ALCUINpractical affairs appears from the factthat he brought back with him a certainPaul known as the Deacon, a scholar of \Lombardy, who should be the instructorof a new, or revived, royal college ofAachen. Some say that Peter of Pisa alsoaccompanied him. Others think thatPeter dwelt at the Court of Pepin, andhad there taught grammar to the princein his youthful days. This is difficultto reconcile with the testimony of Charleshimself to the effect that the study ofletters had been well-nigh extinguishedby the neglect of his ancestors, and withhis own undoubted difficulties in com-posing an ordinary letter.

It is true, however, that Einhard, thecontemporary biographer of Charles,states clearly that Peter '* taught the Kinggrammar ; so that we may conjecturethat, after the Court school for his youngsons and those of his nobles had been setup under the charge of Paul and Peter,Charles seized opportunities arising outof the brief intervals between his cam-paigns to seek some tuition for himself.The want of success of this preliminary

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ALCUIN at: YORKeffort at setting up a '* Model School was due, no doubt, to his choice ofinstructors. Peter of Pisa seems to haveproved inefficient either through age orineptitude. Paul the Lombard, howeverable and learned, could not be personagrata to nobles who despised the racesthey had conquered, and he himself couldscarcely be expected to act in zealoussupport of one whom his nation regardedas a half-civilised tyrant. He probablysucceeded in teaching Charles to under-stand a little Greek, and some of hisclerical pupils to read it to some extent.But his real interest lay in his taskof correcting the faulty and imperfectbreviaries of Frankland, rather than in theeducation of an unwilling and probablyopenly hostile Court ; and it must havebeen with relief that he retired, in 787,after thirteen years of uncongenial toil,within the gates of Monte Cassino, wherehe wrote that History oj the Lombardswhich has made his name more famousthan his unwilling sojourn among theFranks.

Six years before Paul withdrew fromF 81

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ALCUINthe world, and probably about the timehe ceased actually to teach, Charles andAlcuin had met again. We have seen how,in 781, Alcuin had travelled to Rome toobtain from Pope Adrian the pallium forEanbald, his friend and fellow-pupil offormer days in the School of York. Onhis return he happened to linger at Parma,then preparing to receive the famousKing of the Franks, who had just leftRome after witnessing the coronation ofhis young son, Pepin, as King of Italy.Possibly the contrast between the culture ofthe Papal Court and that of his own roughsurroundings had stirred Charles anew todeal with the difficulty of introducingsome degree of mental training for thelattera difficulty far greater than that ofconquering Lombards or converting Ger-man tribes at the point of the sword.The meeting with Alcuin seemed a solu-tion. Here was a man of fit agehe wassix years older than the King, then in hisforty-first yearnoted for his learning,born of a race akin in origin*, to theFranks ; of a race, moreover, that withthe exception of the Irish, had alone

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ALCUIN AT rORKmaintained its hold on learning introubled days. It is probable, also, thatthere was a strong personal attractionbetween the burly, blue-eyed prince andthe middle-aged Deacon of York thatcounted for more than respect for learning.If one might hazard a conjecture basedupon the characterof Charles as shown bothin his actions and conversation, it was therecognition of a gift of humour, the quicksmile of the well-controlled mouth, thegleam in the shrewd eyes, the keen knifeof wit cutting through the ponderousspeeches of courtiers and bishops, that, atParma, drew Charlemagne co Alcuin. Andin his turn, the scholar of Northumbria,a province more than once aided in earlierdays by the Franks, would look withfriendly gaze upon the prince of thatpeople, would also as an Englishmanbe mindful of the work of St. Boniface intheir land, and would be very willing tofollow in his footsteps.During that meeting at Parma, no

doubt, the proposal was made and urgedthat Alcuin should become Master of thePalace School at Aachen. He himself was

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ALCUINready to agree if he could get the per-mission of his King and Archbishop.That his superiors were reluctant enoughto lose him is shown by the stipulation ofArchbishop Eanbald that his departurewas not to be considered final.

In the year 782, then, Alcuin, with someof his pupils as assistants, sailed oncemore across the narrow seas, and hastenedto take up his duties at the Court ofCharles the Great.

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Chapter VTHE PALACE SCHOOL

HE Palace School/'which had probably ex-isted in a rudimentaryform some years beforethe coming of Alcuin,was a class composedoriginally of the sons of

the chief nobles, of the young membersof the royal family, and, whenever hisduties allowed it, numbered the Kinghimself among its pupils. It would berash to say that under Alcuin it became thegerm of a University ; for it made nowide appeal at that time to Europe, andthe instruction given was necessarily ele-mentary and restricted. But it did de-velop into a kind of *' model school,'' acentre from which learning was to spreaditself abroad, and a school, moreover, thatprepared for many different avocations oflife.

It differed from the Monastery schoolsboth in its more varied class of pupiland in its wider curriculum. The latter,as we have seen, based closely upon the

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ALCUINGregorian tradition, aimed solely at pre-paring the future ecclesiastic or monkfor the religious life, and taught little butplain chant, enough Latin to read theDivine office, and enough arithmetic tocalculate the date of Easter.At the Palace School, though some of

the pupils might be future bishops orabbots, the majority were destined to bestatesmen, soldiers, men of affairs ; andsome were actually filling those officeswhen, following the example of theirKing, they came to sit at Alcuin's feet.Let us, before going further, get apicture of this school '' and of its pupils,all of whom were destined, in some degree,to influence the history of mediasvalthought by means of the teaching theyreceived there.The most striking figure is, of course,

the King himself, who, during the eightwinter months that usually formed aninterlude between his annual campaigns,was a regular and enthusiastic attendant.Of him we get a minute descriptionfrom the pen of Einhard, his constantcompanion.

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THE PALACE SCHOOL He was stout and strong of body, of a lofty

stature, yet not beyond just proportions ; forhis height was certainly not more than seventimes the length of his feet. His head was wellrounded, his eyes large and piercing, his noserather long, his luxurious hair of a flaxen hue,and his face bright and pleasant to look upon.His whole person, whether he stood or sat, wasmarked by grandeur and dignity ; and thoughhis neck was full and short, and his body stout,he was otherwise so well proportioned thatthese defects passed unnoticed. He was firmin gait, and his appearance was extremelymanly, but his refined voice was not entirely inkeeping with his figure.

Next him would sit Leutgarde, bestand most faithfully loved of the manywives of Charlemagne, some of whom werebound to him in lawful wedlock, and somewere not. *' My daughter Leutgarde,Alcuin affectionately calls her ; and in acontemporary account of his school by hisfriend. Bishop Theodulphus of Orleans,we get a charming sketch of her.

Among his pupils sits the fair lady Leut-garde, bright of intellect and pious of heart.Simple and noble alike confess her fair in heraccomplishments, and fairer yet in her virtues.

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ALCUINHer hand is generous, her disposition gentle,and her speech most sweet. She is a blessing toall, a bane to none. Ardently pursuing thebest studies, she stores the liberal arts in theretentive repository of her mind.

At various times Alcuin would alsoteach in the Palace School the six royalchildren, offspring of an earlier wife,Hildegarde. These would comprise thethree young princesCharles, King ofBurgundy, the favourite son of his father,though by no means the most satisfactoryof Alcuin's pupils ; Pepin, the youthfulKing of Italy ; and Louis, King of Aqui-taine, and the most worthy successor ofCharlemagne, always dearly beloved byhis instructor, who held him up as a modelto the rest.A story told by Alcuin's unknownbiographer illustrates his attitude towardsthis youngest son. On one occasionCharles, coming with his three boys tovisit his former instructor at Tours, askedhim : '* Master, which of my sons do youthink should succeed me in the dignitywhich God has granted me } Alcuinlooked at Louis, the youngest, but the

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THE PALACE SCHOOLmost remarkable for humility, on whichaccount he was considered despicable bymany, and said : Thou wouldst havea magnificent successor in the humbleLouis/' Charles listened in silence, butafterwards when he beheld those kings(Charles and Pepin) enter the Church ofSt. Stephen with a haughty step, andLouis with humble deportment, for thepurpose of prayer, he said to the by-standers ; ' Do you see Louis, who is morehumble than his brothers ? Verily, yeshall behold him the illustrious successorof his father/ Afterwards, when Alcuinwas administering to them the communionof the Body and Blood of Christ, the humbleLouis bowed before the holy father andkissed his hand. Whereupon the manof God said to Sigulf, who stood besidehim : ' Whosoever exalteth himself shallbe abased, and whososever humbleth him-self shall be exalted. Verily, I say untothee, France will joyfully recognise thisman as Emperor after his father.' Near the three princes we find an eager

group of student princessesRotrude, andBertha, the future wife of one who was, in

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ALCUINlater days, to become St. Angilbert, andGisela, who would have been a motherlessbabe of two years old at Alcuin's firstarrival at the Court. Another Giselawas there, the young Abbess of Chelles,sister of Charles, whom love of learninghad drawn from her cloister that she mightlearn theology at Alcuin's feet ; and withher was probably her close friend andcompanion Richtrud, or Columba. Forthese two, in later days, Alcuin wrote hisCommentary on St. John's Gospel, awork which they so eagerly and impa-tiently looked for, that he was compelledto send it to them piece by piece.Then came a group of royal relatives

Angilbert, the future son-in-law of theKing, a gay young noble, too muchdevoted to theatrical joys and to declama-tions to be highly approved by his teacher,but destined in future years to be thesaintly Abbot of St. Riquier ; and Adel-hard and Wala, the King's cousins, withtheir sisters Theodora and Gundrada ;Risulfus, the future Bishop of Mayence.Fredegis,and Witzo, and Sigulf,the youthswho had accompanied Alcuin from York,

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ALCUINKing's cousin, as Abbot of Corbey, andPrime Minister in later days to KingPepin, had ample and well-used oppor-tunity for repressing clerical abuses andmaintaining the standard of learning. Hewrote a book on The Order and Manage-ment of the Royal Household and thewhole French Monarchy under Pepin andCharlemagne, of which, unfortunately,only a brief abstract remains.

Another pupil, Riculf, afterwards Arch-bishop of Metz, became also a notablepromoter of education ; and at the Councilof Metz, at which he presided in 813,was one of those who insisted upon itbeing the duty of the clergy not only toprovide schools for lay pupils, but tosee that they attended them regularly.Others there were, most of whom playedtheir part manfully in handing on thetorch enkindled by Alcuin in the Schoolof the Palace.

As for the local surroundings of thatschool, these probably varied according asthe King was in residence at Ingelheimon the Rhine, or Aachen, between theRhine and the Meuse. The latter became

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t:he palace schoolthe seat of Empire, and so probably themost permanent home of Alcuin duringthese earlier years. Already it showedthe influence of the civilisation of Romeupon a rough and warlike race. Thepalace was renowned for its architecture,its gardens, its baths ; close to it stood thestately basilica decorated with mosaicsand treasures taken from the palace ofthe conquered Theodoric at Ravenna.Thither rich presents, including a deed ofgift, symbolised by a key of the HolySepulchre, were dispatched to Charle-magne by Haroun-al-Raschid, the re-nowned Emperor of the Mohammedanworld ; and keys of the Holy Placeswere also sent by the Patriarch of Jeru-salem. No doubt such significant hap-penings proved fruitful topics of discussionin the school, though by that time Alcuinhad left it for another sphere of work.That the members of that little society

worked together in a very free and happyatmosphere may be gathered from thefact that pupils and master were known byaffectionate and often jesting nicknames.Thus Charles was familiarly known as

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ALCIINDavid, and occasionally, when he hadacquitted himself particularly well, asSolomon. Alcuin himself was known asFlaccus and Albinus, the latter beingthe Latin version of his name, the former,apparently, suggested by his love for thatHoratius Flaccus of classic days, whoselyric verse he imitated, and whose worksseem to have been exempted from thatdread of pagan writings '' which besethim in later days. Einhard, skilled as anarchitect, was known as Beseleel, after theHebrew artificer mentioned in the Bookof Exodus ; Richtrud, the gentle friend ofGisela, was Columba, the dove-maid.

Attractive as was the personality ofmany of Alcuin's pupils, his position wasnot without its difficulties, especially withregard to the man who was to rule theSecond Empire of the West. He had,for example, to keep in mind the necessityof educating morally as well as intel-lectually a King whose unbroken successhad made him the spoilt darling of Fate,eager to grasp his desire without thoughtfor right or wrong, ready to dash withviolence from his path any obstacle to his

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THE PALACE SCHOOLwill. Thus, in the very same year thatAlcuin arrived in Gaul, the latter wouldhave heard of the massacre of four thou-sand Saxons who had revolted against therule of Charles ; and who, after beingforcibly baptised in the waters of theriver Aller, were thereupon cut down andcast into the stream, by the command of aKing who happened to have lost his temperwith them. Year after year this kind ofthing was repeated, so that the King whosat on his stool of learning more often thannot showed merciless hands red with theblood of helpless captives. He was alsothe so-called husband, at one time oranother, of nine wives, some bound to himby the sacraments of the Church, andsome not. One, at least, of the former,the beautiful and unfortunate Himiltrude,was ruthlessly put away by him in orderto marry a princess of Lombardy, who, inher turn, was repudiated for Hildegarde,to whom he was married with the sanctionand blessing of the Church, and whobecame the mother of his six lawfulchildren, before her death left him free tomarry Leutgarde.

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ALCUINNot only the King's private passions,

but the public morals of the State and thelaxity of the Prankish Court had to bedealt with by a counsellor worthy of hispost. The way in which Alcuin handledthese difficult matters can be best gatheredfrom his letters to his renowned pupil.With regard, for example, to the conqueredSaxons, though he a