I. CHAP. sphere of a luxurious palace and taking pattern by his own sad example, might scarcely but go astray-the coronatae columbae,' as Alcuin terms them, when warning his countryman and successor Fredegis against their charms, and whom Lewis the Pious, on his accession, in his honest efforts to reform the court, sent packing to a nunnery. He revisits ment be The attractions of a court rarely retain their fascination with men past middle life, and that Alcuin, whose education and former habits had been those of a recluse, should already have longed for retirement and repose can be small matter for surprise. A visit to England in the year 790 afforded the first respite from his labours. He had left his native land bound by solemn promise to return, and may even have contemplated making his return permanent. A small monastery on the banks of the Humber, founded by St. Willibrod, was his by inheritance, and he was still its nominal abbat. There were, however, circumstances which concurred to render his Disagree- sojourn in England a somewhat anxious time. Mercia, under Offa's rule, had now reached the culminating point of her fortunes, and her relations with Frankland had, for some years past, been becoming less friendly. The Carolingian court was a harbour of refuge for her foes-for young Egbert, driven from his hereditary kingdom of Wessex by Offa's sonin-law Brihtric; and, at a later period, for Eadwulf, when defeated in his contest for the crown of Northumbria by another of Offa's sons-in-law, Ethelred. It was believed that a plot had been detected for calling in Frankish aid to the assistance of Kent in her struggle with her too powerful neighbour. A refusal on the part of Charles to permit his daughter Bertha to marry Offa's son had completed the rupture between the two courts.2 Merchants trading between the two countries had already been warned that all intercourse was suspended, when Alcuin crossed the Channel.3 tween the Mercian and Frankish courts. 1 'Non veniant coronatae columbae ad fenestras tuas, quae volunt per cameras palatii.' Epist. 136; Migne, c 375. 2 Chron. Fontanell. c. 15; Bouquet, Scriptores, v 315. 3 Sed nescio quid nobis venturum sit. Aliquid enim dissensionis, diabolico fomento inflammante, nuper inter regem Carolum et regem Offam CHAP. I. averted by Alcuin's It was at this juncture that he undertook to mediate between efforts. events in Events in England from this time offered small prospect Subseof tranquil repose. The murder of Ethelbert, the pious king quent of the East Anglians, by Offa, and that of Osred, the exiled England. king of the Northumbrians, by Ethelred, indicate the disturbed state of the political atmosphere. In the following year, the year 793, to quote the language of the Chronicle, 'the ravaging of heathen men lamentably destroyed God's church at Lindisfarne,'1 and northern England became the theatre of a continued series of rapine and slaughter. Bede's early home, St. Aidan's Holy Isle, were scenes of ruin and desolation. The Northumbrian exile, in the anguish of his heart, exclaimed that St. Cuthbert had forsaken his own; in his dismay, he took up the strain chanted two centuries before in Italy by Gregory, and was fain to interpret the appalling anarchy and misery that prevailed as the fulfilment of Daniel's prophecy and ominous of the approaching end of all things! olines. It was at Charles' earnest request that Alcuin returned The Carto Frankland-a request urged under circumstances that, to the latter, probably seemed to render his acquiescence little less than an imperative duty. Heresy was shewing a bold front in the Frankish dominions. The Adoptionists, headed by the Spanish bishops, Felix and Elipandus, were occasioning grave anxiety to the orthodox party; while the dispute respecting the eastern practice of image worship represented exortum est, ita ut utrinque navigatio interdicta negotiantibus cesset. Sunt qui dicunt, nos pro pace in illas partes mittendos.' Ad Colcum lectorem in Scotia. Migne, ci 142. 1 English Chronicle, sub anno. 'Locus cunctis in Brittannia venerabilior, paganis gentibus datur ad depredandum,' is Alcuin's comment. Alcuin., p. 181. CHAP. I. Alcuin receives of St. Martin of a yet more pressing difficulty. Of Alcuin's right to be regarded as the author of the Carolines-that memorable effort of Iconoclasm-there can be little doubt.' Idolatry in its grosser and tangible forms was always an object of his severest denunciations; and if some difficulty is presented in the fact that one possessed by such deep reverence for the papal authority should have ventured to contravene the decrees of Adrian and to assert with so much boldness the theory of conciliar independence, an explanation may be found in the supposition that the Carolines are the offspring not only of Alcuin's learning and literary skill, but also of Charles' vigorous thought and policy. The signal honour conferred, as we have already seen, on the former at the Council of Frankfort, proves that throughout its proceedings he was the ready and willing interpreter of the royal pleasure. The year 794 may be looked upon as marking the time the abbacy when Alcuin's reputation was at its highest. His fame was in all the Churches;' and few could have been found to call in question his signal services to both religion and learning or his just claim to distinguished reward. As yet, however, no adequate recompense had been vouchsafed him. His own. avowal, indeed, is that no hope of worldly advantage, but a simple sense of duty to the Church, had originally brought him to Frankland and detained him there. On the other hand, it is almost certain that, in resigning his office as scholasticus at York, he had sacrificed his succession to the archbishopric. It is not improbable, therefore, that Charles had already intimated that on the next vacancy in the abbacy of St. Martin of Tours the post would be offered to Alcuin. The latter, writing to the brethren of that venerable society in 795, openly confesses that he would gladly be of their number; 2 and the opportunity arrived sooner perhaps than he anticipated, for in the following year the abbat Itherius died, and Alcuin was forthwith nominated his successor. 1 Frobenius considered that the style of the Carolines was that of another pen than Alcuin's; but see Dümmler's note, p. 220. 2 Optans unus esse ex vobis.' Epist. 23; Migne, c 176. CHAPTER II. ALCUIN AT TOURS; OR, THE SCHOOL OF THE MONASTERY. II. THE transfer of Alcuin from the Palace School to the abbacy CHAP. at Tours was attended by results of no slight importance. On the one hand, it enabled him to give full and practical expression to his theory of monastic discipline and education; on the other, it opened up the way for the introduction of other teachers at the royal court, some of whom, as we shall hereafter see, held doctrines little in harmony with those of their predecessor. 1 Of his real sense of relief and satisfaction with his new sphere of duty there can be no doubt. He had received what was, perhaps, the most marked recognition of his services that it was in Charles' power to bestow. Already the abbey was the wealthiest in Frankland, and the adjacent cathedral the most splendid of all her shrines. In days gone by, Tours and Poitiers had contended fiercely for the relics of St. Martin; the coveted prize had fallen to the former city, and its possession thenceforth appealed with singular force to the superstition of the time. Neither St. Remy nor St. Denys, as yet, could vie in saintly fame with the venerated founder of monasticism in Gaul. Tours rivalled Rome itself as a centre of religious pilgrimage; both monastery and cathedral were lavishly enriched by the devout munificence of the Carolingian princes; and long after, when Hugh Capet sat on the throne of Charles the Great, he wore the ecclesiastical cope which bespoke him the abbat of St. Martin of Tours. The landed possessions of the monastery were immense, fully equalling in extent an average modern 1 Gregory of Tours, Hist. Franc. Iv xxxiv. The abbey of St. Mar tin of Tours. CHAP. department; the archbishop of Toledo made it a reproach to Alcuin, that he was the master of 20,000 slaves.1 II. Alcuin's aims and as abbat. With resources like these, it might well seem that the sentiments guardian of the interests and traditions of the faith might find full scope for every purpose. Here learning, treading ever in the safe and narrow path marked out by Gregory and Bede, might marshal illustrious recruits destined to bear her banners throughout the length and breadth of Charles' vast domains. Here, on the banks of the rushing Loire, the life of which St. Benedict drew the outlines might be lived again in all its purity and power. Here, on the boundary line 'twixt docile Neustria and half-tamed Aquitaine, religion might win new converts and achieve a conquest with which those of Charles Martel or his greater grandson might not compare! Such, as there is sufficient evidence to shew, were the aims of Alcuin's ambition, as he looked forward to the crownin relation ing work of his career. His theory of education had not literature. expanded with enlarged experience. No visions of science, His increasing austerity to classical spreading and developing in the coming years, gilded the sunset of his days. Something rather of self-reproach is discernible in his correspondence for so much time and labour already wasted on secular knowledge. Vergil, whom he had studied with loving ardour as a boy, now seemed to him only a collection of lying fables' unfit to be read by those devoted to the religious life. The sacred poets are enough for you,' he said to the young monks at Tours; 'you have no need to sully your minds with the rank luxuriance of Vergil's verse.' He rebuked even his friend Rigbodus for knowing the twelve books of the Aeneid better than the four Evangelists.3 When Charles wrote to ply him with questions upon some new difficulties, he could not forbear, in his reply, from mildly expressing his surprise that his dearest David' should wish to involve him again in those 2 1 See Monnier's interesting sketch, 'Un abbé seigneur au huitième siècle,' in his Charlemagne et Alcuin, pt. iii, c. 4. 2 Sufficiunt divini poetae vobis, nec egetis luxuriosa sermonis Virgilii vos pollui facundia.' Alcuini Vita, c. 19; Migne, c 101. 3Utinam evangelica quattuor non Aeneades duodecim pectus compleant tuum.' Epist. 215, Alcuiniana, p. 714. |