ALCUIN, BL.

Educator and theologian, adviser and friend of charlemagne; b. Northumbria, England, c. 735; d. Tours, France, May 19, 804. Alcuin (in Saxon Ealh-wine, Latinized as Alcuinus and Albinus) was educated in the tradition of Anglo-Saxon humanism at the cathedral school of York (the old Roman legionary fortress of Eboracum), of which he became librarian and magister in 778 as the successor of his teacher Aelbert. Charlemagne met Alcuin at Parma and secured his services for the Frankish state, where he lived and worked, with the exception of two journeys to his native England, from 782 until his death at his abbey of St. Martin at Tours, to which he had retired in 796. Though he extolled the monastic ideal, he never became a monk, and his career as a secular cleric never went beyond the diaconate.

Alcuin as Educator. Alcuin's activities profoundly influenced the cultural development of a rude, if not barbarous age. His active contribution as a scholar in speeding up the intellectual, religious, and political regeneration and growth of a period commonly called the Carolingian Renaissance was not paralleled by any of his learned contemporaries and friends in the Frankish palace schools attended by members of the royal family and their entourage. His writings—except perhaps his voluminous correspondence of more than 250 letters and his occasional poetry—lay no claim to special artistic merit; they are for the most part the practical result of his educational and political endeavors in the service of Charlemagne. His originality as an educator found expression in his mastery of the traditional learning according to cassiodorus's formula of the seven liberal arts; emphasizing the trivium he compiled textbooks on grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, and orthography. Alcuin's edition of the pseudo-Augustinian Categoriae decem is the first contribution to the study of the Latin Aristotle since Boethius. Commentaries on Genesis, on certain Psalms, the Canticles, and Ecclesiastes, on John, the Apostolic letters, and the Apocalypse, may have been intended as reading texts designed to acquaint clerics with traditional patristic exegesis. Lives of SS. martin of tours, Richarius, vedast, and willibrord are older vitae rewritten by Alcuin in a better Latin.

The real stature of Alcuin as Charlemagne's counselor in political matters is apparent in the activities undertaken by him either at the King's express request or with his obvious approval.

Theological and Liturgical Writings. The adoptionism of Felix of Urgel and elipandus of Toledo was refuted by Alcuin in three apologetic treatises. He publicly rebuked heretical doctrines at synodal meetings, and is now recognized as the author of the Frankish episcopate's Synodica and of Charlemagne's letter sent from the Council of Frankfurt to Spain in 794. Alcuin, not

theodulf of orlÉans, was the author of the libri carolini in which Charlemagne rejected Byzantine veneration of images restored by the seventh ecumenical council (Nicaea II) in 787.

Alcuin's various reforms introduced into liturgical service books used in the Frankish empire culminated in his edition of a lectionary, and especially in his revision of the Gregorian Sacramentary with his appended supplement and the famous preface Hucusque. This revision preserved elements of the Gallican rites and inserted them into the Roman Missal. Irish-Northumbrian customs such as the chanting of the Creed at Mass and the celebration of the Feast of All Saints were introduced by him into the Frankish liturgy. Some of the liturgical texts and formulas used in his revision and supplements are drawn from the Mozarabic rite, whose textual traces he encountered in his fight against the writings and doctrines of the adoptionists. Recent research has shown for the first time Alcuin's share in the writing of some of Charlemagne's capitularies and letters. This constitutes important evidence for the leading role played by the foreigner from Northumbria in the political life of the Frankish empire. Alcuin's recension of Jerome's Vulgate undertaken upon Charlemagne's wish was presented by Alcuin's pupil Fredugise to the Frankish king at Rome on Christmas Day, 800—the same day on which he became emperor. The contributions of Alcuin to the editing of better Latin texts undoubtedly led to increased activities in Frankish scriptoria, and his name is therefore connected with the creation of the Carolingian minuscule, the new calligraphic book hand that became the prototype of the modern Roman script. But such a dependence is far from certain, and cannot be maintained conclusively. The leading position occupied by Alcuin in the events preceding the coronation of Charlemagne as emperor rests upon firmer grounds. There is much information concerning Alcuin's personal influence on the Frankish king, who had visited him at Tours toward the end of May 800 on his way to Italy. On the other hand, recent research has now made it possible to recognize rather clearly the influence exerted on the events of December 25, 800, by a group of Alcuin's friends who were then in attendance at Rome. The contention, first made by A. Kleinclausz in 1902, that Charlemagne's coronation was the work of imperialistic clerics led by Alcuin and his circle has been accepted in the meantime by both French and German historians. To be sure, Alcuin was neither a meek stay-at-home nor "a dedicated bookworm" (ein Stubengelehrter ), but (as E. E. Stengel observes) a scholar who was thoroughly grounded in the management of political affairs.

Although Alcuin's cultus has never been formally recognized, he is named as a beatus in many martyrologies.

Feast: May 19.

Bibliography: Alcuin's works in Patrologia Latina v.100 and 101; modern critical editions of letters, saints' lives, poems, and treatises by e. dÜmmler, b. krusch, k. halm, w. levison, a. marsili, a. poncelet are listed by l. wallach, Alcuin and Charlemagne: Studies in Carolingian History and Literature (Cornell Studies in Classical Philology 32; Ithaca 1959) 286–287; newly found letters and documents written by Alcuin: ibid. 273–274. Alcuin of York … his life and letters, tr. s. allott (York 1974). Two Alcuin letter-books, ed. c. chase from the British Museum ms. Cotton Vespasian A XIV (Toronto 1975). Son well-beloved: Six poems, tr. benedictines of stanbrook (Worcester, Eng. 1967). Libri Carolini, ed. h. bastgen, Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Concilia 2, suppl. Pseudo-Augustine, Categoriae decem, ed. l. miniopaluello, Aristoteles latinus I 1–5: Categoriae vel praedicamenta (Bruges-Paris 1961) 129–192. h. lÖwe, Die karolingische Reichsgründung und der Südosten (Stuttgart 1938), ch. on Alcuin rejected by f. l. ganshof, Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire 17 (1938) 977 and by p. grierson, English Historical Review 54 (1939) 525–526. a. kleinclausz, Alcuin (Paris 1948). e. s. duckett, Alcuin, Friend of Charlemagne: His World and His Work (New York 1951). w. wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter 2:225–236, and the additio in the review by l. wallach, Speculum 29 (1954) 820–825. i. deug-su, Cultura e ideologia nella prima età carolingia (Rome 1984); L'opera agiografica di Alcuino (Spoleto 1983). m. s. driscoll, Alcuin et la pénitence à l'époque carolingienne (Münster 1999). g. ellard, Master Alcuin: Liturgist (Chicago 1956). c. j. b. gaskoin, Alcuin; his life and his work (New York 1966). f. c. scheibe, "Alcuin und die Admonitio generalis, " Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters 14 (1958) 221–229; "Alcuin und die Briefe Karls des Grossen," ibid. 15 (1959) 181–193. b. fischer, Die Alkuin Bibel (Freiburg 1957). a. f. west, Alcuin and the Rise of the Christian Schools (New York 1971, reprint of 1892 ed.). e. bourque, Études sur les sacramentaires romains, pt. 2, Les Textes remaniés, v.2, Le Sacramentaire d'Hadrien: Le Supplément d'Alcuin et les Grégoriens mixtes (Rome 1958). l. wallach, op. cit.; "Libri Carolini and Patristics, Latin and Greek: Prolegomena to a Critical Edition," in his The Classical Tradition: Literary and Historical Studies in Honor of Harry Caplan (Ithaca 1966). p. munz, The Origin of the Carolingian Empire (Leicester 1960). e. e. stengel, "Imperator und Imperium bei den Angelsachsen," Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters 16 (1960) 45. f. l. ganshof, "Le Programme de gouvernement impérial de Charlemagne," Renovatio Imperii: Atti della Giornata internazionale di studio per il millenario: Ravenna, 4–5 novembre 1961 (Faenza 1963) 63–96. r. folz, Le Couronnement impérial de Charlemagne: 25 Décembre 800 (Paris 1964).

[l. wallach]