FOOTNOTES
[1] Mendacia.
[3] The following inscription is found in this book:—“Hunc Vergilii codicem obtulit Berno gregis beati Martini levita devota mente Deo et eidem beato Martino perpetualiter habendum ea quidem ratione ut perlegat ipsum Albertus consobrinus ipsius et diebus vitae suae sub pretextu sancti Martini habeat et post suum obitum iterum sancto reddatur Martino.”
[4] It appears to be impossible to identify the site of the cell of Wilgils. The local idea is that Kilnsea may be the place. But then the local idea is that Kilnsea means “the cell by the sea”.
[5] The church of St. Andrew in Rome was the first church which Wilfrith in his youth visited on his first appearance in that city. It was on the altar of that church that he first saw a magnificent copy of the Gospels, which so fired his enthusiasm that he had a similar copy made, written in letters of gold on purple parchment and adorned with gems, for his church at Ripon. His great church at Hexham, the finest church north of the Alps, he dedicated to St. Andrew, and the dedication thus became a favourite one in Northumbria. See my Theodore and Wilfrith, p. 17.
[6] Horreense, the Germans think; now Oeren.
[7] Epternach.
[8] See my Conversion of the Heptarchy, pp. 202-4.
[9] See my Conversion of the Heptarchy, p. 190.
[10] iii. 20, plate xiii.
[11] Ps. lxxvii. 11.
[12] The relative numbers of these three “sides” of the School of York may possibly be indicated by the quidam, alii, nonnulli, of the author.
[13] Biscop.
[14] After a parenthetical paragraph the writer continues, “Cuius iam, ut dictum est, sequens Hechbertus vestigia.”
[15] Gregory, it must be supposed. If one of the Apostles of the Lord had been meant, much more honorific words would have been used.
[16] Used antiphrastically for malediction: see Job i. 5.
[17] Deut. xxxii. 11.
[18] Chapter viii of the Rule of St. Benedict directs that a monk shall not conceal from his abbat evil thoughts which come into his heart.
[19] John xiii. 25 to xviii. 1 inclusive.
[20] Sigulf, as we have seen, told the writer the facts of Alcuin’s life which he recorded.
[21] Dial. ii. 85. Benedict there narrates that he saw the whole world collected into one ray of the sun, in which the soul of Germanus, bishop of Capua, ascended to the heavens.
[22] Ps. cvi. 1.
[23] Francia, both here and in Alcuin’s Letter 35, where he writes as if with these words in his mind: “I came to France, under pressure of ecclesiastical need, and to confirm the reason of the Catholic Faith.”
[24] There is a tradition that Alcuin wrote the Office for the Mass on Trinity Sunday. See Appendix A.
[25] The “hereditary right” seems to indicate that by these “benedictions” the library of York is meant, of which more will be said later on.
[26] “Talentum sui domini”, sc. Elcberti?
[27] The perpetual presence of Sigulf was needed for the celebration of masses, Alcuin remaining a deacon. There is a curious mention of Alcuin’s part in the administration of Holy Communion, and of the action of the young King Louis when receiving at his hand; see p. 32.
[28] We can date this meeting fairly closely by the fact that Karl granted a privilegium to Parma on March 15, 781.
[29] The bishop George whom we know as intimately concerned with the affairs of Hadrian I and with British interests was Bishop of Ostia. If this is he, we shall hear of him again in connexion with the Archbishopric of Lichfield.
[30] Abbat of St. Martin of Tours, a curiously early connexion of Alcuin with his future home. To him Alcuin addressed the earliest letter of his which is extant; see p. 205.
[31] Alcuin was about seven years older than Karl. They were at this time about forty-six and thirty-nine years of age.
[32] St. Peter of Ferrières, dio. Sens.
[33] Alcuin makes mention of his residence here during the autumn of 798 in his correspondence with Gisla, Karl’s sister; see p. 253. The Museum of Troyes is housed in the old buildings of the Abbey of St. Loup.
[34] Matt. x. 23.
[35] He was subject to febrile attacks.
[36] For Alcuin’s letter to Fulda, written after Karl’s refusal of permission, See Appendix A.
[37] “In psalmorum et missarum multa celebratione.”
[39] Called Witto by Alcuin (ep. 107), and Candidus (106) as the Latin rendering of the Teutonic name.
[40] To Fredegisus Alcuin wrote letters on the three kinds of visions (257) and on the Trinity (258). He is understood to be the “Nathanael” of other letters. Of Fredegisus, Theodulfus, the Bishop of Orleans, wrote to Karl:
He was a master in the school of the Palace and afterwards Archdeacon. He became Abbat of Cormery, and eventually of Tours.
[41] See the mention of him in previous note. Osulf was a household officer of the young King Charles, see p. 250. The last words of Alcuin’s interpretation of the vision suggest that he was an Englishman, one of the youths whom Alcuin brought from York as his assistant masters.
[42] This was Benedict, the Abbat of Aniane in Languedoc. That region is here spoken of as Gothia, because the Goths had settled about Toulouse in the fifth century. The fact that Benedict used often to come to consult Alcuin is an interesting illustration of the disregard of distance in those days. As the crows fly, Toulouse is some 270 miles from Tours, and the journey was a long and arduous one.
[43] The three sons of Karl were all of them kings (practically sub-kings) of one part or another of his vast domains. The great partition of the empire was not arranged by Charlemagne till after Alcuin’s death.
[44] It will be borne in mind that Alcuin was only in deacon’s orders.
[45] This is one of the various indications of date which enable us to calculate the time at which the biography was written.
[46] Charles and Pepin died before their father, and Louis became sole emperor and ruler of all that Charlemagne had held.
[47] With regard to some possible confusion here between Karl and his eldest son Charles, see p. 246.
[48] Vita, c. 21.
[49] It is frequently impossible to calculate a man’s nationality from his name in the century with which we are dealing, and it is unsafe to guess at it. Aigulf, for instance, was the name of the Gothic Count of Maguelone, the cup-bearer of Karl’s son, Pepin of Aquitaine, and father of Benedict of Aniane.
[50] Engelsaxo.
[51] “Venit iste Britto vel Scotto.” The Scot in those days was the Irishman. We may imagine that “Scotto” was formed derisively to match “Britto”. But it should be remembered that in Alcuin’s dialogue on grammar the disputants are Saxo and Franco, a very similar formation.
[52] It is of at least local interest to remark that the latest of many burnings of York Minster, Alcuin’s old abode, was caused very much in the same way. Carpenters had been at work, in the bell-chamber of the south-west tower, and left a candle burning on the table where they had been planing wood. The candle burned low and fell over on to some shavings, to which it set fire, and thence the flame grew and grew till it burst out, and the great fire of May 20, 1840, was the result. This present writer was a boy of six at the time, and from his bedroom window saw it all, from the beginning, through the sounding boards of the chamber. He was eventually carried off in a blanket, as the tower would have fallen into his father’s house if it had come down. The house, it may be added, was the house in which Guy Fawkes was born. See also p. 82.
[53] The word monasterium has so many meanings that we cannot be sure what precisely is here meant. It may possibly mean the maius monasterium, Marmoutier, see p. 221.
[54] The historian here quoted, a contemporary of St. Martin, must not be confused with Sulpicius, Archbishop of Bourges, A.D. 584, surnamed Severus to distinguish him from a second Sulpicius Archbishop of Bourges, surnamed Pius, who died A.D. 644.
[55] “Hesterna die indicatur mihi,” &c. We fortunately have the letter. It is Epistle I of the collected works of Sulpicius.
[56] It may be that we have here an early hint of a practice of which we have record in later times. The water which had been used for washing the tomb of St. Martin was held to have healing properties in the later middle ages.
[57] Believed at that time to have been written by St. Paul.
[58] In our editions, Arno and not Fredegisus was the recipient of this treatise.
[59] Presumably the same as Withso and Witto.
[60] “Franci et Saxonis,” the author says. But in the disputatious dialogue they are called Saxo and Franco. Saxo addresses Franco as O Franco! but on one occasion he slips into the vocative France: “En habes, France, de adverbio satis.” Fr. “Non satis; pausemus tamen ad horam.” Saxo. “Pausemus.” The dialogue is much of the same kind as that found in Aldhelm’s works a hundred years earlier between Magister and Discipulus. See my St. Aldhelm, ch. xii.
[62] There is a delicate touch in putting into the devil’s mouth the literal name and not the intimate name.
[63] Cant. iv. 4.
[64] A cynic might remark that Alcuin did not answer the clever question of the enemy. He could not deny that he was elaborately deceiving his attendants.
[65] Sulpicius Severus, Life, c. 25.
[66] Theodulf of Orleans makes a little apology to Karl for Alcuin’s use of wine and beer (not English beer! see p. 267):
If he bids bring forth cups of thy liquor, O Bacchus, or cups of the liquor of corn, and perhaps takes both; it is that he may teach the better, the better may sing his stave, if he moistens the recesses of his instructive breast.
[67] “Celebrabat omni die missarum solemnia multa.”
[68] Based on Isa. xxii. 22.
[70] The biographer here passes in a telling manner to the present tense.
[71] Again the use of Alcuin’s baptismal name at a critical point.
[72] This is one of the endless number of cases in which it is made quite clear that the original attraction to Rome was not the asserted bishopric of Peter, but the fact of the tombs of Peter and Paul. The cult of these two chiefs, princes of the Apostles, was the source of the reputation of Rome. See Appendix D.
[74] The title consists of twenty-four elegiacs, with only ordinary thoughts.
[75] Gesta Regum, i. 3.
[76] The mention of Ascension Day in the account of Bede’s death is in the judgement of some scholars more easily reconciled with the incidence of Ascension Day in the year 742.
[77] The see of Dunwich appears to have been vacant then.
[78] All this tells against the now exploded belief that Theodore established the parochial system. His paroichia was the diocese.
[79] The earliest pieces of English now extant in the original form are the inscriptions in Anglian runes on the cross erected in 670 in the churchyard of Bewcastle, in memory of the sub-king Alchfrith (see p. 9). The main inscription runs thus: + This sigbecn thun setton hwaetred wothgar olwfwolthu aft alkfrithu ean küning eac oswiung + gebid heo sinna sowhula. + This token of victory Hwaetred Wothgar Olwfwolthu caused make in memory of Alcfrith once king and son of Oswy. + Pray for the high sin of his soul. See also p. 296.
[81] In ordinatione.
[82] Constituant.
[83] He was Bishop of Winchester A.D. 1367 to 1398; Wilfrith was Bishop of York A.D. 669 to 678.
[84] Eton was founded, in a very small way, in 1440.
[85] As to the treatment of ancient ecclesiastical MSS. in one part of France at the time of the Revolution, see pages 219, &c.
[86] It is now maintained that ‘Saxon’ is formed from saxa, stones, but for a different reason, being taken as describing ‘armed men’ in the stone age.
[87] It is so, also, in Eddi’s prose account, “pro lachrymis ad aures Dei pervenientibus.”
[89] See my Lessons from Early English Church History, pp. 74, 75.
[90] Our word “inn” means a place enclosed, or a place comprising an enclosure.
[91] p. xxiii.
[93] “Monasterium” is used in the middle ages for a parish church in the country. “Minster” has always been a special Yorkshire word, “York Minster,” “Ripon Minster,” “Beverley Minster.” The unique inscription at the side of the sun-dial at Kirkdale Church, dated as in the days of Tostig the Earl, sets forth that “Orm Gamal-suna bohte Sanctus Gregorius minster”.
[94] The writer of this cannot refrain from mentioning a curious coincidence of dates and experience between himself and his schoolfellow and head master Alcuin. York Minster was burned on May 23, 741, when Alcuin was six years old. The cathedral school being within the precincts, Alcuin would have to be removed to a place of safety. York Minster was burned on May 20, 1840, curiously near to being the eleven-hundredth anniversary of the burning on May 23, 741, and the present writer, then aged six, was carried from his bed in the minster precincts to a place of safety in Castlegate.
[95] An. DCC.XLI. Her forbarn Eoferwic. This entry is found in the two MSS. of the Chronicle known as Cotton. Tib. B. 1 and Bodl. Laud. 636. These two MSS. have special information about Northumbrian affairs. They differ in the spelling of proper names, but in this case they take the same spelling of the Anglian name of York, which appears in five different forms in the Chronicle.
[96] Before Froben this was read Alcuinus, clearly an impossible reading in a list drawn up by Alcuin himself, and at a time when his chief effort of versification could not be in the library.
[97] See Appendix B, p. 310.
[98] Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 440.
[99] A.D. 790-805.
[100] “Sacerdos.” It appears clear that Alcuin is using the word as equivalent to “episcopus”, as it frequently was.
[101] Mal. ii. 7.
[102] “Speculator.”
[103] “Super-speculator.” Isidore explains in his Etymologies that bishops are called “episcopi” by the Greeks and “speculatores” by the Latins, because they are set on high in the church.
[104] “Sacerdotes.” That Alcuin is speaking of bishops, not of priests in general, is clear from his verses at the end of the letter, where he repeats his phrases “terrae sal”, “lumina inundi”, and adds “Bis sex signa poli”, the twelve stars of the sky, namely the bishops of the Southern Province. These were, not counting Athelhard himself, Higbert of Lichfield, Kenwalch or Eadbald of London, Kinbert of Winchester, Unwona of Leicester, Ceolwulf of Lindsey, Denefrith of Sherborne, Aelhun of Dunwich, Alheard of Elmham, Heathred of Worcester, Ceolmund of Hereford, Wiothun of Selsey, Weremund of Rochester.
[105] “Consacerdotes.”
[106] Prov. xviii. 19. The Vulgate and the Septuagint versions give the force of the passage in Alcuin’s sense. The Authorised Version gives, “A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city.” The Revised Version agrees exactly with the A.V.
[107] Gildus, in Alcuin.
[108] It may be supposed that Offa was engaged in building an abbey church at St. Albans. William of Malmesbury says of the church built by Offa in honour of St Alban (Gesta Regum, i. 4): “The relics of St. Alban, at that time buried in obscurity, he had reverently taken up and placed in a shrine decorated to the fullest extent of royal munificence with gold and jewels; a church of most beautiful workmanship was there erected, and a society of monks assembled.” The black stones may have been wanted for pavements.
[109] Pope Hadrian I. He died December 27, 795, having held the Papacy for twenty-three years, with great distinction, at a most important time in its history.
[110] Simeon of Durham, under the year 795.
[111] This would naturally mean Ireland at that time, but it is far from clear that Ireland is meant.
[112] Isa. i. 4.
[113] Offa died July 26, 796, and Ecgfrith died in the middle of December in the same year, after a reign of 141 days.
[114] In each of these two cases the new king was, in this year 796, most unexpectedly raised to the throne from a comparatively poor position, in which he had married a wife of his own position. Alcuin fears that they will be tempted to cast off the early wife and take some lady more fitted for a throne.
[115] This prophecy was not fulfilled. It was not till nine years after the date of this letter that Eardwulf was expelled from the kingdom.
[116] Prov. xx. 28.
[117] Ps. xxiv. 10, Vulgate; xxv. 10, A. V.; xxv. 10, Psalter.
[118] Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 521, from William of Malmesbury, G. R. i. 4.
[119] A mancus was more than one-third of a pound, but that conveys no real idea to the modern mind of its actual value.
[120] Gesta Regum, i. 4.
[121] Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, iii. 483. The names stand as follows: “+ Ego Offa Rex Dei dono propriam donationis libertatem signo sanctæ crucis confirmo. + Ego Ecgferth, filius Regis, consensi. + Signum Hygeberhti Archiepiscopi. + Signum Ceolulfi Episcopi. + Signum Æthelheardi Archiepiscopi.” Followed by eight bishops and three abbats.
[122] It has already been noted that Alcuin found it very difficult to shed tears.
[123] “Ceolmund the duke,” “Ceolmund the minister,” often appears in the Mercian documents of the time.
[124] Simeon of Durham, under the year 779, has the entry, Duke Aldred, the slayer of King Ethelred, was slain by Duke Thorhtmund in revenge for his lord.
[125] This amounts to an official representation of the three great powers, the West Saxons, the Mercians, and the Northumbrians.
[126] Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 486.
[127] An Irishman.
[128] From 784 to 819.
[129] Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 487.
[130] We know nothing certain of this person.
[131] We cannot trace his pedigree.
[132] Simeon of Durham says that he committed suicide.
[133] In theory, at least, we know better now.
[134] A.D. 779 to 788.
[135] James ii. 13.
[136] Pet. iv. 17.
[137] He died in 703.