Theology on the Web provides free access to thousands of theological books and articles to over 3 million visitors a year. Please consider supporting Theology on the Web so that this service can remain online
Synopsis
ALCUIN (Ealwine, Alcñwin,
Alchuin, Latinized Flaccus Albinus), b. at York about 735; d. at
Tours, May 19, 804; received a monastic education in the celebrated school of
York, the repreentative of Irish learning on Anglo-Saxon ground, and became in
766 the master of the school himself. In 782, returning home from a journey to
Rome, he met Charlemagne at Pavia, and was by
him invited to assume the leadership of this palatial school, in which the sons
of the most prominent Frankish noblemen were educated. He accepted the
invitation, and was endowed with the abbeys of Bethlehem at Ferrières,
and St Lupus at Troyes, to which, in 796, was added that of St. Martin at
Tours. Thus living at the court, giving instruction to the king himself, and
superintending the schools of the whole realm, Alcuin became one of the most
prominent members of that circle of great men, which, with Charlemagne as its
centre, stood at the head of the whole civilizing movement of the age.
Charlemagne employed him several times as a political negotiator, especially in
transactions with England; but his proper place was as the ecclesiastical
councillor of the king, and in this field his influence was decisive... Towards
the close of his life he left the administration of the several monasteries
under his authority to his pupils, and retired into monastic seclusion.
The ideal which forms the inspiration of
Alcuin’s whole life is that of a Christian state in which every thing is
pervaded by a religious spirit, and regulated by the laws of the church; and he
looked with admiration and awe to the realization of this ideal, which the
energy and success of Charlemagne seemed to promise. Theology he consequently
considered as the principal element of education. His own theology is wholly
positive, without originality, derived from the Fathers. He wrote both on
dogmatics: De Fide Sanctae et Individuce Trinitatis; De Trinitate ad
Fridigisum Quaestiones; Libellus de processione Spiritus Sancti,
etc.; and on exegetics. In his exegetical writings the mystico-allegorical
method predominates. Classical learning, However, must not be neglected for
theology. Classical and ecclesiastical traditions belong together; and, by
combining them, the Christian Church becomes the true guardian of civilization.
The Christian state which Charlemagne is establishing shall be a new Athens, of
a higher stamp, - an Athens in which Christ is the master of the academy, and
the seven arts an introduction to the septuple fulness of the holy Spirit. In
the classical field, however, Alcuin himself was only a compilator. He wrote on
grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic. He was a prolific poet, hut the greatest
success in the literary line he achieved by his letters. By Charlemagne’s
orders he revised the Latin Bible in 802, - a service for which we should be
grateful, as he restored God’s word to a state of comparative purity.
Philip Schaff, ed., A Religious
Encyclopaedia or Dictionary of Biblical, Historical, Doctrinal, and Practical
Theology, 3rd edn, Vol. 1. Toronto, New York & London: Funk &
Wagnalls Company, 1894. p.49.
Primary Works
 |
S.
Allott, Alcuin of York. William Sessions Limited, 1974. Pbk. ISBN:
0900657219. pp.174. |
|
Charles Brockden Brown, Alcuin, Bicentennial Ed (1987) Kent State University
Press, 1987. Hbk. ISBN: 0873383281. pp.438. |
 |
George Forrest Browne [1833-1930], Alcuin of York. Lectures delivered in the cathedral church of Bristol in 1907 and 1908. London: SPCK, 1908. pp.329.  pdf [This material is in the Public Domain] |
 |
D.A.
Bullough, "Alcuin and the Kingdom of Heaven," Uta-Renate Blumnethal, ed. Carolingian Essays. Washington, DC.: Catholic University of America
Press, 1983. Hbk. ISBN: 0813205794. pp.1-69. Reprinted in D.A. Bullough, Carolingian Renewal: Sources and Heritage.
Manchester & New York, 1991. |
|
Donald
A. Bullough, Alcuin: Achievement and Reputation. Education and Society
in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Leiden: Brill, 2002. Hbk. ISBN: 9004128654.
pp.528. |
|
Gerald
Ellard, SJ. Master Alcuin, Liturgist. Chicago: Loyola University Press,
1956. pp.xiii + 266. |
|
Eleanor Shipley Duckett [1880-1976], Alcuin, Friend of Charlemagne His World and His Work. New York: Macmillan, 1951. pp.337. |
|
Mary
Garrison, Janet L. Nelson & Dominic Tweddle, Alcuin and Charlemagne: the
Golden Age of York. Maxiprint, 2001. Pbk. ISBN: 0905807189. |
|
![Edgar Charles Sumner Gibson [1848-1924], Northumbrian Saints](images/books3/northumbrian-saints_gibson-tb.jpg) Edgar Charles Sumner Gibson [1848-1924], Northumbrian Saints; or, Chapters from the Early History of the English Church. London: SPCK, 1897. Hbk. pp.127. pdf [This material is in the Public Domain] |
|
Wilhelm
Levison, ed. England and the Continent in the Eighth Century. Oxford:
Oxford University Press Reprints distributed by Sandpiper Books, 1998. ISBN:
0198212321. pp.148-76. |
|
John
Marrenbon, From the Circle of Alcuin to the School of Auxerre: Logic,
Theology and Philosophy in the Early Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1981. ISBN: 052123428X. |
|
 G.S.M. Walker, The Growing Storm. Sketches of Church History from A.D. 600 to A.D. 1350. London: The Paternoster Press, 1961. Hbk. pp.252. pdf [All reasonable efforts have been made to contact the copyright holder of this article without success. If you hold the rights, please contact me] |
|
Luitpold
Wallach, Alcuin and Charlemagne: Studies in Carolingian History and
Literature. Cornell Studies in Classical Philology, 32. Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press, 1959. pp. x + 325. |
|
Andrew Fleming West, Alcuin and the Rise of the Christian Schools. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1892. pp.295. pdf [This material is in the Public Domain] |
|
Ethel Mary Wilmot-Buxton [1870-1923], Alcuin. New York: P.J. Kennedy and Sons, 1922. pp.223. pdf [This material is in the Public Domain] |
Related Subjects
Joseph Pucci, The Poetry of Alcuin of York. A Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Routrledge, 2023. pp.408. [Read on Perlego using subscription or free trial]
