Alcuin’s letters to Charlemagne’s sons.—Recension of the
Bible.—The “Alcuin Bible” at the British Museum.—Other supposed
“Alcuin Bibles”.—Anglo-Saxon Forms of Coronation used at the
coronations of French kings.
There is in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris a letter headed
“In nomine Dei summi incipit scriptum Albini magistri ad Karolum
imperatorem”. It is, however, held to be uncertain whether the letter is
addressed to the emperor or to his son Charles, who died some three years
before his father. The internal evidence appears to be decidedly against
its having been addressed to the emperor. Alcuin could not have denied
himself the pleasure of referring to the emperor when he mentions king
David as the authority for his advice, and we have no letter of Alcuin to
the emperor so completely free from honorific titles and phrases, with
nothing but the simple _vos_ throughout. It is to be said on the other
hand that the author of the _Life of the blessed Alchuin the Abbat_, with
which we dealt fully in Chapters I and II, refers[226] to a _libellus_
which Alcuin wrote for Charlemagne, setting forth the psalms which he was
to use according as penitence, tribulation, or joy, was his theme.
The interest of the letter in question fortunately lies in its advice,
not in the person to whom the advice is given. This is the letter, with
its ordinary heading:—
[Sidenote: Ep. 244.]
“Alcuin dedicates to Charles the Emperor a breviary[227] of prayer to God.
“The blessed David, the great king and servant of God most high, gave us
the rule of singing, how man should pour forth prayers to God at certain
stated hours. ‘Seven times a day,’ he says, ‘do I praise Thee,’—that
is, at the first hour of the day, the second, third, sixth, ninth, the
evening hour, and the twelfth. David the king, then, gave praise to God
at these seven hours. The holy Daniel, the prophet, at the third, sixth,
and ninth hour of the day, went into his chamber to pray to the Lord,
and with hands stretched upward to Heaven entreated God for himself and
for the people of Israel. The same David said[228] further, ‘I will make
mention of Thy righteousness only.’ And again, ‘At midnight I will rise
to give thanks unto thee,’ that is, at the hour of night. And again he
says, ‘I have thought upon Thy name in the night season,’ that is, at
cock-crow. And, ‘Have I not remembered Thee in my bed, and thought upon
Thee when I was waking?’ Here are three courses of the office during the
night, and seven by day, making the ten courses which we sing, following
the number of the ten laws of Moses. But you have asked me to write to
you in a net form the order in which a layman in active life should pray
to God at the stated hours. You live after a Christian fashion, and you
desire to do Christian deeds; you are not ignorant how prayer should be
made to the Lord; but at your request I will briefly state my opinion.
When you have risen from your bed, say first ‘O Lord Jesu Christ, son
of the living God, in Thy name will I lift up my hands, make haste to
deliver me.’ Say this thrice, with the psalm ‘Ponder my words, O Lord,
consider my meditation. O hearken thou unto the voice of my calling, my
king and my God, for unto Thee will I make my prayer. My voice shalt thou
hear betimes, O Lord, early in the morning will I direct my prayer unto
Thee.’ Then, ‘Our Father,’ and the prayers, ‘Vouchsafe O Lord to keep us
this day,’ ‘Perfect my steps,’ ‘Praised be the Lord daily,’ ‘Direct and
sanctify,’ ‘O Lord let Thy mercy lighten upon us.’ Then, rising, begin
the verse ‘Thou shalt open my lips, O Lord’. When that is ended, with
the Gloria, begin the psalm ‘Lord how are they increased’. Then follows
‘God be merciful unto me’. Then ‘O come, let us sing unto the Lord’. Then
psalms, as many as you will.”
We have two letters of Alcuin which were certainly written to Charles
the king, the eldest son of Charlemagne. The first was written in 801 to
congratulate Charles on his anointment as king by Leo III on the same day
(Christmas Day, 800) that saw his father crowned as emperor.
[Sidenote: Ep. 162.]
“I have heard from the lord apostolic [Leo III] that with the consent of
the most excellent Lord David [Charlemagne] the title of king and the
crown of kingly dignity have been conferred upon you. I greatly rejoice
in the honour both of the title and of the power. I pray that your
dignity and nobleness may be for the safety of many peoples, nations,
and churches of Christ; may be glorious in the world and terrible to the
adversaries of the Christian religion; may be vigorous and strong through
a long season of prosperity; and with the blessing of God may always
follow after better things, ascend to higher, and grow even unto the
perfect day of eternal blessedness.
“Do justice, my best-loved son, and mercy, among Christian people, for it
is these, as Solomon testifies, that exalt the throne of a kingdom and
render the kingly power laudable and pleasing to God. Have as counsellors
men good, pious, prudent, and god-fearing; men in whom truth reigns, not
covetousness, for the gift blindeth the wise and perverteth the words
of the righteous.[229] Never allow the dishonesty of others to sully
the name of your dignity, nor permit others to do with wicked mind in
covetousness that which you would not yourself do; the fault of the
subject is often imputed to the ruler. Let not the impious will of some,
under the name of thy beatitude, fill their money-bags with the mammon of
unrighteousness.
“Good examples are not far to seek. In the home in which you were brought
up you have the best examples of all goodness. You may have perfect
confidence that you will by the gift of God attain to the blessing of
that most excellent and in all honour most noble father of thine, ruler
and emperor of a Christian people, if you strive to imitate the manner
of his nobility and piety and complete discretion; and will most fully
obtain the mercy of God, which is better than all the glory of the world.
“Wheresoever your way may lead, may the footsteps of piety ever follow
thee, that you may have praise of men and eternal reward with God.”
Alcuin must needs end a congratulatory letter to a royalty with hexameter
and pentameter:—
Prosperous even for ever be thou great hope of the nations.
Be to thee Christ as love, light, way, and safety, and life.
The next letter to King Charles was probably later. It seems to indicate
some anxiety on the part of Alcuin, and, indeed, Charles was not as fine
a character as his brother Louis, who is mentioned in this letter. Alcuin
would appear to have kept a copy of the former letter, and to have made a
good deal of it do service a second time.
[Sidenote: Ep. 245.]
“I rejoice, my dearest son, in the devotion of your good will which Osulf
your attendant has narrated to me, whether as regards the largeness of
your alms-giving, or as regards the gentleness of your rule. Know of a
surety that all this is greatly pleasing to God, and deserves at the hand
of His mercy perpetual blessing. Do thou, my son, my dearest son, always
to the utmost of your power work for the honour of God Almighty in all
goodness and piety; following the example of your most excellent father
in all honesty and sobriety, that the divine clemency of Christ the God
may grant to thee to possess his blessing by right of inheritance.
“Be a pious hearer of the wretched, and judge their cause with the
utmost justness. Do not permit the judges who are under you to judge for
presents and gifts; for gifts, it is said in Holy Scripture, blind the
hearts of the wise, and subvert the words of the just. Hold in honour the
servants of Christ, those who are true servants of God, for some come in
sheeps’ clothing but inwardly are ravening wolves. The Truth says, By
their fruits ye shall know them. Have as counsellors wise men, who fear
God; not flatterers, for a flatterer, as it is said, is a bland enemy
and often seduces those who consent unto him. Be prudent in thought and
cautious in speech; always setting your hope on God, for He never faileth
them whose hope is set on Him.
“Would that it were allowed me more frequently to address a letter of
advice to thy benignity, as the most noble youth Louis your brother has
asked me to do frequently for him. This I have done, and, if God will, I
shall continue to do; he reads my letters with great humility.
“My greatest joy is when I hear—as, indeed, it is right that I should
hear—of a good manner of life on your part. For this is the gift of
God, the prosperity of a kingdom, that the rulers of a Christian people
live most strict lives, and have their conversation among men in a way
pleasing to God. Thus a blessing from heaven is certain to come on the
nation and kingdom, which may God vouchsafe to grant eternally to your
nobility.
“May you flourish, grow, and be strong, advancing in all that is good and
prosperous, to the exaltation of His Holy Church, my dearest son.”
We have only one of Alcuin’s letters to King Pepin, who died young,
leaving a son Bernard who became king on his father’s death.
[Sidenote: Ep. 77.]
“To the most noble and beloved son Pippin Albinus sends greeting in the
love of Christ.
“We give thanks to thy benevolence and to the piety of the lord King
who has piously consented to our petition concerning the redemption of
captives. I know that in such works of piety you earn blessing and a long
and prosperous reign.
“And do thou, most excellent youth, study to adorn nobility of birth by
nobility of conduct. Strive with all thy power to fulfil the will and
the honour of the omnipotent God, that His ineffable piety may exalt the
throne of thy kingdom and extend its bounds, and subject the nations to
thy power. Be liberal to the wretched, good to foreigners, devout in the
service of Christ, treating honourably His servants and His churches that
their sedulous prayer may aid thee. Be clean in conversation, chaste in
body. Rejoice with the wife of thy youth and let not other women have
any part in thee, that the blessing granted unto thee may lead to a long
posterity of descendants.
“Be strong against adversaries, faithful to friends, humble to
Christians, terrible to pagans, affable to the wretched, provident in
council. Use the advice of the old men, the service of the young. Let
equity be the judgement in thy kingdom. Let the praise of God everywhere
resound at the fitting hours, and especially in the presence of thy
piety. This kind of devotion to the offices of the church will render
thee loveable to God and honoured among men. Let thoughts of sobriety be
in your heart, words of truth in your mouth, examples of honour in your
conduct, that the divine clemency may in all ways exalt and preserve thee.
“I pray you let this letter go with you as a testimony of my love. Though
it be not worthy to be hung at the girdle of thy veneration, yet let its
admonition be worthy to be stored in the mind of thy wisdom.”
We must now say something on the part which Alcuin played in connexion
with the revision of the manuscripts of the Bible.
Alcuin is credited with a revision of the whole of the Latin Bible,
both the Old Testament and the New. We have a letter of his in which
he states in precise terms that he had been commissioned by Karl to
correct the corrupted text. The letter is addressed to Gisla, Abbess of
Chelles, Karl’s sister, and Rotruda, Karl’s daughter, whom he addresses
as Columba, the Dove.
[Sidenote: Ep. 136. A.D. 800.]
“I have sent for the solace of your sanctity a small book, written in
short sections, that you may use it during these days[230] for your
holy devotion. In such study you best spend these most holy days, and
especially in the Gospel of the blessed John, wherein are the deeper
mysteries of divinity, and the most holy words of our Lord Jesus Christ
which He spoke on that night when He willed to be betrayed for the
salvation of the world.
“I might have sent you an exposition of the whole Gospel, if I had not
been occupied, by the command of the lord king, in the emendation of the
Old and the New Testament. But if life last and God help, I will, when
occasion serves, finish the task now begun, and dedicate the completed
work to your name.”
[Sidenote: Ep. 137.]
Gisla and Rotruda sent him a delightfully affectionate and bright letter
in reply. They liken Alcuin to Jerome sending the Scriptures from his
cave in Bethlehem to Rome; and in begging him to send the rest of the
commentary on St. John they remind him that the shallow Loire is crossed
with less danger than the Tuscan Sea, and that a messenger gets more
easily from Tours to Paris than from Bethlehem to Rome.
It is certain from the dedicatory verses of Alcuin’s which have been
preserved, that at least four complete copies of the whole Bible had been
corrected by him or under his direction, and sent to the emperor. Of
these, not one is known to be still in existence. Of one of them Alcuin
makes definite mention in the following letter:—
[Sidenote: Ep. 205. A.D. 801-3.]
“To the most desired and entirely loveable David the king Albinus wishes
present prosperity and eternal beatitude in Christ.
“I have long deliberated upon the question what could the devotion of
my mind think of as worthy to be given towards the splendour of your
imperial power and the increase of your most rich treasury. I feared lest
the poor intelligence of my mind should remain torpid in empty idleness,
while others were offering various rich gifts, and the messenger of my
littleness should come before the presence of your beatitude with empty
hands. I have at length, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, found
something which it is fitting that I should send and it may be agreeable
to your prudence to receive.
“In the most sacred solicitude of your piety it is clear beyond doubt
what the Holy Spirit works through you for the safety of the whole
Church, and how earnestly all faithful people should pray that your
empire be extended to full glory, and be loved at home by all God’s
people, and terrible abroad to all the enemies of His Son. To my
questioning and desiring mind, nothing seemed more worthy of your most
peace-giving honour than a present of the divine books, which by the
dictation of the Holy Spirit and the ministration of Christ God have been
written by the pen of divine grace for the salvation of the whole race of
man. These, brought together into the sanctity of one most clear body,
and diligently emended, I have sent to your most lofty authority by this
dearest son of ours and faithful servant of yours, that with full hands
he may with most joyous service stand before your dignity. He has been
ill for a long time, but now that by God’s mercy he has to some extent
recovered, he has with the greatest satisfaction hastened to approach
your piety.
“The small gifts of my tears I send by faithful promise in prayer to
St. Martin for the ardently desired prosperity of your authority. Let
my messenger serve the most pious lord as is fitting; I will pray for
the most loved lord as the visitation of the Holy Spirit shall deign to
illumine my heart. If the devotion of my mind could have found anything
better, I would with ready will offer it towards the increase of your
honour.”
The messenger was Nathanael, that is, Fredegisus. We learn this from
Letter 206, which commences “Albinus greets Nathanael”, and after
addressing him as though he were the real Nathanael who was seen under
the fig-tree by Jesus, proceeds thus:—
[Sidenote: Ep. 206.]
“Salute Lucia my sister and Columba our daughter.[231] Pray them to
be mindful of my old age in sacred prayers and of their own salvation
in good works. And hide not from them the beauty of your wisdom, but
irrigate the flower-beds of good will in them. What is more beautiful
than the flowers of wisdom, which never fade? What is richer than the
wealth of knowledge, which is never exhausted? To this exhort them. Let
them live day and night in meditation on the law of God, that they may
find Him of whom Moses in the law wrote, and the prophets. Bid them hold
Him and not let Him go till they are led into the chambers of the Kings
glory to be supported by flowers of eternal blessedness, the Bridegroom’s
left hand of present prosperity under their head, and the right hand of
eternal bliss embracing them.[232]
“Convey the letter of my littleness, with the most holy gift of divine
Scripture and peaceful words of salutation, to my lord David. To him we
owe as many thanks and praises for all his goodness to me and to my sons
as this Book has syllables; to him may God give as many blessings as in
this Book there are letters.”
The natural supposition is that Alcuin brought—or had sent—from York
accurate copies of the Scriptures, from which he corrected the faulty
manuscripts of France and Germany, to use modern names. Errors were
due, probably, at least as much to mispronunciation on the part of the
person who dictated to the writers, or to mis-hearing on their part, as
to carelessness in transcribing. We have to remember that the practice
was for one monk to read out word by word the sentence which the writers
in the scriptorium were to take down, so that in this way twenty or
thirty—it is said as many as two hundred—copies of a poem or a book could
be written at the same time. This practice gave many opportunities for
error.
We have at the British Museum a magnificent Bible, one of the largest
manuscripts in existence, called Alcuin’s Bible. It contains 449 sheets
of very fine parchment, 20 by 14½ inches. It was purchased for the
Museum in 1836 for £750, the price asked at first being £12,000, reduced
to £6,500 as “an immense sacrifice”. The story of its acquisition, and
the question of its date and its connexion with Alcuin, were stated and
discussed by Sir F. Madden in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ for 1836, pages
358 to 363, 468 to 477, 580 to 587. That able archaeologist believed it
to be of Alcuin’s own time, and, indeed, to be the very copy which Alcuin
presented to Charlemagne in 801, on the completion of the recension which
Karl had entrusted to him. The evidence in favour of this view is found
on the last page of the MS., in some elegiac verses composed by Alcuin.
The verses begin with an appeal from the book itself to its readers that
it may be called a Pandect, and not a Bibliotheca,[233] and after eight
more verses, in which it is called a Codex, they end as follows:—
Mercedes habeat, Christo donante, per aevum
Is Carolus qui iam scribere iussit eum.
Haec dator aeternus cunctorum, Christe, bonorum
Munera de donis accipe sancta tuis,
Quae Pater Albinus, devoto pectore supplex,
Nominis ad laudes obtulit ecce tui;
Quem tua perpetuis conservet dextra diebus,
Ut felix tecum vivat in arce poli.
Pro me quisque legas versus orare memento,
Alchuine dicor ego. Tu sine fine vale.
“May Charles, who bade this book be written, receive eternal rewards. May
the giver of all good accept this offering of His own gifts, which Father
Albinus has made, whom may Thy hand preserve to live with Thee. Thou
who readest these verses, remember to pray for me; my name is Alchuine;
mayest thou for ever fare well.”
That these verses were written in the great Pandect of Alcuin’s
recension, which Alcuin presented to Charlemagne, we may take to be
certain. But we may also take it as certain that they would be written
also in copies made from that special Pandect; and it has been decided
by the most competent modern critics that the Bible in the Museum was not
written till a generation had passed away after Alcuin’s death.
That the verses were entered in other copies also is certain. The Fathers
of the Oratory della Vallicella at Rome had a copy of this recension,
which was believed to be written by Alcuin’s own hand and presented to
Charlemagne. In it there is a long copy of verses, including those in
the Museum Bible, but with curious alterations and additions, which make
it probable that the Vallicella Bible was written for Charlemagne’s
grandson, Charles le Chauve. _Quae Pater Albinus devoto pectore supplex_
is altered into _Quae tibi devoto Carolus rex pectore supplex_, and
verses are added, stating that the Bible was written for a new church
which Charles had just built. The alteration cuts out the personal note
of Alcuin, and the addition cuts out Charlemagne and points to another
Charles. This is far from being the only case in which confusion is
caused by the fact that Charlemagne was himself for many years Charles
the king; that his oldest son was Charles the king; that his grandson was
Charles the king; as also two great grandsons, a great great grandson,
and even two generations further still.
Others besides Alcuin and the royal family were interested in the various
versions of Scripture. For example, his contemporary Theodulf, the
learned bishop of Orleans, sent to his own daughter Gisla a psalter,
radiant with silver and gold, with both the earlier and the later
versions of Jerome.
Our use of the word _Graduale_ for the book containing the words and
the music sung by the choir at the service of the Mass is an evidence
of the large part played by the Gallican Church in the arrangement and
improvement of the early mediaeval service books. Rome spoke of the
Antiphonale Missarum and Antiphonale Horarum, while Gaul spoke of the
Graduale for Mass Music and Antiphonale for the Music of the Hours. Under
Alcuin’s guiding hand, the influence of Charlemagne and his times upon
the services was wide and deep. In the document described as Ep. 31, A.D.
794, Karl has a good deal to say about the success of his own efforts to
put down irregular methods of singing the services, and to bring all into
general accord with the Roman method.[234] Alcuin’s work re-acted upon
the Roman use itself, and is understood to have been the operating cause
of the mark left upon it.
[Sidenote: Ep. 72. A.D. 796.]
Alcuin had strong opinions as to the best manner of singing the services.
In a letter to Eanbald II, he writes thus, for the benefit of the Church
of York:—“Let the clergy chant with moderated voice, striving to please
God rather than men. An immoderate exaltation of voice is a sign of
boastfulness. And let them not be above learning the Roman Orders of
Service, that they may have eternal benediction from the blessed Peter,
chief of the Apostles, whom Our Lord Jesus Christ made the head of His
elect flock.”
Alcuin was versed in secular music also. We learn from Ep. 100 that Karl
had asked him to write peaceful and soothing songs, both words and
music, for soldiers to sing when engaged in the horrors of war, and that
he complied with the request.
We have some very interesting evidences of the borrowing of Anglo-Saxon
manuscripts for use in France, and of the influence of Anglo-Saxon forms
on French services. There are two Anglo-Saxon forms for the coronation
of a king. One of these is found in the Pontifical of Ecgbert, the
Bishop and later the Archbishop of York, to which a date of about 745
may be given. It is merely the supplement to the Mass on the occasion
of a coronation, and accordingly it does not give the details of the
ceremony. The other is a later form, and it gives at length the details
of the ceremony, one of the longest prayers describing the king as raised
to the royal throne of the Angles and Saxons. But, curiously enough,
we learn the most interesting parts of the ceremony of crowning an
Anglo-Saxon king, not from this manuscript, but from three manuscripts
of the form for the coronation of a king of the French. The first of
these to be mentioned is a manuscript form of an Abbat of Corbie. In it
we find the prayer for “This thy servant whom with suppliant devotion we
elect equally to the kingdom of the whole of Albion, that is to say, of
the Franks ... That he may nourish and teach the Church of the whole of
Albion, with the peoples committed to his charge”. Here it would appear
that a marginal note had been added to the Anglo-Saxon form at the first
mention of “Albion”, “that is to say, of the Franks,” and has afterwards
been incorporated in one place and not in the other. The “elect equally”
indicates that the form was used for an Anglo-Saxon king who claimed to
be king of the whole land, while yet the old division into three main
nations was fresh in mind.[235] It is a further evidence in favour of
this being an Anglo-Saxon form, that the only saint mentioned besides the
Blessed Virgin and St. Peter is “Holy Gregory, Apostolic of the Angles”.
In the preparation of the Sens Order, to be mentioned later, this flaw
had been discovered, and St. Denys and St. Remy put in the place of St.
Gregory.
In a manuscript in the National Library of Paris, we have a second Order
for the Coronation of a King of the Franks, which is indubitably an
Anglo-Saxon Order. The following phrases occur: “This thy servant whom
with suppliant devotion we elect equally ... That the sceptre desert
not the royal throne, that is to say, of the Saxons, Mercians, and
Northumbrians (Nordanchimbrorum) ... That supported by the due subjection
of both of these peoples...”
In a third Order for the Coronation of French Kings, from the Pontifical
of the illustrious Church of Sens, we find the prayer “that the sceptre
desert not the royal throne, that is to say, of the Saxons, Mercians, and
Northumbrians (Nordan Cymbrorum)”, and “that the king, supported by the
due subjection of both these peoples....”
It may be added that the French Benedictional of Archbishop Robert, now
at Rouen, has the form “Angles and Saxons”. So late as 1364 Charles V
of France was crowned with a form which named the throne as that of the
Saxons, Mercians, and Northchimbrians; while at the same time the peers
of Guienne swore to protect him against the king of England, his people,
and allies.[236]