CHAPTER VIII
Alcuin’s letters to King Eardulf and the banished intruder Osbald.—His letters to King Ethelred and Ethelred’s mother.—The Irish claim that Alcuin studied at Clonmacnoise.—Mayo of the Saxons.
Alcuin had grievous anxieties about the manner of life of the kings of his native province, and the continual revolutions and disputed successions. Things got worse as he grew into older age—old age as it was then counted.
In the previous chapter we have seen a letter of his to Ethelred, the King of Northumbria, under date 793. He wrote another letter to him in that same year, which he addressed in the following affectionate form:—“To my most excellent son Ethelred the king, to my most sweet friends Osbald the patrician and Osbert the duke, to all the friends of my brotherly love, Alchuin the levite desires eternal beatitude.”
In the year 796 Ethelred, as we have seen, was killed in a faction fight, after putting to death the last two males of the royal line of Eadbert, the brother of Archbishop Ecgbert, and was succeeded by “my most sweet friend Osbald the patrician”, who, however, only reigned twenty-seven days, and had not time to strike any coins with his name and effigy. Eardulf, a man of considerable position, succeeded. He was in a very full manner recognized as king, being consecrated, as Simeon of Durham tells us (A.D. 796), “in the Church of St. Peter, at the altar of the blessed apostle Paul, where the race of the Angles first received the grace of baptism.” On this altar, see [page 81].
It is an interesting fact that we have two letters of Alcuin, written, the one to (28) Osbald on his banishment, the other to (29) Eardulf on his succession to the throne from which Osbald had been banished. It can very seldom have happened that a man has had to write two letters under such conditions.
Ep. 65. A.D. 796.
“To the illustrious man Eardwulf the King, Alchuine[141] the deacon sends greeting.
“Mindful of the old friendship to which we are pledged, and rejoicing greatly in thy venerated salutation, I am at pains to address thy laudable person with a letter on a few points touching the prosperity of the kingdom conferred on thee by God, and the salvation of thy soul, and the manner in which the honour put into thy hands by the gift of God may remain stable.
“Thou knowest very well from what dangers the divine mercy has freed thee,[142] and how easily, when it would, it has brought thee to the kingdom. Be always grateful, and mindful of such very great gifts of God to thee; that as far as thou canst the will of God thou wilt do with thy whole heart; and be obedient to the servants of God who keep thee warned of His Commandments. Know of a surety that none other can preserve thy life than He who hath freed thee from present death; and none can protect and keep thee in that honour of thine but He who of His free pity hath granted that dignity to thee. Keep diligently in thy mind mercy and justice, for, as Solomon says, and, more than that, God allows, in mercy and justice shall the throne of a kingdom be established.
“Consider most intently for what sins thy predecessors have lost their kingdom and their life, and take exceeding care that thou do not the like, lest the same judgement fall on thee. The perjuries of some God has condemned; the adulteries of others He has punished; the avarice and deceits of others He has avenged; the injustice of others has displeased Him. God is no respecter of persons, and those who do such things shall not possess the kingdom of God. Instruct first thyself in all goodness and soberness, and afterwards the people over whom thou art set, in all modesty of life and of raiment, in all truth of faith and of judgements, in keeping the Commandments of God and in probity of morals. So wilt thou both stablish thy kingdom, and save thy people, and rescue them from the wrath of God, which by sure signs has long been hanging over them.
“Never would so much blood of nobles and of rulers be poured forth in your nation, never would the pagans lay waste holy places, never would such injustice and arrogance prevail among the people, if it were not that the manifest vengeance of God hangs over the inhabiters of the land. Do thou, preserved as I believe for better times, kept to set thy country right, do thou, by God’s grace aiding thee, work out with full intent, in God’s will, the safety of thine own soul and the prosperity of the country and the people committed to thy charge; so that out of the setting-right of those subject to thy rule, thy kingdom here on earth may be stablished, and the glory of the kingdom to come be granted to thee and thy descendants.
“Let this letter, I pray you, be kept with you, and very often read, for the sake of thy welfare and of my love, that the omnipotent God may deign to preserve thee in the increase of His holy church for the welfare of our race, flourishing long time in thy kingdom and advancing in all that is good.”
That letter finished, Alcuin proceeded next to write to the expelled usurper Osbald. He did not mince matters; he dealt, as people say, very faithfully with him.
Ep. 66. A.D. 796.
“To my loved friend Osbald,[143] Alchuine the deacon sends greeting.
“I am displeased with thee, that thou didst not obey me when I urged thee in my letter of more than two years ago to abandon the lay life and serve God according to thy vow. And now a worse, a more disastrous fate has come upon thy life. Turn again, turn again and fulfil thy vow. Seek an opportunity for entering upon the service of God, lest thou perish with those infamous men, if indeed thou art innocent of the blood of thy lord.[144] But if thou art guilty, by consent or design, confess thy sin; be reconciled with God, and leave the company of the murderers. The love of God and of the saints is better for thee than that of evil-doers.
“Add not sin to sin by devastating thy country, by shedding blood. Think how much blood of kings, princes, and people has been shed by thee and thy kinsmen. Unhappy generation, from which so many evils have happened to the land. Set thyself free, I beseech thee by God, that thou perish not eternally. While there is time, run, hasten, hurry, to the mercy of God, who is ready to receive the penitent and to comfort them that turn to Him; lest a day come when thou wouldest and canst not. Do not incur the shame of giving up what thou hast begun. There is more shame in your soul perishing eternally than in deserting in the present impious men. Better still if you can convert some of them from the wickedness they have committed: do your best, that you may have the reward of your own repentance and of other’s repentance too. This is the love that covereth a multitude of sins; do this, and live happily and fare well in peace.
“I beg that you will have this letter frequently read in your presence, that you may be mindful of yourself in God, and may know what care I have, distant though I am, of your welfare.
“If you can at all influence for good the people[145] among whom you are in exile, do not neglect the opportunity, that you may by God’s grace the earlier reach your own recovery.”
The murder of Ethelred gave rise to this letter. Alcuin had been very faithful in his advice to Ethelred, as the following letter well shows. It is very carefully composed, and a great anxiety breathes in every balanced phrase.
Ep. 42. 790-795.
“To the most beloved lord Aedelred the king Alchuine the deacon sends greeting.
“The intimacy of love urges me to write an intimate letter to thee alone.[146] Because I shall always love thee I shall never cease to admonish thee, in order that, being subdued to the will of God thou mayest be made worthy of His protection, and the nobility of the royal dignity may be made honourable by nobility of conduct.
“No man is free or noble who is the slave of sin. The Lord says,[147] ‘Whosoever committeth sin is the slave of sin.’ It becometh not thee, seated on the throne of the kingdom, to live like common men. Anger should not be lord over thee, but reason. Pity should make thee loveable, not cruelty hateful. Truth should proceed from thy mouth, not falsehood. Be to thine own self conscious of chasteness, not of lust; of self-control, not of riotous living; of sobriety, not of drunkenness. Be not notable in any sin, but laudable in every good work. Be large in giving, not greedy in taking. Let justice embellish all thine actions. Be the type of honour to all that see thee. Do not, do not, take other men’s goods by force lest thou lose thine own. Fear God who has said ‘with what judgement ye judge ye shall be judged.’ Love the God Christ and obey His commands, that His mercy may preserve in blessing to thee, and to thy sons and followers, the kingdom which He has willed that thou shouldest hold, and may deign to grant the glory of future beatitude.
“May the omnipotent God cause to flourish in felicity of reign, in dignity of life, in length of prosperity, thee, my most beloved son.”
We have letters written by Alcuin to Etheldryth the mother of king Ethelred, queen of Ethelwold Moll, king of Northumbria 759 to 765, who married her at Catterick in 762. In her widowhood she became an abbess, ruling over a mixed monastery of men and women, as is shown by the following letter, written before Ethelred’s violent death:—
Ep. 50. A.D. 793-796.
“To the most loved sister in Christ the Mother Aedilthyde the humble levite Alchuine sends greeting.
“When I gratefully received the gifts of your benignity, and gladly heard the salutation of your love, I confess that I was made glad by a great sweetness. For I knew that faithful love remained constant in your breast, which neither distance by land nor the stormy wave of tidal sea could stop from flying to me with beneficent munificence, even as it is said, ‘Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.’[148]
“That thou mayest be worthy to hear in the day of judgement the voice of God saying, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant,’ instruct with instant care those that are under thee, admonish them by word, perfect them by example, for their safety is thy reward. Be not silent for fear of man, but for love of God speak, convince, rebuke, beseech. Them that sin openly chastise before all,[149] that the rest may fear. Some admonish in the spirit of gentleness, others seize in the pastoral staff, diligently thinking out the remedy which best suits each. Sweet potions cure some; bitter, others. Honour the old women and the old men as mothers and fathers; love the youthful as brothers and sisters; teach the little ones as sons and daughters; have care for all in Christ, that in Christ you may have reward for all.
“Let thy vigils and prayers be frequent; let psalms be in thy mouth, not vain talk on thy tongue; the love of God in thy heart, not worldly ambition in thy mind; for all that is loved in the world passes away, all that is esteemed in Christ remains. Whether we will or no, we shall be eternal. We should study with all intentness faithfully there to live where we are always to remain.
“Honour frequently with divine praise and alms to the poor the festivals of saints, that you may be worthy of their intercession and partakers of their bliss. Let thy discourses be laudable for their truth; thy conduct loveable for its sobriety and modesty; thy hands honourable for their free giving. Let the whole round of your life be an example in all goodness to others, that the dignity of your person be praised by all, be loved by many, and the name of God through thee be praised; as the Truth Itself saith, ‘Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.’”
The line which Alcuin takes in attempting to console Etheldryth after the violent death of a son who had lived a violent life, was a remarkable one.
Ep. 62.
“I cannot in bodily presence address by word of mouth your most sweet affection, because we live so far apart. I therefore do by the ministry of a letter that which is denied to my tongue. With all the power of my heart, I desire that you go forward in every good thing, most dear mother, and be made worthy to be counted in the number of them of whom, in the gospel, our Lord Jesus Christ made answer, ‘Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my mother and my brother.’[150] How ‘mother,’ unless He is daily generated by holy love in the bowels of a perfect heart? See what a Son a pious mother can have—that same God, King, Redeemer, in all tribulations Consoler.
“Many are the tribulations of the just, but more are the consolations of Christ. By what event of secular misery should one be beaten who possesses in his breast the source of all consolation, that is, Christ indwelling. Nay, rather should such an one rejoice in tribulations, because of the hope of eternal beatitude, as the Apostle says, ‘By much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God,’ and, ‘The Lord chasteneth every son whom He receiveth’; and of the Apostles He saith, ‘They departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.’
“Let your love know that your spiritual Son the Lord Jesus is not mortal. He lives, He lives, on the right hand of God He lives and reigns.
“Be not broken down by the death of your son after the flesh, the departure of his body, but labour every hour, every moment, that his soul may live in happiness with Christ. Let the hope of His goodness be your consolation, for many are the mercies of God. He has left thee thy son’s survivor that through thy intercessions and alms He may have mercy on him too. It may be that he died in his sins, but in the divine pity it may be wrought that he live; for the robber who in his wickedness hanged with Christ was saved in the mercy of Christ. Mourn not for him whom you can not recall. If he is with God, mourn him not as lost, but be glad that he has gone before you into rest. If there are two friends, the death of the first to die is happier than the death of the other, for he has one to intercede for him daily with brotherly love, and to wash with tears the errors of his earlier life. And doubt not that the care of pious solicitude which you have for his soul is profitable. It profits thee and him. Thee, that thou dost it in faith and love; him, that either his pain is lightened or his bliss is increased. Great and inestimable is the pity of our Lord Jesus Christ, who would have all men be saved and none perish.”
Our next episode takes us back to York, where one of Alcuin’s own pupils was elected to the archbishopric. It may be well to mention here, and to dispose of, a curious question which has been raised in connexion with Alcuin’s studies in the time of his youth, pursued as we believe only at York.
Ep. 14. A.D. 790.
Alcuin is claimed by the Irish as one of the many English youths who were brought up in Irish monasteries, and they name Clonmacnoise as the place of study. Dr. John Healy, the learned Roman Bishop of Clonfert, writes thus[151]:—“There is fortunately a letter of his still preserved, which shows quite clearly that he was a student of Clonmacnoise, and a pupil of Colgu, and which also exhibits the affectionate veneration that he retained through life for his Alma Mater at Clonmacnoise.” But the letter does not bear that interpretation, and, indeed, the learned bishop has to read Hibernia instead of Britannia in the only place where the island of Colgu’s home is named, or to understand an implied contrast between Britain and Ireland which would be too obscure in a perfectly simple matter. “I have sent to your love”, Alcuin says, “some oil, which now scarcely exists in Britain, that you may supply it where the bishops need it, for the furtherance of the honour of God.[152] I have sent also to the brethren, of the alms of King Karl[153]—I beseech you, pray for him—fifty sicles[154], and of my own alms fifty sicles; to the brethren of Baldhuninga to the south, thirty sicles of the alms of the king and thirty of my own alms, and twenty sicles of the alms of the father of the family of Areida and twenty of my own alms; and to each of the anchorites three sicles of pure gold, that they may pray for me and for the lord King Charles.”
There is nothing here that points to Ireland except the name of the person to whom the letter is addressed, Colcu, whom Alcuin speaks of as “the blessed master and pious father”. The name Baldhuninga is very Northumbrian, the home of the family of Baldhun. The mention of anchorites has been supposed to look like Ireland, but we must remember that Alcuin himself, in singing the praises of the saints of the Church of York, tells of the life of only two persons of his own time other than kings and archbishops, and they were anchorites.[155] The gift of money from the father-of-the-family of Areida clearly comes from some one in Gaul who is very closely associated with Alcuin himself. It so happens that the Abbey of Tours had a small cell dedicated to St. Aredius, and the suggestion may be hazarded that the little family of monks there sent through their prior the twenty sicles which Alcuin doubled. It is evident that Colcu had conferred benefits on those in whom Alcuin was specially interested, and we may suppose that on some visit to Alcuin he had delivered a course of lectures by which the monks of St. Aredius had profited. He was probably a professor (his actual title was lector, a name still kept up for a public lecturer at the University of Cambridge) at the School of York. There was a famous Reader in Theology of the same name, or as much the same as any one can expect in early Erse, Colgan or Colgu, who lived and lectured at Clonmacnoise and died there in 794, four years after Alcuin wrote this letter at the beginning of the year 790. It is of course tempting to suppose that this famous Irishman, the first Ferlegind or Lector recorded in the Irish Annals, was the Colcu to whom Alcuin wrote, the Colcu of whom Alcuin in a letter written at the end of this same year 790 said that he was with him and was well. That letter was addressed to one of Alcuin’s pupils, Joseph, whose master the letter says Colcu had been. On the whole, we must take it that our Colcu was too closely associated with Alcuin’s teaching and with Northumbria to be the Colgu of whom Bishop Healy says that though he was a Munster-man by birth he seems to have lived and died at Clonmacnoise. But it is another puzzling coincidence that Simeon of Durham records the death of Colcu, evidently as of one who had worked in the parts of which he was commissioned to write, in the year of the death of Colgu of Clonmacnoise, 794: “Colcu, presbyter and lector, migrated from this light to the Lord.”
Ep. 217. A.D. 792-804.
We have a letter of Alcuin’s addressed to “the most noble sons of holy church who throughout the breadth of the Hibernian island are seen to serve Christ the God in the religious life and in the study of wisdom”. In this letter Alcuin fully recognizes that in the old time most learned masters used to come from Hibernia to Britain, Gaul, and Italy, and did excellent work among the churches. But beyond that, the letter, which is far from a short one, is so completely vague that it is impossible to imagine that Alcuin had studied in Ireland, or had had the help, in England or in France, of one of the most famous of Irish teachers from one of the most famous of their seats of religion and learning.
Ep. 276.
The same impression is given by Alcuin’s letter to the monks of Mayo, of whom he naturally knew more. When the Conference of Whitby went against the Scotic practices, Bishop Colman retired, first to Iona, then to Inisbofin, and then to the place in Ireland now called Mayo, where he settled the thirty Anglo-Saxon monks who had accompanied him, leaving the Scotic monks, formerly of Lindisfarne, in Inisbofin, “the island of the white heifer.” Bede tells us that Mayo was kept supplied by English monks, so that it was called Mayo of the Saxons. Curiously enough they kept up the practice of having a bishop at their head in succession to their first head, Bishop Colman of Lindisfarne. There were bishops of Mayo down to 1559. In Alcuin’s time Mayo was still a Saxon monastery. The Irish Annals of the Four Masters mention a Bishop Aedan of Mayo, in 768; but his real name was English, Edwin, not Irish, Aedan, as we learn from Simeon of Durham. Alcuin must certainly have mentioned his own visit to Ireland in his letter to the monks of Mayo, if such a visit had ever taken place. The letter was written late in his life. He tells them that when he lived in Northumbria he used to hear of them from brethren who visited England. He reminds them that for the love of Christ they had chosen to leave their own country, and live in a land foreign to them, and be oppressed by nefarious men. He urged them to keep zealously the regular life, as established by their holy predecessors; and to devote themselves to study, for a great light of knowledge had come forth from them, and had lighted many places in Northumbria. The lord bishop they must hold as a father in all reverence and love, and he must rule them and their life with all fear in the sight of God.
The story of the migration from Lindisfarne to Mayo, as told by Bede (H. E. iv. 4), is so quaintly Irish in its main part, that it may fairly be told here in Bede’s words. After stating that Colman took with him all the Scotic monks of Lindisfarne, and thirty Saxons, and went first to Iona, he proceeds thus:—
“Then he went away to a small island some distance off the west coast of Hibernia, called in the Scotic tongue Inis-bofin, that is, the Isle of the White Heifer. There he built a monastery, and in it he placed the monks of both nations whom he had brought with him. They could not agree among themselves; for the Scots left the monastery when the summer came and harvest had to be gathered in, and roamed about through places with which they were acquainted. When winter came they returned to the monastery, and claimed to live on what the English had stored. Colman felt that he must find some remedy. Looking about near and far he found a place on the main land suitable for the construction of a monastery, called in the Scots tongue Mageo. He bought a small portion of the land from the earl to whom it belonged, on which to build, on condition that the monks placed there should offer prayers to God for him who had allowed it to be purchased. With the help of the earl and all the neighbours he built the monastery and placed the English monks in it, leaving the Scots on Inisbofin. The monastery is to this day held by English monks. It has grown large from small beginnings, and is commonly called Mageo[156]. All has been brought into good order, and it contains an excellent body of monks, collected from the province of the Angles. They live by the labour of their own hands in great continence and simplicity, after the example of their venerable fathers, under the Rule and under a canonical abbat.”
Bede appears to have not known anything of a bishop-abbat of Mayo.
It is clear that the bishop-abbat acted as a diocesan bishop in the neighbourhood of Mayo. In the year 1209 the Irish Annals record the death of Cele O’Duffy, Bishop of Magh Eo of the Saxons, the name Magh Eo, or Mageo, meaning the Plain of Yews. In 1236 Mayo of the Saxons was pillaged by a Burke, who “left neither rick nor basket of corn in the church-enclosure of Mayo, or in the yard of the church of St. Michael the Archangel; and he carried away eighty baskets out of the churches themselves”. It was for protection in such raids that the round towers were built adjoining the churches. In 1478 the death of Higgins, Bishop of Mayo of the Saxons, is recorded. The see was about that time annexed to Tuam so completely that the Canons of Mayo ceased to have the status of Canons of a Cathedral Church. Alcuin used the form Mugeo, not Mageo, and Simeon of Durham calls it “Migensis ecclesia”. This last form explains the signature—or rather the “subscription”—of one of six bishops present at a Council under King Alfwold of Northumbria in 786, “Ego Aldulfus Myiensis ecclesiae episcopus devota voluntate subscripsi[157].”