Alcuin of York

by G. F. Browne

We must now turn to the connexion of Karl with Rome, and especially to Alcuin’s advice to him in the matter of declaring himself or being declared emperor. It is a highly noteworthy fact that the Englishman Boniface was the most trusted counsellor of Charlemagne’s father Pepin at the time when it was proposed to raise him from Mayor of the Palace to King of the Franks, and that Alcuin the Englishman was the most trusted counsellor of Charlemagne himself, when it was under consideration that he should be raised or should raise himself from King of the Franks to Emperor of the West.

In 773 Pope Adrian had invited Karl to come to Italy and rid him of the oppressions of the Lombards. The Pope’s messenger could not get through by land, by reason of the Lombard power, and he went by sea. Karl agreed to do as the Pope asked. He went with all his force to Geneva. There he divided his army into two parts, sending his uncle Bernard with one portion by the Mons Jovis (the great St. Bernard, called the Mount of Jove because of the statue of Jupiter Peninus placed at its summit) and himself went by the Mont Cenis. The two parts joined at Clusae on the south side, between Susa and Turin, and proceeded to the siege of Pavia, the Lombard capital. Karl spent his Easter at Rome, and on his return to Pavia took the city and captured the king with his family and treasure.

At this visit he was received at Rome with the highest honours. In return, he confirmed and enlarged the donation of Pepin his father, adding, it is said, large parts of Italy—indeed, almost the whole peninsula. He laid the deed of gift on the tomb of the Apostle Peter.

Karl visited Rome again in 781, and it is this visit that from one point of view most concerns us, for it most concerned the course of Alcuin’s life.

Karl had been to Rome again in the year 787, to visit Pope Adrian and settle terms with the Duchy of Beneventum. He had purposed to devastate the duchy, its bishoprics, and its monasteries; but in council with his bishops and chief men he determined to accept hostages, including the two sons of the hostile Duke, who did not himself dare to see the angry face of Karl. Karl completed his visit by adoring the tombs of the blessed Apostles, and paying there his vows; another sign that the great object of visits to Rome was to visit the tombs of the twin princes of the Apostles, Peter and Paul. He then returned to France and rejoined his wife Fastrada, his sons and daughters, and his court, at Worms.

The all-important visit to Rome came at the end of the year 800. Pope Leo III, elected in 795, had been seized in the spring of 799 by his opponents, among whom two nephews of the late Pope, Adrian, played a leading part, and an attempt had been made to put out his eyes and cut out his tongue. He recovered[172] and escaped, and was called—or fled—to Karl at Paderborn. Leo had on his consecration sent to Karl, as the Patrician, the standard of Rome, the keys of Rome, and even the keys of the tomb of St. Peter, in recognition of his supremacy, the Eastern Emperor Constantine VI being disregarded. Karl was therefore doubly bound to take cognisance of the Pope’s case. There were very grave charges against Leo. Alcuin names[173] adultery and perjury; but he writes very strongly against subjecting Leo to trial on these charges. He has read, he says, that by a canon of the blessed Silvester there must be not less than seventy-two adverse witnesses of blameless life if a pontiff was to be brought to trial. He has read in other canons that the Apostolic See judges, is not judged. What pastor, he asks, in the Church of Christ can be immune, if he who is the head of all the churches is overthrown by malefactors?

We may compare with this the reasons which another member of the trilogy of Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastics and scholars, St. Aldhelm, gave at Rome against condemning the Pope of his time, Sergius, for alleged immoral practices. The reasons were three. First, it was a wretchedly base thing to suspect their own pontiff of crimes. Next, what influence could the Roman pontiff have with the Britons and other nations across the seas, if he was attacked by his own citizens? Lastly, it did not seem likely, it could not be true, that one who remembered that he was set over the whole world would entangle himself in such a sin as this. Unhappily, for long periods in the history of the Papacy, it not only was likely, it was undoubtedly and overtly true.

Leo was received by Karl with great honour, and was sent back to Rome to resume his high office. Karl followed him[174] towards the end of the next year, 800, and was received by him at the twelfth milestone from Rome “with the greatest humility and the greatest honour”. This was on November 23. The next day Leo with great pomp received Karl on the steps of the basilica of St. Peter, made an oration to him, and led him into the church. Seven days later, on December 1, Karl convoked an assembly, and expounded to them his reasons for coming to Rome, the first and most difficult being the need of a judicial inquiry into the charges against the Pope. It turned out that no witness appeared to substantiate the charges; but that seems to have been regarded as insufficient, and a formal abjuration was made by Leo. The Pope, Eginhart[175] says, in the presence of all the people, in the basilica of the blessed Peter the Apostle, carrying in his hands the Gospel, ascended the ambo, and invoking the name of the Holy Trinity, purged himself by oath from the crimes laid against him[176].

On the most sacred day of the Nativity of the Lord, Karl attended Mass at St. Peter’s. As he rose from prayer before the Confessio[177] of the Apostle, Leo placed on his head a crown, the whole Roman people acclaiming—“To Charles Augustus, crowned by God the great and pacific Emperor of the Romans, life and victory!” After which the Pope adored him, that is, prostrated himself before the emperor and kissed his feet, as had been the custom with the former emperors. The title of Patrician was abandoned, and Charlemagne became Imperator and Augustus.