“Let peace be made with those wicked Saxons, if that can be done. Let threats be to some extent relaxed, so that men may not be hardened and driven away, but may be kept in hope until by wholesome counsel they be brought back to peace. Hold on to what has been won from them, lest if they are allowed to gain a little, the larger part be lost. Keep safe your own sheep-fold, that the ravening wolf devour not it. Let such labour be spent on outside affairs that no loss be suffered in your own affairs. Some time ago I spoke to your piety about the exaction of tithes: that it is decidedly better to abstain from the exaction, even for a considerable time, until the faith has got its roots fixed in the hearts, if indeed that Saxon land be held worthy of the choice of God. Those who have gone away were the best Christians, as is well known; and those who remained have continued in the dregs of wickedness. For by reason of the sins of the people, Babylon has become the habitation of devils, as it is said in the prophets.
“None of these things can have been overlooked by thy wisdom; for we know how well learned thou art in the sacred scriptures and in secular histories. From all of these full knowledge has been given to thee by God, that by thee the holy Church of God among a Christian people may be ruled, exalted, and preserved. What reward may be given by God to thy best devotion, who is able to say? For eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
Alcuin ends his letter with a pair of hexameters and some elegiacs, both because Karl was interested in his versification, and—we may suppose—because high-flown compliments, from which Karl was not averse, come better in so-called poetry than in prose.
“From lofty heaven may Christ in mercy mild
Thee rule, exalt, defend, adorn, and love.
The holy stars of the sky, the grasses of the green earth,
All things together cry, May David prosper alway.
The earth and the sky and the sea, the men and the birds and the beasts,
Cry with concordant voice, Father be it well with thee.”
As we are dealing with the relations of the Papacy with the Franks, it may be well to say here something that ought to be said about the demands of the Popes for money and territories. The two demands which may on the whole be called the most monstrous of all the long series, were made, the one probably, the other certainly, in Alcuin’s time: one by Hadrian, to influence Karl, the other by one of his predecessors to influence Karl’s father, Pepin.