Alcuin of York

by G. F. Browne

The public library at Tours, which is now on the quay facing the Loire, and not at the place, as indicated by the guide-books, where the Mairie stands, has a remarkably interesting collection of manuscripts. Two of the finest of them are undoubtedly of Charlemagne’s time. One of these, Tours No. 22 (St. Martin No. 247) is a beautiful Book of the Gospels, written all in gold on very white parchment, in remarkably perfect condition. The gold employed must have been singularly pure. There are 277 leaves each with double columns of 25 lines, and in all 289 leaves; the size is 12⅖ by 9⅕ inches. The initial letters are quite simple, and in exceedingly good taste. The other, Tours No. 23 (St. Martin No. 174), is also a Book of the Gospels, with 193 leaves, 11⅗ by 9⅕ inches. It has so-called Hibernian initial letters, purple, with interlacements, and birds’ heads with the characteristic eyes and beaks. It is much more probably Anglian than Hibernian, and we may attribute it to the scriptorium of the school of York, or to that of St. Martin of Tours as a copy from a York manuscript. The present librarian assigns it to the writing school of Marmoutier, across the Loire, which he thinks was the chief writing school of Tours in Alcuin’s time. That opinion is founded on a remark in connexion with the first establishment of Marmoutier, to which reference will be made below;[204] the English student may well attribute the MS. to St. Martin’s itself, produced, as a copy, under Alcuin’s own eye, especially as it has always appeared in the catalogue of St. Martin’s and not in that of Marmoutier, and is now classed as a St. Martin’s MS.

The Evangeliarium first mentioned, in gold letters on white parchment, is a book of historic fame. It is the book on which the kings of France down to Louis XIV, in 1650, took their oath of fidelity and protection to St. Martin of Tours, when admitted as abbat and first canon of the collegiate church. The book was bound with great magnificence of gold and gems; and when the Huguenots, under the Prince of Condé, sacked the place, they carried off the rich binding, but fortunately left the manuscript itself quite uninjured. The oath of the kings is written on the reverse of folio 277, in a style closely copied from the manuscript itself, probably in the eleventh or twelfth century, all in small gold capital letters, with a point after every word. The entry runs as follows;—

Hoc est iuramentum regis Francie quod facere tenetur dum primo recipitur in abbatem et canonicum huius ecclesie beati Martini Turonensis.

Ego N. annuente Domino Francorum rex Abbas et canonicus huius ecclesie Beati Martini Turonensis iuro Deo et Beato Martino me de cetero protectorem et defensorem fore huius Ecclesie in omnibus necessitatibus et utilitatibus suis custodiendo et conservando possessiones honores iura privilegia libertates franchisias et immunitates eiusdem Ecclesie quantum divino fultus adiutorio secundum posse meum recta et pura fide sic me Deus adiuvet et hec sancta verba.

The first king who held the secular abbacy of St. Martin of Tours was Charles the Bald, Charlemagne’s grandson, who became king of France (Neustria) in 843, about thirty years after Charlemagne’s death. There were ecclesiastical abbats till the year 845, when the Count Vivian became the first lay abbat. After Charles the Bald it is probable that the kings held the abbacy. Hugh Capet (987-996) united the title of Abbat of St. Martin to that of King of France. The fifteen kings from Louis VII in 1137 to Louis XIV in 1630 took the oath on this book on admission to the abbacy.

The status of the abbat and of the brethren of St. Martin was long in uncertainty. Charlemagne refers to the vague status of the brethren in his letter of rebuke to them, which is given on p. 237; they called themselves canons, or monks, as best suited the necessities of an occasion. Probably there had been a time when the monastery included both secular and regular inmates. It is uncertain also whether the brethren elected the bishop (or archbishop) of Tours, and, indeed, whether they had not a bishop of their own. Hadrian I, addressing the abbat Itherius, who was the first founder of Cormery as a place of residence for regular monks of St. Benedict, writes thus[205] of St. Martin’s—“we decree that it be lawful to have a bishop there as has been from ancient times up to now, by whose preaching the people who come from various parts with devoted mind to the holy thresholds of the said confessor of Christ may receive remedial help from the Creator of souls.” Urban II, in 1096, at the Council of Tours, recognized this, and “united the Martinensian bishopric to the Apostolic See”, a very honourable extinction. We have the names of eight abbats before Itherius. The seventh of them, Wicterbus, was bishop and abbat; the eighth, the immediate predecessor of Itherius, Wulfhard I, was abbat only. It is supposed that the appointment of Alcuin, one of the secular clergy and in deacon’s orders, was a decided step in the secularization of the Abbey, and that his policy was in the same direction. It may be suggested that already in the time of Itherius that abbat was conscious of a secularizing tendency, and on that account founded Cormery; and that Alcuin found the existence of the regular abbey at Cormery a convenient outlet for the remnant of regular brethren at St. Martin’s, and handed St. Martin’s over to his successor, Wulfhard II, as a purely secular foundation. The step to a lay abbacy was then not a long one.

CHAPTER XIII

Further details of the Public Library of Tours.—Marmoutier.—The Royal Abbey of Cormery.—Licence of Hadrian I to St. Martin’s to elect bishops.—Details of the Chapter of the Cathedral Church of Tours.

The Public Library of Tours, as we have seen, has a very large and interesting collection of manuscripts, which have come mainly from three sources, the libraries, namely, of (1) the Cathedral church of Tours, (2) the Monastery known as Marmoutier, and (3) the Collegiate church of St. Martin. Twenty-one other churches and foundations in the neighbourhood contributed manuscripts, besides such collections as the expelled nobles possessed. In 1791 the libraries of the old churches were collected into one depot, the French Church having been organized as a civil institution in that year and monastic vows made illegal. In 1793 the Conseil Général of the Indre-et-Loire ordered that “les livres et manuscrits provenant des maisons religieuses et des émigrés seront placés au ci-devant Évêché, à l’effet de quoi le citoyen Suzor sera averti de l’évacuer au plus tard le 15 mars prochain”. The third floor of the Évêché was used for housing the manuscripts, &c., and by a most fortunate appointment a true lover of the old things was made librarian. This was Dom Jean Joseph Abrassart, ex-religious of Marmoutier. He succeeded in saving a very large proportion of the ancient manuscripts known to be in existence in the neighbourhood, especially those at Marmoutier.