Alcuin of York

by G. F. Browne

The monastery of St. Paul at Cormery has a special interest for students of Alcuin. William of Malmesbury makes mention of it in the famous passage in which he so highly praises Alcuin.[207] After quoting Alcuin’s request[208] to Karl that he may have sent over from his library of York some of the manuscripts which he describes as the flowers of Britain, “that the garden of paradise may not be confined to York, but some of its scions may be transplanted to Tours,” William proceeds thus: “This is that same Alcuin who, as I have said, was sent into France to treat of peace, and during his abode with Charles, captivated either by the pleasantness of the country or the kindness of the king, settled there; and being held in high estimation, he taught the king, during his leisure from the cares of state, a thorough knowledge of logic, rhetoric, and astronomy. Alcuin was, of all the Angles of whom I have read, next to St. Aldhelm and Bede, certainly the most learned, and has given proof of his talents in a variety of compositions. He lies buried in France, at the church of St. Paul of Cormery[209], which monastery Charles the Great built at his suggestion; on which account, even at the present day (about 1130 A.D.), the subsistence of four monks is distributed in alms for the soul of our Alcuin in that church.”

We have the documents which relate to the foundation of St. Paul of Cormery, and they do not quite carry out William’s statement. Itherius, the predecessor of Alcuin at St. Martin’s of Tours, had acquired land at Cormery for the residence of monks, and in 791 had issued a precept for the construction of a monastery. Much discussion has centred round this fact, to which further reference is made in another part of this book.[210] In the year 800, Karl issued two interesting documents[211], both dated from St. Martin’s at Tours, one signed by the king himself, the other certified by Genesius, acting as deputy for the chancellor Hercambold. The first of these documents has interesting features, and in it we find the reason for the abbey being called, down to the Revolution, l’Abbaye Royale de Cormery, and having as its armorial bearings the crowned eagle of the empire impaling the lilies of France ancient. It is addressed to “all the faithful men of St. Martin at that time serving in the holy place where that precious confessor of Christ rests in the body, and to all who shall follow them. Our beloved master Albinus has with pious devotion begged of us that he may be allowed to settle monks in the cell of St. Paul, which in rustic speech is called Cormery, there to live the regular life according to the statutes of the holy Benedict. This place his predecessor Abbat Itherius had acquired; he had built it, and handed it over to St. Martin. We have thought it right to give our assent to his pious devotion, and have caused it to be confirmed by our letters under the seal of our authority, in order that no severance may ever take place. For if divine piety has given to our parents and to us the power over the whole monastery of St. Martin, and the right to give it to whom we will, how much more have we the power of assigning to God the aforesaid place. It is not lawful for any one to contemn the donation or confirmation of royal benignity, especially in an order so pious and wholesome as this. Therefore we entirely order that this our donation stand to all time fixed and inviolate, and that this place be never taken away from the possession of St. Martin, but that there monks shall live under the full rule of St. Benedict and have protection and help from the abbats of the monastery of St. Martin. If any abbat in time to come should disregard this our precept, let him know that he shall render an account of his presumption to our Lord Jesus Christ in the day of His great advent. So also shall any who diminishes aught of the things which Abbat Itherius of blessed memory acquired, of the property of St. Martin which he gave to the church of St. Paul, or of the things which the said Abbat Albinus has given, at whose request we have caused write these letters, or anything which any one may have given in alms for his soul. That this may stand the more firm, we have determined to subscribe it with our own hand and have caused it to be sealed with our ring.”

The other document, addressed to all bishops, counts, officers, &c., grants licence to the monks, “at the request of our most beloved and faithful the venerable Abbat Albinus”, to have two ships coming and going with necessary things on the rivers Loire, Sarthe, and Vienne, free from toll. This was ordered to be sealed with Karl’s ring. The navigation of the Indre, being their own river, was no doubt free to them without grant.

Plate VI

Capital found at Cormery. To face p. 227.

Ithier governed St. Martin’s at Tours from 770 to 791. Soon after 791 he died, and was buried in a grave at the entrance of the nave of the abbatial church of Cormery, on the north side. The place can still be pointed out. Fridugisus, the Nathanael of Alcuin’s letters, who was designated by Alcuin as his immediate successor, became abbat of St. Martin’s after Wulfhard II. He built a stone church, the west front of which still stands in considerable part, with the eleventh-century Romanesque tower, most of which still stands, applied to it, the east wall of the tower being the west front of Fridugisus. [Plate VI] shows a capital which has recently been found, evidently of the time of Fridugisus. Considerable parts of the later Gothic walls still stand. They are carefully tended by M. Octave Bobeau, the local correspondent of the Minister of Public Education, whose apartments are in the refectory of the abbey. The curé of Cormery, M. l’abbé Jaillet, is a most obliging guide to the ruins, as also to his own very fine cruciform parish church. In these most recent days “his own” is a misdescription. The inventories have been taken, and Monsieur le Maire is the master of the parish church and its services. The large house of the abbats of Cormery is now a dwelling-house in connexion with the communal school. An early engraving in a French account of Touraine shows that the western tower was crowned with a gallery and spire, not unlike that shown in the illustration of Marmoutier, [Plate V].

Some commentators suppose that the “other monastery”, which Alcuin informs Arno he has built some eight miles from the city, was this monastery of Cormery. But the distance named is not easily reconciled with the geographical facts, and Alcuin could not properly have stated that he was the founder of Cormery.

Cormery provided a home for the severer side of the monastic life, St. Martin’s and Marmoutier remaining secular. Cormery being a considerable distance away, a Benedictine abbey, of St. Julien, was established in the eastern part of Tours, in the tenth century, by Archbishop Théotolon, and a Romanesque abbey-church was built, the square tower of which still remains; the church in its present state has some ancient paintings, and deserves a visit. Being within the limits of the ancient Roman town, it would naturally be under the jurisdiction of the archbishop.

This will be a convenient point at which to give further details[212] of the remarkable licence of Hadrian for a permanent bishopric of the western part of the present city, at that time a district separate from the ancient city, in which latter was the stool of the archbishop of Tours.