Alcuin Quotes

O quam dulcis vita fuit dum sedabamus in quieti . . . inter liborum copias. : 'Oh how sweet life was when we sat quietly . . . midst all these books.

Men can be attracted but not forced to the faith. You may drive people to baptism, (but) you won't move them one step further in religion.

What makes bitter things sweet? Hunger. —ALCUIN, ADVISOR TO CHARLEMAGNE

Charlemagne was intimately involved in the new interest in philosophy in his court. One of the earliest, in-part philosophical texts was issued as if it were by Charlemagne himself, no less: the Work of King Charles against the Synod (known also as the Libri Carolini) – the Latin response to the Greek position on image worship.2 Charlemagne’s leading court intellectual, Alcuin, depicts the king as his pupil, being instructed in logic and rhetoric in two of Alcuin’s didactic dialogues. One of these, On Dialectic, is the first medieval logical textbook. Of course, Charlemagne’s authorship and participation in classroom instruction represent not realities, but an ideology: that of royal approval for logic especially, both as a tool for understanding Christian doctrine and as a weapon in religious controversy

The earliest medieval logical curriculum, studied from the time of Alcuin’s On Dialectic (late 780s?) until the late tenth century, was based mainly on the accounts of logic in the encyclopedias of Cassiodorus, Isidore of Seville and Martianus Capella, together with Apuleius’s Periermenias (an account of basic Aristotelian syllogistic) and the Ten Categories, a paraphrase-commentary of Aristotle’s Categories. The last of these was written in the circle of Themistius, but attributed in the Middle Ages to Augustine. This misattribution points to one of the reasons why logic had such a large place in early medieval education: it was seen as indispensable in theological discussion, both because it provided a way of posing fundamental questions about God and his relation to his creation, and because it furnished a formidable argumentative weapon in controversy.

At times he forced the conquered people, under the threat of violence, to accept Christianity and submit to baptism. Naturally, many of these people resented Christianity because of it. Alcuin advised Charlemagne to win the people to Christ through faithful preaching and kindness. "If the light yoke of Christ were preached to the stubborn Saxons as much as the duty to give money," he told Charlemagne, "perhaps they would not reject the sacrament of baptism. What is the use of baptism without faith," Alcuin said. "A man can be forced to baptism, but not forced to believe.

Edited by Alcuin himself, these were written to be as user-friendly as possible. No longer did words run into one another. Capital letters were deployed to signal the start of new sentences. For the first time, a single stroke like a lightning-flash was introduced to indicate doubt: the question mark.

Ur Alcuin av Yorks böner: Det sanna ljuset, sant ljus av ljus, och upplysaren. Källan floden och den uppfriskande bäcken. Alla ting är från en, genom en, och i en, o saliga treenighet. Av vilken, genom vilken, och i vilken alla ting är. Levande liv, liv av den levande, livgivare för det levande.

and what the Chronicle and Alcuin were describing was the earliest datable viking raid on Britain.

Tu as été le Merlin de Nnanji-Arthur. Maintenant, tu peux devenir Aristote, Alcuin ou Imhotep – un ami loyal, un conseiller et, parfois, une conscience. Un sorcier à demeure. Le pouvoir dans l'ombre. — M'écoutera-t-il seulement ? — Il le fera la plupart du temps. Je ne dis pas que ce sera facile, mais il sait que tu connais des choses qu'il ne saura jamais – tout comme il peut faire des choses dont tu ne seras jamais capable. — Nnanji et moi ? Comme une épée : la souplesse et le tranchant de la lame ? — Comme le griffon : un lion et un aigle ! Wallie

Holy Lord, almighty and eternal Father, thank You for Your mercy that has protected me throughout this day. Let me pass through this night peacefully and with a pure mind and body, that rising with purity in the morning, I may serve You gratefully. Amen. —ALCUIN OF YORK (c. 735–804)

a Dominican friar named Bartolomé de las Casas would argue that the indigenous peoples of America, despite their practice of human sacrifice and cannibalism, were free men by nature, possessed of reason, and could not be forcibly converted to Christianity or enslaved. They were no less human than the conquistadors, and must be treated as such. Indeed, they had what today we would call human rights. In arguing this, las Casas was echoing arguments that Alcuin of York had made to Charlemagne about the pagan Saxons in the late eighth century—arguments based entirely on Christian doctrines that would in time prevail. They would eventually provide the basis for the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, and in our era would find expression as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Though this must seem a paradox," said Alcuin, "by Christ Himself you shall be strengthened in humility. Submit your will to His and your reward shall be great.

The really regal calling of the philosopher (according to the expression of Alcuin the Anglo-Saxon): "Prava corrigere, et recta corroborare, et sancta sublimare." [To correct what is wrong, and strengthen the right, and raise what is holy.]

the Irish thought of education as essential for a man of God. Irish monasteries became the main educational centers in Europe during the sixth and seventh centuries. These centers included the continent’s major scriptoria (places where manuscripts were copied) at Luxeuil and Bobbio in France, and particularly a major school at York in England, another church founded by Irish missionaries. In fact, in the late 700s, over a century after the reintroduction of education to the continent, when Charlemagne decided he wanted to overhaul education in his empire, the best scholar he could find was Alcuin, a deacon at York. So Charlemagne sent for him, and Alcuin developed a system of schools, textual study, and copying that laid the foundation for the later widespread revival of education in Europe.

How did he do it? First of all, with the help of an outstanding teacher and librarian named Alcuin of York, he collected books and had them copied. People don’t always realise that only three or four antique manuscripts of the Latin authors are still in existence: our whole knowledge of ancient literature is due to the collecting and copying that began under Charlemagne, and almost any classical text that survived until the eighth century has survived till today.