Alcuin of York

“ We should bear in mind the fact that we are reading a description by an ecclesiastic, a man keenly devoted to the monastic life; and that the date is that of the year of Alcuin’s birth. It tells us, therefore, something of the setting in which Alcuin found himself in early boyhood.
Ecgbert had only become Bishop of York in the year of Bede’s visit to him, 734. York was not as yet an Archbishopric; it was raised to that dignity in Ecgbert’s time. Some writers call Paulinus Archbishop, because a pall was sent to him by Gregory ”

“ The Life proceeds to inform us that Alcuin was trained under the prelate Hechbert, whom we know as Ecgbert, Bishop and later Archbishop of York, 732 to 766. That learned man was a disciple of Bede. He had under his tuition a flock of the sons of nobles, some of whom studied grammar, others the liberal arts, others the divine scriptures. ”

“ Athelhard persisted in visiting Rome, and informed Alcuin that he had commenced the journey. Alcuin thereupon wrote this:—“Return, return, holy father, as soon as your pious embassy is finished, to your lost sheep. As there are two eyes in the body, so I believe and desire that you two, Canterbury and York, give light throughout the breadth of all Britain. Do not deprive your country of its right eye.”
Then Alcuin gives a very significant hint that the ways of the clergy of England are not good enough for France, and they had better not let Charlemagne see anything of that kind. ”

“ The last words of Alcuin’s interpretation of the vision suggest that he was an Englishman, one of the youths whom Alcuin brought from York as his assistant masters.
[42] This was Benedict, the Abbat of Aniane in Languedoc. That region is here spoken of as Gothia, because the Goths had settled about Toulouse in the fifth century. The fact that Benedict used often to come to consult Alcuin is an interesting illustration of the disregard of distance in those days. As the crows fly, Toulouse is some 270 miles from Tours, and the journey was a long and arduous one. ”

“ From the spot where, after the departure of the holy Paulinus [130] from York, the Christian religion took its beginning amongst us, from that spot misery and calamity have begun. Who does not fear? Who does not mourn this as if his fatherland itself was captured?”
We should note Alcuin’s recognition of the fact that the restoration of Christianity in Northumbria was due not to persons of the Anglo-Saxon race and Church, but to Aidan and his monks of the Irish race and Church. ”

“ Alcuin had strong opinions as to the best manner of singing the services. In a letter to Eanbald II, he writes thus, for the benefit of the Church of York:—“Let the clergy chant with moderated voice, striving to please God rather than men. ”

“ York and Rome.
A.D. 657.
The School of York originated in the school established by Hild for the Celtic clan community over which she presided; and Caedmon the first English poet, John of Beverley, Wilfrid of York, Bede the father of English learning, and the scholar Alcuin who has been called “minister of Public Instruction to Charlemagne” were the noble fruit it put forth. ”

“ He was subsequently assistant master to Aelbert, its head; and when Aelbert succeeded to the archbishopric, on the death of Egbert in 766, Alcuin became scholasticus or master of the school. On the death of Aelbert in 780, Alcuin was placed in charge of the cathedral library, the most famous in Western Europe. In his longest poem, 'Versus de Eboracensi Ecclesia' (Poem on the Saints of the Church at York) , he has left an important record of his connection with York. This poem, written before he left England, is, like most of his verse, in dactylic hexameters. ”

“ The head master in Alcuin’s time was Ecgbert, Archbishop of York and brother of the reigning king of Northumbria; and the second master was Albert, Ecgbert’s cousin, and eventually his successor in the chief mastership and in the archbishopric. Alcuin succeeded to the practical part of the mastership on Ecgbert’s death in 766, the new archbishop, Albert, retaining the government of the school and the chief part of the religious teaching. ”

“ Alcuin’s letters to King Eardulf and the banished intruder Osbald.—His letters to King Ethelred and Ethelred’s mother.—The Irish claim that Alcuin studied at Clonmacnoise.—Mayo of the Saxons.
Alcuin had grievous anxieties about the manner of life of the kings of his native province, and the continual revolutions and disputed successions. Things got worse as he grew into older age—old age as it was then counted. ”

“ The name Baldhuninga is very Northumbrian, the home of the family of Baldhun. The mention of anchorites has been supposed to look like Ireland, but we must remember that Alcuin himself, in singing the praises of the saints of the Church of York, tells of the life of only two persons of his own time other than kings and archbishops, and they were anchorites. [155] The gift of money from the father-of-the-family of Areida clearly comes from some one in Gaul who is very closely associated [152] with Alcuin himself. It so happens that the Abbey of Tours had a small cell dedicated to St. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The establishment was continued on its original lines by Wilfrid and his successors till the Norman Conquest. In the meantime York, under Archbishop Egbert, from 730 to 766, became a most celebrated centre of learning, and reached to its height under Alcuin. The former had repaired the ravages caused by fire in 741 to the Cathedral, which is described by Alcuin as "a most magnificent basilica." The city fell into the hands of the Danes. They soon made it an important seat of commerce, and constituted it the capital of the Danish jarl. In 1050 the Abbey of St. ”

“ They also learned to write, so that before they were of an age to practise manly arts, namely hunting and such pursuits as befit gentlemen (nobilibus) , they became studious and clever in the liberal arts.” This passage so entirely coincides with the description of York school given by Alcuin in its evidence that the grammar school was frequented by laymen as well as clerics, and it is so improbable that “Asser” borrowed from Alcuin, that we may take it to be the normal thing that young Englishmen of good birth were brought up in the public grammar schools then as now. ”

“ Come what might, Brother Jucundus felt he must have a fling. He should die without it. Just one jolification in the twelvemonth, and then he would put up for the rest of the year with beans and cabbage, small beer and matins before dawn.
York fair approached. York fair! of all that is ravishing! The shows of dancing dogs, the whirli-go-rounds, the giantesses and dwarfs, the "spice" stalls, the drinking-booths! To York fair he must, he would go, if condemned to a bean and a thimbleful of water for fasting dinner ever after. ”

“ We finally come back to the Minster, and entering by the south transept door, realize at once in the dim immensity of the interior that we have reached the crowning splendour of York. The great organ is filling the lofty spaces with solemn music, carrying the mind far beyond petty things, and making it seem almost undesirable to inquire into the dates and periods of construction of one of the most glorious buildings ever raised to the glory of God. ”

“ But he called too late, for the neglected wife died from the shock of her prince's longing message to her, and when, by the same mail, John York knew that, he would not go back to England to the King. But twice every year he went to yonder point and spoke out the King's words to him: 'John York, John York, where art thou gone, John York?' and gave the words of his own letter in reply: 'King of my heart, king of my heart, I am out on the trail of thy bugles.' To this he added three calls of the bugle, as you have heard. ”

“ MICKLEGATE BAR
THE CITY
As each town has its characteristic features and peculiar advantages, we may ask what it is that constitutes the special attraction exerted by the city of York, not only upon those, who with more or less of appreciation dwell within its limits but upon its visitors. It would seem that if there is one thing which can be done at York better almost than anywhere else in the kingdom, that thing is the realisation of history. ”

“ We have too long accepted the roof of a railway station as our first view of such places. It is not an inspiring view. But to see York Minster from afar, shining under the evening sky and lifted high above the city; to watch it growing larger and larger, rising higher and higher, increasing in beauty every moment, until at last one drives slowly into its huge shadow ”

“ The barriers were at length burst, and York entered the town, and then in the streets were heard the shouts of "A Warwick! a Warwick!" on the other side "A York! a York!" and in the midst the war cries of "King Henry! a Somerset! a Percy! a Clifford!" etc., all intermingled with the clash of swords upon armour and shield; the whir of arrows flying through the air; the groans of wounded and dying men, and the screams of flying women; whilst the market-place was strewn with the bodies of fallen men, and the streets flowed with blood. ”

“ Around is the fair region of Yorkshire, a landscape of massive cows and renowned pigs, the head-quarters of all English hams and bacons; and the streets in York are old and pretty, with projecting gables and black rafters. ”

“ Though customs have greatly changed since those days of unsafe travelling, the quaint streets, the great gateways of bold architecture, and the magnificent church all lend the city of York the wonderful fascination of age, heightened by the situation of the river Ouse at its junction with the Foss.
In what county of England the famous city and glorious minster of York are, requires little mental effort. It is the most ancient metropolitan see in England. At one time great controversy arose between York and Canterbury as to precedence. ”

“ In its outward aspect, York is varied. It runs the whole gamut, from the highest antiquity to the most modern of shops and villas; from the neatest and tidiest streets to the most draggle-tailed and out-at-elbowed courts and alleys. From Clifton and Knavesmire, which is a great deal more respectable and clean than its evil-sounding name would lead the stranger to suppose, to the Shambles, Fossgate, and Mucky Peg’s Lane (now purged of offence as Finkle Street) is a further social than geographical cry, and they certainly touch both extremes. ”

“ I came across an old journal of my great-grandfather, John York,—my name's Dick Adderley,—and just as if a chain had been put round my leg and I'd been jerked over by the tipping of the world, I had to come to Hudson's Bay. John York's journal was a thing to sit up nights to read. It came back to England after he'd had his fill of Hudson's Bay and the earth beneath, and had gone, as he himself said on the last page of the journal, to follow the king's buglers in 'the land that is far off.' God and the devil were strong in old John York. ”

“ The bright, creamy colour of the stonework is a pleasant reminder of the purity of York's atmosphere, for should the smoke of the city ever increase to the extent of even the smaller manufacturing towns, the beauty and glamour of every view would gradually disappear. ”

“ A half-way house, so to speak, between those other capitals of London and Edinburgh, York had all the appearance of a capital in days of old, and has lost but little of it, in these, p. 2even though in point of wealth and population it lags behind those rich and dirty neighbours, Leeds and Bradford. For one thing, it has a history to which they cannot lay claim, and keeps a firm hold upon titles and dignities conferred ages ago. We may ransack the pages of historians in vain in attempting to find the beginnings of York. ”

“ He stormed, roused himself upon his legs, towered, and gave vent to a burst of blarney.
“Now, d—— it,” says York, “I dinna like that—I dinna like it at all; attack a man that has summat, I say, and not one that has nought, and then that will luck mair like a man!” And with such hearty John Bull notions as 55these did canny Yorkshire browbeat his crony of the sister kingdom. ”

“ BY WILLIAM WINTER The pilgrim to York stands in the center of the largest shire in England, and is surrounded by castles and monasteries, now mostly in ruins, but teeming with those associations of history and literature that are the glory of this delightful land. From the summit of the great central tower of the cathedral, which is reached by 237 steps, I gazed, one morning, over the vale of York and beheld one of the loveliest spectacles that ever blest the eyes of man. ”

“ Alban's, and there defeated him, after which the poor captive King was released and brought to his Queen in Lord Clifford's tent. But Edward, the quondam Earl of March, now Duke of York, had come up and joined Warwick, who, together, entered London and were welcomed by the citizens, who favoured the house of York. Margaret, fearing to meet their united forces, returned northward, her strongholds and most devoted friends being in the northern counties, especially on the Scottish borders, whither she was followed by Duke Edward. ”