THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Centula, and Adalhard of Corbie. In 796 his patron gave him the abbey of St. Martin, near Tours, and several other monasteries. Under his guidance the school of Tours became a nursery of ecclesiastical and liberal education for the whole kingdom. His distinguished pupils there included Sigulf, who supplied the information for his biography, Rabanus Maurus, and perhaps the liturgist, Amalarius of Metz. When old and feeble and almost blind, he left the management to his scholars, but he continued to be the counselor of his royal friend till his death.
Alcuin was mild in spirit, adverse to discord, orthodox in faith, equally interested in promoting the authority of Rome and the royal priesthood of Charlemagne. His great service was his part in the so-called Carolingian renaissance, his wise and efficient efforts to elevate and educate the clergy and the monks, to improve preaching, to regulate the Christian life of the people and advance the faith among the heathen, always by instruction rather than by force. His theology, while not original, rests on an intimate acquaintance with the Fathers, especially Jerome and Augustine. To ecclesiastical learning he added classical, but in such manner that it was always the servant of the former. He was able to give his master information concerning astronomy and natural science but, as he considered grammar and philosophy auxiliary to religion, so he regarded these branches of knowledge primarily as a means of knowing God.
His theological writings include a work on the Trinity which contains the germs of the later scholastic theology. His authorship of a Libellus de processu Spiritus Sancti and of some other works which have been attributed to him is doubtful. He wrote commentaries on Genesis, the Psalms, the Song of Songs, John, and other books of the Bible, based upon the Church Fathers and following the current moral and allegorical exposition. At Charlemagne's request he revived the text of the Vulgate according to the best available sources. His skill as a teacher is evident in text-books on grammar and orthography, as well as in treatises on rhetoric and dialectics which resemble Cicero. His Latin poems, including epigrams, friendly letters, hymns, riddles, poems for special occasions, and the like, show more skill in versification than poetic gifts. The most important, the De pontificibus et Sanctis ecclesice Eboracensis, gives valuable information concerning the state of culture in his native land and his own education [and contains (11. 1530-61) a catalogue of the cathedral library at York, which is the earliest existing catalogue of an English library]. With the exception of the hymns, all his poems are partly in heroic and partly in elegiac verse. He prepared lives of Willibrod, Vedastus, and Richarius, which are mainly recasts and amplifications of older works. Of a liturgical and devotional character are a Liber sacramentalis and the De psalmorum usu. Intended more particularly for the laity are the De virtviibus et vitiis and a psychologico-philosophical treatise on ethics, De animce ratione ad Eulaliam virginem (i.e., Guntrade, the sister of Adalhard). H. Hahn.
Bibliography: Sources: Alcuin, Opera, ed. by Frobenius Forster, 2 vols., Ratisbon, 1777, contains anonymous life written before 829 a.d. on data furnished by Sigulf; reprinted in MPL, c.-ci.; Monumenta Alcuiniana, ed. by W. Wattenbach and E. Diimmler, in BRG, vi., Berlin, 1873 (contains life of Alcuin, his life of Willibrod, and his De pontificibus); Alcuin, Epistolce, in MGH, Epist., iv. 1-481 (Epist. Caroli aevi, ii.), 1895, and in BRG, 1873, vi. 144-897; idem, Carmina, in MGH, Poeice latini cevi Caroli, i. (1881) 160-350; idem, De pontificibus, in Historians of the Church of York and its Archbishops, ed. by J. Raine, i. 349-398 (cf. pp. lxi.-lxv. of Rolls Series, No. 71, London, 1879); Martinus Turonensis, Vita Alcuini Abbatis, in MGH, Script, xv. 1 (1887), 182-197. General: Rivet, in Histoire lilteraire de la France, iv. 295-347; F. Lorentz, Alcuins Leben, Halle, 1829, Eng. transl., London, 1837; J. C. F. Bahr, Geschichte der romischen Literatur im karolingischen Zeitalter, pp. 78-84, 192-196, 302- 354, Carlsruhe, 1840; J. B. Laforet, Alcuin, restaurateur des sciences en Occident sous Charlemagne, Louvain, 1851; F. Monnier, Alcuin et son influence litteraire, religieuse et politique chez les Franks, 2d ed., Paris, 1864; A. Dupuy, Alcuin et Vecole de Saint-Martin de Tours, Tours, 1876; idem, Alcuin et la souverainete pontificate au huitieme siecle, ib. 1872; F. Hamelin, Essai sur lavie et les ouvrages d'A leuin, Rennes,1874; ADB,i. 343-348; T.Sickel, Alcuinstudien, i. 92, Vienna, 1875; J. B. Mullinger, The Schools of Charles the Great, ch. i.-ii., New York, 1904; DCB, i. 73-76; A. Ebert, Allgemeine Geschichte der Litteratur des Mittelalters, ii. 12-36, Leipsic, 1880; K. Werner, Alcuin und sein Jahrhundert, 2d ed., Vienna, 1881 ; S. Abel and B. Simson, Jahrbucher des frankischen Reichs unter Karl dem Grossen, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1883; A. Largeault, Inscriptions metriques composees par Alcuin, Poitiers, 1885; DNB, i. 239- 240; L. Traube, Karolingische Dichtungen, Berlin, 1888; Hauck, KD, ii. 119-145; W. S. Teuffel, Geschichte der romischen Literatur, p. 1090, No. 8, p. 1305, No. 3, Leipsic, 1890; Wattenbach, DGQ, 1893, pp. 148, 152, 159-163; A. West, Alcuin and the Rise of the Christian Schools, New York, 1893; C. J. B. Gaskoin, Alcuin, his Life and Work, Cambridge, 1904.
ALDEBERT. See Adalbert.
ALDENBURG, BISHOPRIC OF. See Lubeck, Bishopric of.
ALDHELM (EALDHELM), old'helm, SAINT: Abbot of Malmesbury and first bishop of Sherborne; b. probably at Brokenborough (2 m. n.w of Malmesbury), Wiltshire, between 639 and 645; d. at Doulting (7 m. s.e. of Wells), Somersetshire, May 25, 709. He was of royal family on both his father's and mother's side, studied with Maildulf (Maelduib), an Irish hermit, at Malmesbury (Maildulfsburg), and remained there as monk for fourteen years. In 670 and again in 672 he attended the school of Canterbury and laid the foundations of his many-sided knowledge under the instruction of Archbishop Theodore and his associate Hadrian. In 675 he succeeded Maildulf as abbot at Malmesbury, and as such increased the possessions of the monastery, spread abroad the faith, and founded many stone churches, after the fashion of Canterbury, in place of the small wooden ones. In 705 the bishopric of the West Saxons was divided, Aldhelm being made bishop of the western part with his seat at Sherborne (in northwestern Dorsetshire, 18 m. n. of Dorchester). He retained his abbacy. He was buried at Malmesbury, but his remains were often translated. He was canonized in 1080.
Aldhelm was one of the most learned men of his time, and he occupies a distinguished place among early British scholars. He represented both the Iro-Scottish and the Roman ecclesiastical culture, and had an acquaintance with classical authors