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Alcuin on Virtues and Vices: A Manual for a Carolingian Soldier

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2011

Luitpold Wallach
Luitpold Wallach
Affiliation:
Cornell University
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Extract

The Work of the Northumbrian Alcuin in the service of Charlemagne by far excels in importance the contributions of other scholars allied with the Frankish king. One of Alcuin's many interests was to develop in the leaders among the laity of a barbarian age a sense of moral responsibility and a personal culture fit for the commanding positions which these men held. Many of the letters sent by Alcuin to Charlemagne and other members of the Royal household, to the kings of Mercia and Northumbria, to Frankish and British nobles and government officials, overflow with advice and requests to mend their ways. With this aim he wrote special works for some of these persons — for one example, the Rhetoric as a Via Regia for Charlemagne, a work which must be classed as the oldest Carolingian speculum principis, preceding that of Smaragdus of St. Mihiel (written for Louis the Pious), that of Jonas of Orláns (for Pippin of Aquitania), that of Sedulius Scotus (for Lothar II), and that of Hincmar of Reims (for Charles the Bald).

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , July 1955 , pp. 175 - 195
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1955

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References

1 See Wallach, Luitpold, ‘Charlemagne and Alcuin: Diplomatic Studies in Carolingian Epistolography,’ Traditio 9 (1953), 127–154CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Cf. the censure of barbarian procedures of law by Alcuin's friend, Theodulph of Orléans, described by Arcari, P. M., ‘Un goto critico della legislazioni barbariche,’ Archivio Storico Italiano 110 (1952), 3–37Google Scholar; some of Arcari's interpretations of the Lex Salica are, however, mistaken.

3 Edited by Ernst Dümmler, MGH, Epistolae IV (1895).

4 This thesis will be developed in a forthcoming monograph ‘The Via Regia of Charlemagne: Studies in Carolingian History.’

5 Löwe, Heinz in Wattenbach-Levison, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter (Weimar, 1953), 230Google Scholar, note 211, and p. 233, accepts in principle our interpretation of the Rhetoric as a speculum principis, as suggested in Speculum 24 (1949), 588 f.

6 Cf. Born, Lester, ‘The Specula Principis of the Carolingian Renaissance,’ Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire 12 (1933), 483–612CrossRefGoogle Scholar, who lists neither the Rhetoric nor De virtutibus et vitiis among the Carolingian specula.

7 Migne, PL 101, 613–638.

8 Migne, PL 99, 197 ff.; Rochais, Dom lists in the Revue Bénédictine 63 (1953), 251CrossRefGoogle Scholar the extant MSS of this treatise.

9 Ed. Bondurand, E., Le Manuel de Dhuoda (Paris, 1887)Google Scholar; see the fine study by Burger, A., ‘Les vers de la Duchesse Dhuoda et son poèe De temporibus suis,’ Mélanges J. Marouzeau (Paris, 1948), 85–102Google Scholar.

10 Ch. 36, PL 101, 638B-C, is not an original chapter of the treatise; see below note 12.

11 The introductory letter and the peroration are critically edited by Dümmler, MGH, Epistolae IV, Epist. 305, p.464 f.

12 Lehmann, Paul, Mittelalterliche Bibliothekskataloge I (Munich, 1918), 79Google Scholar.

13 Letter and peroration are always referred to in Dümmler's edition.

14 MGH, Epistolae IV, Epist. 304, p.462, 30. Wilmart, A., Revue Bénédictine 48 (1936), 262 fGoogle Scholar. assumes that this collection of prayers is of post-Alcuinian origin; also Haimerl, F. X., Mittelalterliche Frömmigkeit im Spiegel der Gebetbuchliteratur Süddeutschlands (Munich, 1952), p. 6Google Scholar.

15 Curtius, E. R., European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages (Bollingen Series 36, New York, 1953), 85Google Scholar.

16 Epist. 116, p.171,27 (Dümmler): ‘Speculum est enim pontificalis vitae et medicina contra singula diabolicae fraudis vulnera,’ a reference overlooked by Bradley, R., ‘Backgrounds of the title Speculum in mediaeval literature,’ Speculum 29 (1953), 100–103CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On speculum as book-title see Paul Lehmann, Mittelalterliche Büchertitel (SB. Bayer. Akademie der Wiss., 1953, Heft 3), pp. 30–44.

17 Epist. 305, p.464,24: ‘.… litterulas, ita te humiliter deposco, ut easdem saepius legere digneris.’

18 Ibidem, p.464,22: ‘…; ut animus exterioribus fatigatus molestiis, ad se ipsum reversus habeat, in quo gaudeat.’

19 Ibidem, p.464,19: ‘.… memoriae haec mea dicta inhaerere.’

20 Ibidem, p.464,31: ‘.…; ut habeas cotidie quasi manualem in conspectu tuo libellum, in quo possis te ipsum considerare, quid cavere, vel quid agere debeas.’ This passage is modeled after Alcuin, ch. 5, De lect. studio (PL 101, 616C): ‘Sanctarum lectio Scripturarum divinae cognitio beatitudinis. In his enim quasi in quodam speculo homo seipsum considerare potest, qualis sit, vel quo tendat.’

21 Rochais, Dom, Revue Bénédictine 63 (1953), 264CrossRefGoogle Scholar seems to assume such an influence.

22 So Heinz Löwe in Wattenbach-Levison, op. cit., p.233.

23 Ed. S. Hellmann in Texte und Untersuchungen ed. Harnack-Gebhardt, 34 (1910); Alcuin was familiar with ch. 10 on the Rex iniquus of this political treatise.

24 See the prose chaps, n and 12, and metr., vv.2454–72, ed. R. Ehwald, MGH, Auctores Antiquissimi 15 (1919).

25 Cf. Epist. 257, P,415.24, addressed to Charlemagne, also Epist. 172, p.284,22.

26 Rochais, H.-M., ‘Le Liber de virtutibus et vitiis d'Alcuin: Note pour l'étude des sources, ’Revue Mabillon 41 (1951), 77–86Google Scholar.

27 Migne, PL 88, 597–718. See the studies of the Liber Scintillarum by Rochais, Dom in Revue Bénédictine 58 (1948), 77–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar; 59 (1949), 137–156; 61 (1951), 63–80; ‘Les manuscrits du L. Sc.,’ Scriptorium 4 (1950), 294–309. Furthermore Vaccari, A., ‘II liber scintillarum del monaco Defensor,’ Studi Medievali 17 (1951), 86–92Google Scholar. Not listed by S. de Ricci and W. J. Wilson, Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States, are two MSS of Defensor, currently offered for sale by the New York firm of Bernard M. Rosenthal, Inc.; see nos. 2 and 32 of their Catalogue I: Selections of Medieval Text Manuscripts (New York, 1954), pp. 2 and 21.

28 Rochais, , ‘Contribution à l'histoire des florilèges ascétiques du Haut Moyen Age Latin: Le Liber Scintillarum,’ Revue Bénédictine 63 (1953), 289CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

29 Revue Mabillon 41 (1951), 81–86. All subsequent references to Rochais are to this synopsis unless otherwise indicated.

30 Revue Mabillon 41 (1951), 80.

31 Migne, PL 83, 599–603.

32 Alcuin repeatedly expressed special admiration for Isidore of Seville, especially in Adv. Elipandum Libri Quattuor II, 8 (PL IOI, 266B): ‘Isidori … perplurima legebamus opuscula et in magna habemus veneratione.’ Alcuin's use of the Sententiae and Synonyma may be added to Anspach, A. E., ‘Das Fortleben Isidors im vii. bis ix. Jahrhundert,’ Miscellanea Isidoriana (Rome, 1936), 350 fGoogle Scholar.

33 Migne, PL 39, In appendice, subsequently always referred to as Ps.-Aug., App. The editor of Alcuin in PL 101, 614 ff., refers to these sermons in the notes; but read 614B ‘Serm. 302,’ instead of 303; for ch. 6, De pace, the reference to serm. 98 (PL 39, 1933) is missing; 625 note a, read ‘serm. 291,’ instead of 91.

34 See the b notes in PL 39, 1932, 2215, 2296, 2313, 2323, 2328.

35 Cf. PL 101, 614b, 616c, 617a, 618b, 619a, 621a, 623a, 625a.

36 Our conclusions presuppose that Defensor's Augustinus quotations are genuine parts of the florilegium. Rochais is preparing a critical edition of the Liber Scintillarum: see Revue Bénédictine 63 (1953). 265.

37 Ibidem 63 (1953). 284.

38 Ed. Morin, Germain, S. Caesarii Arelatensis Sermones I (Maredsous, 1937)Google Scholar.

39 Clavis Patrum Latinorum (Sacris Erudiri 3, 1951), no. 368, p. 67.

40 Add to Clavis, s.v., sermo 98: ‘recensio amplificata sermonis 61.’

41 The same reading appears in the so-called OE Alcuin: ‘Seo sibb is mid ealle moeignen to healdene’; see Warner, R. D-N., Early English Homilies from the Twelfth Century MS. Vesp. D. XIV (EETS, Original Series, 152; London, 1917), 95Google Scholar.

42 Compare this chapter and Pomerius, PL 59, 478A-B; also Alcuin, ch. 3 (PL 101, 615C) and Pomerius III, 13, 14, 15 (PL 59, 493C, 494A ff., 496B-C); Landgraf, A. M., Dogmengeschichte der Frühscholastik I, 1 (Regensburg a.D., 1952), 162Google Scholar compares Pomerius III, 16 (PL 59, 498) and Alcuin, ch. 35. The first Pomerius item is listed by Rochais, Dom, Revue Mabillon 41 (1951), 85Google Scholar. Laistner, M. L. W., Studi e Testi 122 (1946), 356Google Scholar assumes that Alcuin was unfamiliar with Pomerius when writing his treatise.

43 Vita Alcuini ch. 21, MGH, Scriptores XV, 195. — There is no apparent connection between the homiletic materials of our treatise and the extant second volume of Alcuin's homiliarium; on the latter see the note in Speculum 29 (1954), 823.

44 Revue Mabillon 41 (1951), 73.

45 PL 76, 620–622.

46 Ed. Petschenig, M., CSEL 13 (Wien, 1886), 142 fGoogle Scholar.

47 De pugna virtutum adversus vitia (PL 83, 638); cf. also Isidore's Differentiae II, chaps. 39–40 (PL 83, 95 f.); Quaestiones Testamentorum: In Deuteronomium ch. 16 (PL 83, 366), following Cassian.

48 Hauck, Albert, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands II (3rd and 4th edd.; Leipzig, 1912), 147 f.Google Scholar: ‘Direkt aus Cassian entnommene Sätze habe ich nicht bemerkt.’

49 De institutis coenobiorum et de octo principalium vitiorum remediis libri XII, ed. Petschenig, M., CSEL 17 (Wien, 1888)Google Scholar.

50 Ibidem, pp. 195,18–26; 196,13–22; 197,6–10; 203,22–204,6.

51 Ed. Halm, Carl, Rhetores Latini Minores (Leipzig, 1863)Google Scholar; cf. note 4, above.

52 Ed. Marsili, Aldo, Alcuini Orthographia (Pisa, 1952)Google Scholar.

53 PL 101, 640C-D; the treatise is partly edited by E. Dümmler in MGH, Epist. IV, no. 309, pp. 473–478.

54 Alcuin, ch. 11 (PL 101, 644B-C) is verbatim copied in Alcher of Clairvaux's De spiritu et anima (PL 40, 788). On Alcher's authorship of this pseudo-Augustinian writing see Denifle, H. S., Die deutschen Mystiker des 14. Jahrhunderts, ed. Spiess, Otwin (Freiburg, Switzerland, 1951), 81Google Scholar.

55 Schmitz, Philibert, Histoire de l'Ordre de Saint-Benoît II (Maredsous, 1949), 379Google Scholar.

56 Compare, for example, Alcuin, ch. 30 (PL 101, 634B) and Augustine, sermo 177, ed. Lambot, D. C., Aurel, S.. August. Sermones Selecti (Stromata Patristica et Mediaevalia I; Utrecht-Bruxelles, 1950), 68Google Scholar; for Alcuin, ch. 14 see Appendix 28, and Revue Mabillon 41 (1951), 83.

57 Kleinclausz, Arthur, Alcuin (Paris, 1948), 221Google Scholar. There are slight verbal parallels between Alcuin's definition of prudentia (in ch. 35) and Cicero, De officiis I, 153, but not enough to assume certain dependence.

58 Listed by Rochais, , Revue Bénédictine 63 (1953), 251 note 4CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

59 This MS is listed in the sales Catalogue I, p. 2, no. 2, quoted in note 27, above.

60 Wallach, , Medievalia et Humanistica 6 (1950), 41Google Scholar.

61 MGH, Epistolae IV, no. 2, pp. 484–491.

62 In Lib. III, 6; cf. PL 106, 244–247A; compare also Alcuin, ch. 23 (630D), and the sentence from this chapter quoted by Jonas in III, 4 (PL 106, 239A).

63 Omitting those of Alcuin's chaps. 1, 20, 26; see Strecker, MGH, Poetae IV, pp. 924–27.

64 In chaps. 6–10 (PL 105, 673D–674A; 674D–675A; 675C; 676A); see Alcuin's chaps. 22, 28, 30, and 33 in PL 105, 662B, 667B, 664D, and 665A.

65 Homiliae de virtutibus, PL no, 82 ff. I have not seen Aloys Ruppel on Hrabanus in Jahrbuch für das Bistum Mainz 3 (1948), 117–137.

66 Clavis (see above note 39), pp. 67–70.

67 P L 112, in the following sequence corresponding to the Alcuin chaps, listed above: 1234A–C, 1236A–C, 1236D–1237B, 1257B, 1240D–1241A, 1242C, 1246B–C, 1245A, 1241D–1242A, and 1252A.

68 PL 112, 1253D, 1254B, 1254D, 1255A.

69 Ed. Carl Halm (see note 51, above), p. 548 f.; Werner, Karl, Alkuin und sein Jahrhundert (Paderborn, 1876), 257Google Scholar wrongly assumes that Hrabanus followed De virtutibus et vitiis, ch. 35.

70 Ed. Halm, p. 549, 27 f. from ‘Honor eximius … apud Deum’; compare the Hrabanus citation in PL 112, 1255A.

71 Wallach, , ‘Onulf of Speyer: A Humanist of the Eleventh Century,’ Medievalia et Humanistica 6 (1950), 40Google Scholar.

72 Now ascribed to him by von Fichtenau, H., ‘Wolfger von Prüfening,’ Mitteilungen des Inst. für Oesterreich. Geschichtsforschung 51 (1937), 341–351Google Scholar.

73 De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis, ed. Ettlinger, Emil (Karlsruhe, 1896), ch. 41, p. 70Google Scholar.

74 Max Förster, Anglia 16 (1893–94), 46 f.

75 Referred to in note 41, above.

76 Ed. Morrill, G. L., Speculum Gy de Warewyke (EETS, Extra Series, 75; London, 1898), pp. xciii–cxivGoogle Scholar, and cxvii f., on Alcuin's influence on Gy.

77 See G. T. Flom, Codex AM 619 Quarto: Old Norwegian Book of Homilies … and Alcuin's De virtutibus et vitiis (Univ. of Illinois Studies in Language and Literature 14, 4; 1929); Indrebø, Gustav, Gamal Norsk Homiliebok Cod. AM 619. 4° (Oslo, 1931Google Scholar) and the Facsimile-edition by Trygve Knudsen, Gammelnorsk Homiliebok Etter AM 619 QV (Corpus Codicum Norvegicorum Medii Aevi, ed. Seip, D. A., Quarto Serie I; Oslo, 1952)Google Scholar.

78 Cf. Vaccari, Alberto, ‘Un trattato ascetico attribuito a S. Girolamo,’ Mélanges offerts au R. P. Ferdinand Cavallera (Toulouse, 1948), 147–162Google Scholar.

79 Anspach, A. E., S. Isidori Hispalensis Episcopi Commonitiuncula ad Sororem (Script, eccl. hispano-latini veteris et medii aevi, IV; Escorial, 1935)Google Scholar; Rochais, Dom, Revue Bénédictine 63 (1953), 251 note 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar, offers a list of extant MSS.

80 Epistles nos. n, 24, 108, 122, 128, 263, 298.

81 Epistle 296, p. 455,26; 270, p. 429,6; 228, p. 372,7.