Alcuin

Alcuin of York (c. 735 – 804), also called Alcuin of Eoforwic, was an Anglo-Saxon scholar, clergyman, poet, and teacher from York in the Kingdom of Northumbria.

Biography

In his later years, Alcuin accepted an invitation from King Charlemagne of the Franks to become a scholar and teach in the Carolingian court. In 803, Alcuin led an investigation within the churches and monasteries in the empire, discovering that the Order of the Ancients had infiltrated the Christian order, intending to corrupt the beliefs into their own.

On 10 May 804, Alcuin wrote a letter to Charlemagne documenting his findings, warning and urging him to heed his words and steer clear from the Order. Unbeknownst to him, Charlemagne was similarly corrupted by the ideals and became a leader of the Order in his own right. A week later on 19 May, Alcuin died under unknown circumstances.

Legacy

Alcuin's letter would eventually wound up in England, where it came into the possession of King Aethelwulf of Wessex, and eventually his son Aelfred. Aelfred kept the letter in his study in the Old Minster of Winchester, making his own commentaries on the Order and speculating that the Order or Charlemagne was responsible for Alcuin's death.

Trivia

• Alcuin was one of the primary sources on the Raid on Lindisfarne on June 8th 793 CE, when the bishop, Hygbald, wrote to Alcuin after surviving the attack. Alcuin's letters to the King of Northumbria and the Archbishop of Canterbury, and a poem he wrote on the subject provide the only significant contemporary account of these events. In his description of the Viking attack, he wrote: "Pagans have desecrated God's sanctuary, shed the blood of saints around the altar, laid waste the house of our hope and trampled the bodies of saints like dung in the streets...What assurance can the churches of Britain have, if St Cuthbert and so great a company of saints do not defend their own?"

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla (mentioned only)