Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Marmoutier
He says, “No doubt, Bishop Higbald is begging my answer on this matter of Lindisfarne’s sins because he is in need of a statement that he can read to both the surviving monks and also the political foe that will address this matter of sin from a scholarly distance. It needs to be a matter of sin but also allow for a heavenly peace.”
The scholar is contemplative, thoughtfully studying the letter he is preparing to answer, then he goes to his row of books, and draws down St. Augustine’s City of God. [Footnote1]
“Thank you. You’ve been very helpful. I will have the answer to the bishop’s letter for you to carry back to him tomorrow at first light.”
I’ve been dismissed to await the response.
This new morning the king’s children are turned away from lessons while the scholar is in solitude. Taking his time, responding to his friend’s need for better words, is his priority. Surely, Alcuin will take the story of this raid to the King and it will be entered into the chronicles of history.
The dangers of the Norsemen Vikings in their stealth vessels, raiding villages along the rivers and the coasts were probably already known. It’s been going on for some time, rumored among all who have heard the howling in the night and the cries of women taken captive then in the dawning, burying the dead. It has been known to the broken communities left in plunder. But only when it is written is it known to history. So, these letters exchanged make the danger of the Vikings officially historical.
I’m summonsed back to the scholar’s study and I receive the letter to carry back to Lindisfarne. The children are left waiting again, while Alcuin invites me to listen to his answer through the ears of the people who will gather to hear it read.
It begins with his personal greeting, then he speaks his words of woe for all of Britain’s Christendom. And then there is the issue of Christian pacifism. He offers his opinion on that right up front. He expects the fight to come from the bones of the saints rising up.
“What assurance can the churches of Britain have, if Saint Cuthbert and so great a company of saints do not defend their own? Is this the beginning of the great suffering, or the outcome of the sins of those who live there? It has not happened by chance, but is the sign of some great guilt.”[Footnote2]
[Footnote1] http://unamsanctamcatholicam.blogspot.com/2021/06/alcuin-to-higbald-and-christian-view-of.html Retrieved 10-8-24 Blog subtitled, “Defending the goodness, truth and beauty of Catholicism “The letter is interesting because Alcuin’s method of consolation is to remind Higbald that calamities are a reminder of God’s love.” This ref. is the source connecting Alcuin’s letter to Higbald with the work of Augustine of Hippo’s, “The City of God” [apparently this page disappeared into the blogisphere so I will quote the whole section here] Alcuin is here offering a classical explanation for evil that comes from St. Augustine: temporal misfortunes fall equally on the good and evil; the difference is not in what befalls, but in how people respond to it. The purposes for suffering amongst persons are distinct, despite the external similarity in the nature of the ills. In City of God, St. Augustine says: There is, too, a very great difference in the purpose served both by those events which we call adverse and those called prosperous. For the good man is neither uplifted with the good things of time, nor broken by its ills; but the wicked man, because he is corrupted by this world’s happiness, feels himself punished by its unhappiness. Retrieved 12-5-24
[Footnote2] https://web.archive.org/web/20170506102223/https://classesv2.yale.edu/access/content/user/haw6/Vikings/higbald.html Retrieved 12-5-24 Source: Alcuin of York, Letter to Higbald, trans. by S. Allott, Alcuin of York (York, 1974). Reprinted in Paul Edward Dutton, Carolingian Civilization: A Reader (Ontario, 1993). Scanned and proofread by Eric C. Knibbs, 2006.
This text is part of Viking Sources in Translation. Unless otherwise indicated the specific electronic form of the document is copyright. Permission is granted for electronic copying, distribution in print form for educational purposes and personal use. If you do reduplicate the document, indicate the source. No permission is granted for commercial use.
© 2006 Anders Winroth
(Continues Tuesday, August 26)
Lazarus Ink 