Alcuin of York

Alcuin of York. b. 730-740; d. 804. Alcuin entered the religious community associated with York Minster as a small boy and remained there, first as a pupil and then as a teacher and librarian, until 781. In 781, returning from Rome where he had been collecting the pallium for the new Archbishop of York, Alcuin met Charlemagne at Parma, and was invited to join the royal court as a teacher. From then on, he spent most of his time in Francia, his visits to Northumbria ceasing after the Viking sack of Lindisfarne in 793. Alcuin was made Abbot of St. Martin at Tours in 796, where he died in 804. Alcuin is renowned as a teacher, as a voluminous correspondent who produced copious advice for...

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