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c. 735 – 804

Alcuin of York

Worth knowing

  • A scholar from York whom Charlemagne brought to his court in 782 to lead his palace school.
  • In letters of 796 he argued against forcing the conquered Saxons to be baptised. Faith, he wrote, is a free act of the will and cannot be compelled.
  • He prepared a corrected text of the Latin Bible and ended his life as abbot of St Martin's at Tours.

In Scholar’s Dream, Alcuin of York has one book

Alcuin of York’s quotes in the game

Every quotation from Alcuin of York that a player meets in Scholar’s Dream, attached to the move that says it. Or see them as a plain list →

In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other, and each thing a book can do in a debate is called a move. Every quote below is spoken by one of those moves. Open “How it works in the game” under a quote to see the move, which books learn it, and which arguments it answers best.

“It may be questioned… whether tithes were anywhere exacted by the apostles; and if we ourselves, born and bred in the faith, do not care to give tithes, how much more must the fierce barbarians, lately converted, resent their exaction.”

Alcuin of York, Ep. 110 (796), trans. Page (1909), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain
How it works in the game: the move Did the Apostles Take Tithes?
EcclesiologyArgument · power 78 · 100% accurate

In the gameTwo questions, and the second is the one that stings. Where in the apostles is a tithe collected from a new convert — and how hard do we, raised in the faith, find it to pay ours?

Learned byAlcuin’s Letters (Lv 1)

“If… the same pains had been taken to preach to them the easy yoke and light burden of Christ as has been done to collect tithes, and to punish the slightest infringement of the laws on their part, then they would no longer abhor and repel baptism.”

Alcuin of York, Ep. 111 (796), trans. Rolph Barlow Page, The Letters of Alcuin (1909), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain
How it works in the game: the move The Easy Yoke
EthicsArgument · power 90 · 100% accurate

In the gameAlcuin names the real reason the Saxons refused. They were taxed and prosecuted, with the preaching somewhere behind. Put the effort into teaching instead, and the answer changes.

Learned byAlcuin’s Letters (Lv 46)

Strong against
×3Baptised or Beheadedan argument · why?

Alcuin’s question, asked in 796 and never answered: what if we had preached as hard as we taxed?

Words Alcuin of York’s books borrow from others

Moves these books can learn whose quotation comes from somebody else. The citation on each one names who actually said it.

“Those then who are specially fitted by character and by knowledge should be invited rather than drawn by force to this sacrament. I exhort you, therefore, and invite you, for it is not right that I should use force”

Otto of Bamberg at Pyritz (1124), in Ebo/Herbord, Life of Otto, trans. Robinson (1920), public domain.public domain
How it works in the game: the move It Is Not Right to Use Force
EcclesiologyArgument · power 80 · 100% accurate

In the gameA bishop with sixty armed men outside, saying the quiet part in the middle of the sermon. He is asking for their sons to be given for the priesthood, and he stops to say he cannot make them.

Learned byAlcuin’s Letters (Lv 38)

“thou shouldst propose to them in no irritating or offensive manner, but with the greatest calmness and moderation… so that the heathen more out of confusion than exasperation may blush for their absurd opinions”

Daniel of Winchester, Letter to Boniface (c. 723), trans. Kylie (1911), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain
How it works in the game: the move Calmness and Moderation
EthicsStat shift · 100% accurate

In the gameA bishop’s advice to a missionary about his tone. Ask your questions calmly, and the other man falls quiet from confusion instead of digging in from anger.

Learned byAlcuin’s Letters (Lv 42)

Who else was alive

Alcuin of York against everyone else in the game.

A.D. 450A.D. 700A.D. 950A.D. 1200A.D. 1450A.D. 1700A.D. 1950
Solid bar = firm dates · faded = approximate51 authors sit outside this window
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