, one of the fevr learned Englishmen of the eighth century, was born
, one of the fevr
learned Englishmen of the eighth century, was born in the
north of England, and educated at York, under the direction of archbishop Egbert, as we learn from his own letters,
in which he frequently calls that great prelate his beloved
master, and the clergy of York the companions of his
youthful studies. As he survived the venerable Bede about
seventy years, it is hardly possible that he could have received any part of his education under him, as some writers
have asserted; nor does he ever call that great man his
master, though he speaks of him with the highest
veneration. It is not well known to what preferments he had attained in the church before he left England, although some
say he was deacon of the church of York, and abhot of
Canterbury. The occasion of his leaving his native country was, his being sent on an embassy by Offa, king of
Mercia, to the emperor Charlemagne, who contracted so
great an esteem and friendship for him, that he earnestly
solicited, and at length prevailed upon him, to settle in his
court, and become his preceptor in the sciences. Alcuinus
accordingly instructed that great prince in rhetoric, logic,
mathematics, and divinity; which rendered him one of his
greatest favourites. He was treated with so much kindness
and familiarity by the emperor, that the courtiers called
him, by way of eminence, “the emperor’s delight.
”