Online Document Assignment 8

THE VENERABLE BEDE

Renaissance Men of the Early Middle Ages

The interconnected lives of Bede (ca. 673–735) and Alcuin of York (ca. 735–804) tell us much about the nature of the Carolingian Renaissance. An enormously prolific scholar, Bede was a champion of the idea that the promotion of learning would advance the cause of Christianity. Bede’s fellow Northumbrian Alcuin of York built on this intellectual foundation. Alcuin’s intellectual career began at the cathedral school of York. Under the direction of Bede admirer Archbishop Egbert and his successor Aelberht, the school became the embodiment of Bede’s vision of learned Christianity, and it would serve as a model for Alcuin when he transformed Charlemagne’s Palace School at Aachen into a center of European intellectual activity.

The connections between Bede and Alcuin reflect the intellectual, religious, and political currents of their time. Both received crucial intellectual support from church institutions and placed their intellectual efforts in the larger context of the advancement of Christianity. At the same time, their lives were touched by the efforts of secular authorities to place the church in the service of the state. On a more personal level, Bede and Alcuin were connected by a sense of shared mission. They were inspired by the idea of universal Christendom, a goal Charlemagne’s empire seemed to bring closer to fruition. And they saw themselves as part of an international intellectual community, recognizing their debts to previous generations, their connections to their contemporaries, and their responsibility to future scholars. As you read these excerpts from their writings, consider what they reveal about the nature of early medieval intellectual life. What light do they shed on the essential characteristics of the Carolingian Renaissance?

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