The Heirs of Alcuin: Education and Clerical Advancement in Ninth-Century Carolingian Europe

During the Carolingian renewal, Alcuin of York (c. 740–804) played a major role in promoting education for children who would later join the clergy, and encouraging advanced learning among mature clerics. This study argues that Alcuin was also instrumental in forging a connection between education and clerical advancement as a developmental process, which scholarship has neglected due to its tendency to separate the topics of ninth-century education and the Carolingian Church. Clerical education was framed and shaped by hierarchical concepts. Alcuin recognized a hierarchy of teachers and teaching authority, ranking the biblical and theological expertise of the doctor over the more basic instruction of the magister. At the same time, Alcuin’s life as a magister served to emphasize the importance of this role as the foundation for clerical education. The term schola retained its classical and patristic connotations in the ninth century; it might refer to the entire Church as instructed by the clergy, or to any group of students learning a skill or discipline at a particular level. Alcuin associated the traditional life stages (gradus aetatis) with educational development, and these, along with the ranks of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, were the structures of advancement that Alcuin and his intellectual heirs viewed as a framework for clerical education. Educational curriculum could be based on clerical skills to be learned, life stages, or on various authors who demonstrated superior skill in composition, especially in the writing of histories. The transition from reading to composition was a crucial point in the careers of many young clerics, often involving the writing of prose and verse vitae. Many young clerics wrote these vitae at or near the time of their promotions to the higher orders, which is crucial for understanding the early careers of Alcuin’s pupils and of his ninth-century intellectual heirs.