Alcuin of York: Letter to Higbald, Bishop of Lindisfarne, about the Viking Raid

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To the best sons in Christ of the most blessed father the holy bishop Cuthbert, Higbald the bishop and the whole body of the Church of Lindisfarne, the deacon Alchuine sends greeting with heavenly benediction in Christ.

When I was with you, your friendly love was wont to give me much joy. And now that I am absent the calamity of your affliction greatly saddens me every day. The pagans have contaminated the sanctuaries of God, and have poured out the blood of saints round about the altar; have laid waste the house of our hope, have trampled upon the bodies of saints in the temple of God like dung in the street. What can I say but groan forth along with you before the altar of Christ, Spare, O Lord, spare thy people; give not thine heritage to the Gentiles, lest the pagans say “Where is the God of the Christians?”

What assurance is there for the churches of Britain if the holy Cuthbert, with so great a number of saints, does not defend his own Church? Either this is the beginning of greater affliction, or else the sins of the dwellers there have called it upon them. It has not happened by chance; it is the sign that calamity was greatly deserved.

But now, ye that survive, stand like men, fight bravely, defend the camp of God. Remember Judas Machabeus, how he purged the Temple of God, and freed the people from a foreign yoke. If anything in your manner of life needs correction, pray correct it speedily. Call back to you your patrons, who have left you for a time. It was not that their influence with God’s mercy failed, but, we know not why, they did not speak. Do not boast yourselves in the vanity of raiment; that is matter not of boasting but of disgrace for priests and servants of God. Do not blur the words of your prayers with drunkenness. Do not go forth after pleasures of the flesh and greediness of the world; but remain firmly in the service of God and in the discipline of the life by rule; that the most holy fathers whose sons you are may not cease to be your protectors. Go in their footsteps, and abide secure in their prayers. Be not degenerate sons of such ancestry. Never will they cease from your defence, if they see you follow their example.

Be not utterly cast down in mind by this calamity. God chastens every son whom he receives; and He has chastened you the more because he loves you more. Jerusalem, the city loved of God, and the Temple of God, perished in the flames of the Chaldeans. Rome, with her coronal of holy Apostles and innumerable martyrs, has been broken up by a pagan visitation; but by God’s pity has quickly recovered. Nearly the whole of Europe has been laid waste by the sword and the fire of Goths and of Huns; but now, by God’s mercy, as the sky is adorned with stars, so the land of Europe shines bright with churches, and in them the divine offices of the religion of Christ flourish and increase.

And thou, holy father, leader of the people of God, shepherd of the holy flock, physician of souls, light set upon a candlestick, be the form of all goodness to them that see you, the herald of salvation to all that hear you. Let your company be honest in character, an example to others unto life, not to destruction. Let thy banquets be with sobriety, not with drunkenness. Let thy dress be suited to thy condition. Be not conformed unto men of the world in any vain thing. The empty adornment of dress, and the useless care for it, is for thee a reproach before men and a sin before God. It is better to adorn with good habits the soul that is to live for ever, than to dress up in delicate garments the body that soon will decay in the dust. Let Christ be clothed and fed in the person of the poor man, that so with Christ you may reign. The ransom of a man is true riches. If we love gold, we should send it before us to heaven, where it will be of service to us. What we love, we have; then let us love that which is eternal, not that which is perishable. Let us aim at the praise of God, not of men. Let us do what did the holy men whom we laud. Let us follow their footsteps on earth, that we may be worthy to be partakers in their glory in the heavens.

May the protection of the divine pity keep you from all adversity, and set you with your fathers in the glory of the kingdom of heaven. When our lord, King Karl, comes home, his enemies by God’s mercy subdued, we will arrange to go to him, God helping us. If we are able then to help your holiness, either in the matter of the youths who have been carried captive by the pagans, or in any other need of yours, we will take diligent care to carry it through.

 

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Source: G. F. Browne. Lectures Delivered in the Cathedral Church of Bristol in 1907 and 1908. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1908.