Letter 15

From: Alcuin of York, scholar and court theologian To: Charlemagne, King of the Franks and Emperor Date: ~800 AD Context: Alcuin writes to Charlemagne around the time of the imperial coronation in Rome on Christmas Day 800, reflecting on the meaning of Christian imperial authority and the responsibilities it brings. To my most excellent lord, now by God's grace Emperor of the Romans, Charles, from his servant Alcuin, greetings. The coronation has happened, and I find myself struggling to express what I feel about it — not uncertainty, exactly, but an awareness of the weight of what has been done and the weight of what it asks of you. An emperor who rules a Christian people is not the emperor of the pagan Romans, whatever the form of the ceremony might suggest. The Christian emperor's authority is real and comes from God, but it is authority in service of a purpose: the defense of the church, the protection of the poor, the maintenance of justice, the advancement of learning and faith among the people entrusted to his care. The emperors of the old Roman world sometimes understood this. Constantine did, at his best. Theodosius did. More often they did not, and the history of the church and the empire reflects this failure. You have the opportunity to be the kind of emperor that the Christian tradition has always hoped for and rarely found. The work we have been doing together — the schools, the church reform, the genuine effort to make Christian life a real thing rather than a formal name — is the foundation of that kind of reign. Do not let the title change who you are. Your faithful servant and friend, Alcuin, wishing you God's wisdom