Letter 6

From: Alcuin of York, scholar and court theologian To: Charlemagne, King of the Franks Date: ~796 AD Context: Alcuin writes to Charlemagne on the question of how to approach the conversion of the Saxons [who had been conquered by Charlemagne in a brutal decades-long war], advocating for genuine formation rather than forced baptism. To the most devout and most Christian King Charles, from Alcuin, On the matter of the Saxon mission and the question of baptism, I want to press a point that I have raised before and that I believe is of the utmost importance. Baptism is the sacrament of faith. It is not a marker of political submission, nor is it a reward for military defeat. A person who receives baptism without faith has received nothing — or worse than nothing, because they have received a sacrament that does not sanctify and may increase their condemnation if they continue in unbelief while bearing the outward mark of Christianity. The Saxon people have been conquered. They have accepted baptism under circumstances that make it very difficult to know how much of their acceptance reflects genuine faith and how much reflects the desire to survive. I fear that in many cases the latter is dominant. What I urge is a program of patient, serious formation: preaching, instruction, the building of schools and communities in which genuine Christian life is possible. This takes time — more time than a king wants to spend, I know. But the alternative — a baptized population that is not Christian — is a pastoral disaster that will haunt the church for generations. Coercion has never made a genuine Christian. Teaching, witness, and the grace of God have. Your faithful adviser in Christ, Alcuin