Letter 9

From: Alcuin of York, scholar and court theologian To: The people of Kent Date: ~797 AD Context: Alcuin writes to the people of the kingdom of Kent on questions of church reform, moral renewal, and Christian life in the context of the reform movement associated with the Carolingian church. To the beloved people of Kent, sons and daughters of the faith, from Alcuin, servant of God, greetings. I write to you from across the sea with a concern that has been growing in me for several years: the concern that the church in England, which was once the teacher of Christendom, has been slipping in the quality of its life and the seriousness of its faith. I am not writing to condemn you. I know this kingdom and I know many of you. What I see is not wickedness but drift — a gradual relaxation of the standards that your forebears held, a comfortable accommodation to ways of living that the gospel does not approve of. This is not dramatic, and it is all the more dangerous for not being dramatic. The remedies are neither dramatic nor complicated: reading of scripture, regular participation in the sacraments, genuine attention to the obligations of Christian charity, honest examination of conscience. The church's teaching on these matters is not obscure. What requires renewal is not knowledge but will. I ask you to receive this letter as the counsel of one who loves you and who wants to see the church in England recover the quality of life that made it a light to the nations. In Christ's name, Alcuin