Editing Alcuin (section)

=== Background ===
[[File:AT 13763 Roof figures at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna-8.jpg|thumb|upright|Alcuin, roof figure, Museum of History of Arts, Vienna]]

Alcuin was born in [[Northumbria]], presumably sometime in the 730s. Virtually nothing is known of his parents, family background, or origin.{{sfn|Bullough|2004|p=164}} In common hagiographical fashion, the ''Vita Alcuini'' asserts that Alcuin was of "noble English stock", and this statement has usually been accepted by scholars. Alcuin's own work only mentions such collateral kinsmen as [[Wilgils|Wilgils of Ripon]], father of the missionary saint [[Willibrord]]; and [[Beornrad (archbishop of Sens)|Beornrad]] (also spelled Beornred), abbot of [[Echternach]] and bishop of [[Sens]].{{sfn|Bullough|2004|pp=146-147, 165}} Willibrord, Alcuin and Beornrad were all related by blood.{{sfn|Mayr-Harting|2016|page=212}}{{sfn|Stenton|2001|page=219}}

In his ''Life'' of St Willibrord, Alcuin writes that Wilgils called a ''[[Pater familias]]'', had founded an oratory and church at the mouth of the [[Humber]], which had fallen into Alcuin's possession by inheritance. Because in early Anglo-Latin writing ''paterfamilias'' ("head of a family, householder") usually referred to a {{lang|ang|[[churl|ceorl]]}} ("[[churl]]"), [[Donald A. Bullough]] suggests that Alcuin's family was of {{lang|ang|cierlisc}} ("churlish") status: i.e., free but subordinate to a noble lord, and that Alcuin and other members of his family rose to prominence through beneficial connections with the aristocracy.{{sfn|Bullough|2004|pp=146-147, 165}} If so, Alcuin's origins may lie in the southern part of what was formerly known as [[Deira]].{{sfn|Bullough|2004|p=165}}