Editing Alcuin (section)

=== Charlemagne ===
{{Main|Scholasticism}}

Alcuin's intellectual curiosity allowed him to be reluctantly persuaded to join Charlemagne's court. He joined an illustrious group of scholars whom Charlemagne had gathered around him, the mainsprings of the [[Carolingian Renaissance]]: [[Peter of Pisa]], [[Saint Paulinus II|Paulinus II of Aquileia]], Rado, and Abbot [[Fulrad|Saint Fulrad]]. Alcuin would later write, "the Lord was calling me to the service of King Charles".

Alcuin became master of the [[Charlemagne's Palace in Aachen|Palace]] School of Charlemagne in [[Aachen]] ({{lang|la|Urbs Regale}}) in 782.{{sfn|Burns|1907}} It had been founded by the king's ancestors as a place for the education of the royal children (mostly in manners and the ways of the court). However, Charlemagne wanted to include the [[liberal arts]], and most importantly, the study of religion. From 782 to 790, Alcuin taught Charlemagne himself, his sons [[Pepin the Hunchback|Pepin]] and [[Louis the Pious|Louis]], as well as young men sent to be educated at court, and the young clerics attached to the [[Palatine Chapel in Aachen|palace chapel]]. Bringing with him from York his assistants Pyttel, Sigewulf, and Joseph, Alcuin revolutionised the educational standards of the Palace School, introducing Charlemagne to the liberal arts and creating a personalised atmosphere of scholarship and learning, to the extent that the institution came to be known as the "school of Master Albinus".

In this role as adviser, he took issue with the emperor's policy of forcing pagans to be baptised on pain of death, arguing, "Faith is a free act of the will, not a forced act. We must appeal to the conscience, not compel it by violence. You can force people to be baptised, but you cannot force them to believe". His arguments seem to have prevailed – Charlemagne abolished the death penalty for paganism in 797.{{sfn|Needham|2000|p=52}}

Charlemagne gathered the best men of every land in his court and became far more than just the king at the centre. It seems that he made many of these men his closest friends and counsellors. They referred to him as "David", a reference to the Biblical king [[David (biblical king)|David]]. Alcuin soon found himself on intimate terms with Charlemagne and the other men at court, where pupils and masters were known by affectionate and jesting nicknames.{{sfn|Wilmot-Buxton|1922|p=93}} Alcuin himself was known as 'Albinus' or 'Flaccus'. While at [[Aachen]], Alcuin bestowed pet names upon his pupils – derived mainly from [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Eclogues]]''.{{sfn|Jaeger|1999|p=38}} According to the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', "He loved Charlemagne and enjoyed the king's esteem, but his letters reveal that his fear of him was as great as his love."<ref name=EB/>

After the death of [[Pope Adrian I]], Alcuin was commissioned by Charlemagne to compose an epitaph for Adrian. The epitaph was inscribed on black stone quarried at Aachen and carried to Rome where it was set over Adrian's tomb in the south transept of [[St. Peter's Basilica]] just before Charlemagne's coronation in the basilica on Christmas Day 800.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Story |first=Joanna |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hMq8EAAAQBAJ |title=Charlemagne and Rome: Alcuin and the Epitaph of Pope Hadrian I |date=2023 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-920634-6 |language=en}}</ref>