Editing Alcuin (section)

=== Return to Northumbria and back to Francia ===
In 790, Alcuin returned from the court of Charlemagne to England, to which he had remained attached. He dwelt there for some time, but Charlemagne then invited him back to help in the fight against the [[Spanish Adoptionism|Adoptionist]] heresy, which was at that time making great progress in [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]], the old capital of the [[Visigoths]] and still a major city for the Christians under [[Al-Andalus|Islamic rule in Spain]]. He is believed to have had contacts with [[Beatus of Liébana]], from the [[Kingdom of Asturias]], who fought against Adoptionism. At the [[Council of Frankfurt]] in 794, Alcuin upheld the orthodox doctrine against the views expressed by [[Felix, Bishop of Urgel|Felix of Urgel]], an [[heresiarch]] according to the [[Catholic Encyclopedia]].{{sfn|Burns|1907}} Having failed during his stay in Northumbria to influence King [[Æthelred I of Northumbria|Æthelred I]] in the conduct of his reign, Alcuin never returned home.

He was back at Charlemagne's court by at least mid-792, writing a series of letters to Æthelred, to Hygbald, Bishop of [[Bishop of Durham|Lindisfarne]], and to [[Æthelhard]], [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] in the succeeding months, dealing with the [[Viking]] attack on Lindisfarne in July 793. These letters and Alcuin's poem on the subject, {{Lang|la|"De clade Lindisfarnensis monasterii"}}, provide the only significant contemporary account of these events. In his description of the Viking attack, he wrote: "Never before has such terror appeared in Britain. Behold the [[St Cuthbert's Society, Durham|church of St Cuthbert]], splattered with the blood of God's priests, robbed of its ornaments."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Crossley-Holland |first=Kevin |title=The Anglo-Saxon World: An Anthology |date=24 June 1999 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0192835475 |page=186}}</ref>