ALCUIN S LETTER TO EARDULF. 141

recognized as king, being consecrated, as Simeon
of Durham tells us (A. D. 796), e' in the Church of
St. Peter, at the altar of the blessed apostle Paul,
where the race of the Angles first received the
grace of baptism/'' On this altar, see page 81.

It is an interesting fact that we have two letters
of Alcuin, written, the one to (g8) Osbald on his
banishment, the other to (29) Eardulf on his suc-
cession to the throne from which Osbald had been
banished. It can very seldom have happened that
a man has had to write two letters under such
conditions.

" To the illustrious man Eardwulf the King, Ep. 65
Alchuine* the, deacon sends greeting. A.D. 796,

" Mindful of the old friendship to which we are
pledged, and rejoicing greatly in thy venerated
salutation, I am at pains to address thy laudable
person with, a letter on a few points touching the
prosperity of the kingdom conferred on thee by
God, and the salvation of thy soul, and the manner
in which the honour put into thy hands by the
gift of God may remain stable.

"Thou knowest very well from what dangers
the divine mercy has freed thee,2 and how easily,
when it would, it has brought thee to the kingdom.

1 Writing to an Englishman, Alcuin gives his Anglian
name in its Anglian spelling and without a Latin termina-
tion.

K 2 See p. 123. The full story is given by Simeon of
Durham under the year 790, meaning 791: "In the second
year of Ethelred (i.e. of his restored sovereignty) Duke
Eardulf was captured and taken to Ripon, and -was ordered
by the said king to be put to death outside the gate of the
monastery. The brethren carried the body to the church
with Gregorian chants, and placed it in a shed outside the !

door. He was found after midnight in the church, alive."