[Note: All Basque words are in Italics and Bold-faced Green]
ALCUIN’S
ACTIVITIES IN GERMANY *
A review derived from the following: Nyland, Edo. 2001. Linguistic Archaeology: AnIntroduction. Trafford Publ., Victoria, B.C., Canada. ISBN 1-55212-668-4. 541 p.
----Please CLICK on underlined categories for detail [to search for Subject Matter, depress Ctrl/F ]:
Next►
BENEDICTINE
ACTIVITIES
The activities
of the Benedictine deacon, Alcuin, in England have been reviewed by Nyland (2001). Alcuin came to Charlemagne's Court to bring the very best of
English learning to a country where most knowledge was retained in oral form.
As in York, there was no regular Benedictine monastery in Aachen and
therefore the large scriptorium was attached to the Palatine School of Charlemagne. The
Benedictine clergy who lived there were all linguists who worked with the
grammarians to develop the German language. Already during the reign of Charles Martel and
Pepin the Short a
simple version of the Palace school had existed, but training had been
restricted to court manners, procedures and protocol. Irish clergy had
come to the continent in the 6th century to bring their brand of Gnostic
Christianity and had brought along their own Gnostic Gospels. St. Columban had
established monasteries in Luxeuil, Sanct Gallen and Bobbio and assisted in
monastery construction at Faremontiers, Jouarre and Rabais. St. Gall had taken over at Sanct Gallen
which was named after him. Virgil the Geometer, the nemesis of Bonifacius, had been
bishop in Salzburg for many years. The scholar Donatus had been elected bishop of
Fiesole and ruled there for nearly 50 years. St. Pirmin built Reichenau,
Murbach and Amorbach. Many other religious houses had been started by the
Irish such as Lumièges, Auxerre, Laon, Liège, Trier, Würzburg, Regensburg,
Rheinau, Vienna, Lucca and many others, but none had taught secular or
worldly learning. The Gnostic
clergy had brought the simple message of Jesus, of peace and love, decency
and caring, without applying coercion. Gnostic Christianity had evolved
directly from the Ashera
or Goddess religion, from ash-era, asho-era: axola (care) -era (ing): "Caring" and had
retained the loving, caring deity of that religion, as opposed to pre-Hebraic
Judaism in which a jealous and tribal god-king had married the chief
priestess and placed her in an inferior position (see Raphael Patai,
"The Hebrew Goddess"). The Gnostic type of
Christianity was egalitarian and unstructured and therefore had no hierarchy of
deacons, priests, bishops and pope. They prayed directly to their Deity, a
right which was denied the people by the Roman Catholic missionaries. The
Irish Gnostic Christian clergy had made great strides in introducing a
peaceful renaissance in the Ashera religion, aimed at modernizing the age-old
habits and eliminating the human sacrifice of a young man, of which Jesus may
have been the last one (see Tammuz in: Ezekiel 8:14). As such, the Irish
clergy, who were primarily converted clergy of the Goddess religion, had
fitted in well, and were welcomed wherever they went. They had been given all help needed to
establish their monasteries. The Gnostic Gospels they brought along did not
include the Old Testament accounts of the brutal assault on the "Land of Milk and
Honey" as documented in such graphic and gruesome detail in
Numbers, Kings, Joshua and Judges. This all changed
with the coming of the priests of Orthodox
Christianity, whose avowed duty it was to destroy the old order with all
means at their disposal and to introduce Judeo-Christianity. Theirs was a
belief that talked about love but did not accept a refusal of it. Charlemagne
had even issued an Edict, some time between 782 and 785, which laid down his
law among newly conquered people. The death penalty was prescribed for anyone
refusing Christian baptism, for burning a Catholic church, stealing any of
its contents, conspiring against Christian men and for disloyalty towards the
King. No wonder the independent Germans and Friesians were disgusted and
fought back, in the process creating a fair number of martyrs, Bonifacius
among them. The Benedictines
had learned from the Irish experience and as soon as it was humanly possible
to do so, under abbot Pirmin, the Reichenau monastery was taken over from the
Gnostic clergy who had built it on an island in Lake Constance, again on an
ancient holy Ashera site. As did the name Monte before, the name Reichenau reflected
the traditional Benedictine hospitality: .re - ike - ena - au
St. Willebrord built at Echternach, in Luxemburg: ek. - .te - er. - .na
- ak.
St Chrodegang built at Lorsch near Mainz, a name which may come
from: .lo-ortz
St. Bonifacius established his monastery in Fritzlar in Hesse: .f. - .ri - itz. -
.la - ar.
Bonifacius' other favorite was Fulda in
Hesse-Nassau: fu - ul. - .da
Bishop Butchard's monastery was at Würtzburg: urtz ' bu - urg
It was the same place where the Irish monk Kilian
had built: .ki - ili - an.
ALCUIN'S ASSOCIATES
IN GERMANY
When Alcuin arrived at the
Court in Aachen he met there the deacon Peter of Pisa, a specialist in grammar
and correct usage of words, as shown in Greek and Latin texts. Peter also was
one of the main grammarians of the German language. Alcuin had been hired to
train the clergy who would bring the newly made-up language to the people and
soon wrote a textbook "for the use of his pupils and for the love of his
lord" meaning Charles. Where the serious Alcuin became Charles' advisor
in matters of education, civilization and government, Peter advised the king
for a variety of gayer purposes and wrote a number of poems under Charles'
name. When Alcuin met Peter, he was already aging and declining fast in
health and influence but his funny streak stayed with him until the end. Another teacher
of grammar in the palace school was Paul the Deacon, who was also learned
in Latin and Greek. To please Princess Adelga,
the daughter of Desiderius (king of Lombard Italy), he translated and
censored into suitable Christian language the "Roman History"
written by Eutropius. ade - el. - .ga
Desiderius
Paul also wrote
the first commentary on the "Little Rule" of St. Benedict. In spite of being very
productive and appreciated, Paul was quite unhappy at the Court and he
eventually left to live at Monte Cassino. His unhappiness pours out of a
letter he wrote to Abbot Theodemar: "They are
Catholics here, it is true, and they practice Christian ways; they welcome
me, all of them and are kind to me, for the love of our Father Benedict and
your own high fame. But in comparison with your monastery this Palace is a
prison and when I think of the peace there, life here is one hurricane! Only
in body I am here. Please dear brothers, please keep on asking our blessed
common Father and Teacher St. Benedict that by his merits he may prevail with
Christ and send me back without delay" (Duckett, p. 100). Under Charles'
constant urging, life in Aachen must have been like living in a pressure
cooker, there was so much to do, so little time and so few of them to do it.
Burnout was taking its toll. However,
before Paul left for Monte Cassino he abridged for king Charles the Roman
"On the meaning of words" by Pompeius Festus. He also wrote many
little riddles, fables, reflections and happy guessing games all designed to
familiarize the students with the newly created German language. He and Peter
of Pisa exchanged poems and problems of the imagination, many of them written
under the name of Charles. Of interest are Paul's fables on the sick lion,
the vengeful fox, the hungry calf, and the thin-legged stork. He even wrote
on gout and fleas and how to stop these plagues. One of Alcuin's
closest friends was Paulinus,
a teacher of literature who had been in Aachen for several years before
Alcuin came. When Paulinus had gone to live in Aquileia, Alcuin wrote:
"I have always loved you dear friend, ever since I came to know you. I
have inscribed the name of my Paulinus, not on waxed tablets where it could
be rubbed out, but in my heart for always. Do not forget the name of your
Alcuin in your prayers". Peter, Paul and Paulinus had been full-time
teachers, leaders of discussions in the humanities, but there were others
such as Angilbert,
a young lad who became a Court poet and close associate of Charles. Angilbert
St. Riquier
Angilbert loved
learning, the arts, the beauty of the world, but above all he loved king
Charles' daughter. Charles did not approve and sent him to the abbey of St.
Riquier near Amiens as abbot, where he contributed greatly to the glory of
its architecture and the books with which he endowed the abbey at Centula. CHARLEMAGNE IN GERMANY
Charlemagne
proved to be a master of strong-handed tactics .in converting people to
Christianity while in Germany. Alcuin
did not interfere in the procedure of conversion, but considered it an
unavoidable process necessary to crate converts. A look at the meaning of Charlemagne's name is worthwhile. The
name Charlemagne comes from: Caroli magni rex; or written
with the VCV formula: .ka-aro-oli
.ma-ag.-.ni .re-ek.-.s.: .ka - aro - oliaka - aro - oliakatsbako - arro - oliotuperfect - proud – holy "Perfect, proud and holy ... .ma - ag. - .niema - agu - unieman - aguregin - unibertsalto be devoted - to worship – general .... devoted to general worship, .... .re - ek. - .s.are - eko - osaarretatu - ekoizpen – osatze .... foresaw the creation of unity".
King Charles
tried to be everywhere and be all things, a super-human effort in which he
succeeded because of determination, a brilliant mind and an iron
constitution. Barely back from his military campaigns, he would attend to his
school, asking questions, encouraging, criticizing, and always full of new
ideas. If he had been near an established monastery, he would bring rare
books and ancient poetry of his people that he ordered copied. At the king's
request, the Benedictine grammarians were busily preparing a book of
instruction in grammar for the new language. As illiterate as he was, he even
took a personal interest in the word-invention process when he designed new
names for the 12 months of the year and the directions of the winds. Charlemagne's names for the months:
Charlemagne's names for the winds:
INTRODUCING THE NEW
LANGUAGE
On March 23, 789
Charlemagne sent out a "General Admonition", a series of
Edicts. They dealt with the duties and behavior of the bishops, priests,
deacons and monks. There is no doubt that Edict #72 was written by Alcuin who
had long advocated the establishment of schools for the common people
throughout the land. The new German language, having advanced enough so
simple sentences could be spoken, King Charles decided that it was time to
rule that: "There be schools
to teach boys to read. Correct, we command you, with due care the copies of
the psalms, the written signs, the chants, the calendar, the grammar in each
monastery and diocese, and the Catholic books, because often people wish to
pray to the Lord, but do so badly, because the books are at fault. And do not
allow your boys to corrupt the books by their own reading or writing" (Ducket p122). Alcuin's
residential schools proved to be very effective in spreading the new language
and religion. The boys were like prisoners and often brutally and degradingly
treated, especially if they tried to speak their mothers' tongue, the
universal language, or reverted to "pagan" practices. This system
of education was so successful that it continued in use. Centuries later the
colonial powers applied it throughout the world by giving the churches the
right to "educate" native children. The mere speaking of their
native language often resulted in corporal and other punishment. Until the
late 20th Century, Canada used this abominable system to force a
European education onto its large native population. It was only abandoned
after the boys' complaints of sexual harassment and gross indecency by many
of the clergy were finally taken seriously. As literacy
spread among the people living near clergy who had been trained by Alcuin, Charles'
enthusiasm for the new language became infectious and popular. Many persons
who still had knowledge of the Universal
Language, started to use it to invent new words
and names, but like Charlemagne, only rarely following the strict rules by
which the Benedictine linguists worked. For many years to come, this word and
name invention game would be a popular pastime until the new language was
saturated with acrostically mutilated words and names, and the population in
the main centers was comfortable with the new language. The time had
thus come for the final solution of the "Ashera Problem". Away from
population centers, in many small isolated farming, herding and fishing
communities, the universal language was still spoken, especially in southern
Germany, the Alps and northern Italy, the very population from which the
Benedictines for over 1,000 years had obtained the needed
linguist/grammarians. These last pockets of Ligurian/Basque speakers were
then removed around 1,600 A.D. by condemning all those women as witches who
still taught the Ligurian language to their children. In the records of the
Inquisition the women’s' speech is invariably recorded as
"utterings" or "incantations", certain proof of
witchcraft, which meant that Exodus 22:18 had to be invoked: "Thou shalt
not suffer a witch to live." In fact, the church knew very well that witchcraft was impossible,
that it didn't exit. Their witch hunt was just a cover for their incredibly brutal
holocaust, designed to wipe out the last remnants of the universal language
and with it the legends passed on by the women. The operations
manual of the Inquisition, The Malleus Maleficarum (Kramer), written by the Dominicans, provided all necessary
justification for this terrible and incomprehensible injustice. It was
estimated by archaeologist Marija Gimbutas at Stanford University, that up to
nine million people, overwhelmingly women, were condemned to an
excruciatingly painful and cruel burning death. To the eternal credit of the
Benedictines, their Order appeared to have wanted no role in this holocaust.
Those monks and priests who dared to speak out against this most horrible
crime of all times were reminded of the Pope' warning: "People who hold
that witches do not exist are to be regarded as notorious heretics" (Kramer & Spencer 1991, p.8 & 275) which meant burning at the stake. All
Basque women on the French side of the Spanish border were also declared to
be witches and many courageous Basque- speaking priests protested; they were
subsequently tortured into confessing that they had conducted black masses
and were also burned (de Lancre). Today many
university linguists are still instructed to teach that the universal
language never existed. They all meekly comply! KING CHARLES' WIVES
Sadness fell
over the entire school when it was announced that the young Queen Hildegard
had died. She was king Charles' third wife and had been only 12 years old
when she married him and in the 12 years of married life had given birth to 9
children of which 3 had died in infancy. Alcuin had much appreciated the
beautiful young woman. Her charming personality had enlivened the Court: Hildegard: il. - .de - ega - ard.
Charles did not
remain single for long. A year later he married an eastern Frank known now as
Fastrada. As beloved as Hildegard had been, Queen
Fastrada became greatly disliked. Einhard, Charles' biographer, relates
stories about her cruelty that even made her own people, the eastern Franks,
rise in revolt. Fastrada was obviously not the name by which she called herself: fa - aztra - ada
Although the
uprising of her people was quickly squashed, a second, potentially more
serious one started soon after. It was prompted by Charles' own son Pippin the Hunchback,
because he and the Frankish nobles could not bear the cruelty of the Queen. Charles was
warned just in time about the revolt and the leaders died by the sword and
the gallows. Charles could not kill his own son but banished him to the
monastery of Prüm in Lorraine. Fastrada died after 11 years of marriage. She
had given birth to two daughters, Hiltrud and Theodrada, both of whom became
abbesses in France. The fifth queen of Charles was Liutgard, of German
origin, according to Theodulf a gracious, courteous and generous person,
delighting in books and the arts. Liutgard's name confirms
this: .li - ut. - .ga - ard
Where Queen
Hildegard had been a much-appreciated student of Alcuin, Queen Liutgard
became his friend and confidante. They helped each other whenever in need and
he admired her greatly during the few years of her life at the Court. ALCUIN'S TEACHING
METHOD
Alcuin was an
extremely devoted teacher, administrator and disciplinarian and a stimulator
of young and old but he was neither an original thinker, a poet, nor a
philosopher. He was content to compile his lessons by borrowing from
established authorities, which often made his treatises dull and dry.
However, he was rich in experience and knowledge of human nature, had an
encyclopedic knowledge of available information, and knew exactly in which
books this was to be found. Through prolific correspondence with his many
friends, all over western Europe, he was knowledgeable about all that was
going on in monasteries and schools and even in Rome. To teach the new
German language, Alcuin had adopted the method of dialogue, question and
answer. He insisted on proper pronunciation in reading and gave careful
instruction in the mysteries of metre and rhythm. In his book On Orthography he lists many words
in alphabetical order and teaches proper form, declension and usage so that
his students would write and speak correctly. He pointed out pitfalls in
Latin such as the initial "a" in ara (altar) and hara (pigsty); the confusion of
"b" and "v" in bile and vile, acerbus (harsh) and acervus (heap). His sources were Bede, Priscian and Cassiodorus with a
little Alcuin added. He also compiled a long list of simple questions and not
so logical answers, especially designed to increase the student's vocabulary
and usage of the new language. The answers he devised were not so much
intended as a good response to the questions as to familiarize the students
with the usage of the newly invented words. 1. What is writing? the guardian of history. 2. What is speech? the revealer of the spirit 3. What gives birth to speech? the tongue. 4. What is the tongue? the lash of the air. 5. What is air? the guardian of life. 6. What is life? the joy of the blessed, the sorrow of the sad, the looking for death. 7. What is death? an inevitable happening, an uncertain pilgrimage, the tears of the living, the basis of last wills and testaments, the thief of man 8. What is man? the bondsman of death, a passing wayfarer, a guest sojourning on earth. 9. To what is man like? to an apple on a tree.10. How is he placed? like a lantern in the wind.30. What are the lips? the doors of the mouth.31. What is the throat? the devourer of food.39. What is the stomach? the cook of food.49. What is day? the simulant of toil. 51. What is the moon? The eye of the night, the giver of dew, the foreteller of storms. 65. What is spring? the painter of the earth.67. What is autumn? the barn of the year.
.be - er. - ,la - an.obe - ere - ela - anobetoezin - ereduztatu - ela - andanaperfectly - adapted - word - in groups eta - ar. - .s. - .ka - ar. - .taeta - ara - asi - ika - are - eta-eta - arazoi - asi - ikaskintza - arretazko - etaabundant - reason - to begin - instruction - careful – afterwards "Perfectly adapted words in groups (are) abundant reason to begin careful instruction afterwards".
It was the questions
and riddles which provided the grammarians with goals to work towards,
designing groups of words which could accommodate the discussions associated
with the key-words in the riddles. This must have lead to endless testing
among the grammarians to ensure that the riddle solving could be done with
all the necessary words in place before the group of words was released.
Charlemagne also needed Alcuin to eliminate the troublesome oral traditions
of the people by replacing them with literacy. Written records could be
easily manipulated, censored, copied and hidden or destroyed. They were far
easier to influence than the age-old tradition of memorizing by professionals
that memorized. Where memorizing had been a highly respected art, it now
became a hazardous vocation, because after the priestesses and clergy had
been disposed of by the church, the professionals came next. The oral
tradition had created the great stability of the ancient language. Its demise
would leave a vacancy that could only be filled only inadequately by the
introduction of writing. Alcuin was brought in to bring this change about and
in the process, he was to get rid of the persistent ancient native language.
Alcuin had started this task by vowing that he himself would never again
speak the universal language of his ancestors and urged others to do the
same. Being a man of high principles and great determination, he succeeded
where everyone else had failed, but only after Charlemagne had extracted an
incredible price in blood. Finally his efforts resulted in the Germans,
Danes, Friesians and Hollanders accepting new and highly immature languages
against their will, while the speaking of their own beautiful and mature
language was forbidden. When Benedictine
abbeys had been established at places such as Pannonhalma in Hungary, Nidaros in Norway
and Tyniec in
Poland, the basic acrostic word-invention processes, proven so effective in
England and Germany, were repeated there, only with drastic changes in basic
syntax, characters and pronunciation. The methods Alcuin had developed were
put to good use, when the Benedictines became established in these places.
But what did the grammarian who made up the word "acrostic", tell us what he meant?
The English word "acrostic", when analyzed, only makes partial
sense because it is incomplete. The word must therefore have originated
outside of England. In German and Greek the word is: "akrostichon",
which is much more promising. When each consonant of this word is arranged
with the VCV formula, it reads as follows: ak.-.ro-os.-.ti-ik.-.ho-on.: ak. aka akabu perfect .ro aro aroztegi forged os. osa osagai component .ti ati atxiki to agglutinate ik. ika ikaskizun lesson to be learned .ho aho ahohizkuntza spoken language on. one oneratu to improve Perfectly forged agglutinated components are the lesson to be learned to improve the spoken language.
This is not
exactly a definition of acrostic as is taught today, but it tells us
something; it does admit that acrostics was used to create a spoken language.
In any case, it is usually possible, like the examples above, to identify the
words which were used to assemble the new word. It was the
awesome task given to the Benedictines to re-make the culture, religion and
language of this ancient and happy society which had a highly disciplined
civilization, no weapons or fortifications, had a marvelous work-ethic and
led a life of caring communal solidarity. It was a fore drawn conclusion that
the indoctrinated Benedictines would not be welcome. Literally every aspect
of the old order was overturned by them with enormous and tragic consequences
for the population. It may be said that the Benedictines tore down,
re-organized, re-built and re-inspired the west, just like the
Ligurian/Basque word erald expressed: from eraldatu (to transform) the first part erald then became the
Dutch word "wereld" and, slightly manipulated, the English word
"world." 5,200+ YEARS OF
LINGUISTIC RESEARCH
The profession
of the language inventor was already ancient by the time Benedict of Nursia built
his monastery on the rocky hill half way between Rome and Naples. Language
invention had always been the manipulating of the versatile Saharan language
which the Basque of today is a close relative. This is mentioned in Genesis 11:1: "...now the whole earth
had one language...” Such manipulating may have started at the time of Pharaoh Djoser,
around 3,200 bce. in an effort to create a form of magical writing which
would be reserved for scholars, not to be read by the common masses. The
genius that invented the VCV agglutinating system created something that is
used (even to this day by a few scholars in the know) to make up names, which
could not be deciphered, until Edo Nyland cracked the ancient code (see Saharan). The system was
taken over by those who wanted to destroy the Ashera religion and used to
create a plethora of unstable languages. Where the ideology used to be
"make love, not war", this was turned around to "make war, not
love" by removing the feminine aspects from the new polytheistic
proto-Judaic religion. In those early
days before 3,000 bce., Judaism was a missionary religion. Groups of missionary
linguists and clergy followed the trade routes to far-away places and created
new languages with associated scripts.
Some of these were Akadian
(Iraq), Sanskrit (India), Tocharian (China), Iberian (Spain), Ge'ez (Ethiopia), Hebrew (Palestine)
and possibly even Japanese and Quechua,
the Inca Language (ainkoa is Basque for the god),
This enormous linguistic effort had already created many languages by the
time Benedict set up his linguistics-training center at Monte Cassino abbey.
The patriarchal insistence on confusing the one and only universal language
had been repeated later in Genesis 11:7: "Come, let us go down and there
confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's
speech" and was closely tied in with the patriarchs' determination to
destroy the ancient pre-Christian religion, so clearly expressed in the
Bible. The decision to invent new languages may therefore have been made
about 3.200 years before Christ was born. When the Benedictine clergy invented English, they had created a winner; it still
is England's most successful export. One of the invented languages was Latin, which had been
pioneered by a highly educated missionary group of Luwian clergy who appeared
to have settled in Italy and had started what later became known as the
Etruscan culture. They brought pre-Hebraic Judaism of the jealous sky God to
their new homeland of Tuscani and along with this created a form of writing
that still defies complete deciphering. They laid down firm rules of syntax
and grammar for the new liturgical language called Latin. This development work was going on when the Romans took
over Tuscani and adopted the new and still immature Latin as their own
language of state and general use. They also introduced a different type of
script, possibly borrowed from the Phoenicians, which we still use today. The meaning of the word "Latin" tells a story: .la-ati-in
Their linguists
exploited the unique characteristics of the Ligurian/Basque Language, still spoken in
Northern Italy, by applying the VCV formula, as described in previously. The
result was a beautiful sounding and elegant language that was considerably
easier to learn than the complicated but very logical Ligurian Language. The
highly structured Latin language, which appeared and sounded quite different
from the "pagan" language it originated from, appealed to the newly
established Christian community in Rome. The Roman Catholic church leadership
then ordered it and its script to be adapted for use as their own liturgical
language. Eventually Benedict was
given the task to use the same agglutinating formula as the basis for
developing the Romance group of languages including Spanish and Catalan,
French and Provençal, Italian and Rumanian, which therefore became second
level invented languages (see Classifying the Worlds' Languages). Thus Latin became the
communication language of the Benedictines. This was a very necessary
decision because the efforts to create new regional languages, which only the
local Benedictines could understand, were not suited for international
communication between the many monasteries and Rome.
|