Twelve Centuries of Patience

By John Hertz: May 20th (by the Gregorian calendar; not yet if you’re an Orthodox Christian using the Julian calendar) was St. Alcuin’s Day. He lived 735-804. To him is attributed the problem of the wolf, the goat, and the cabbage.

It seems he wrote to Charlemagne in 798:

Nec audiendi qui solent dicere, Vox populi, vox Dei, quum tumultuositas vulgi semper insaniae proxima sit.

“And those people should not be listened to who keep saying the voice of the people is the voice of God, since the riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness.”

3 thoughts on “Twelve Centuries of Patience

  1. He actually had several River Crossing Puzzles in his math book. He was an important enough cleric that we still have hundreds of letters that he wrote. Including a large cache of love letters. To his bishop.

  2. A very wise man in many ways.

    He basically WAS the Carolingian Renaissance.

    @Darrah, I didn’t know St. Alcuin was gay(ish)!

Comments are closed.