[135] _Ep._ clxxv (799), to Adalhart, Bp. of Old Corbey, ‘Vereor, ne Homerus [Angilbert] irascatur contra cartam prohibentem spectacula et diabolica figmenta. quae omnes sanctae scripturae prohibent, in tantum ut legebam sanctum dicere Augustinum, “nescit homo, qui histriones et mimos et saltatores introducit in domum suam, quam magna eos immundorum sequitur turba spirituum.” sed absit ut in domo christiana diabolus habeat potestatem’ (the quotation from Augustine cannot be identified): _Ep._ ccxxxvii (801), also to Adalhart, ‘quod de emendatis moribus Homeri mei scripsisti, satis placuit oculis meis ... unum fuit de histrionibus, quorum vanitatibus sciebam non parvum animae sui periculum imminere, quod mihi non placuit, ... mirumque mihi visum est, quomodo tam sapiens animus non intellexisset reprehensibilia dignitati suae facere et non laudabilia.’ Angilbert also seems to have had relations unbecoming an abbot with one of the ‘coronatae columbae.’ [136] _Capit. of Mantua_ (Boretius, i. 195), can. 6 ‘neque ulla iocorum genera ante se fieri permittant quae contra canonum auctoritatem eveniunt.’ [137] _Capit. Generale_ (Boretius, i. 64; _P. L._ xcvii. 188), c. 31 ‘ut episcopi et abbates et abbatissae cupplas canum non habeant, nec falcones, nec accipitres, nec ioculatores.’ If this is the _carta_ of Alcuin’s _Ep._ clxxv, and I know of no other which it can be, Dümmler’s date for the letter of 799 seems too late. Mabillon’s 791 is nearer the mark. [138] _Capit. Gen._ (Boretius, i. 96), can. 23 ‘cleri ... non inanis lusibus vel conviviis secularibus vel canticis vel luxuriosis usum habeant.’ [139] _Conc. of Tours_ (Mansi, xiv. 84), c. 7 ‘histrionum quoque turpium et obscoenorum insolentiis iocorum et ipsi [sacerdotes] animo effugere caeterisque sacerdotibus effugienda praedicare debent.’ [140] Einhard, _Vita Caroli Magni_, c. 29 ‘barbara et antiquissima carmina, quibus veterum regum actus et bella canebantur, scripsit memoriaeque mandavit.’ [141] Alcuin, _Ep._ cxlix (798), to Charlemagne, ‘ut puerorum saevitia vestrorum cuiuslibet carminis dulcedine mitigaretur, voluistis’; Alcuin, who doubtless had to _ménager_ Charlemagne a little, is apparently to write the poem himself. [142] Kögel, i. 2. 222. The _Chronicon Novaliciense_, iii. 10, describes how after crossing Mt. Cenis in 773, Charlemagne was guided by a Lombard _ioculator_ who sung a ‘cantiunculam a se compositam de eadem re rotando in conspectu suorum.’ As a reward the _ioculator_ had all the land over which his _tuba_ sounded on a hill could be heard. The _Monachus S. Galli_ (Jaffé, _Bibl. rer. Germ._ iv), i. 13, tells how (†783) a _scurra_ brought about a reconciliation between Charlemagne and his brother-in-law Uodalrich. The same writer (i. 33) mentions an ‘incomparabilis clericus’ of the ‘gloriosissimus Karolus,’ who ‘scientia ... cantilenae ecclesiasticae vel iocularis novaque carminum compositione sive modulatione ... cunctos praecelleret.’