its day". Among the students at the school was Alcuin, who was placed by his family with Ecgbert. Both Liudger, later the first Bishop of Munster, and Aluberht, another bishop in Germany, also studied at the school in York. Correspondents Bede wrote Ecgbert a letter dealing with monastic issues as well as the problems of large dioceses. The letter, written in 734, became known as the Epistola ad Ecgberhtum episcopum. Bede urged Ecgbert to study Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care, and held up Aidan and Cuthbert as examples of model bishops. The main thrust of Bede's letter was to urge Ecgbert to reform his church to more closely resemble Gregory the Great's original plan for it. Bede's admonition to divide up dioceses fell on deaf ears, as Egbert did not break up his large diocese. The suffragans continued to be limited to the bishops of Hexham, Lindisfarne, and Whithorn. Boniface wrote to Ecgbert, asking for support against Æthelbald of Mercia. Boniface also asked the archbishop for some of Bede's books, and in return sent wine to be drunk "in a merry day with the brethern." On another occasion, Boniface sent the archbishop a cloak and towel. Writings Ecgbert wrote the Dialogus ecclesiasticae institutionis, which was a legal code for the clergy, setting forth the proper procedures for many clerical and ecclesiastical issues including weregild for clerics, entrance to clerical orders, deposition from the clergy, criminal monks, clerics in court, and other matters. It survives as one complete manuscript, with a few excerpts in other manuscripts. Because Ecgbert was the senior archbishop in England after the death of Nothhelm in 739, it is possible that the Dialogus was intended not just for the Northumbrian church but for the entire church in England. The Dialogus details a code of conduct for the clergy and how the clergy was to behave in society. The exact date it was composed is unclear, but it was probably after 735, based on the mention of the archiepiscopal status of Ecgbert in one title as well as the internal evidence of the work. The historian Simon Coates saw the Dialogus as not especially exalting monks above the laity. Other works were attributed to Egbert in the Middle Ages, but they are not regarded by modern scholars as authentic. These include a collection of church canons, as well as a penitential and a pontifical. The penitential, known as