St. Ethelbert (King of Kent)

St. Ethelbert (King of Kent)
St. Ethelbert (King of Kent)
    St. Ethelbert
     Catholic_Encyclopedia St. Ethelbert
    King of Kent; b. 552; d. 24 February, 616; son of Eormenric, through whom he was descended from Hengest. He succeeded his father, in 560, as King of Kent and made an unsuccessful attempt to win from Ceawlin of Wessex the overlordship of Britain. His political importance was doubtless advanced by his marriage with Bertha, daughter of Charibert, King of the Franks (see BERTHA I). A noble disposition to fair dealing is argued by his giving her the old Roman church of St. Martin in his capital of Cantwaraburh (Canterbury) and affording her every opportunity for the exercise of her religion, although he himself had been reared, and remained, a worshipper of Odin. The same natural virtue, combined with a quaint spiritual caution and, on the other hand, a large instinct of hospitality, appears in his message to St. Augustine when, in 597, the Apostle of England landed on the Kentish coast (see AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY).
    In the interval between Ethelbert's defeat by Ceawlin and the arrival of the Roman missionaries, the death of the Wessex king had left Ethelbert, at least virtually, supreme in southern Britain, and his baptism, which took place on Whitsunday next following the landing of Augustine (2 June, 597) had such an effect in deciding the minds of his wavering countrymen that as many as 10,000 are said to have followed his example within a few months. Thenceforward Ethelbert became the watchful father of the infant Anglo-Saxon Church. He founded the church which in after-ages was to be the primatial cathedral of all England, besides other churches at Rochester and Canterbury. But, although he permitted, and even helped, Augustine to convert a heathen temple into the church of St. Pancras (Canterbury), he never compelled his heathen subjects to accept baptism. Moreover, as the lawgiver who issued their first written laws to the English people (the ninety "Dooms of Ethelbert", A.D. 604) he holds in English history a place thoroughly consistent with his character as the temporal founder of that see which did more than any other for the upbuilding of free and orderly political institutions in Christendom. When St. Mellitus had converted Sæbert, King of the East Saxons, whose capital was London, and it was proposed to make that see the metropolitan, Ethelbert, supported by Augustine, successfully resisted the attempt, and thus fixed for more than nine centuries the individual character of the English church. He left three children, of whom the only son, Eadbald, lived and died a pagan.
    STUBBS in Dici. Christ. Biogr., s.v.; HUNT in Dict. Nat. Biogr., s.v.; BEDE, Hist. Eccl., I, II; GREGORY OF TOURS, Historia Francorum, IV, IX; Acta SS.; BUTLER, Lives of the Saints, 24 Feb.
    E. MACPHERSON
    Transcribed by Robert B. Olson Offered to Almighty God for Timothy and Theresa Leland & Family

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIII. — New York: Robert Appleton Company. . 1910.


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  • Ethelbert, Saint \(King of Kent\) — • King of Kent, a worshipper of Odin well into his adulthood, converted to Christianity, d. 616. Biography Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006 …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Ethelbert — Ethelbert1 [eth′əl bərt] n. [OE Æthelbryht, lit., noble bright < æthele, noble + beorht, bright: see ALBERT1] a masculine name Ethelbert2 [eth′əl bərt] A.D. 552? 616; king of Kent (560 616) …   English World dictionary

  • Ethelbert of Wessex — Infobox Monarch name=Ethelbert title=King of Wessex caption=A coin depicting Ethelbert rank=4th reign=860 ndash;866 predecessor=Ethelbald of Wessex successor= date of birth= c 836 place of birth=Wessex, England date of death=866 Wessex place of… …   Wikipedia

  • Ethelbert — noun Anglo Saxon king of Kent who was converted to Christianity by Saint Augustine; codified English law (552 616) • Instance Hypernyms: ↑king, ↑male monarch, ↑Rex * * * /eth euhl berrt /, n. 1. A.D. 552? 616, king of Kent 560 616. 2. a male… …   Useful english dictionary

  • Ethelbert I — or Aethelberht I died Feb. 24, 616 King of Kent (560–616). He married the Christian Bertha, daughter of the king of Paris, and, when St. Augustine of Canterbury and other missionaries arrived in Kent in 597, he welcomed them and gave them a… …   Universalium

  • Ethelbert — /eth euhl berrt /, n. 1. A.D. 552? 616, king of Kent 560 616. 2. a male given name: from Old English words meaning noble and bright. * * * …   Universalium

  • ETHELBERT —    a king of Kent, in whose reign Christianity was introduced by St. Augustin and a band of missionaries in 597; drew up the first Saxon law code (552 616) …   The Nuttall Encyclopaedia

  • Ethelbert — Eth•el•bert [[t]ˈɛθ əlˌbɜrt[/t]] n. anh big a.d. 552?–616, king of Kent 560–616 …   From formal English to slang

  • Ethelbert — /ˈɛθəlbɜt/ (say ethuhlbert) noun 552–616, king of Kent 560–616; issued the earliest known code of English laws. Also, Æthelbert …  

  • Ethelbert — Ethelbert, Æthelberht, or Aethelbert, is an Anglo Saxon male name, from the Old English Æthel meaning noble and berht meaning magnificent. It may refer to:*King Æthelbert of Kent *King Ethelbert of Wessex *King Æthelbert of Sussex, 8th century… …   Wikipedia

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