Ethelbert

ON ST. ETHELBERT, KING OF THE KENTISH AND THE ANGLO-SAXONS, AT CANTERBURY IN ENGLAND

in the year of Christ 616.

Preliminary Commentary.

Ethelbert, King of the Kentish and of the Anglo-Saxons, at Canterbury in England (St.)

By G. H.

Section I: The reign of St. Ethelbert before his conversion to Christianity; his marriage.

[1] Kent, the key to both ancient Britain and modern England, separated from the rest of Europe toward Belgic Gaul by ^a narrow sea, Kent, ^a maritime region of Britain, settled by the Belgae is entirely ^a maritime region, situated at one corner of the coast which faces Gaul, toward the east, where ships from Gaul generally land -- ^a fact observed long ago by Julius Caesar in Book 5 of his Gallic War. The Belgae first gained possession of Kent, having driven out the natives, along with the rest of the maritime region; and, as Caesar attests, they imposed their own names upon the subdued cities and provinces. Thus they named Kent from its angular position, named from its angular situation which they still call kant. Caesar says that the inhabitants of Kent are by far the most civilized of all the Britons, and differ little from Gallic customs. Kent was also the first of the British provinces to fall to the Romans, and once their rule had been established on the island, it was governed by the Prefect of the province of Britannia Prima. intercepted by the Romans The same Kent was the first to be exposed to Saxon depredation, its maritime coast being subdued -- which they therefore called the Saxon Shore. After these raiders had been driven out, Kent had, on the authority of Ammianus Marcellinus, Book 27, ^a Prefect called the Count of the Maritime Tract, whom the book of the Notices of the Empire calls the Honorable Count of the Saxon Shore in Britain. Finally, under Theodosius the Younger, as we shall relate below from Bede, when the Roman legions were recalled for the defense of Gaul, the Britons, exposed to the cruelty of the Picts and Scots, handed over to the Saxons having elected Vortigern as their king, summoned the Saxons, who dominated the maritime coast of Germany and Belgic Gaul, to their aid, assigning them ^a settlement in Kent. These, having subsequently turned from guests into masters, gradually erected several Anglo-Saxon kingdoms there.

[2] The first of these in Kent was established by Hengist, the great-great-grandfather of St. Ethelbert, around the year of Christ 457, a kingdom established there in the year 457 styled King of Kent, of the Kentish, or of the Cantuarians. Around the year 490, Aella, or Elli, King of the South Saxons, was added, whom Bede, Book 2, chapter 5, sets as the first among the most powerful of the Saxon kings. Then Cerdicius began his kingdom among the West Saxons in the year 519, Erkenwine among the East Saxons in the year 527, and Ida in Northumbria in the year 547. In roughly this state of kingship, St. Ethelbert assumed the scepter as the fifth king in Kent, around the year of Christ 560, and died according to Bede's calculation, in the fifty-sixth year of his reign, the year of Christ, King St. Ethelbert in the year 560 as we shall say below, 616. Concerning his accession, Florence of Worcester writes: In the year 561, Aethelbriht, King of the Kentish, began to reign and reigned for fifty-six years, according to Bede. Matthew of Westminster in his Flowers of History: In the same year 560, Aethelbert, the great King of the Kentish, began to reign according to some authorities, with whom Bede also agrees. Nevertheless the opinion of others seems more probable. And then: In the year of grace 566, Aethelbert, son of Ermeric, assuming the kingdom of Kent, governed it most strenuously for fifty-six years. But he soon corrects himself, writing that in the year 616, after the temporal kingdom which he had held most gloriously for fifty-six years, Ethelbert ascended to the eternal joys of the heavenly kingdom. he reigned fifty-six years In the fifty-six years of his reign, Simeon of Durham concurs at the year 616, as do John Bromton in his Chronicle of the Kings of Kent, Capgrave, Polydore Vergil, Harpsfield, and nearly all others. Malmesbury, Book 1, On the Deeds of the Kings of England, chapter 1, hesitates: Aethelbert, he says, son of Ermeric, having gained power, spent fifty-three years according to the Chronicle, fifty-six according to Bede: let the reader determine how to reconcile this discrepancy; we leave it unresolved, since it suffices to have pointed it out. This is the Saxon Chronology published together with Bede's history, in which one reads at the year 560: Here Ethelbert assumed the kingship of the Kentish and held it fifty-three years. But that fifty-six years should be read here, the date of his death, recorded in the same chronicle at the year 616, demonstrates.

[3] So much for the beginning of his reign, in which, as Malmesbury attests, in the first days of his budding reign he was so much ^a laughingstock to neighboring kings as ^a young man, defeated by the West Saxons that, defeated in one battle after another, he could scarcely defend his own borders. Nearly the same is read in the Chronicle of John Bromton. Florence of Worcester reports these events as follows at the year 568: Aethelbriht, King of the Kentish, when he had waged war against Ceawlin, King of the West Saxons, and Cutha his son, was driven back into Kent by them, two of his generals, Oslaf and Cnibban, being slain at Wibbandun. These two are called Counts in the Flowers of Westminster and in the Saxon Chronology, where they are named Oslac and Cnebban. This Ceawlin -- Celin in Bede -- was reckoned the second most powerful among the Anglo-Saxon kings and reigned until the year 593. In the time of this Ceawlin and of St. Ethelbert, the kingdoms of Uffa among the East Angles began in the year 575, and of Cridda, or Creadda, among the Mercians in the year 582. St. Ethelbert meanwhile, as Malmesbury attests, when to his more mature age ^a more prudent military skill had been added, in his maturity, having conquered the rest brought all the English nations except the Northumbrians under his yoke by continual victories; and, as Bede relates, after Ceawlin he was the third among the kings of the English nation to rule all the southern provinces, which are separated from the northern by the Humber river and its adjacent borders. he extends his rule to the Humber river

[4] The same Ethelbert, Malmesbury adds, in order to gain the friendship of foreigners as well, won the kinship of the King of the Franks by his marriage to the King's daughter Bertha. Now the kingdom of the Franks in that sixth century of Christ was divided among four brothers, first the sons of Clovis I, then of Clothar I, [he takes as wife the daughter of the King of the Franks, not of Clothar I or Chilperic] as was said on February 1 in the Life of St. Sigebert the King, and elsewhere. Gaguin, in Book 2 of his History of the Franks, chapter 1, says that since neither the daughter's nor the King's name is recorded by the authors, he conjectures from the chronological evidence that this was either Clothar I or Chilperic, that is, his son, King of Soissons. Peter Aurelius and others also believed it was Clothar. But they adduce no foundation beyond conjecture. For if this is taken from the reckoning of time, it should be observed that with Chilperic lived his three brother kings: Sigebert among the Austrasians, Guntram among the Burgundians, and Charibert among the Parisians. That this Charibert's daughter by his wife Ingoberga was the one in question is clearly implied by Gregory of Tours in Book 9 of his History of the Franks, but of Charibert, King of Paris, and Queen Ingoberga chapter 26: In the fourteenth year of King Childebert, the year of Christ 589, Queen Ingoberga, the former wife of Charibert, departed from this world -- ^a woman of great prudence and religious life, not idle in vigils, prayers, and almsgiving... leaving an only daughter, whom ^a son of ^a certain king in Kent joined in marriage. Thus Gregory, who was summoned to attend Ingoberga on her deathbed, twenty years after her husband's death. That Charibert died around the year 570, we have shown elsewhere. Behold what Gaguin claimed was unknown: the name of the father and mother. The name of the daughter herself, Bertha, Bede reports; Bertha, or Aldiberga St. Gregory the Pope calls her Aldiberga. William Thorne in chapter 2 of his Chronicle, section 2, asserts that Bertha was the daughter of Aubert, King of Paris, who is Charibert. not Berteflede Richard Vitus of Basingstoke, in Book 9 of his Histories of Britain, does not distinguish Bertha from Berteflede, another daughter of Charibert, but by ^a concubine named Mercoslede; Berteflede, when the said Ingoberga was dying, was living as ^a nun in monastic life. Of this woman, Gregory of Tours writes in Book 9, chapter 33: In these days, after the death of Ingoberga indicated above, Ingeltrudis, who had established ^a monastery in the atrium of St. Martin at Tours, came forth to the King as if to accuse her daughter. In this monastery Berteflede, daughter of the late King Charibert, was residing. But when Ingeltrudis left for the King, this Berteflede entered ^a monastery at Le Mans; for she was devoted to gluttony and sleep and had no care for the service of God. So much for Berteflede, who, had she abandoned monastic life while Gregory of Tours was still alive, would not have escaped his pen.

[5] Concerning the wife of St. Ethelbert and her parents, the same Gregory of Tours also treats in Book 4, chapter 26: Moreover, King Charibert, he says, from her and other Franks took Ingoberga as wife, by whom he had ^a daughter who was afterwards taken to Kent and given in marriage. Then, says Malmesbury, through association with the Franks, the English nation, hitherto barbarous, bound to ^a common way of life, began daily to put off its savage dispositions and incline toward gentler customs. To these was added the most celibate life of Bishop Letard, the King and his subjects were little instructed in the faith who had come with the Queen, by which he even silently invited the King to the knowledge of Christ the Lord. And thus before the arrival of St. Augustine, as Bede attests, the fame of the Christian religion had reached the King, but with no accurate knowledge; and for that reason the words of St. Augustine seemed new and uncertain to him, to which he could not immediately give his assent. Of St. Letard we have already treated on this same day.

[6] St. Gregory the Pope, in Book 5, letter 58, addressed to Theoderic and Theodebert, Kings of the Franks, reproaches the Franks for negligence: St. Gregory therefore reproaches the Franks It has come to our knowledge, he says, that the English nation, by the mercy of God, eagerly desires to be converted to the Christian faith, but that the priests in your neighborhood neglect them, and cease to enkindle their desires by their exhortation. For this reason, therefore, we have taken care to send Augustine with other servants of God to them. He writes the same in letter 56 to Queen Brunhild: The priests who are nearby do not have pastoral concern for them. Baronius at the year 596, section 9, conjectures the cause lay in the continual wars in which they labored not to bring the life of grace to them, but rather to take away by force even the natural life they possessed, or at least

to lead them into captivity under the yoke, stripped of their liberty, and sell them. For this reason St. Gregory, in Book 5, letter 10, commends to the priest Candidus, sent to Gaul to collect the patrimony, that he purchase English boys of seventeen or eighteen years of age, so that they might profit for God, given over to monasteries, in order that the revenues of Gaul might be usefully expended in their proper place.

[7] Finally, St. Gregory, in Book 9, letter 59, exhorts Bertha, or Aldiberga, the Queen, to bring the worship of the Christian religion, which had not been promoted before the arrival of St. Augustine, to its due summit of perfection. and the Queen And indeed, he says, long ago you ought to have bent the mind of our glorious son, your husband, by the benefit of your prudence, since you are truly ^a Christian, so that for the salvation of his kingdom and his soul he might follow the faith which you practice, so that from him and through him ^a worthy recompense in heavenly joys might arise for you from the conversion of his entire nation. For since Your Glory has been fortified by the true faith and instructed in letters, this should have been neither slow nor difficult for you. And since, by God's will, the time is now opportune, act so that, with the cooperation of divine grace, you may be able to repair with increase what has been neglected. Therefore strengthen the mind of your glorious husband in the love of the Christian faith by continual exhortation. Let your solicitude pour into him an increase of love for God, and kindle his spirit also for the fullest conversion of the nation subject to him.

[8] Finally, Bede, in Book 1, chapter 22, reproaches the ancient inhabitants of Britain above all for this: that they never committed the word of faith by their preaching to the Saxon or English nation dwelling alongside them in Britain. the Britons were averse to the Anglo-Saxons We published on January 13 the Life of St. Kentigern, Bishop of Glasgow, and on January 29 the Life of St. Gildas the Wise, both of whom in the sixth century of Christ are reported to have shown their charity and zeal of faith toward the Saxons and English. It is perhaps more to be observed that men of Apostolic spirit, inflamed with similar charity toward the English and Saxons, were rare.

Section II: The conversion of St. Ethelbert the King; his piety; his posthumous veneration; writers of his Life.

[9] The Anglo-Saxons had expelled the Christian religion from their borders; ^a restoration was granted in the Kentish kingdom of Ethelbert. For he both gave his subjects the power to embrace it, in Kent the Christian faith was first restored and publicly to dedicate temples to Christ, and was the first of the kings of that nation to receive holy baptism, and held before the other kings the light they were to follow; he also established episcopal sees for bishops, built churches for priests, erected monasteries for monks, endowed all these with splendid estates, and, for their more secure possession, fortified them with ample privileges. The year that dawned upon this felicity was 596 of the Christian Era, when St. Gregory the Pope, who had long been concerned for the salvation of the English, when apostolic men were sent by St. Gregory in the year 596 even before his pontificate, sent apostolic men -- Augustine, Lawrence, Peter, and others, numbering about forty according to Bede's Epitome -- who entered the island the following year, 597. These words are read there: In the year 596, Pope Gregory sent Augustine with monks to Britain to preach the word of God to the English nation. In the year 597, the aforesaid teachers came to Britain; in the same year they converted the King to the Christian faith and baptized him -- which is what Bede's Epitome perhaps intended to indicate. St. Ethelbert was baptized in the year 597, on the day of Pentecost The author of the history of the founding of the monastery of St. Augustine at Canterbury, Thomas Sprot, ^a monk of that same monastery around the year of Christ 1271, ascribes the day of Pentecost to his conversion; and following him, another monk of the same house, William Thorne, in chapter 1 of his Chronicle, section 3.

[10] After the King was baptized, Augustine returned to Gaul and was ordained Archbishop of the English by Archbishop Etherius -- not of Arles, but of Lyons (as was proved on February 2 in the Life of St. Lawrence) -- St. Augustine is consecrated Archbishop on November 16 on the day, according to Sprot and Thorne, of the sixteenth before the Kalends of December of the aforesaid year. That the year was still 597 is excellently confirmed by St. Gregory the Pope, in Book 7, letter 30, written to Eulogius, Bishop of Alexandria, in which he reports that Augustine the Bishop, or those who were sent with him, shone with such great miracles among the English nation that they seemed to imitate the virtues of the Apostles in the signs they performed. 10,000 English were baptized at the feast of the Nativity of Christ On the solemnity of the Lord's Nativity, which was celebrated during this first Indiction just past, more than ten thousand English were baptized. That first Indiction corresponds partly to the year 597, in which so many thousands received baptism, and partly to 598, in which that letter was composed by St. Gregory. Sigebert in his Chronicle writes that Augustine and others were sent by St. Gregory in the year 597 to preach in England, and that King Ethelbert was baptized with his people in the year 599, which year Ussher in the Chronological Index to his Antiquities of the British Churches ascribes to the King's baptism -- which has been sufficiently refuted.

[11] The capital of the kingdom of Kent and the seat of St. Ethelbert was Durovernum, Darvernum in Ptolemy, Dorouernia in Bede, Dorobernia in others, Canterbury to later generations, the city of Durovernum, that is, Canterbury in English Canterbury, in Saxon Cant-wara-byrig, that is, the city of the Kentish people. whether he gave it, or rather only the palace, to the Archbishop? St. Ethelbert the King, as Camden reports in his section on Kent, is said to have bestowed this city with its royal rights upon Augustine, Archbishop of the English nation, after his consecration. Some other writers would have it that he transferred the royal palace, or the throne of the kingdom, into ^a pontifical seat, and his own hall into ^a church of Christ. Certain later acts by the kings of England are perhaps ascribed to him. Thus, from the archives of the monastery of St. Augustine, the same Camden reports that after the Norman invasion, William Rufus gave the city of Canterbury outright to the bishops, which they had previously held only by grant. The gifts or works of St. Ethelbert still stand out in two churches, he constructed the church of Christ the Savior to each of which monasteries were attached: one is the church of Christ the Savior, which rises heavenward with such majesty in what is almost the center of the city that it inspires reverence even in those viewing it from afar -- in which so many illustrious and holy Archbishops held their see, and in later centuries it was especially celebrated on account of the memory and burial of the most holy Martyr Thomas the Archbishop, so that the church was even called by his name. The other church, situated outside the city to the east, known by the name of St. Augustine, which St. Ethelbert built at Augustine's urging for the burial of kings and archbishops, in honor and of St. Augustine of Saints Peter and Paul. Over this monastery the first Abbot, St. Peter, presided, of whom we treated on January 6. Other churches built by St. Ethelbert outside Kent are mentioned below.

[12] Some have denied that various charters were issued by St. Ethelbert, while others have affirmed it; three are cited by Spelman, from page 118, and by Clement Reyner, Book 1 of the Apostolate of the Benedictines in England, treatise 1, section 1, paragraph 13. Some are also found in Thorne and Harpsfield, where they may be consulted. King Edgar confirms that the Church of Canterbury is the mother and mistress of the other churches of his kingdom, to St. Ethelbert's charter citing the statute of St. Ethelbert: In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 958, I, Edgar, King of the English, and by the conceding divine clemency Monarch, do renew and in the Lord confirm the statutes and privileges of the ancient kings Ethelbert and his successors, and of the Archbishops Britwold and Athelard, with the counsel and advice of the venerable Archbishop Dunstan, decreeing that the Church of Christ at Canterbury shall be the mother and mistress of the other churches of our kingdom, and with all its possessions shall be everywhere perpetually free, except for military service, bridge repair, and fortress construction, etc. -- as Spelman reports from ^a manuscript codex of the Church of Canterbury, volume 1 of the Councils and Decrees of Britain, page 432. The same Spelman, on page 504, publishes, translated from the Saxon into Latin by himself, ^a privilege of King Aethelred given around the year 1006, in which he approves the monastic order which St. Augustine, by the command of St. Gregory and by the constitution and assistance of the great King Aethelbert, introduced into this land, and placed holy monks of the same order in the church of Christ. To this See of Canterbury the dignity of Metropolitan, Canterbury, the Archbishop's see or Archbishop, was transferred from London (where it had formerly been under the Britons, and where St. Gregory had ordered it to be restored) by St. Augustine, who ordained St. Mellitus as Bishop of London. Then, as it is said in Bede's Epitome, in the year 604 the East Saxons received the faith of Christ under King Saberht and Bishop Mellitus. What King Edgar, in ^a certain charter granted to the Church of Westminster, as cited by Ussher in his British Antiquities, chapter 14, London, the Bishop's see explains thus: The church of Blessed Peter was established in ^a dreadful place which the inhabitants call Thorney, to the west of the city of London. Formerly, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 604, at the urging of Blessed Ethelbert, the first Christian King of the English, after the abominable temple of the pagan kings had first been destroyed there, it was built by Sebert, once the very wealthy sub-king of London, the nephew, that is, of the King himself. He was among the kings whom St. Ethelbert is said below by Capgrave to have stirred up to the faith of Christ.

[13] In the year 616, King Ethelbert of the Kentish died. St. Ethelbert dies in the year 616 So says Bede's Epitome, and the Life below, where however, by ^a copyist's error, the year 613 is read. The Saxon text expresses it more correctly, and the year has been accurately recorded by all subsequent chronologists: the fifty-sixth year of his reign and the twenty-first after Augustine was sent from Rome -- so that it is surprising that Baronius in his Annals places his death at the year 613. In the Saxon Chronology, this epoch is indicated at his death in an almost solemn formula: In the year 616, King Ethelbert of the Kentish died, and his son Eadbald received the kingdom; and in the same year, from the beginning of the world, five thousand six hundred and sixteen years had elapsed. whence is the Life published? Bede, Capgrave, and all the rest observe that the day of his death was February 24, on which day Bede says he entered the eternal joys of the heavenly kingdom and ascended to the kingdom of heaven. We give the remainder of his life as collected from the same Bede, and adjoin to it another life published by John Capgrave in his Legend of the Saints of England; which we have conjectured above, in the Acts of St. Letard the Bishop, was written in the eleventh century of Christ. In it, the observation is made that from ancient times, from the very beginning, his feast among the Saints was celebrated. In the charter of King Edgar cited above, he is called Blessed Ethelbert.

[14] In the manuscript Florarium of the Saints on this day: At Canterbury in England, of Athelbert, King and Confessor, in the year 661 -- his name in the sacred calendars indeed, with the order of the numerals transposed, in the year 616. In the Martyrology printed at Cologne in the year 1490: Likewise of St. Athelbert, King and Confessor. Greven in his supplement to Usuard has the same. The Roman Martyrology: In England, of St. Ethelbert, King of the Kentish, whom St. Augustine, Bishop of the English, converted to the faith of Christ. And it is added in the Notes that he departed this life in the year of the Lord 616. Galesini writes thus: In England, of St. Ethelbert, King, Confessor: who, embracing the faith through the preaching of Blessed Augustine, sent by Pope Gregory to that island, built churches for God, and being devoted to the promotion of the Christian religion, after performing many pious and holy deeds, departed to his reward in heaven. Wion has nearly the same in his monastic Martyrology, in which he says he includes Ethelbert not because he was ^a monk, but because he was converted to the Christian faith by ^a Benedictine monk in the year of the Lord approximately 601 -- indeed, earlier, in the year 597. Similar eulogies are read in the English and German Martyrologies, and in Molanus's supplement to Usuard, and in Edward Mayhew's Trophies of the English Benedictines. In the Breviary of the Church of Salisbury, this prayer is found concerning him: O God, who among the kings of the English first united Blessed Ethelbert, King and Confessor, to the kingdom of the angels, mercifully grant that we who venerate his triumphal memory on earth may rejoice in his perpetual fellowship in heaven. Through our Lord, etc. There exists an image of the high altar of the Church of St. Augustine at Canterbury, published with the Monasticon Anglicanum, prayer in the center of which altar the body of St. Ethelbert is placed, and beneath it these words: In the year of the Lord 1325, this altar was dedicated in honor of the Apostles Peter and Paul, of St. Augustine, Apostle of the English, and of St. Ethelbert the King, on the Kalends of March, by Peter, Bishop of Corbeil. altar But on September 12, in ^a certain more recent manuscript, the Translation of St. Ethelbert the King is celebrated. Whether this refers to the King of Kent, whom some call Confessor, or to St. Ethelbert the Martyr, King of the East Angles, is uncertain. The latter is venerated on May 20. Polydore Vergil, Book 4 of his English History, reports that St. Ethelbert, having been enrolled among the Saints, was in his time renowned for many miracles. miracles All the other writers of English history, both ancient and modern, who illuminate the times in which he lived, treat of him as well.

[15] Among his descendants, St. Ethelbert counted both ^a long line of Kings of Kent and many persons eminent in holiness of life. St. Ethelbert's son Eadbald becomes King First, his son Eadbald succeeded him as king, who, after his apostasy, was recalled by St. Lawrence and, as Bede attests in Book 2, chapter 6, took care to consult and favor the affairs of the Church in all things as best he could. Besides this royal son, his daughters: St. Edelburga married to St. Edwin the King he had two daughters, St. Edelburga and St. Eadburga. The former was married to St. Edwin, King of the Northumbrians, and her marriage, as the same Bede reports in chapter 9, was the occasion for the Northumbrian nation to receive the faith. After the murder of her husband, King Eadbald her brother gave her, upon her return to Kent, the estate of Lyminge, not far from the sea and the port of Dover, where she herself built ^a monastery and, consecrated with the veil by Blessed Honorius, Archbishop of Canterbury, was the mother of many virgins and widows, as is read in the Life of the same Honorius in Capgrave; and St. Eadburga and there she rests together with her sister St. Eadburga, as Goscelin teaches in the Life of St. Werburgh on February 3. St. Edelburga is venerated on September 8; St. Edwin the King, her husband, on October 12. St. Eadburga is recorded on December 13, but is commonly believed to be St. Eadburga, Abbess of the monastery of St. Mildred, her great-niece, whose body she translated into the new church consecrated by Archbishop Cuthbert after the year 741, and she rests with St. Mildred on the island of Thanet.

[16] Born to Eadbald, grandchildren of St. Ethelbert, were the princes Ermenred and Ercombert, and the granddaughter St. Eanswitha, grandchildren: Ermenred who was customarily venerated at Folkestone on the ocean, going west from Dover, in ^a monastery she built there. To Ermenred were born, as great-grandchildren, the holy martyrs Ethelred and Ethelbricht, from whom descended many Saints whose feast is September 17, and four holy sisters: Dompneva, Ermenburga, Etheldritha, and Ermengitha. St. Ermenburga is venerated on November 19. Dompneva, married to Merewald, Prince of the Mercians, bore the aforesaid St. Mildred, of whom we shall treat on July 13, and her sisters Saints Milburga and Milwida, of whom the former we placed on February 23, the latter on January 17. So much for the daughters and granddaughters of Ermenred, grandson of St. Ethelbert. But his brother Ercombert the King, as Bede relates in Book 3, Ercombert the King chapter 8, commanded that idols be destroyed throughout the entire kingdom of Kent and that the Lenten fast be observed. His wife St. Sexburga, daughter of the King of the East Angles, of whom we shall treat on July 6, great-grandchildren Egbert and Lothar, Kings; holy sisters bore Egbert and Lothar, Kings of Kent, and Saints Ermenilda and Earcongota. Of these, the latter lived among the Franks in the monastery of St. Fara, in the diocese of Meaux near Paris, and is venerated on February 23. On the thirteenth, St. Ermenilda is commemorated, who, married to Wulfhere, King of the Mercians, bore to him St. Werburgh the Virgin -- in whose Life on February 3, these matters are treated more fully. There reigned thereafter in Kent the great-great-grandsons of St. Ethelbert: Edric and Wihtred; and then three sons of the latter, great-great-grandchildren and great-great-great-grandchildren, five Kings great-great-great-grandchildren of the former: Edbert, Ethelbert, and Alfric, all most zealous defenders of the Christian religion. After them, from the year 794, an illegitimate line of princes arose, who brought both themselves and the commonwealth utterly to ruin.

LIFE

From St. Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation.

Ethelbert, King of the Kentish and of the Anglo-Saxons, at Canterbury in England (St.)

BHL Number: 0000

from Bede's Ecclesiastical History.

CHAPTER I

The ancestors of St. Ethelbert summoned to Britain. Their kingdom and that of St. Ethelbert. His wife Bertha.

From Book 1, chapters 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 25, 26, and Book 2, chapter 5.

[1] Ethelbert, King of the Kentish, was the son of Irminric, whose father was Octa, whose father was Oeric, surnamed Oisc, from whom the kings of the Kentish are customarily called Oiscingas. Book 2, chapter 5 St. Ethelbert's royal lineage His father was Hengist. Hengist and Horsa are said to have been brothers. They were sons of Wettgisl, whose father was Wecta, whose father was Woden: from whose stock the royal lineage of many provinces took its origin. Book 1, chapter 15

[2] In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 407, Gratian, ^a citizen, was set up as ^a tyrant in Britain and was killed. chapter 11 Britain, stripped of Roman soldiers In his place, Constantine, rising from the lowest military rank, seized the Empire and crossed over to Gaul. From that time Britain was despoiled of all its armed soldiers, its entire forces, and all the vigor of its flourishing youth (which, carried off by the rashness of tyrants, never returned home), and for many years suffered and groaned under two most savage nations: chapter 12 harassed by Scots and Picts the Scots from the northwest and the Picts from the north. In the twenty-third year of the reign of Theodosius the Younger, Aetius, that illustrious man who was also Patrician, held his third consulship with Symmachus. To him the poor remnants of the Britons sent ^a letter and explained their calamities thus: chapter 13 "The barbarians drive us to the sea, the sea drives us back to the barbarians; between these two modes of death we are either slaughtered or drowned." Yet they were unable to obtain any assistance from him, since he was at that time occupied with the most grievous wars against Bleda and Attila, kings of the Huns. chapter 14 A council was held as to what should be done and where protection might be sought to avoid or repel the fierce and most frequent incursions of the northern nations. the Saxons are invited It pleased all, together with their King Vortigern, to invite the Saxon nation from across the sea to their aid. In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 449, the Saxon nation, invited by the King, they enter in the year 449 was brought to Britain in three longships, and in the eastern part of the island received, at the King's command, ^a place to dwell -- as if to fight for the country, but in reality to conquer it. chapter 15 Having therefore joined battle with the enemies who had come from the north to the field, the Saxons won the victory. Their first leaders are said to have been two brothers, Hengist and Horsa, the latter of whom was afterwards killed by the Britons. under the leadership of Hengist, great-great-grandfather of St. Ethelbert

[3] As crowds poured into the island in competition, the population of newcomers began to increase. Then, having made ^a pact with the Picts, they began to turn their arms against their allies. They had come from three of the more powerful peoples of Germany: the Saxons, the Angles, and the Jutes. From the Jutes are descended the Kentish and the Vecturians, that is, the people who hold the Isle of Wight, they partition the conquered territory with the Jutes and the nation that is still called the Jute nation in the province of the West Saxons, situated opposite the Isle of Wight itself. From the Saxons, that is, from the region now called Old Saxony, came the East Saxons, the South Saxons, and the West Saxons. From the Angles, that is, from the country called Angulus, which from that time to this day is said to remain uninhabited between the provinces of the Jutes and the Saxons, and the Angles the East Angles, the Middle Angles, the Mercians, and the entire Northumbrian lineage -- that is, the nations inhabiting the region to the north of the Humber river -- and the other English peoples descended.

[4] Over all their southern provinces, which are separated from the northern by the Humber river and its adjacent borders, King Ethelbert of the Kentish held sway, St. Ethelbert's extensive dominion who had ^a Christian wife from the royal house of the Franks, named Bertha. Book 2, chapter 5 He had received her from her parents on the condition that she should have liberty to preserve inviolate the practice of her faith and religion, together with the bishop whom they had given her as an assistant in the faith, named Luidhard. Book 1, chapter 25 Now there was near the city of Canterbury itself, a Catholic wife which was the metropolis of his entire dominion, to the east, ^a church built in ancient times in honor of St. Martin, when the Romans still inhabited Britain, in which the Queen had been accustomed to pray. chapter 26

CHAPTER II

The conversion of St. Ethelbert to the faith of Christ.

From Book 1, chapters 23, 25, and 26.

[5] In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 582, Maurice received the Empire chapter 23 and reigned twenty-one years. In the tenth year of his reign, Gregory, by St. Gregory the Pope ^a man preeminent in learning and conduct,

obtained the pontificate of the Roman and Apostolic See and governed it for thirteen years, three months, and ten days. Moved by divine inspiration, in the fourteenth year of the same Emperor and approximately the one hundred and fiftieth year since the coming of the English to Britain, in the year 596, St. Augustine and companions are sent he sent the servant of God Augustine, and with him several other monks fearing the Lord, to preach the word of God to the English nation. When they, obeying the Pope's commands, had begun to undertake the aforesaid work and had already completed some part of their journey, they were struck with idle fear and began to think of returning home rather than approaching ^a barbarous, savage, and unbelieving nation whose very language they did not know, and they determined by common counsel that this would be the safer course. Without delay they sent Augustine -- whom the Pope had arranged to be ordained bishop for them, should they be received by the English -- home, so that he might obtain from Blessed Gregory, by humble supplication, that they need not undertake so perilous, so laborious, and so uncertain ^a journey. But Gregory, sending them letters of exhortation, urged them to proceed to the work of the Word, trusting in divine aid.

[6] Augustine, therefore, strengthened by the confirmation of the Blessed Father Gregory, returned with the servants of Christ who were with him to the work of the Word and arrived in Britain. chapter 25 At that time King Ethelbert was most powerful in Kent, having extended the boundaries of his rule St. Ethelbert as far as the great river Humber, by which the southern and northern English peoples are divided. To the east of Kent lies the island of Thanet, having landed on the island of Thanet which is separated from the mainland by the river Wantsum. On this island, therefore, the servant of the Lord Augustine and his companions landed, numbering, it is said, about forty men. They had received, at the command of Blessed Pope Gregory, interpreters from the Frankish nation, and sending word to Ethelbert, they announced that they had come from Rome and bore the best of tidings, which promised without any doubt to those who obeyed eternal joys in heaven and ^a kingdom without end with the living and true God. he orders them to remain Hearing this, he commanded them to remain on the island they had come to and to be provided with necessities until he should decide what to do with them. For the fame of the Christian religion had already reached him.

[7] After some days, therefore, the King came to the island and, sitting in the open air, ordered Augustine and his companions to come to him for ^a conference there. he addresses them He had taken precaution that they should not enter any building to meet him, using an ancient superstition that if they possessed any magical art, they might overcome and deceive him by their approach. But they came endowed not with demonic but with divine power, bearing ^a silver cross as their banner and an image of our Lord and Savior painted on ^a panel, and singing litanies, they prayed to the Lord for the eternal salvation both of themselves and of those for whose sake and to whom they had come. When, at the King's command, they had sat down and preached the word of life to him and to all he hears their preaching who were present from his retinue, the King responded, saying: "The words and promises you bring are fair indeed; but because they are new and uncertain, I cannot give my assent to them and abandon those things which I have observed for so long ^a time with the entire English nation. But since you have come here as pilgrims from afar, and since, as I perceive, you wished to share with us those things which you believed to be true and best, he receives them with hospitality we do not wish to be troublesome to you; rather, we are resolved to receive you with kindly hospitality and to provide what is necessary for your sustenance. Nor do we forbid you to win all whom you can to the fellowship of your faith and religion by your preaching." He therefore gave them ^a dwelling in the city of Canterbury and, as he had promised, did not withdraw from them the provision of temporal sustenance or the liberty to preach.

[8] When they had entered the dwelling given to them, they began to imitate the apostolic life of the primitive Church -- their most holy manner of life that is, serving God in constant prayers, vigils, and fasts, preaching the word of life to all whom they could, despising all things of this world as alien, accepting from those they taught only what seemed necessary for sustenance, living in all respects according to what they themselves taught, and having ^a mind prepared to endure any adversities or even to die for the truth they preached. chapter 26 They therefore began first to assemble in the church of St. Martin, to sing psalms, to pray, to celebrate Mass, to preach, and to baptize. Some believed after others and were baptized, marveling at the simplicity of their innocent life and the sweetness of their heavenly teaching. But when the King himself, he is delighted delighted among others by the most pure life of the Saints and by their most sweet promises -- which they confirmed by the demonstration of many miracles -- believed and was baptized, more began daily to flock to hear the Word and, abandoning the rites of paganism, he is baptized to unite themselves by believing to the holy Church of Christ. The King is said to have rejoiced so greatly at their faith and conversion that he nevertheless compelled no one to embrace Christianity, but only embraced believers with ^a closer love as his fellow citizens of the heavenly kingdom. he favors his converted subjects For he had learned from the teachers and authors of his salvation that the service of Christ must be voluntary, not compulsory. Nor did he delay to grant to his teachers themselves ^a place of residence appropriate to their rank in Canterbury, his capital, and at the same time to confer upon them possessions of various kinds that were necessary; and they themselves received wider liberty both to preach everywhere and to build or restore churches.

CHAPTER III

The gifts and letters of St. Gregory the Pope to St. Ethelbert and others in Britain.

From Book 1, chapters 27, 29, 31, and 32.

[9] Meanwhile the man of God Augustine came to Arles and was ordained Archbishop of the English St. Gregory, upon learning of the conversion of the English by the Archbishop of that city, Etherius, in accordance with the instructions he had received from the holy Father Gregory. Book 1, chapter 27 Having returned to Britain, he immediately sent to Rome the priest Lawrence and the monk Peter, to report to the Blessed Pontiff Gregory that the English nation had received the faith of Christ and that he had been made Bishop; at the same time he sought Gregory's counsel on questions that seemed necessary. Without delay he received appropriate answers to his questions. chapter 29 Furthermore, the same Pope Gregory sent to Augustine, through the aforesaid messengers, many fellow workers and ministers of the Word, he sends various gifts and through them all things necessary for the worship and ministry of the Church: namely sacred vessels, vestments for the altars, ornaments for the churches, priestly and clerical garments, and also relics of the holy Apostles and Martyrs, as well as many books. He also sent letters in which he indicated that he had directed the pallium to him, and at the same time instructed how he ought to establish bishops in Britain. and letters He also sent Augustine ^a letter concerning the miracles which he had learned were performed through him. chapter 31 The same Blessed Pope Gregory also sent at the same time ^a letter to King Ethelbert, also to St. Ethelbert together with very many gifts of various kinds, eagerly striving to glorify the King with temporal honors, the King for whom he rejoiced that knowledge of heavenly glory had come about through his own labor and diligence. chapter 32 The text of the aforesaid letter is as follows:

[10] To his most glorious and most excellent son Ethelbert, King of the English, Gregory the Bishop. For this reason almighty God brings certain good men to the government of peoples: that through them he might bestow the gifts of his loving-kindness upon all those over whom they are set. he praises him for having received the faith This we have learned to have occurred in the English nation, over which Your Glory has been placed for this purpose: that through the good things granted to you, heavenly benefits might be conferred also upon the nation subject to you. And therefore, glorious son, guard with ^a diligent mind the grace you have received from God. Hasten to extend the Christian faith among the peoples subject to you; he exhorts him to preserve it multiply the zeal of your righteousness for their conversion; pursue the worship of idols; overthrow the buildings of their shrines; build up the morals of your subjects in great purity of life by exhorting, terrifying, soothing, correcting, and showing them examples of good works, so that you may find that Rewarder in heaven whose name and knowledge you have spread upon the earth. For he will also make the name of Your Glory more glorious to posterity, you whose honor you seek and preserve among the nations. by the example of the Emperor Constantine For thus the most pious Emperor Constantine of old, recalling the Roman commonwealth from the perverted worship of idols, subjected it together with himself to almighty God, our Lord Jesus Christ, and converted himself with his subject peoples to God with his whole mind. Whence it came about that he surpassed his predecessors in reputation as much as he surpassed them in good works. And now therefore let Your Glory hasten to pour knowledge of the one God -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -- into the kings and peoples subject to you, so that you may surpass the ancient kings of your nation in praise and merit, and the more you have wiped away the sins of others among your subjects, the more secure you may be concerning your own sins before the terrible judgment of almighty God.

[11] Let Your Reverence, moreover, our brother Augustine the Bishop, trained in the rule of monastic life, filled with knowledge of Holy Scripture, and endowed, by God's grace, with good works -- and that he should heed St. Augustine as his teacher whatever he counsels you, hear willingly, carry out devoutly, and diligently store in your memory. For if you listen to him in what he says on behalf of almighty God, that same almighty God will the more swiftly hear him when he prays for you. For if -- God forbid -- you disregard his words, when will almighty God be able to hear him on your behalf, when you neglect to hear him for God? Therefore bind yourselves to him with your whole mind in the fervor of faith, and by the power that the Godhead grants you, assist his efforts, so that He whose faith you receive and cause to be kept in your kingdom may make you partakers of His kingdom.

[12] Furthermore, we wish Your Glory to know that, as we learn from the words of the Lord almighty in Holy Scripture, on account of the approaching end of the world the end of the present world is near, and the kingdom of the Saints is coming, which can never be terminated by any end. As the end of the world approaches, many things are imminent which have not been before: namely, changes of the atmosphere, terrors from heaven, tempests contrary to the order of the seasons, wars, famines, plagues, earthquakes in various places -- all of which, however, will not come in our days, but will follow after our days. he should not be alarmed Therefore, if you learn that any of these things are happening in your land, do not in any way let your mind be disturbed; for these signs of the end of the world are sent ahead so that we may be concerned about our souls, watchful for the hour of death, and found prepared for the coming Judge by good deeds. I have now spoken these things briefly, glorious son, so that when the Christian faith has grown in your kingdom, our words to you may also grow wider, and we may be more eager to speak the more the joys in our mind are multiplied by the perfect conversion of your nation.

[13] I have sent small gifts, which will not seem small to you he sends him gifts when they have been received from us with the blessing of the Blessed Apostle Peter. May almighty God therefore guard and perfect in you the grace which He has begun, and both extend your life here through the course of many years, and after ^a long time receive you into the assembly of the heavenly homeland. and wishes him heavenly glory May the supreme grace keep Your Excellency safe, my lord and son. Given on the tenth day before the Kalends of July, in the reign of our most pious lord and Augustus Maurice Tiberius, in the nineteenth year, after the consulship of the same, in the eighteenth year, in the fourth Indiction.

CHAPTER IV

Churches constructed by St. Ethelbert the King. A synod is held.

From Book 1, chapter 33; Book 2, chapters 2 and 3.

[14] Augustine, when he had received the episcopal see in the royal city, recovered there, supported by royal assistance, ^a church St. Ethelbert gives St. Augustine the church of St. Martin built by the work of the ancient Roman faithful, and consecrated it in the name of the holy Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, and established there ^a residence for himself and all his successors. Book 1, chapter 33 He also made ^a monastery not far from the city to the east, in which, at his urging, Ethelbert built from the foundations ^a church of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul he builds the church of Saints Peter and Paul and enriched it with various gifts, in which the bodies of Augustine himself and of all the bishops of Canterbury, and likewise of the kings of Kent, might be laid to rest.

[15] Augustine, with the help of King Ethelbert, summoned to ^a conference the bishops or teachers of the nearest British province, he assists at ^a synod of the Britons assembled at ^a place which to this day in the English language is called Augustine's Oak, on the border of the Hwicce and the West Saxons. Book 2, chapter 2 He said to them that in many things they acted contrary to our custom, and indeed to the universal Church; but nevertheless, if they were willing to obey him in these three matters -- to celebrate Easter at its proper time, to perform the ministry of baptism by which we are reborn to God according to the custom of the holy Roman and Apostolic Church, and to preach the word of the Lord to the English nation together with us -- all the other things they did, however contrary to our customs, we would bear with equanimity. But they responded that they would do none of these things and would not accept him as their archbishop. To them the man of God is reported to have spoken threateningly in prophecy: that if they were unwilling to accept peace with their brothers, they would receive war from their enemies; and if they were unwilling to preach the way of life to the English nation, they would suffer the vengeance of death at their hands. And this was accomplished in all respects, just as he had predicted, by divine judgment. For afterwards the English King Ethelfrid, having gathered ^a great army at the City of the Legions -- which the English call Legacester but the Britons more correctly Carlegion -- inflicted the greatest slaughter upon the perfidious nation. And so the prophecy of the holy Bishop Augustine was fulfilled, although he himself had long since been taken to the heavenly kingdom, so that even the perfidious felt the vengeance of temporal destruction for having spurned the counsels of perpetual salvation offered to them.

[16] In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 604, Augustine, Archbishop of the Britons, ordained

two bishops: Mellitus and Justus. Mellitus, to preach to the province of the East Saxons, St. Mellitus, Bishop of London who are separated from Kent by the river Thames and border on the eastern sea, whose capital is the city of London, situated on the bank of the aforesaid river and itself an emporium of many peoples coming by land and sea. In this nation at that time Saberht, nephew of Ethelbert through his sister Ricula, was reigning, although subject to the authority of the same Ethelbert, who, as was said above, ruled all the English nations to the boundary of the Humber river. When this province also accepted the word of truth through the preaching of Mellitus, he builds the church of St. Paul King Ethelbert built in the city of London the church of St. Paul the Apostle, in which both Mellitus and his successors would have the seat of their episcopate. Justus, however, Augustine ordained bishop in Kent itself, in the city of Durobrivis, and for St. Justus, Bishop of Rochester which the English call Rochester from ^a former chief of that place named Rof. It is about twenty-four miles west of Canterbury, and in it King Ethelbert built ^a church of the Blessed Apostle Andrew; and he offered many gifts to the bishops of both of these churches, as he did to Canterbury, and also added territories and possessions for the use of those who were with the bishops.

CHAPTER V

Laws enacted by St. Ethelbert. His death and burial.

From Book 2, chapters 4 and 5.

[17] Lawrence, having attained the rank of Archbishop, strove earnestly to augment the foundations of the Church which he saw nobly laid, under St. Lawrence as Archbishop and to advance them to the summit of their due growth, both by the frequent voice of holy exhortation and by continual examples of pious work. Book 2, chapter 4 In these times Mellitus, Bishop of London, came to Rome to discuss with the Apostolic Pope Boniface the necessary affairs of the English Church. And when that most reverend Pope convened ^a synod of the bishops of Italy to regulate the life and tranquility of monks, and when St. Mellitus went to Rome Mellitus himself sat among them, in the eighth year of the reign of the Emperor Phocas, the thirteenth Indiction, on the third day before the Kalends of March, Pope Boniface IV writes to St. Ethelbert so that by his own authority he might subscribe to and confirm whatever had been duly decreed, and returning to Britain, might bring with him mandates for the English churches to observe, together with letters which the same Pontiff addressed to Archbishop Lawrence and to the entire clergy, and likewise to King Ethelbert and to the English nation.

[18] Among the other good things that King Ethelbert conferred upon his nation by his wise counsel, he also gave his people judicial decrees he also established for them judicial decrees, after the example of the Romans, with the advice of his wise men. These were written in the English tongue and are still preserved and observed by them. Among these he first set down what restitution should be made by anyone who stole anything belonging to the Church, the bishop, or the other orders, wishing, that is, to provide protection for those whom and whose teaching he had received.

[19] In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 616 (which is the twenty-first year after Augustine and his companions were sent to preach to the English nation), he dies in the year 616 King Ethelbert of the Kentish, after having held the temporal kingdom most gloriously for fifty-six years, entered the eternal joys of the heavenly kingdom. He was the third among the kings of the English to rule all of their southern provinces, which are separated from the northern by the Humber river and its adjacent borders; but he was the very first to ascend to the kingdom of heaven. chapter 5 King Ethelbert died on the twenty-fourth day of the month of February, after twenty-one years of having received the faith, he is buried and was buried in the portico of St. Martin within the church of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, where Queen Bertha is also interred.

a. In the year 610.

I. Whoever takes away the goods of God or of the Church shall make twelvefold restitution; the goods of ^a bishop, elevenfold; the goods of ^a priest, ninefold; the goods of ^a deacon, sixfold; the goods of ^a cleric, threefold. The peace of the Church, if violated, shall be amended by double payment; the Laws of St. Ethelbert the peace of ^a monk, likewise by double payment. II. If the King summons his people, and anyone there does injury, let the amends be double, and moreover let him pay fifty shillings to the King. III. If the King drinks in anyone's house and someone causes damage there, let it be compensated by double payment, etc.

ANOTHER LIFE

From the Legend of the Saints of England by John Capgrave.

Ethelbert, King of the Kentish and of the Anglo-Saxons, at Canterbury in England (St.)

BHL Number: 2623

from Capgrave.

[1] Now Ethelbert, ^a king beloved of God, was the third of the kings of Kent, but the first to ascend to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever the Apostle of the English, Augustine, and his Evangelical disciples accomplished in the vineyard and harvest of the Lord -- St. Ethelbert, before receiving the faith, favors the Christians saving always the prevenient grace of Christ -- is owed to him. For as far as it lies in human affairs, unless he had given his permission, unless he had helped the divine laborers, no worship, no fruit

of true salvation would have come to the land of the English. He received Christ in His messengers while still an unbeliever; he praised the message of eternal happiness, though he distrusted it; he gathered the anxious strangers into his city of Canterbury, though he did not know them; he gave them, along with the necessities of life, ^a temporary dwelling there, and then ^a permanent one -- to those whose religion he did not accept. He did not shrink from them as men of unfamiliar garb and customs; he did not repel them as foreigners; he did not despise them as humble; he did not condemn them as condemners of his ancestral gods and laws; but with clemency of spirit he favored those who preached, and patiently bore and graciously permitted them to convert whomever they could to their faith.

[2] He was as kindly to Christians in his native paganism once baptized, he propagates the faith as he was afterward once he had put on Christianity. For what Augustine with his companions humbly preached, Ethelbert sublimely confirmed. What the one planted in the apostolic manner, the other propagated in kingly fashion. For the King labored by exhortation and the promise of eternal blessedness, rather than by his own terror, to win for God, as he had learned from divine teaching, willing, not unwilling converts. He also stirred up the kings subject to him or allied with him to the worship of Christ with all kindness; also among the kings believers he embraced wonderfully as brothers, kinsmen, and fellow citizens of the eternal kingdom. Everywhere Christ was worshipped, and with churches built on every side, pagan temples and shrines were either destroyed or consecrated as churches. With what warmth of congratulation St. Gregory cherished him for having received the faith, with what honeyed instruments of letters -- stirred up by St. Gregory as if with heavenly kisses -- he drew him to all piety, kindled him to every virtue, and incited him to the ineffable reward of extending the kingdom of Christ, setting forth the example of the Emperor Constantine.

[3] Through Augustine he built the church of our Lord and Savior, and also outside the city walls ^a distinguished monastery in honor of the Apostles Peter and Paul, he builds churches where both king and bishop with all their successors would rest in perpetuity. In London he built ^a church in honor of Blessed Paul the Apostle and appointed ^a bishop for it. Likewise the see of Rochester with its church of the Blessed Apostle Andrew was founded by him and sufficiently endowed. He is also read in ancient charters to be the founder of the monastery of Ely, and the monastery of Ely although the Blessed Virgin Etheldreda after ^a long period of desolation gained her primacy there. How much this most generous king and most loving cultivator of the heavenly kingdom advanced these and other distinguished pontifical and monastic establishments, and of the Apostles Peter and Paul together with other lesser oratories, is manifest in the reality of things today. He enlarged the monastery of the Apostles with royal possessions, adorned it with varied ornaments, honoring it with royal generosity and apostolic authority through multiple privileges. To this monastery St. Dunstan, coming frequently at night for the sake of prayer, saw ^a vision of the heavenly citizens and merited to be present at celestial hymns; and he is often reported to have said that wherever in the church or cemetery one set foot, one trod upon the body of some Saint: so much did he assert that those places were filled with the bodies of the Saints.

[4] For King Ethelbert, though he possessed territory under his rule as far as the Humber river, so displayed himself as ^a poor man of Christ adorned with virtues as though he had nothing. It was glorious to see one who ruled widely serving the needy; one who terrified kings fearing the priests of God; one who presided over peoples obeying clerics and venerating the least and lowliest of the Church. How greatly he shone in suppressing vices, in promoting virtues, in fulfilling God's commands, and in all works of piety -- that heavenly book has expressed all the more clearly, he dies as the world has remained all the more sluggishly silent about them. He departed to the Lord on the sixth day before the Kalends of March, in the fifty-sixth year of his reign, the twenty-first year of the arrival of Blessed Augustine and of his acceptance of Christianity, and in the year of the Lord 616... His antiquity is the witness of his sanctity, and the approving authority of the ancient Saints, he is venerated among the Saints namely that from the very beginning his feast was celebrated among the Saints.

[5] When on ^a certain occasion his feast day was being neglected and his portico was not adorned with its customary decoration or light, ^a certain priest keeping vigil there that night out of devotion in ^a vision, ^a priest is rebuked for not lighting ^a lamp at the relics saw ^a certain boy proceed from the tomb of the holy King with such brightness that the entire portico seemed to shine. He carried ^a most brilliant torch in his hand; his face was gentle and snow-white with starlike eyes; golden hair covered his shoulders. And he addressed his astonished and trembling observer thus: "You have not even taken care to provide me with ^a light on this one night of mine, nor have you deemed it worthy. But I, illuminated by everlasting splendor, have no need at all of your light." Saying these reproachful words, he entered his tomb while the same observer watched and clearly witnessed it. In the mystery of this vision, the form of the boy can be seen to signify his simplicity in Christ after baptism and evangelical childlike innocence; in the neglected state of his portico, the injury done to him; in the lamp held forth, ^a rebuke of the brothers' negligence and the fault of unbelieving blindness.

HISTORY OF THE DONATIONS OF ST. ETHELBERT

From manuscripts in Spelman.

Ethelbert, King of the Kentish and of the Anglo-Saxons, at Canterbury in England (St.)

BHL Number: 2625

FROM SPELMAN.

[1] St. Ethelbert, King of England, who received Christianity from Blessed Augustine, sent by Blessed Pope Gregory in the year of the Lord 596, St. Ethelbert gave St. Augustine the royal palace gave to the same Augustine and to his successors the royal palace and ^a perpetual seat in the city of Canterbury, which is now called Canterbury, together with the ancient church which had been built there in ancient times by the Romans, which Augustine himself dedicated in the name of the Savior, after his consecration at Arles.

[2] Augustine, therefore, having been ordained, returned to England and was received by the King and people with glory and with all fitting solemnity, and obtained the episcopal see in the city of Canterbury with the King's assent, restoring to the English nation its first primacy. The devout King himself received that primatial patronage with such triumphant joy that he established as the ecclesiastical ruler of his metropolis the one whom he had first received as ^a guest; and not only of the city, but he confidently set him up as the watchful guardian of his entire dominion, as ^a pontifical seat transferring the throne of the kingdom into ^a pontifical seat and the royal hall into ^a church of Christ. Nevertheless, in order first to put off the old man with his deeds and more fittingly to put on the new,

that temple or idol-house which was situated not far from the city to the east, roughly midway between the aforesaid church of St. Martin and the city walls, in which, according to the rite of his nation, he had been accustomed to sacrifice not to God from the idol temple but to demons -- this, by the saving counsel of the most Blessed Augustine, he caused to be purged of the defilements and filth of the Gentiles, and after the idol that was in it had been smashed, he converted it into an ecclesiastical assembly, and had it dedicated in the name of Pancras the Martyr. consecrated as the church of St. Pancras And this is the first church dedicated by our first father and pontiff in Christ.

[3] The same King also decreed, by the authority of the holy Roman Church, that monks should observe the monastic rule in the Church of Canterbury in perpetuity, lest the preaching of the first monks should be erased from memory, monks established at Canterbury but should always remain fresh in the minds of those departing. The same King also gave ample possessions to the aforesaid brothers, he gave various possessions within and outside the city of Canterbury. And from that time the aforesaid Church of Canterbury, on account of its primacy and because the Christian religion first emanated from there and illuminated the kingdom of the English, just as the King himself held his lands and free and undisturbed customs in his dominion, so the Archbishop and the aforementioned Church held their lands and all their customs entirely free and undisturbed in their own dominion. And the said Church of Canterbury held without interruption all manner of liberties and customs in peaceful possession, without interruption by anyone, by custom and ancient usage, without royal charters or instruments, by King Wythred down to the times of King Wythred, whose charter reads as follows: In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 694, the glorious King Wythred of Kent, together with the most reverend Archbishop Britwold, commanded ^a council to be assembled at the place called Bapchild, with the same most clement King of the Kentish, Wythred, presiding over the said Council, and the same venerable Father and Primate of all Britain, together with Tobias, Bishop of the Church of Rochester, with abbots, abbesses, priests, deacons, generals, and noblemen, jointly deliberating concerning the state of the churches of God in England and concerning those things which had been given by the faithful kings, predecessors and kinsmen -- namely Ethelbert and his successors -- to almighty God as His own inheritance: how according to true justice they might stand and endure, and how they ought to be preserved from now until the end of the world, they decreed.

[4] Augustine the Bishop, servant of the See of Canterbury, to all his successors the bishops, and to all the kings of England with their posterity, and to all the faithful of God, peace and salvation in faith and in grace. and confirmed by St. Augustine It is manifest to all that Ethelbert, King beloved of God, the first of the kings of the English consecrated to the kingdom of Christ, at our urging and by his own lavish benevolence, among the other churches he built and the bishoprics, royally founded ^a monastery outside his capital Canterbury in honor of the Princes of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and enriched, enlarged, and magnified it with royal wealth and ample possessions, fortified it with perpetual liberty and all royal rights with all things and jurisdictions pertaining thereto both within and without, and confirmed it by his royal privilege, by the imprecation of divine judgment, and by the excommunicatory threat of the Apostolic holy Pope Gregory, against every injury.