HE was king of Kent, the fifth descendant from Hengist, who first
settled the English Saxons in Britain, in 448, and the foundation of
whose kingdom is dated in 445. Ethelbert married, in his father's
lifetime, Bertha, the only daughter of Charibert, king of Paris, and
cousin-german to Clotaire, king of Soissons, and Childebort, king of
Austrasia, whose two sons, Theodobert and Theodoric, or Thierry, reigned
after his death, the one in Austrasia, the other in Burgundy. Ethelbert
succeeded his father Ermenric, in 560. The kingdom of Kent having
enjoyed a continued peace for about a hundred years, was arrived at a
degree of power and riches which gave it a pre-eminence in the Saxon
heptarchy in Britain, and so great a superiority and influence over the
rest, that Ethelbert is said by Bede to have ruled as far as the Humber,
and Ethelbert is often styled king of the English. His queen Bertha was
a very zealous and pious Christian princess, and by the articles of her
marriage had free liberty to exercise her religion; for which purpose
she was attended by a venerable French prelate, named Luidhard, or
Lethard, bishop of Senlis. He officiated constantly in an old church
dedicated to St. Martin, lying a little out of the walls of Canterbury.
The exemplary life of this prelate, and his frequent discourses on
religion, disposed several Pagans about the court to embrace the faith.
The merit of the queen in the great work of her husband's conversion is
acknowledged by our historians, and she deserved by her piety and great
zeal to be compared by St. Gregory the Great to the celebrated St.
Helen.[1] Divine providence, by these means, mercifully prepared the
heart of a great king to entertain a favorable opinion of our holy
religion, when St. Augustine landed in his dominions: to whose life the
reader is referred for all account of this monarch's happy conversion to
the faith. From that time he appeared quite changed into another man, it
being for the remaining twenty years of his life his only ambition and
endeavor to establish the perfect reign of Christ, both in his own soul
and in the hearts of all his subjects. His ardor in the exercises of
penance and devotion never suffered any abatement, this being a property
of true virtue, which is not to be acquired without much labor and
pains, self-denial and watchfulness, resolution and constancy. Great
were, doubtless, the difficulties and dangers which he had to encounter
in subduing his passions, and in vanquishing many obstacles which the
world and devil failed not to raise: but these trials were infinitely
subservient to his spiritual advancement, by rousing him continually to
greater vigilance and fervor, and by the many victories and the exercise
of all heroic virtues of which they furnished the occasions. In the
government of his kingdom, his thoughts were altogether turned upon the
means of best promoting the {463} welfare of his people. He enacted most
wholesome laws, which were held in high esteem in succeeding ages in
this island: he abolished the worship of idols throughout his kingdom,
and shut up their temples, or turned them into churches. His royal
palace at Canterbury he gave for the use of the archbishop St. Austin:
he founded in that city the cathedral called Christ Church, and built
without the walls the abbey and church of SS. Peter and Paul, afterwards
called St. Austin's. The foundation of St. Andrew's at Rochester, St.
Paul's at London, and many other churches, affords many standing proofs
of his munificence to the church, and the servants of God. He was
instrumental in bringing over to the faith of Christ, Sebert, king of
the East-Saxons, with his people, and Redwald, king of the East-Angles,
though the latter afterwards relapsing, pretended to join the worship of
idols with that of Christ. King Ethelbert, after having reigned
fifty-six years, exchanged his temporal diadem for an eternal crown, in
616, and was buried in the church of SS. Peter and Paul. His remains
were afterwards deposited under the high altar in the same church, then
called St. Austin's. St. Ethelbert is commemorated on this day in the
British and Roman Martyrologies: he was vulgarly called by our ancestors
St. Albert, under which name he is titular saint of several churches in
England; particularly of one in Norwich, which was built before the
cathedral, an account of which is given by Blomfield, in his history of
Norfolk, and the city of Norwich. Polydore Virgil tells us that a light
was kept always burning before the tomb of St. Ethelbert, and was
sometimes an instrument of miracles, even to the days of Henry VIII. See
Bede, Hist. Ang. l. 1, c. 25, &c. Henschen. t. 3, Febr. p. 471.
Footnotes:
1. St. Greg. M. l. 9, ep. 60.