Ethelnoth of Canterbury, St.
ETHELNOTH OF CANTERBURY, ST.
Archbishop, called "the Good"; d. Oct. 29, 1038. Son of ealdorman Aethelmaer, Ethelnoth (or Æthelnoth) was a monk of glastonbury and dean of Christ Church, canterbury, before his consecration to that see by wulfstan of worcester, archbishop of York, (Nov. 13, 1020). benedict viii received him in Rome "with much honor" and gave him the pallium (1022). Archbishop Ethelnoth was chief advisor to King canute of england, who granted him the earliest known writ bestowing judicial and financial authority on an English prelate and presented his gold crown to Ethelnoth's cathedral. The archbishop translated the martyred alphege of canterbury's relics from London to Canterbury with great pomp (1023). Ethelnoth's death overwhelmed Bishop Aethelric of Sussex, who did not wish to survive the beloved archbishop and died within a week. Ethelnoth's life is recounted in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and in the writings of florence of worcester, simeon of durham, william of malmesbury and gervase of canterbury.
Feast: Oct. 30.
Bibliography: w. hunt, The Dictionary of National Biography from the Earliest Times to 1900 (London 1885–1900) 6:889. c. cotton, The Saxon Cathedral at Canterbury and the Saxon Saints Buried Therein (Manchester, Eng. 1929). h. dauphin, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques (Paris 1912–) 15: 1165–66.
[w. a. chaney]