Ethelbert of York

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ETHELBERT OF YORK

Archbishop of York; d. York, England, Nov. 8, c. 781. He was related to Archbishop egbert, under whom he directed the school of york and whom he succeeded in that see. Consecrated in 767, he received the pallium from Pope adrian i in 773. As a teacher of grammar and rhetoric he is referred to with affection by his pupil alcuin.

Ethelbert traveled to Rome at least once and as archbishop undertook the restoration of the cathedral of York that Alcuin described, seemingly particularly impressed by the 30 altars, many encrusted with precious stones. In his later years Ethelbert consecrated his pupil Eanbald (d. 796) as his successor and retired from active life. He was buried in the cathedral at York, which he had helped to consecrate a short time before his death.

Bibliography: a. w. hadden and w. stubbs, eds., Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Relating to Great Britain and Ireland, 3 v. in 4 (Oxford 186978), 3:435437, letter of Lull to Ethelbert and Ethelbert's reply. alcuin, De pontificibus et sanctis ecclesiae eboracensis carmen in The Historians of the Church of York and Its Archbishops, ed. j. raine, 3 v. (Rolls Series 71; 187994) 1:390397. e. dÜmmler, ed., Alcuini sive Albini epistulae, Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Epistolares 2:112, 114, 116, 121, 143, 148, 200, 232, 233, 271. Epistulae Bonifacii et Lulli, ibid. 3:124. h. dauphin, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques (Paris 1912) 15:115859. g. hocquard, Catholicisme 1:172.

[v. i. j. flint]