The ferocious Fredegund now cleared the way for her own son to the throne of her husband, by causing Meroveus, Theodobert, and Clovis, the sons of Chilperic by his first wife, Audovera, to be put to death. The only remaining obstacle to the accession of her child, was Chilperic, her husband; but that impediment was speedily removed by his assassination, (584), after which his son ascended the vacant throne. On the death of Chilperic, Prætextatus returned to Rouen, with the sanction of Guntram, second son of Clothair, king of Soissons, much against the wishes of Fredegund. A council was assembled at Macon, and the Bishop of Rouen was reinstated, against the protest of Fredegund, who asserted that it was indecent to overthrow the sentence of deprivation pronounced against him by forty-five bishops. In 586 the queen was at Rouen, where words passed between her and Prætextatus. Seeing him on her arrival, she greeted him with, "The time is coming when thou shalt revisit the place of thine exile." "I was a bishop always, whether in exile or out of exile," answered Prætextatus; "and a bishop I shall remain; but as for thee, thou shalt not for ever enjoy thy crown;" and then he earnestly besought her to abandon her wicked life, and seek reconciliation with God. This was shortly before Easter. On Easter morning he went after midnight to the church to sing Matins; he precented the antiphons, and then during the psalms rested in his seat; an assassin, sent by the queen, approached at this time, and stabbed him under the armpit. He rose with a cry, and staggered to the altar, on which he placed his hands, dabbled with blood, and received the Holy Sacrament. He was then carried to his bed, where he died. His death took place on April 14th, 586; but Feb. 24th is observed in his honour, as being probably the day of his translation.
S. ETHELBERT, K. C.
(A.D. 616.)
[Roman, Ancient Anglican and German Martyrologies, that of Usuardus, &c. Authority:—Bede, lib. i. c. 11-15, 25, 26; lib. ii. c. 5.]
S. Ethelbert was son and successor of Irmenric, king of Kent, and great grandson of Hengist, the first of the Saxon conquerors of Britain. He reigned for thirty-six years over the oldest kingdom of the Heptarchy—that of Kent—and gained over all the other Saxon kings and princes, even to the confines of Northumbria, that kind of military supremacy which was attached to the title of Bretwalda, or temporary chief of the Saxon Confederation. His wife was Bertha, daughter of Charibert, son of Clovis, king of France; a Christian princess, who brought over with her as chaplain, one Lethard or Liudhard, of Senlis, a bishop, who exercised his ministry in a church formerly built, in Roman times, near the walls of Canterbury, and dedicated to S. Martin. Tradition records the gentle and lovable virtues of queen Bertha, but little is known of her life; she has left but a brief and uncertain illumination on those distant and dark horizons, over which she sits like a star, the herald of the sun. Her example and the virtues of Liudhard probably did much to break up the ground in the heart of Ethelbert; but his conversion was reserved for the coming and preaching of S. Augustine and his companions, the missioners sent from Rome by Gregory the Great. These landed first in the Isle of Thanet, which joins close to the east part of Kent, and thence they sent a message to king Ethelbert, saying why they had come into his land. The king sent word back to them to stay in the isle till he fully made up his mind how to treat them; and he gave orders that they should be well taken care of in the meanwhile. After some days he came himself into the isle, and bade them come and tell him what they had to say. He sat under an oak, and received them in the open air, for he would not meet them in a house, as he thought they might be wizards, and they might use some charm or spell, which, according to the superstition of the time, was held to be powerless out of doors. So they came, carrying a silver cross, and a picture of Our Lord painted on a wooden panel, chanting in procession the litanies in use at Rome, in the solemn and touching strains which they had learnt from Gregory, their spiritual father, and the father of religious music. At their head marched Augustine, whose lofty stature and patrician presence attracted every eye, for, like Saul, "he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders and upwards."[67] The king, surrounded by a great number of his followers, received them graciously, and made them sit down before him. After having listened to the address which they delivered to him and to the assembly, he gave them a loyal, sincere, and, as we should say in these days, truly liberal answer. "You make fair speeches and promises," he said, "but all this is to me new and uncertain. I cannot all at once put faith in what you tell me, and abandon all that I, with my whole nation, have for so long a time held sacred. But since you have come from so far away to impart to us what you yourselves, by what I see, believe to be the truth and the supreme good, we shall do you no hurt, but, on the contrary, shall show you all hospitality, and shall take care to furnish you with the means of living. We shall not hinder you from preaching your religion, and you may convert whom you can." So he gave them a house to dwell in, in the royal city of Canterbury, and he let them preach openly to the people, of whom they quickly brought some over to the faith, moved by the innocence of their lives, and the sweetness of their heavenly doctrine, which was confirmed by miracles. They were given, as Bede tells us, the Church of S. Martin in which "to sing, to pray, to say mass, to preach, and to baptize." But it was not long before the king also submitted to the truth, and was baptized; and before the year was out, there was added to the Church more than ten thousand souls. It was on Whitsun-Day, in the year of grace, 497, that the English king entered into the unity of the Holy Church of Christ Since the conversion of Constantine, excepting that of Clovis, there had not been any event of greater moment in the annals of Christendom. Then the king told Augustine and his companions that they might build new churches, and repair the old ones which Christians had used before the Saxons invaded England, and drove the ancient Church into Cornwall and Wales. Ethelbert, faithful to the last to that noble respect for the individual conscience, of which he had given proof even before he was a Christian, was unwilling to constrain anyone to change his religion. He allowed himself to show no preference, save a deeper love for those who, baptized like himself, became his fellow-citizens in the heavenly kingdom. The Saxon king had learnt from the Italian monks that no constraint is compatible with the service of Christ.[68] It was not to unite England to the Roman Church, but it was in order to tear her from it, a thousand years after this, that another king, and another queen, Henry VIII., and his cruel daughter Elizabeth, had to employ torture and the gallows.
From the time of his conversion, Ethelbert behaved for the twenty remaining years of his life, as became a good king and a good Christian. He gave his royal palace in Canterbury for the use of the archbishop, founded Christ Church in Canterbury, S. Andrew's in Rochester, S. Paul's in London, and built and endowed the abbey and church of SS. Peter and Paul without the walls of Canterbury, commonly called S. Augustine's; and 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. The former remained true to Christ till his death; but Redwald returned, at least in part, to the worship of Thor and Wodin. Ethelbert died in the year 616, and was buried in the Church of SS. Peter and Paul, near the body of his devout queen Bertha, and the holy prelate Liuthard. A light was always kept burning before his tomb by our pious ancestors.
Liuthard of Senlis, the chaplain of queen Bertha, is also commemorated on this day.
[65] Alimentum indeficiens.
[66] Alban Butler, in his life of S. Prætextatus, says that the bishop married Meroveus to his aunt, deeming the case one deserving a dispensation, and that he confessed this at the council; but S. Gregory of Tours, who is the authority for all that passed, says that the bishop denied having married them, and when he was persuaded to confess, he did not confess that he had done this, but that by giving money to Meroveus, he had encouraged him in his revolt.
[67] Gotselinus: Vita S. Aug. c. 45.
[68] "Didicerat enim a doctoribus auctoribusque suæ salutis, servitium Christ voluntarium, non coactum esse debere." Bede i. 26.