Ecgbert

Ecgbert, or Ecgberht (d. 766), archbishop of York, was made bishop of that see in 734 by Ceolwulf, king of Northumbria, succeeding Wilfrid II. on the latter’s resignation. The pall was sent him in 735 and he became the first northern archbishop after Paulinus. He was the brother of Eadberht, who ruled Northumbria 737-758. He was the recipient of the famous letter of Bede, dealing with the evils arising from spurious monasteries. Ecgberht himself wrote a Dialogus Ecclesiasticae Institutionis, a Penitentiale and a Pontificale. He was a correspondent of St Boniface, who asks him to support his censure of Æthelbald of Mercia.

See Bede, Continuatio, sub. ann. 732, 735, 766, and Epistola ad Ecgberctum (Plummer, Oxford, 1896); Chronicle, sub ann. 734, 735, 738, 766 (Earle and Plummer, Oxford, 1899); Haddan and Stubbs, Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents (Oxford, 1869-1878), iii. 403-431; Proceedings of Surtees Society (Durham, 1853).

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