The first of the Anglo-Saxons to receive the Christian faith was the
premier king, or Bretwalda, of the Saxon confederation, respected not
only as a grandson of Hengist but also as a great warrior. He married
Bertha, a Christian Princess from Gaul, and agreed that she should
continue to practise her religion and bring with her Luidhard, the
Bishop of Senlis, as her chaplain. Ethelbert gave his Queen the ancient
church of St. Martin in Canterbury, built in Roman times, which he
restored. It stood outside the city walls and there is a small postern
gate still there, known as the Quenin Gate, through which she passed
daily to hear mass.
His marriage made Ethelbert well-disposed towards Augustine when he
arrived with his monks in the Isle of Thanet, but he was cautious. He
would not meet these strangers except in the open air in case they
should work upon him some magical charm, and so it was that he received
Augustine seated under an oak tree with Bertha by his side. He listened
to the words of the Gospel translated to him by an interpreter, and when
they were ended he said that he could not immediately abandon all that
he held sacred, but the Christian missionaries were free to preach in
his kingdom. He gave to them a piece of land between the walls and St.
Martin's, where the monks established their monastery, which became the
great Abbey of SS Peter and Paul. The fourteenth century gate-house,
known as the Fyndon Gate, has a figure carved on one of the
battlements of St. Ethelbert looking over his city.
The king watched carefully the behaviour of these Christians and became
convinced of the truth of what they preached, so on Whitsunday 597, with
many of his nobles and subjects, he received baptism in the river Stour.
Augustine went to France to be consecrated bishop, and on his return,
Ethelbert presented him with his palace inside the walls, which was
consecrated as the Cathedral Church of Christ. In fact this building was
probably the basilica, or town hall, of the Roman town of Durovernum.
The King retired to his palace at Reculver, another of the old Roman
buildings, but continued to assist Augustine and his company by giving
them land at Rochester, where another Cathedral was built, this time
dedicated to St. Andrew. He also influenced his nephew Sabert, King of
the East Saxons, to embrace the faith and to give the land on which to
build St. Paul's Cathedral for London, which was probably an ancient
Christian site on which the British had previously erected a church,
then in ruins.
In his letter to Ethelbert, St. Gregory bids him follow the example of
Constantine, the first Christian Emperor, in establishing the faith of
Christ in his dominions. He ends with a blessing,
May grace from on
high keep your excellency safe, my Lord Son.
St. Ethelbert was to reign
another twenty years after his conversion, and it is recorded that
during that time he was always fair, never using pressure on any to
become a Christian and only having greater affection for those who did,
not showing them added favours. He died in 616 and was buried in
SS. Peter and Paul with his Queen, Bertha, and the good Bishop Luidhard.
The great tower, which stood at the west end of the Abbey Church, was
called Ethelbert's Tower, and remained standing after the impious
dissolution, amidst the ruins of the monastery, until 1822 when most of
it succumbed to a violent storm
(
Bishop Browne,
Baring-Gould).
Icon of Saint Ethelbert
http://www.orthodoxengland.btinternet.co.uk/ethlbert.htm