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| | CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Ethelhard |
 | | The king sought to consolidate his kingdom by giving it an independent ecclesiastical organization; for although Northumbria had its own archbishopric at York, Mercia, after conquering Kent, was still ecclesiastically subject to the powerful see of Canterbury, then ruled over by Jaenbert (766-791). |
 | | On the death of Jaenbert (12 Aug., 791), Ethelhard was raised to the see through the influence of Offa, which makes it likely that he was a Mercian abbot. |
 | | Although he was elected in 791, his consecration only took place on 21 July, 793: the delay being probably due to the unwillingness of the Kentish clergy and people to receive a Mercian archbishop, and to his being consecrated by the Archbishop of Lichfield. |
| www.newadvent.org /cathen/05555a.htm (755 words) |
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