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Bible Encyclopedias
Adalbert
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or (Multiple definitions)
(See ADELBERT).
archbishop of Prague, was born of a princely Slavonic family, about the year 956, at Prague. His parents sent him to Magdeburg to enter upon his studies under the archbishop Adalbert, who gave him his own name at confirmation. Upon his return into Bohemia, touched by the death-bed remorse of Dietmar, bishop of Prague, for not having led a life of greater piety and activity, he at once assumed a penitential dress, praying fervently and giving great alms. In 983 he was elected bishop of Prague with the unanimous consent of the people. He made great efforts to promote the spiritual welfare of his flock, which was in a fearful state of immorality: among the laity polygamy, and among the clergy incontinence were general. Had he been less impatient, he might doubtless have accomplished much more than he did. Finding all his labor in vain, he left his see in 989 by permission of Pope John XV, and retired into the monastery of St. Boniface, at Rome. He was, however, constrained to return to his bishopric, which he again quitted for his monastic retreat; and again was on the point of returning to it, when, finding his people set against him, he finally forsook it, in order to preach the Gospel in Prussia, where he suffered martyrdom, April 23, 997 (after making many converts at Dantzic and in Pomerania), at the hands of seven assassins, whose chief was an idol-priest, and who pierced him with seven lances. Since that period Adalbert has been the patron saint of Poland and Bohemia. For a graphic account of him, see Neander, Light in Dark Places, 272. The Martyrologies commemorate him on the 23d of April. — Neander, Ch. Hist. 3, 322; Butler, Lives of Saints, April 23.
archbishop of Bremen and Hamburg, was descended from a noble Saxon family. He served as subdeacon to archbishop Hermann for several years, and himself received that office in 1043 from Henry III, whom in 1046 he accompanied to Rome. There he barely failed of election to the papal throne. Pope Leo IX, in whose behalf he had spoken in the synod at Mentz in 1049, made him in 1050 his legate in the North. Adalbert intended, with the support of the Emperor Henry, to convert the archdiocese of Bremen into a northern patriarchate, which was to be independent of Rome, and embrace the sees of Northern Germany, of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and England. Henry III compelled the pope, Clement II (one of the three German popes who were in succession elevated to the papal throne by Henry), to recognize Adalbert as his peer. A bull is still extant in which the pope addressed Adalbert with "Vos," while generally the popes addressed every bishop with "Tu" (hence the principle, Papa neminem vossitat). But this was all ended by a bull of Pope Leo IX, recognizing Adalbert as apostolic vicar, but demanding fealty to the Roman see. During the minority of the Emperor Henry IV he usurped, together with archbishop Hanno of Cologne, the administration of the empire. His ambition and violence made him so obnoxious to the German princes that, in 1066, they forcibly separated him from the emperor; but in 1069 he regained his former power, and kept it until his death, March 16, 1072. — Adam Bremensis, Gesta Hannaburg. pontif.; Lappenberg, Hamburgisches Urkundenbuch; Stenzel, Gesch. Deutschlands unter denfrankischen Kaisern.
Adalbert,
a prince of the royal race OF NORTHUMBERLAND, who devoted: himself, about 740, to missionary labor in. Holland. He selected the neighborhood of Egmond, and devoted himself with much zeal to the conversion of the heathen Frisians. He was long held in veneration by them as their spiritual father. A imperfect Life of him is given in Mabillon's Annal. Ord, Bened. iii, 586.:
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Adalbert'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/a/adalbert.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
