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Egbert or Ecbert

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Egbert, Saint

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archbishop of York, was a brother of Eadbert, king of Northumberland, and a pupil, and later a friend, of Beda. As teacher at the cathedral school of York, he became celebrated for extensive knowledge and for his Christian character. Among those who were educated at this school were Alcuin and Aelbert. He became bishop of York in 731, and soon after, in 735, York was made an archbishopric, with metropolitan power over all bishoprics north of the river Humber. Even as bishop and archbishop he continued to give instruction at the cathedral school. He founded a library at York which gained great reputation, but was destroyed by fire in the reign of Stephen. He died in 767, leaving a Dialogus de Ecclesiastica Institutione (Dublin, 1664; Lond. 1693; also in Galland's Bibl. Patr. 13:266), and a collection of canonical prescriptions, De jure sacerdotali, of which only a few fragments are extant (Mansi, 12, fol. 411-431). The treatise De Remediis peccatorum (Mansi, 12:489) is probably an extract from the work just named by some other writers. Some penitential books have also been ascribed to Egbert, but falsely. — Mosheim, Ch. Hist. 2:15; Collier, Eccl. Hist. of England, volume 1; Wright, Biog. Brit. Lit. Anglo- Saxon Period, page 297; Herzog, Real-Encykl. 3:658; Hoefer, Biographie Generale, 15:700.