Adalbert
Adalbert
Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen; born about 1000; died 1072 at Goslar; son of Count Friedrich von Goseck, and Agnes of the lineage of the Weimar Counts. He became successively canon in Halberstadt; subdeacon to the Archbishop of Hamburg (1032); Provost of the Halberstadt Cathedral; and Archbishop of Hamburg (1043 or 1045) by royal appointment, with supremacy over the Scandinavian Peninsula and a great part of the Wend lands, in addition to the territory north of the Elbe. He is probably the Adalbert mentioned as the Chancellor for Italy under Henry III in 1045. At the very outset of his episcopal career he took up the old feud of Hamburg with the Billings, in which he had the cooperation of Henry III. Having accompanied the Emperor on a campaign against the Liutzi (1045), he also journeyed with him to Rome (1046). Upon the settlement of the papal schism Henry wished to make Adalbert Pope, but he refused, and presented his friend Suidger (Clement II) as a candidate. He cooperated in the conversion of the Wends, and three new bishoprics were erected, all subject to Hamburg. Adalbert then conceived the idea of a great northern patriarchate, with its seat at Hamburg, but was constantly foiled. The Kings of Norway and Sweden began to send their bishops to England for consecration, and Sven Estrithson, King of Denmark, appealed to Henry and Pope Leo IX for an archbishop of his own, which would mean a loss to Hamburg of lands just yielding fruits after two hundred years of evangelization. The assent of Adalbert was necessary for such a decision, which he promised to ratify only on condition that his dream of a northern patriarchate be realized. The whole discussion was cut short by the death of both Pope (1054) and Emperor (1056).
During the regency of Empress Agnes, Adalbert lost his hold on the court, and the young Emperor, Henry IV, fell under the influence of Anno, Archbishop of Cologne. Despite the ancient feud between Hamburg and Cologne, Adalbert gained control of Henry’s education, eventually superseding Anno in his confidence and esteem. In extenuation of Adalbert’s eagerness to obtain privileges for his archdiocese it must be recalled that he had sacrificed much in the royal service, and that his influence was ever for the more open and straightforward course of action, in contradistinction to that of the opposition party. His flattery and indulgence of Henry, however, were baneful in their effects. Forced to retire from court in 1066, by the jealousy of the nobles, he was again admitted to Henry’s councils in 1069. His ascendency over the Emperor ended only with his death (1072). Archbishop Adalbert is characterized by Adam of Bremen as minax vultu et habitu verborumque altitudine suspectus audientibus. Generous, prudent, and zealous as he was, his character was marred by indomitable pride, which has caused him to be depicted in the blackest colours.
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Adami Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, ed. LAPPENBERG, Mon. Germ., SS. VII, 267; GIESEBRECHT, Deutsche Kaiserzeit, III; WATTENBACH, Geschichtsquellen, II, 63; PASTOR in Kirchenlex., s. v.
F.M. RUDGE
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume ICopyright © 1907 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, March 1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Adalbert
(Multiple definitions)
SEE ADELBERT.
Adalbert
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.
Adalbert
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.: