Ebrard Of Bethune

EBO (EBBO): Archbishop of Reims and bishop of Hildesheim; b. on a Frankish crown estate east of the Rhine toward the end of the eighth century; d. at Hildesheim Mar. 20, 851. His father was a serf, but he was educated in Charlemagne's court school and became the youthful friend of the subsequent Emperor Louis, who elevated him in 816 to the archbishopric of Reims. In 823 he led a great Frankish mission to Denmark, and was appointed by the Pope apostolic legate in the North. From Sleswick, where he first gained a firm footing, he penetrated heathendom, liberated many Christian captives from slavery, founded a cloister in Holstein, and thus paved the way for Denmark's transition to Christianity. In the partizanships and contentions about the throne which subsequently disordered the Empire, he took sides with the opponents of the Emperor Louis, interested himself in the tatter's humiliation, and was rewarded therefor by Lothair with the opulent abbey of St. Vedast in Arran. When Louis proved victorious, Ebo was dispossessed of all his offices and honors at the Synod of Diedenhofen in 835, and was kept under guard as prisoner of state in the abbey of Fulda. Only after Louis' death did he regain his freedom and return to Reims. Soon after, being banished again by Charles the Bald, he fled to Italy, till Louis the German recalled him and rewarded him with the bishopric of Hildesheim. Here he still wrought for a short time in peace. Two small writings are attributed to Ebo: Indiculum de ministris Remertsis ecclesice, and Apologia archiepiscopi Remensis cum ejusdem ad gentes sePtentrionales legations (Bouquet, Reeueil, vi. 254 sqq., vii. 277 sqq.). He has been suggested as the possible author or instigator of the Pseudo-Isidorian decretals (q.v.).

A. Werner.

Bibliography: Flodoard, Hist. Remenaie eccleaia3, ii. 1920, ed. G. Waltz, in MOB, Script., riii (1881), 487 sqq.; A. Simeon, Jahrbücher les frttnkiechen Reichs, vol. i.. Leipsic, 1874; G. Dehio, Geschichte des Erzbiatume Hamburg-Bremen, Berlin, 1877; H. Sehr6ra, Hinkmar, Frerburg, 1884; E. Dümmler, Geechsehts du oat/rSnkischen Reicha, Leipsic, 1887; Hauck, KD. ii. passim; RL, iv. 92-94.