ST. ANSBERT, ARCHBISHOP OF ROUEN, C. IN 695

HE had been chancellor to king Clotaire III., in which station he had united the mortification and recollection of a monk with the duties of wedlock, and of a statesman. Quitting the court, he put on the monastic habit at Fontenelle, under St. Wandregisile, and when that holy founder’s immediate successor, St. Lantbert, was made bishop of Lyons, Ansbert was appointed abbot of that famous monastery. He was confessor to king Theodoric III., and with his consent was chosen archbishop of Rouen, upon the death of St. Owen in 683. By his care, good order, learning, and piety flourished in his diocese; nevertheless Pepin, mayor of the palace, banished him, upon a false accusation, to the monastery of Aumont, upon the Sambre in Hainault, where he died in the year 698. See Mab. Sæc. 2. Ben. and Annal. 1. 18. Rivet, Hist. Littér, t. 4, p. 33, and t. 3, p. 646. Henschenius, Feb. t. 2, p. 342.