Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ethelgar
ETHELGAR, ÆTHELGAR, or ALGAR (d. 990), archbishop of Canterbury, was a monk of Glastonbury, where he came under the influence of Dunstan and Æthelwold, afterwards bishop of Winchester, and formed part of the new congregation that Æthelwold gathered round him at Abingdon. When, in 964, Æthelwold turned the secular clergy out of Newminster (Hyde Abbey), near Winchester, and put monks in their place, he selected Æthelgar to be abbot of the house. Æthelgar must therefore be reckoned as one of the party that introduced the strict observance of the Benedictine rule into England, though he did not adopt the violent policy of his master Æthelwold. He enlarged his monastery, and was forced by the jealous feeling of the bishop and chapter towards the newer foundation to purchase land for the purpose at a manca of gold for each foot (Gesta Pontiff, p. 173). On 2 May 980 he was consecrated bishop of Selsey, the South-Saxon see, and did not dispossess the canons of his church. He succeeded Dunstan as archbishop of Canterbury about the middle of 988, and went to Rome for his pall either in that or the next year, visiting the abbey of St. Bertin, near St. Omer, both on his outward journey and on his return. His gifts to this monastery were so large that the abbot spoke of him as its patron, and declared that its restoration was due to his munificence. He appears to have been a man of learning and generosity. He died on 13 Feb. 990, after a pontificate of one year and three months (Stubbs).
[Anglo-Saxon Chron., sub ann. 980, 988; Florence of Worcester, i. 146, 148 (Engl. Hist. Soc.); William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum, i. 314 (Engl. Hist. Soc.), Gesta Pontificum, pp. 32, 173, 205 (Rolls Ser.); Stubbs's Memorials of St. Dunstan, pp. 383-9; Chron. de Abingdon, ii. 261 (Rolls Ser.); Liber de Hyde, p. 182 (Rolls Ser.); Kemble's Codex Dipl. pp.526-665, passim; Hook's Archbishops of Canterbury, i. 427 sq.]