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In order to put an end to all consequent disturbances and uncertainties, as well as to other evils that were known to exist in Scandinavian churches, Pope Eugene III. appointed in the year 1148, as his special delegate, Nicholas Brecksparre, Breckesparre, or Breakspear, born at St. Albans in England, cardinal-bishop of Albano at the time, and afterwards exalted to the Apostolic See under the name of Adrian IV.1 The papal envoy spared no pains to instruct the rude inhabitants and to gain souls to Almighty God. One of his first endeavors was to convene a provincial council and to erect, for the kingdom of Norway and its colonies, the cathedral of Drontheim-Throndum, Trudum, also called Nidaros or Nidrosia-into a metropolitan church, to which he subjected the diocese of Bergen, Stavanger, Osloe (Oesel or Christiania of to-day), and Hamar or Hammeren in Norway, those of the Orkneys, of the Hebrides, of the Faroes, the sees of Skalholt and Holar in Iceland, and that of Gardar in Greenland.2

This erection of Drontheim into an archiepiscopal see took place in the year 1152, and Bishop John Birgisson, promoted from the see of Stavangar, was invested with the pallium by the Apostolic delegate.3

1 Duchesne, t. ii. p. 388, from the contemporary card. Boson; Joan. Isacius Pontanus, lib. v. p. 222; Torfæus; Moosmüller, S. 59; Aa. passim.

2 Baronius, t. xix., ad an. 1148, ¶ 40, p. 35; Joan. Isacius Pontanus, lib. V. p. 222; see Document LVIII.

3 See Document LVIII.; Beauvois, Origines, p. 30; Moosmüller, S. 60; Langebek, t. iii. p. 57. Baronius refers the whole legation to the year 1148. Cf. Gams, p. 335, who erroneously calls Reidar the first archbishop.

Baronius relates, after John Olaus (t. xix. p. 35, ad an. 1148, ¶40) that the Delegate Nicholas also intended to establish the ecclesiastical province of Sweden, and for this purpose celebrated a council at the episcopal city of Linkoping ; but the bishops could not agree either on the city or on the person to receive the honors of a regular archdiocese. Frustrated in his object, the delegate left, after having consecrated as bishop of Upsala the martyr St. Henry, the apostle and patron-saint of Finnland. Sweden proper had at the time

During the month of November, 1154, Anastasius IV. confirmed the action of his predecessor's delegate, establishing Drontheim as the spiritual capital of Norway and of all its colonies; granted to Archbishop John the use of the pallium, and gravely admonished him to be a model for all his inferiors, especially of those virtues which belong to the wearing of the archiepiscopal insignia. The Roman Pontiffs Alexander III., Clement III., and, on the 13th of February, 1205, Innocent III., added again and again the weight of their authority, to give renewed strength to the jurisdiction of the Norwegian metropolitan. Their diplomas are almost identical in form. We give, as Document LVIII., that of Innocent III., with a few words from the bull of Anastasius IV., within brackets, to complete or correct the registry of the former.

Other documents to the same effect are of Gregory IX., of the year 1237,1 and of Innocent IV., of 1253.2

With the exception of the diocese of the Hebrides or Sudhrey and Man, the constitution of the Norwegian ecclesiastical province remained unchanged, until the time that it was drowned in the blood of its faithful bishops and priests during the sixteenth century.3

of Amund, son of Olaf Schotkonung, received an archbishop from Poland, who had already contended for precedence with those of Lund and of Bremen, while the people of the southern province, Gothia, would rather obey the archbishop of Bremen than the one of Upsala. Nicholas, therefore, deposited the pallium or metropolitan insignia with the archbishop of Lund, to be given to the Swedish bishop upon whom the others might afterwards agree; but no prelate of that kingdom seems to have been willing to accept them at the hands of Eskill

of Lund. Several years elapsed before the archdiocese of Upsala was lawfully established by Pope Alexander III., and the archbishop of Lund was until then held in Rome as the primate of Sweden. (Jaffé, Loewenfeld, vol. ii. p. 136, no. 10454.)

1 Potthast, vol. i. p. 879, May 16, 1237.

Ibid., vol. ii. p. 1226, February 25, 1253.

Archivium S. Consistorii Vaticanum, 1492–1523, fo. 296 vo; Cooley, Histoire Générale, t. i. p. 210. . . Hialtland or the Shetlands formed

The Norwegian dioceses of Drontheim, Bergen, and Osloe had been erected during the eleventh century, and that of Stavanger in the beginning of the twelfth. The one of Hamar was established by the Apostolic delegate in the year 1152,' when Drontheim was elevated to the dignity of a metropolis. Arnold, the former bishop of Gardar, was present on the solemn occasion, and his reasons for deserting his distant see were accepted also by the papal envoy, who placed him at the head of the new bishopric in his native country.2 It is not known how long he governed his second diocese. We find it stated that he was born on the 8th of January and died on the 20th of May, but the years are not mentioned. He must, however, have died before 1164, in which year Orm, his successor, occupied already the see of Hamar."

The bishopric of Gardar, deprived of a supreme pastor by the resignation and departure of Arnold, was confided to Jonas or John I., surnamed Knut or Kut and, by the Flatey Codex, Kaut or Cat. According to the Ancient Annals of Iceland and, says Torfæus, according to all annals, John Knut was consecrated bishop of Gardar in the year 1150, and subsequent authors generally admit this date." Björn of Skardza gives, however, the year 1149; and Arngrim, 1156,

5

an archdeanery, pertaining to the diocese of the Orkneys. (SprunerMenke, Handatlas, Map No. 65.)

'Not in 1150, as asserted in Congrès Scientifique des Catholiques 1894; Sec. Sciences, etc., p. 180, seq.

'Torfæus, Hist. Rerum Norveg., t. i. lib. ii. cap. vii. p. 46; Gronl. Ant., cap. xxix. p. 239; cap. xxx. p. 244; Crantz, vol. i. p. 252; Wetzer und Welte, art. Grönland; Langebek, t. ii. p. 504, n. f; t. iii. p. 57; Moosmüller, S. 60.

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Langebek, t. ii. p. 504, n. f; Gams, Series Episcoporum, p. 334.

Cod. Flat., col. 850, ap. Torfæum, Gronl. Ant., cap. xxx. p. 242; Langebek, t. iii. pp. 56, 138, from Arales Islandorum Regii, where John I. is surnamed Congius; Wetzer und Welte, art. Grönland; Gravier, p. 237; Moosmüller, S. 61; alii.

5 Gronl. Ant., cap. xxx. p. 242. In particular, Gams, p. 334.

which last date ought to be accepted as the correct one, says Torfæus in his "Addenda,"1 because, he adds, his successor could not be appointed as long as Arnold was bishop of Gardar. This remark is correct, but we observed already that Arnold definitely left Greenland sometime before his appointment to Hamar; and we may readily admit that his resignation was lawfully accepted by his metropolitan before it was by the apostolic delegate in the year 1152.

However this may be, it is stated by all ancient records that John I. faithfully labored in Greenland for many years, dying in 1187 at his post of suffering and toil."

The Flatey Codex inserts in the list of the bishops of Gardar, between John I. and John II., the names of Henry and of Harald, but without specifying for them any particular time; while, when we observe the wellknown dates of the demise of John I. and of the accession of John II., we find no space left for the two pretended intermediate bishops. We suppose that the mistake was the result of a confused remembrance of Greenland's two missionary bishops, Albert and Henry or Eric.

The third bishop of Gardar was John Arnson* or John II., surnamed Smyrill-i.e., the Hawk-and Sverrersfostre. Sagas and later historians unanimously place his consecration in the year 1188,5 and it is highly

1 Gronl. Ant., Addenda, p. 267.

Annales Islandorum Regii, ap. Torfæum, Gronl. Ant., cap. xxx. p. 244, and Langebek, t. iii. p. 67; Aa. passim.

3 Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. xxx. p. 242; Moosmüller, S. 61, was under the influence of some distraction, when reading Torfason's statement: "Inter hunc Kauttum et Jonem II., Henricum et Haraldum inserit."

solitary statement,-namely, that a certain Alarsius was bishop of Gardar in A.D. 1178,-i.e., at the time that John Knut was occupying the Greenland episcopal see.-Congrès Scientifique des Catholiques, 1894; sec. Sciences, etc., p. 180, seq.

'Langebek, t. iii. pp. 68, 138; Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. xxx. p. 244; Wetzer und Welte, art. Grönland; Beauvois, Origines, p. 25; Gravier, p. 237; Moosmüller, S.

We consider as incorrect the 62; Gams, p. 334.

probable that the ceremonies took place in Scandinavia. It was likely on his first voyage to Greenland that he stopped for a while with the bishops of Iceland, where he is reported to have been in the year 1189 with Thorlak of Skalholt and Brand of Holar.' Bishop John Arnson visited Iceland again in the years 1202 and 1203, landing in Östfjord, where he was met by Gudmund, bishop of Holar, and Paul, bishop of Skalholt:2

The Saga of Bishop Paul of Skalholt says, "In Bishop Paul's days came Bishop John from Greenland, and he staid for the winter in the Eastfiord in Iceland. But in the time of the long fast [in Lent] he travelled to Skalholt, there to meet with Bishop Paul, and he arrived there on Maundy Thursday; and the two bishops consecrated on that day much holy chrism, and had together many confidential and learned conversations." 3

These are the only incidents of the life of Bishop John II. Smyrill recorded in the histories that have come down to us, and the name of only one of his priests has been preserved, thanks to the terrible fate that befell him. In the year 1188 the priest Ingemund, who had arrived in Norway from England the year before, sailed for Eiriksfjord, in Greenland. No tidings of his arrival in the island were ever received; but, fourteen years after, the ship in which this zealous priest went on his heroic apostolate, was found in an uninhabited part of the country, probably on the east coast, which was also explored at the time. Be

1 Langebek, t. iii. p. 68; Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., Addenda, p. 267, from Annales Islandorum Regii.

2 Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. xxx. p. 244; Langebek, t. iii. p. 73, from Annales Islandorum Regii; Moos

müller, S. 62; Beauvois, Origines,

p. 25.

3

Clarke, in Amer. Cath. Quar. Rev., vol. xv. p. 255, who badly confounds the history of Bishops John I. and John II.

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