1 is very severe on the clergymen of the North, although he acknowledges that "it is difficult to give a correct description of the religious life in Iceland,"-and the same may be said of Greenland,-" because in the historical sources we find but a few scattered reports on that subject." It cannot be denied, however, that grave abuses existed during the first half of the thirteenth century in the ecclesiastical province of Drontheim; and probably more in Greenland than in any other of its suffragan dioceses, since its inhabitants, less in contact with the more polished nations of Europe, had also less brought under control the strong passions of their pagan ancestors, while their seafaring life was little calculated to encourage their religious practice and consequent morality. The following letter of Gregory IX. to Sigurd, archbishop of Drontheim, dated May 16, 1237, gives us a fair idea of both the evil and of its remedy: "It was in your name laid before Us that, both in the diocese and in the province of Drontheim, there has grown up the habit of a detestable abuse,-namely, that priests living there contract marriages and behave as married lay people. And though, in accordance with the duties of your office, you have taken pains to strictly forbid it, many still, trying to find frivolous excuses of their sins, allege that the practice had been allowed by our predecessor, Pope Adrian of blessed memory, bishop of Albano at the time, while he was a papal delegate in Norway; although they can show no document of his on this subject. Moreover, preferring rather to perish than to obey, they pretend to be justified by long-lasting custom. Now, therefore, as the length of time does 1 Maurer, S. 262: "Von dem Kirchlichen Leben auf der Insel hält es schwer ein einigermassen genügendes Bild zu geben, da sich in den Quellen nur ganz vereinzelte Zeugnisse über dasselbe finden." rather increase than diminish the sin, We order that, if the facts be as represented, you should endeavor to extirpate this abuse, and apply the ecclesiastical censures to the rebellious if any there be. Given at Viterbo on the 17th before the calends of June in the year eleven."1 The word of the Scripture, "Sin maketh nations miserable," 2 was fulfilled, also, in Greenland; there, also, individual suffering and public disgrace followed in the train of moral degeneracy. If perhaps the necessaries of life were not deficient, the most common luxuries were altogether wanting, as we may judge from the following curious letter, in which the diocese of Gardar is not obscurely signified. Sigurd, archbishop of Drontheim, had, strangely enough, proposed to the Sovereign Pontiff some questions, to which the Father and Teacher of all churches, always faithful to divine doctrine and law, answers in this manner, on the 11th of May, 1237: "Gregory IX. to Sigurd, archbishop of Drontheim, etc. You state, beloved brother, that, in some churches of your suffragans, it is impossible to have the Holy Eucharist because of the scarcity of wheat, and that wine can never or hardly ever be had in those countries; and you ask whether it is allowed to deceive the people with some simulation of piety, and distribute to them mere oblations made of some other substance, and give them beer or another beverage, instead of wine. To this We answer that by no means can you do either one thing or the other, because visible bread of wheat and wine of grapes, consecrated through the ministry of the priest by the word of the Creator, must needs be the elements of this Sacrament, which, beyond a doubt, 1 See Document LIX. "Prov. xiv. 34. truly contains his flesh and blood. Bread simply blest may, however, be given to the people, according to a custom of some other countries. Given at Viterbo on the 5th before the ides of May in the eleventh year of our pontificate." 1 This deficiency of the small quantity of bread and wine required for divine service is for a casual observer sufficient evidence of the acts of rigorous abstinence which the Greenlanders of that time were compelled to perform. Bishop Nicholas could hardly fare better than others; and, besides, he had also to endure the many mortifications caused him by the conduct of his diocesans and probably by some of his priests. His patience and life lasted but one year after his arrival in Gardar.2 The lack of the most common European articles of food and drink in the distant dioceses of the Norwegian province leads us further to conclude that the naval intercourse and commerce between Iceland and Greenland and their mother-country had already considerably diminished by this time, and we may well presume that the want of timely information and of communication with the metropolitan see were partially the cause of the long vacancies of the cathedral of Gardar. It was no less than six years before the successor of Bishop Nicholas was appointed. Olaf or Olaus was consecrated bishop of Gardar in the year 1246 by Archbishop Sigurd of Drontheim,3 and not by Gellius Sorler, who was elected in 1452,* nor by Einar in the year 1263, as Lyschander errone 1 See Document LX. Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. xxx. p. 245; Gams, p. 334; Moosmüller, S. 63; Gravier, p. 237. Langebek, t. iii. p. 95, reports his death in 1242, two years later. Langebek, t. iii. p. 96; Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. xxx. p. 244; Clarke, in Amer. Cath. Quar. Rev., vol. xv. p. 256; Gravier, p. 237; Crantz, vol. i. p. 252. Gams, p. 335. 1 ously asserts. He left for the field of his labors during the next following year, 1247.2 Events of the highest importance and most injurious to the honor and welfare of Greenland took place during the reign of this bishop, but they were the unavoidable consequence of the behavior of its people since quite a length of time. 3 We have noticed that private morality was low; and, already since the end of the previous century, civil order had constantly grown less. The rich gathered around themselves their beneficiaries and workmen, whom they formed into daring bands and factions, and under whose protection they did with impunity defy the law and act as supreme lords. Thus was Iceland at the time actually divided among thirty-nine local masters, not to say hostile governments. Already a hundred years before this the supreme court of Greenland had been turned into a haunt of riot and murder. Intestine strife and sedition and the most unbridled licentiousness in their wake were making sad havoc of all laws human and divine.1 "Some authors relate," says Sveinbjörnson," "that Cardinal William, who was sent to crown Hacon king of Norway in the year 1247, advised that monarch to reduce under his sceptre the distant Scandinavian republics, because it was not customary with Christian nations to live independent of any king or prince; but I consider this," he adds, “as a shrewd invention of Hacon, who had long before resolved to enslave the colonies; for the cardinal should 1 Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. xxx. p. 244; Hist. Rerum Norveg., lib. vi. cap. xii. p. 367; Moosmüller, S. 63. Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. xxx. p. 247; Hist. Rerum Norveg., lib. vi. cap. xii. p. 368; Langebek, t. 3 iii. p. 97; Annales Islandorum not have been shocked at the aristocratic government of Iceland, after he had seen several republics flourish in Italy itself.” "We should not wonder, however," Torfæus says, "if he expressed the opinion that it was absolutely necessary to bring them under the strong authority of one man to restore quiet and peace.” 1 The Church has, indeed, often encouraged faithful temporal princes to wage war on barbarism, lawlessness, and anarchy; but she never opposed any form of government able to promote order, morality, and general welfare. The greatest Christian philosophers consider monarchy tempered with democracy as the most perfect system of a State's polity; and the government of the Church herself would hardly differ from republican institutions, were it not for the difference of duration of pontifical and of presidential power, the one lasting a term of years, the other being for the term of life. No wonder, therefore, if to-day Leo XIII. so openly manifests his feelings of special affection towards our own great republic. 1 Hist. Rerum Norveg., t. iv. lib. iv. cap. xxxv. p. 251. |