possibility of accomplishing this task, “because the diocese of Gardar was so far removed from the metropolitan church that, taking into consideration the obstacles to the voyage, it would hardly be possible to make the round trip in less than five years." John XXI. answered on the 4th of December, 1276, directing the archbishop to choose some persons, fit and reliable, whom he should send for the purpose to Greenland in his own stead; and, by letters of the same date, allowed him, also, to appoint sub-collectors for the other dioceses of his province.2

1

The archbishop made use of these powers in regard to the diocese of Greenland, as we learn from a letter of Pope Nicholas III., dated January 31, 1279. He had shortly before availed himself of the rare opportunity offered by a ship bound for the distant island, to despatch a discreet man as tithe collector to the city of Gardar, and he had delegated to him the faculty of absolving, and dispensing with, the clerics of this diocese, who might have materially incurred ecclesiastical censures by not paying the tithes at the stipulated time. Nicholas approves of this action and ratifies the faculties granted by him. The Pope further allows him to impart the same power of absolution and dispensation to all other sub-collectors whom he may send hereafter "to the said island or to other islands situated in the same ocean.”

We owe it to historical truth to notice here the perversion of a passage of the papal brief by some modern writers, who, over-anxious to establish the fact of ancient Christianity in the New England States, mistranslate the words of the Pontiff by "the diocese of Gardar and the neighboring islands and countries," s

1 See Document XXXVII., d. 2 Ibid., e.

3 "Tant dans l'évêché de Gardar que dans les îles et terres voisines."

identifying "the neighboring countries" with the American Vinland.1

The discreet man sent forth by Archbishop John of Drontheim had sufficient sagacity to accept as tithes almost anything that the Greenland clergy could offer him in their total deficiency of money. On March 4, 1282, Martin IV. wrote thus to the metropolitan of Norway:

"Martin Bishop, etc., to our venerable brother, the archbishop of Drontheim. Your fraternity has notified Us that the tithes of Iceland and of the Faroe Islands, situated within the kingdom of Norway, are being paid in divers articles which cannot easily be exchanged or sold for coin. You have added also that the tithes of Greenland cannot be collected except in cattle-hides, seal-furs, walrus-teeth, and ropes of whale-skin, which, as you state, could not be sold at a convenient price. You have, therefore, asked for instructions from the Apostolic See to know what to do under the circumstances. We recommend your carefulness, and answer to your inquiry by saying that you should try to exchange for gold or silver, as you may in the easiest and most profitable manner, the tithes of both the said islands and of Greenland, and send it as soon as practicable to the Apostolic See in behalf of the Holy Land, together with the tithes collected in Norway itself, and with a correct statement of what you forward and of its amount. . . . Given in Civita Vecchia, the 4th of March in the first year,' "2 1282.3 Thus had, in 1281, the prelates and other clergymen of the Drontheim province faithfully paid the sexen

(Riant, p. 365, referred to by Gravier, p. 178; Congrès Scient., 1891, sec. v. p. 175.)

'See Document XXXVII., h. The "aliis insulis maris ejusdem" are

interpreted in the following Document as Iceland and the Faroe group.

2 Of our reign.

3 See Document XXXVII., i.

nial taxes imposed by the council of Lyons. They had paid, it is true, one year after the appointed time; but, as the great distances and other obstacles had vented the promulgation of the levy in due season, Pope John XXI. had deferred their duties one year.1

pre

The bishop of Gardar, Olaf, had ceased to live when these contributions from his diocese were received in Norway. He died on the 9th of May,' in the year

1280.3

Claudius Lyschander is alone in believing that Olaf was succeeded by a certain Bartholus Gregory, and this one by another bishop named Andreas, who is said to have reigned until the year 1308, in which, according to Huitfeldt, was appointed the one upon whom both ancient manuscripts and later historians agree as having been the immediate successor of Bishop Olaf.*

5

Gams states that Thord or Theodore was elected bishop of Gardar the very year of his predecessor's demise, but we may well doubt the assertion when we notice that he was not consecrated till eight years later. Jorund, transferred shortly before from the see of Hammeren to the metropolitan church of Drontheim, bestowed the episcopal Order on the new bishop of Greenland in the year 1288, on the same day that he was invested with the pallium,'-namely, on February 22.8

See Document XXXVII., g. 2 Langebek, t. ii. p. 194, from Annales Islandorum. He did not die in A.D. 1250, as asserted in Congrès Scientifique des Catholiques, 1894, sec. Sciences, etc., p. 189, seq.

3 Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. xxx.; Langebek, t. iii. p. 116; Moosmüller, S. 63; Gams, p. 334.

Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. xxx. p. 248; Moosmüller, S. 63. 5 P. 334.

6 Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. xxx. p. 251 ; Hist. Rerum, Norveg., t. iv. lib. vii. cap. iv. p. 378; Langebek, t. iii. p. 119; Crantz, vol. i. p. 252; Moosmüller, §. 63; Gravier, p. 237.

'Annales Islandorum Vetustissimi, ap. Langebek, t. ii. p. 196. 8 Moosmüller, S. 63.

2

A vessel set sail for Greenland the following year, and Bishop Theodore availed himself of the opportunity to go and take care of his flock.' He found the Greenland colonies weakened and disturbed: weakened by the hard winters, the epidemics, and the scarcity of food, with which they had been afflicted during that and the preceding years; and agitated in consequence of the tyrannical measures, in religious affairs, of the king of Norway, Eric the Priest-hater, who went so far in his pretensions as to force a compromise upon the archbishop of Drontheim, in virtue of which the canons of the metropolitan chapter should have a voice in the election of the future bishops of Greenland.3

Little is known of the reign of Bishop Theodore. Gravier *—who, with Riant and Gaffarel, whom he copies, and the scientific congress of Paris in A.D. 1891, that copies him," forms a sort of French school regarding this special subject-positively asserts that in the year 1307"the tithes of Vinland figured again among the pious contributions" of Greenland. We could find no serious authority for such a statement, and, while Greenland may have paid its yearly Saint Peter's Pence, also in 1307, it is not likely that any tithes were collected at that time, since those decreed by the council of Lyons had been received long before, and the council of Vienna had not convened yet to order new tithes. What we know of the Vinland history makes the assertion still more improbable. It is recorded only that the promulgation of the latter council, decreeing another sexennial tax in behalf of the Holy Land, was made in Iceland seven years later, in 1314.6

For nearly a quarter of a century did Theodore steadily remain at his difficult post, faithfully, we may presume, fulfilling his responsible duties, and having in his labors but few distractions from the outside world. Eric "hin Prestahatare" had died in the year 1299, and Eyvind, bishop of Osloe, four years later; and in 1308-thus respectively nine and five years after the events-Arne, the bishop of Bergen, when writing to Gardar, supposed that the news of those deaths might not have reached the ears of its prelate! 1

So far as we can know, Theodore did not once leave the Greenland shores before the year 1309, 1310, or 1311, the date being variously given by different authorities and by Torfæus himself. He then made a visit to Norway. After that he is mentioned in a public document of 1311,3 and his death is generally assigned to the year 1314. Considering the scarcity of communication between Greenland and Norway at the time, together with the fact of Theodore's successor being appointed that same year, we may not unreasonably presume that the venerable bishop of Greenland remained in Norway after 1311 and died there.

Arne, Arnas, or Arnius was consecrated by Eilaf Korte, archbishop of Drontheim, and left for his see of Gardar the following year, 1315.5

One of his principal duties was the collection in his diocese of the six years' tithes ordered by the ecumeni

1 Wetzer und Welte, art. Grönland.

2 Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. xxx. p. 251 or seq.; Hist. Rerum Norveg., t. iv. lib. viii. cap. ix. p. 434; Gams, p. 334.

3 Langebek, t. iii. p. 119, n. b.

Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. xxx. p. 248; Hist. Rerum Norveg., t. iv. lib. viii. cap. x. p. 440; Gams, p. 334; Wetzer und Welte, art. Grön

land; Gravier, p. 237, who adds that he died in Greenland, but gives no authority for this particular.

5 Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. xxx. p. 248; Hist. Rerum Norveg., t. iv. lib. viii. cap. xi. p. 441; Langebek, t. iii. p. 130, from Annales, Islandorum Regii; Gams, p. 334; Moosmüller, S. 64; Crantz, vol. i. p. 252; alii.