The length and the direction of Zeno's return voyage leaves hardly a doubt of his departure having been from Greenland. The Italian sea-rover probably never wrote how the shy and powerless Greenlanders fared at the hands of the arch-pirate Siegmund and of his most daring and lawless accomplices. Beamish,' with other writers, thinks that the mysterious fleet, which ravaged Greenland in the beginning of the fifteenth century, was of English origin. Many complaints, he says, were made against English piracy by Margaret of Denmark and her successors, until, in the year 1433, a treaty was made between England and Denmark, containing the stipulation that "whatever people have been carried away from Iceland, Finnmark, Helgeland, and other places, His Majesty of England must provide that, wherever they be found in his dominions, they shall go back, and shall receive payment for their services; and he must give orders that they come free to their homes again." It should be remarked, however, that the navy of England was not the only one to blame for robbery, kidnapping, and murder on the northern seas and coasts of Europe. In the year 1411 the king of England was compelled to take severe measures to prevent further crimes being committed upon his feal subjects by the unscrupulous sailors of the Hansa, who had their head-quarters in Bergen; and when, as late as 1489, peace was restored between England and Denmark, King Henry VII. stated that until then outrages of many kinds, by sea and by land, had been common on either side." Poor helpless Greenland was thus constantly exposed to, and had doubtless often to suffer from, hostile assaults of bold and heartless sea-rovers from many 1 P. 154. 2 See Document LXIV., a, b. parts of civilized Europe. But it is from the American savage natives of the neighborhood that, in the year 1418, the ancient colonies received the most calamitous visitation that ever afflicted their land, and by which they were almost irreparably destroyed. This we learn from their own tearful statements and complaints, recorded in a papal authentic document of 1448. "Thirty years ago," we read, in a bull of Nicholas V., " barbarians came with a fleet from the neighboring pagan shores, cruelly invading and assaulting all the people who dwelt there; they laid waste with fire and sword the land and its sacred buildings, leaving on the island, which is said to be very extensive, only nine parochial churches, which, for the height of the mountains, they could not well reach; they took off the pitiable inhabitants of both sexes, especially those whom they saw fit and strong enough to take up the burdens. of perpetual slavery and suitable to do their bidding; and they led them captives to their own haunts.”1 While all these misfortunes and calamities of the ancient colonies are known long ago, it takes some little courage to write that "in the year 1418 Greenland still paid to the Holy See, as annual tithes and St. Peter's Pence, two thousand six hundred pounds of walrus-teeth." It requires boldness to read before an assembly of savants that "Greenland had steadily improved since the year 1327, so as to be able to pay to the Pope, in 1418, twice as much as in the former year, and to have a clergy and laity considerably augmented in numbers." 3 1 See Document XXIX. Gravier, p. 179. ' Congrès Scient., sec. v. p. 178. Gravier is justly punished by his manifestation of gross ignorance, for the slur he casts with the same breath upon Catholic indulgences. (P. 179.) It is highly probable that James Treppe never heard of the fearful ravages wrought in Greenland during the time he was its bishop, although he lived near the court of its sovereign for six or seven years later; so scarce had become, or, rather, so entirely suspended, all intercourse between the Scandinavian kingdoms and their isolated perishing province. The bishop died, as we noticed already, at the end of the year 1424 or in the beginning of 1425. Gams1 mentions a certain Nicholas as successor of Bishop Treppe, and so also do Wetzer and Welte, who assign the time of his reign from 1422 to 1432. But they mistake. The next prelate of Gardar was Robert Ryngmann, as evidently appears from several authentic records. Robert was, indeed, proclaimed by Pope Martin V. in the consistory held on Wednesday, May 30, 1425, to fill the see of Gardar in the province of Drontheim, become vacant by the death of Brother James of the Order of Minorites. Bishop Ryngmann was a member of the same religious Order of St. Francis.3 The bulls of his promotion are in the ordinary form, and relate nothing of interest besides what is contained in the foregoing short abstract. As usual, the new bishop received also letters of recommendation to his metropolitan, the archbishop of Drontheim, and to the sovereign of Greenland, King Eric of Denmark. Other pontifical briefs introduced him to the people, to the clergy, and, while it is probable that at the time there was not even a shadow of dignitaries in the cathedral of Gardar, even to the Chapter of that church. The pontifical scribes were on this occasion more concerned with the observance of custom and their consequent 1 P. 334. 2 Art. Grönland. 3 See Document LXV., a, b. Ibid., c. fees than with the usefulness of such a paper. It is a wonder that they forgot to issue the usual letters to the imaginary vassals of the Greenland diocese. As a curiosity, interesting to scholars, we append these briefs to Document LXV., c. On the 20th of the following month "the Reverend Father in Christ, Lord Robert Ryngmann, bishopelect of Gardar, personally offered to the apostolic treasury and to the College of the lords cardinals two hundred and fifty treasury gold florins, more or less, as the Church of Gardar would be found to be taxed, in payment of his common dues and of the five smaller fees; and he promised to pay one half within the next eight months and the other half within the eight months thereupon following." 1 We did not find any particulars of the subsequent history of this bishop, nor when he died or was transferred to some other diocese. It appears that Nicholas was the name of his immediate successor, who, in turn, was replaced by another bishop of Gardar, called John. 2 This new Bishop John was appointed on some fourth day of July, in or before the year 1431; and from the record of his successor's promotion we learn that he died already before the 24th of September of that same year.3 At this last date, "Pope Eugene IV., upon the report of Cardinal L. dei Conti, provided for the church of Garder vacant through the death of the last lord Bishop, etc., by appointing to it the person of the Reverend Father, Lord Gibelin Volant [alias Boland], a baccalaureate of theology, a friar of the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustin and a minor penitentiary in the basilica of the Prince of the Apostles" in Rome.* 1 See Document LXV., d. 2 Schede Garampi, at the Vatican Secret Archives. 3 See Document LXVI., b. 4 * Ibid. a, b. Bishop Volant had formerly been a priest of the diocese of Cologne. He did not remain long the ordinary of Greenland, being promoted to the see of Aalborg in the Province of Lund on the 19th of March,1 1432. On the next following fourth day of July, 1432, he was replaced by John Erler de Moys or de Monis, a priest of the diocese of Meissen in Saxony, of the Order of Minorites, a licentiate of theology, and, as his predecessor, a penitentiary in St. Peter's basilica in Rome. A month later he paid eighteen florins to the thirteen cardinals who had assisted at his preconization and to their clerks, and on the 13th of August he solemnly promised to make, within the eight and the fourteen next following months, two dimidiate payments, wherewith to satisfy the claims of the papal treasury and those of the Pontiff's employees and officials. It is noteworthy that the sad condition of the Greenland diocese was now better understood in Rome than it had been a few years previous. The taxation of the Gardar cathedral was, indeed, reduced from two hundred and fifty to sixty-six florins.* We did not find any more of Bishop Erler's good deeds, nor how or when he ceased to be the titulary of Greenland. His reign must have been short, however, for already his second successor was proclaimed on the 24th of September of the next following year. Berthold, or, rather, Bartholomew of St. Hippolyte, who was promoted on this day, had, indeed, been immediately preceded by a bishop of Gardar named Michael, who must have died shortly after his appoint 1 Not on the 5th of July, as stated in Congrès Scientifique des Catholiques, 1894, sec. Sciences, etc., p. 180, seq. 2 See Documents LXVII. and LXVIII., b. 3 See Document LXVIII., a, b, c. |