15. Alverus, died before February, 1401.1

16. Berthold, proclaimed February 25, 1401, was transferred on or before January, 1402.2

17. Peter, bishop of Strengnäs in Sweden, appointed on or before January 23, 1402, did not leave his former see; he died A.D. 1408.3

Berthold continued to act as bishop of Gardar in the year 1407,* and died before A.D. 1410.5

18. Eskill, appointed before the middle of 1410, died in Greenland."

19. James Treppe, alias Peters, appointed March 27, 1411,' died in or before A.D. 1424 or 1425.8

Nicholas, according to Gams and Wetzer and Welte." 20. Robert Ryngmann, proclaimed May 30, 1425.10 21. Nicholas (?).11

22. John V., appointed July 4, in or before the year 1431, died before September, 1431.12

23. Gibelin Volant, appointed September 24, 1431,13 was transferred to Aalborg in Jutland, March 19, 1432.14

24. John Erler de Moys or de Monis, John VI., promoted July 4, 1432.15

25. Michael, died before September, 1433.16

26. Bartholomew of St. Hippolyte or Berthold, proclaimed September 24, 1433," died A.D. 1440.18

27. Gregory, promoted about August, 1440, was bishop of Gardar still in the

year

1450.19

28. Boniface, appointed A.D. 1450.1

29. Andrew, at first administrator of the Gardar diocese, then made its bishop, likely in 1462,2 was coadjutor at Linkoping in Sweden in A.D. 1476.3

30. James Blaa, promoted June 15, 1481, resigned July 9, 1492.1

31. Matthew Canutson, proclaimed July 9, 1492.5 32. Zacharias, appointed shortly after the year 1500.6 33. Vincent Kampe, alias Peters, proclaimed June 20, 1519,7 administrator of Odense till A.D. 1520, coadjutor at Roeskilde, died after 1537.9

8

CHAPTER XXII.

GREENLAND LOST AND FOUND.

DURING the course of the fifteenth century Greenland was gradually lost to Christianity and civilization; the route from Europe or even from Iceland to it was unknown to honest mariners, its location and configuration had become doubtful, and its very name was forgotten by many. The kings of Denmark cared little about their remote territories, nor did the court of Rome expect much from them. When Sixtus IV. was trying to gather money to defray the expenses of his projected expedition against the invading Turks, he sent his delegate, Bartholomew de Camerino, in the year 1483, to the archbishop of Upsala, and gave him letters for every bishop of Sweden and Norway, but Greenland and even the other dioceses of the northern Atlantic were not remembered.' The diocese of Gardar is not mentioned in a copy made in the year 1471 from the authentic register of all bishoprics and monasteries in the world. Neither is it mentioned in another copy of the sixteenth century. Ruysch marks pretty correctly "Gruenlant," west and southwest of "Islant," as also the "Sinus Gruenlanteus," southwest of "Gruenlant," on his map of about 1495; but the Roman Ptolemy-drawing of 1508 is very defective, while al

1 Archivium Apostolicum Secretum Vaticanum, Armarium 39, no. 16: Sixti IV. Brevia ad Principes, Anno 1483, t. i. fo. 47.

2 Roma, Bibliotheca Vittorio Emanuele, MSS. Sessoriani, no. 46; Liber Taxarum Omnium Ec

clesiarum et Monasteriorum diligentissime emendatus ad exemplar Libri Sacri Collegii et Camere Apostolice.

Bibliotheca Vaticana, Ottoboniana, Cod. 2651.

ready, on de la Cosa's world's map of 1500 Greenland had become irrecognizable.1

The king of Denmark, Christian I., sent out in the year 1476 the pilot John of Kolno, of whom we shall speak soon again, in order to resume business intercourse with Greenland; but, although very important in other respects, this voyage did not produce the intended effect.

3

2

It is said that Christian II. renewed in the year 1513 the attempt to recover the lost province. For this purpose he also requested the assistance of the Catholic hierarchy, and, on June 17, 1514, obtained from the Sovereign Pontiff, Leo X., ample indulgences for all who might be willing to sail to the islands of the glacial ocean. The Protestant editors of Greenland's Historic Documents make the obvious remark that the king had likely promised to His Holiness to co-operate towards the restoration of Christianity on the distant island, and that the indulgences were granted in view of this salutary purpose. There can be no doubt but that the appointment of the last bishop of Greenland, at the request of Christian II., was made with the same intentions.

4

No man, however, made greater efforts to accomplish the king's wishes than the next to the last archbishop of Drontheim, Eric Walchendorff, consecrated in A.D. 1513. He made inquiries of old mariners, gathered books and manuscripts regarding the lost land, and composed the original of the work to which we have before this often referred as "Sailing Directions." He also wrote a series of practical suggestions for the seamen and missionaries that were to embark in the peril

ous undertaking. "All should act with the greatest caution and prudence; in case that the natives or their chief might refuse to receive the missionaries as such, these should offer themselves as scribes or as servants in any other capacity, and see what might be done in the course of time; should they perhaps find the land uninhabited, then they must erect large wooden crosses, or chisel crosses upon the rocks and upon the trees, cut down wood and build big fires, erect large and numerous lookouts, and leave many monuments of their presence.'

991

The archbishop was willing to defray the heavy expenses of the undertaking, but claimed, in return, its profits for the space of ten years. This condition being refused, the project failed. Christian II., who invited into his kingdom the German reformers; and, to better reduce the people, became the declared enemy of their natural protectors, the bishops and the priests, afterwards instigated a Norwegian nobleman to pick a quarrel with the prelate, who was eventually compelled to leave his diocese and country. Archbishop Walchendorff sought refuge in Rome, where he died on the 28th of November, 1522. His enemy, the king, was, in just punishment for his many cruelties, deprived of his crown the year following.2

Crantz says, after Torfæus, that Bishop Augmund Paulson, who, consecrated in the year 1521, was compelled in 1540 to resign his see of Skalholt, had been driven at one time by a storm, on his return from Norway, so near the coast of Greenland by Herjulfsnes that he could see the people driving their sheep and lambs to their sheds. But he did not land, because

1 Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., Præf. p. 27; cap. ix. p. 70; cap. xxxi. p. 258; Wetzer und Welte, art. Grönland; Moosmüller, S. 73; De Costa, Precolumbian Discovery, p. 34.

2 Torfæus, Gronl. Ant., cap. ix. p. 70; Allen, t. ii. p. 6; De Costa, Precolumbian Discovery, p. 34; Wouters, t. iii. p. 14; Gams, p. 335. 3 Gronl. Ant., cap. xxxii. p. 261.