devindan .. .;" and the Codex Lindenbrog has: "... Nortwegorum, Farriæ, Gronlandon, Halsingolandon, Islandon, Scridevindon et omnium

991

The reader has noticed the slight difference of spelling, and the omission of one or two names in one of these copies; but the contested names are faithfully preserved in the manuscripts, and they are duly rendered in almost every one of their publications.2

The authenticity of these two important documents not only thus reposes on their own evidence, but is attested also by a number of subsequent papal bulls and imperial diplomas.

The bull of Sergius II. of the month of April, 846,3 that of Leo IV., dated March, 848, and the one of Agapitus II., issued the second day of January, 952,5 are set forth by a few authors as objections against the genuineness of Iceland's and Greenland's mention by Lewis the Pious and Gregory IV. But it is easily understood how these popes or their scribes deemed it sufficient to express a few names, taken at random from the document of their predecessor, and to include the other countries in the general term of "all the northern nations," in order to confirm St. Ansgar in the rights which he peacefully enjoyed already. In thus abridging the archetypal documents, they simply acted as other pontiffs afterwards did, when the various countries were perfectly known and long since inhabited by converted Scandinavians. So does, in the year 1044 or

manum, ed. Tomasseti, t. i. p. 279, and ed. Rom., 1739, t. i. p. 174; alibi.

3 Liljegren, t. i. p. 7; Jaffé, Loewenfeld, t. i. p. 328.

Liljegren, t. i. p. 9; Jaffé, Loewenfeld, t. i. p. 330.

5 Liljegren, t. i. p. 22; Migne, t. cxxxiii. col. 895.

1045, Benedict IX. determine the extent of the Hamburgian province by mentioning only "Sweden, Norway, and Iceland," yet adding the general expression, "and all the islands adjoining those countries.'

Other popes, however, were more explicit.

On the 31st of May, 858 or 864, Nicholas I. likewise confirmed St. Ansgar in his northern legation, clearly expressing the names of Iceland and Greenland, as is proved, moreover, by the "Vicelinsbók," written between the years 1072 and 1120. In November of the year 872 Pope Adrian II. published another bull similar to the one of Nicholas I. In the month of January, A.D. 912, Pope Anastasius III. ratified again the jurisdiction of the archiepiscopal see of Hamburg over all the northern nations. He wrote to Archbishop Hoger: "Since you have requested Us to confirm the archdiocese of Hamburg in all the rights granted to it by our precedessors Gregory and Nicholas, We also grant and confirm all the same rights generally and specially pertaining to it. . . jurisdiction, namely, over the bishops of the Swedes and Danes, of the Norwegians, Icelanders, Scritifinns, Greenlanders, and of all the boreal nations." 5

When St. Wennus or Unna had been elected archbishop of Hamburg, he, as was customary at the time, begged the Roman See to confirm the ancient authority and the privileges of his metropolis. John X. answered him, on the 29th of October, 920, by sending the pallium and the bull securing him in all the

3

› Diplomatarium Island., p. 28. Liljegren, t. i. p. 15.

Jaffé, Loewenfeld, t. i. p. 522, ref. 4 to Lappenberg, Hamburgisches Urkundenbuch, i. 71; Liljegren, Diplomatarium Islandiæ, p. 55; Migne, t. cxli. col. 1368. See Document XXX., a.

2 Beauvois, Origines, p. 10.

5 Diplomat. Island., p. 43; Jaffé, Loewenfeld, t. i. p. 448; Migne, t. cxxxi. col. 1185. See Document XXIV.

rights conferred upon the Hamburgian archdiocese "by blessed Gregory, Nicholas, and others of his predecessors," and, in particular, "over the bishops of the Swedes and Danes, of the Norwegians, of Iceland, Scritifinnland and Greenland, as also of the Slavonians between the Eider and the Danube."1

As a matter of course, the authors who reject as forged the bull of Gregory IV. are compelled to deny also the authenticity of all the confirmatory papal documents, in which mention is made of Greenland long before it was discovered by Eric the Red. Nor are these the only diplomas which misinterpretation of the Icelandic sagas is compelled to ignore. Several more should be declared spurious as well, because, although issued after the conversion of the Northmen in Greenland, while expressing the name of this country, they openly state that they simply renew the grants and territorial jurisdiction accorded by Gregory IV. and his nearer successors to the metropolitan of Hamburg.

Of this character is the bull issued on the 29th day of October, 1055, by Pope Victor II., who, when again submitting the bishops of Iceland and Greenland to the Hamburgian archiepiscopal see, solemnly attests that in so doing he follows the decrees of his predecessors Nicholas, Agapitus, Benedict, and Leo.2

The most conclusive of all proofs is offered us, however, in a bull of Innocent II., dated May 27, 1133. Notwithstanding the oft-repeated confirmation of the rights of the archbishop of Hamburg, his jurisdiction still continued to be contested and to be assumed by other prelates. As we shall notice farther on, the first

1 Beauvois, Origines, p. 10, ref. to Groenl. Hist. Mindesm., t. iii. pp. 71, 73, and Rydberg, i. 32; Diplomat. Island., p. 43; Liljegren, t. i. p. 20. See Document XXV.

2 "Sicut a prædecessoribus nostris Nicolao, Agapito, Benedicto, Leone, hujus almæ apostolicæ sedis decretum est." (Liljegren, t. i. p. 37; Beauvois, Origines, p. 29, n. 3.)

Northman resident bishop of Greenland had been consecrated by Adzer, archbishop of Lund in Sweden. Adalberon, the metropolitan of Hamburg, considered the fact as an infringement upon his right and jurisdiction, and entered complaints at the court of Rome. The pontiff was to decide according to the acts of his predecessors. Did he consider as apocryphal the ancient documents naming Greenland as part of the Hamburgian province? He says, "Often, indeed, has our venerable brother Adalberon, archbishop of Hamburg, complained before our predecessors Calixtus and Honorius, and before Us, that Ascerus of Lund and some bishops of Denmark deny the obedience due him as to their metropolitan, in the manner prescribed by the ancient privileges granted by the Roman pontiffs, Gregory, Sergius, Leo, Benedict, Nicholas, and Adrian.

Therefore, since no man ought to enjoy the fruit of his temerity, We, after mature deliberation with our counsel of bishops and cardinals, place again under your jurisdiction, venerable brother Adalberon, as well the bishop of Lund as the bishops of Denmark. Favorable to the prayers of our beloved son, King Lothair, and, following the text of the diplomas of Gregory, Sergius, Leo, Nicholas, Benedict, and Adrian, We confirm that the episcopal sees of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Funen, Cronland, Halsingoland, Iceland, Scritifinge and of the Sclavonians, shall be suffragan unto you and, through you, to the Church of Hamburg, their metropolis."

1

As the Roman pontiffs upheld the bull of Gregory IV., so did Emperor Frederic ratify and renew the letters patent of Lewis the Pious. On the 16th day of March, A.D. 1158, he issued a document in which we

1 1 Migne, t. clxxix. col. 180, from Lappenberg, p. 132; Liljegren, t. i. p. 46. See Document XXVI.

read that Hartwic, archbishop of Hamburg, had brought to him the parchment by which the august Emperor Lewis had first established the Hamburgian see, requesting Frederic to add his own lasting authority to the act of his predecessor. "Being thus fully cognizant of the pious action of our predecessor," the emperor says, "we decree what he has decreed, and what he has given we give, and confirm it all with our imperial power. We particularly recall to mind how the illustrious Emperor Lewis performed a work well worth the highest encomium, by establishing beyond the Elbe, at the place called Hamburg, an archdiocese including all the churches of the Danes, of the Swedes, of the Norwegians, of Funen, of the Greenlanders, of the Halsingolanders, of the Icelanders, of the Scritifinns, and of all the northern countries. The limits which Emperor Lewis drew and, with the advice of the princes, assigned to the said Church, yet somewhat altered according to the circumstances of the times, we preserve and confirm with our authority." The diploma ends with the minute description of the renovated boundaries.1

It would require a certain amount of courage to reject as forgeries all these documents and many more sufficiently suggested, which, to an unprejudiced reader, establish beyond all doubt the authenticity of the Diplomas of Lewis the Pious and of Gregory IV., even in their details regarding our hemisphere. But, besides these, there are several more proofs of St. Ansgar's legation having comprised the territories of Iceland and Greenland distinctly expressed.

These names, it is true, do not appear in the life of St. Ansgar by the monk of Corbie, Gualdo, published

1 Liljegren, t. i. p. 59; Diplomat.

Island., p. 214, n. 36. See Document XXVII.