552 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



In the following year, 1248, Matthew Paris himself went to Norway 

 on an important church mission. He gives a detailed account of the 

 difficulties which led to his visit. 161 The monastery of St. Benedict 

 of Holm, already in a bad way, was abandoned by the abbot, who got 

 the house into debt and died. " The prior was then sent . . . with one 

 of the brothers accompanying him, and with a sum of three hundred 

 marks, and also bearing letters directed to brother Matthew Paris, beg- 

 crine him to use his diligent endeavors to free them from their debt, and 

 in the end it was happily arranged that the said house should be released 

 on payment of the debt only. After having obtained all writings and 

 instruments by which the convent of Holm was held indebted to the 

 Caursins, who were then at London, he returned safely within a year. 

 But although they breathed freely in temporal matters, they were still 

 languishing in a confused state in spiritual concerns." 162 So the Car- 

 dinal of Sabina, then in Norway, advised them to go to the pope for a 

 suitable instructor to reform their order. The abbot and prior accord- 

 ingly went to the pope, who asked them to choose their adviser, and on 

 deliberation they replied : "Your holiness, we have learnt by experience 

 that the monks of our order are not so well ordered anywhere throughout 

 the whole world, as we believe, as in England ; nor is there, as we hear 

 from report, any house so well arranged in the kingdom of England as 

 that of St. Alban, the protomartyr of the English. We therefore ask 

 for a certain monk of that house, named Matthew, whose wisdom and 

 fidelity we have had experience of, to inform and instruct us ; besides, 

 he is a most particular friend to our king, who will be able by his means, 

 if he thinks necessary, to subdue any rebels against him." Accord- 

 ingly, the pope wrote to the abbot asking him to send Matthew to 

 Norway. " The abbot of St. Albans therefore obeyed the pope, as he 

 justly ought; and the said monk obeyed his abbot, the business went 

 on, and was arranged prosperously, so that the abbot of Holm in Nor- 

 way continued in peace and prosperity, and the monastic order, which 

 was exposed to such peril in that country, now, by the grace of God, 

 recovered breath, as did also some other monasteries there." 163 



I know of no contemporary mention of Matthew's visit to Norway 

 outside the reputed writings of Matthew himself. 164 In three other 

 connections, however, Matthew alludes to his presence in Norway. 



When he set out for Norway at the pope's request, Louis IX, king 



161 Chron. Maj., V, 42 ff. 



162 Giles trans. 



163 Giles trans., II, 283 ff. 



161 Except the indirect confirmation in Hakonar S. (cited below). 



