LEACH. — NORWEGIAN AND ENGLISH CHURCHES, 10GG-1399. 551 



for consecration, as far as their itineraries are preserved, all travelled 

 via England. 149 By this route also came Cardinal Breakspeare, bear- 

 ing the pallium to the first archbishop (1152). 150 In 1230 Henry III 

 allowed the Abbot de la Dale to depart to Norway " on business of the 

 pope." 151 In 1231 the Cistercian Abbot of Stanley, in England, was 

 appointed with two Norwegians on a papal commission. 152 In 1247 

 the Bishop of Sabina spent several months in England on his way to 

 crown Hakon. 153 



The visit of William, Cardinal Bishop of Sabina, to Norway in 1247, 

 invested with all the powers of the pope, his coronation of Hakon and 

 the attending festivities, constitute perhaps the most spectacular event 

 in Norway in the thirteenth century. Sturla, the Icelandic historian, 

 devotes chapter upon chapter of his Hakonar Saga to a glowing 

 account, 154 and Matthew Paris, of St. Albans, the great Anglo-Latin 

 historian, who was a personal friend of King Hakon, refers to it in 

 several connections. 155 



In 1240 Hakon's rival, Duke Skuli, was overthrown and slain, and 

 Hakon 's rule became undisputed. He desired, however, church sanc- 

 tion and coronation. 156 Accordingly he opened negotiations with the 

 pope, 157 culminating in 1245 with the embassage of Lawrence, the 

 English Abbot of Hovedo. At his solicitation, 158 the pope replied that 

 he was sending William, Cardinal of Sabina, to perform the ceremony. 

 So " King Hacon sent ships west to England and to other lands ... to 

 gather those stores which seemed to him to be most lacking in Nor- 

 way, to welcome the cardinal as he wished." 159 About this time, ac- 

 cording to Matthew Paris, the cardinal arrived in England on his way 

 to Norway. He assured the English, who thought he had come to 

 rob them, that he wished merely to proceed from Dover to Lynn. At 

 Lynn, however, he stayed three months, secretly enriching himself, and 

 departed in a veritable Noah's Ark, laden with all the good things of 

 England. 160 



149 Above, under "Nidaros." 



150 Saxo Grammaticus (Midler's ed.), p. 697. 



151 Close Rolls, 1227-1231, p. 358. 



152 Dipl. Norv., I, 10. 



153 Below. 154 246 ff. 



155 Rolls Series, Chron. Maj., IV, 612, 626, 650; V, 195, 201, 222, 230; 

 Hist, Min., Ill, 23, 31, 95; Abbrev., pp. 300, 304. 



156 He was an illegitimate son, and, as such, according to the church 

 agreement of 1164, had no real title to the crown. 



157 Hakonar Saga, chaps. 246 ff. 



158 Chron. Maj., V, 222. 



159 Hakonar Saga, chap. 248 (Dasent trans, in Rolls Series). 



160 Chron. Maj., IV, 626. 



