LEACH. — NORWEGIAN AND ENGLISH CHURCHES, 106G-1399. 535 



to conciliate the Norse, the Englishman highest in the church. " There 

 never came a foreigner to Norway," says Snorri Sturlason, " whom all 

 men respected so highly, or who could govern the people so well as he 

 did. After some time he returned to the South with many friendly 

 presents, and declared ever afterwards that he was the greatest friend of 

 the people of Norway." 19 - 20 



In 1157 the new archbishop, whom Breakspeare consecrated, died, 

 and the great Eystein succeeded him. 21 



Eystein is of especial interest in our study. He had communications 

 with his great contemporary, Thomas of Canterbury, and himself spent 

 three years of exile in England, after Becket's martyrdom. Moreover, 

 Eystein was an author, and, in his case, we have certain evidence of 

 literary connection between Norway and England. The oldest Latin 

 account of the martyrdom and miracles of St. Olaf is by Eystein, and 

 the fullest manuscript of this work was preserved in England, at 

 Fountains Abbey. 22 We also have letters and laws attributed to 

 Eystein. To him is dedicated perhaps the earliest existing history 

 written in Norway, the Latin work of Tjodrek the monk. 



The political career of Eystein cannot detain us here. He made a 

 king and lost him. He made the crown of Norway subject to his own 

 see, and won many other triumphs for the church, and lost most of 

 them. He fought beside Magnus, the king of his creation, against the 

 " Birchshanks " and their great leader, King Sverri the Priest, until 

 Sverri's decisive victory at Iluvellir (May 27, 1180). 23 Then Eystein 

 fled to England. 



Already, more than ten years before, Eystein was in communication 

 with Thomas a Becket. In an undated letter from Thomas to the 

 Bishop of Meaux (near Paris), written apparently in France about 

 1168-1169, in which he complains of his exile, he adds, " "Welcome, if it 

 please you, besides, the bearers of these presents, Master Godfrey and 

 Master Walter, messengers of our reverend brother, the Archbishop 



19 Heimskringla, Saga of Sigurd, Inge, and Eystein, chap. 23 (Laing 

 trans.). 



20 Two years later he became pope, under the title Adrian IV (1154-1159), 

 being the only Englishman who has achieved that eminence. For Break- 

 speare's visit to Norway see Keyser, I, 219 ff., Munch, II, 865. I have noth- 

 ing new to offer. The best mediaeval accounts of his life are by Matthew 

 Paris, William of Newburgh, and John of Salisbury. 



21 A good brief life of Eystein is that by L. Daae in the Trondhjem Jubilee 

 Book (Festskrift udgivet i Anledning af Trondhjems 900 Aars Jubilteum, 

 pp. 11-23, Trond., 1897). 



22 See F. Metcalfe, Passio et Miracula Beati Olaui, Oxford, 1881. 



23 Cf. Munch, III, 116. 



