LEACH. — NORWEGIAN AND ENGLISH CHURCHES, 1066-1399. 553 



of France, sent by Matthew a letter to Hakon 165 inviting him to share 

 the command of a crusade, and also a letter of protection in France. 

 "When the king of Norway, who was a discreet, modest and learned 

 man, read this letter, he was greatly delighted, and returned thanks to 

 the bearer of it, besides rewarding him with rich and royal presents." 166 

 The third mention of Matthew's visit occurs in his account of a ter- 

 rible fire in Bergen, followed, a day or two later, by a fearful thunder- 

 storm. " A sudden flash of lightning struck a large ship which had 

 arrived from England during the night, killing one man in it, wounding 

 or severely bruising all the others, and, shivering the mast into small 

 pieces, hurled it into the sea; all the ships, too, which were in the 

 harbor, amounting to two hundred in number or more, were injured. 

 The writer of this work had come in the ship whose mast was broken, 

 but at the time of the occurrence he was performing mass in a church 

 near the sea-coast, singing a nautical hymn to return thanks to God 

 after escaping the perils of the sea. When the above-mentioned cir- 

 cumstances were made known to the king, he, out of his regard for the 

 person who had been on board that ship, ordered a larger and better 

 mast to be supplied to it." 167 Fortunately Hakon's Saga enables us 

 to date within a day or two Matthew's arrival in Norway. It too 

 describes the fire, which occurred " fourteen nights before St. John's 

 eve," that is, June 9, and the thunderstorm which followed " a few days 

 later." The saga apparently also describes the accident which hap- 

 pened to the very ship of Matthew Paris, for the lightning, Sturla says, 

 "flew out afterwards into the voe and struck a mast on a ship which 

 floated off the town, and dashed the mast asunder into such small 

 chips that they could scarcely be seen anywhere. One bit of the mast 

 did hurt a man who had got on board the ship from the town to buy 

 finery ; but there was no harm done to anyone else who was on 

 board." 168 So Matthew arrived in Bergen about June 10, 1248, 

 and came on a trading ship, or perhaps defrayed the expenses of the 

 voyage by a little incidental bartering, as did Norwegian prelates who 

 went to England. 



165 That it was the same trip is stated explicitly in Matt. Par., Abbreviatio 

 Chronieorum (Rolls), p. 304: "Et tunc temporis scripsit dominus rex Fran- 

 corum dicto fratri Matheo in Norwegian! profecturo." 



166 Chron. Maj., IV, 650 ff. (Giles trans., II, 248 f.); Hist. Mm., Ill, 304. 

 The additamenta to the Chronica Majora give a list of hangings presented by- 

 Matthew to St. Albans. Among them is an aurifrigium "de dono domini regis 

 Norwagiae Haconis " (p. 391). 



167 Chron. Maj., V, 36 (Giles, II, 278). 



168 Hakonar Saga, chap. 260 (Rolls trans.). 



