

546 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



In another letter he gave Askeldus himself his protection for three 



years. 106 



In 1269 Chancellor Askatin became Bishop of Bergen. 107 In that 

 year he helped draw up at Winchester a trade treaty between England 

 and Norway. 108 In previous years, also, he had been sent as an envoy 

 to England and Scotland. 109 



In 1309 one of the canons of Bergen Cathedral was studying in 

 England, and another was just setting out for the shrine of Becket. 110 

 In 1 322 Bishop Audfin was sending a ship and two representatives to 

 England " on affairs of our court and our own." m But the good old 

 days of English affiliations were over. In 1338 Bishop Hakon wrote 

 out to Iceland, to his friend Bishop John of Skalholt, bewailing the 

 fact that wine no longer came from Flanders and England, but from 

 Germany only. 112 



Envoys of State. 



" The King's Mirror," a book of courtesy and instruction, written in 

 Norwegian, apparently at the court of Hakon Hakonarson (1217-1263), 

 shows us that church dignitaries were much in demand as ambassadors. 

 " And if the king orders a clerk or an abbot or a bishop of his realm on 

 an embassy to foreign kings or to the pope, if the king insists, he who 

 is called is obliged to go, unless he wishes to incur the king's displeasure 

 and be driven from his realm." 113 



We have noted the state errand of the Abbot of Lyse to England in 

 1217, of Richard the Cistercian in 1218 and 1223, of Archdeacon 

 Andrew of Bergen in 1223, of Archdeacon Askeldus of Bergen in 1225, 

 of Prior Andrew of Lyse in 1229, of Lawrence in 1233, of Canon Adam 

 of Stavanger in 1264, of Askatin in 1265 and 1269, of Abbot Richard of 

 Lyse in 1280, and of Canon Hugh of Stavanger in 1299 and 1309. In 

 1 2 1 5 " the nephew of the King of Norway " brought his chaplain. 114 

 Other priestly ambassadors were Skuli's chaplain, John, in 1222, 115 



106 August 31, Pat. Rolls, 1216-1225, p. 548. 



107 For Askatin's career see Hakonar S., chaps. 86, 275, 305, 319; Munch 

 (index); Lange, pp. 117, 404-405. 



108 Rymer, I, 480. 



109 Magnus Saga Ilakonarsonar, chap. 4. 



110 Dipl. Nor., VI, No. 72. 



111 [bid., IV, No. 153. 



112 Ibid., VII, No. 155. 



113 Translated from Speculum Regale, Christiania ed., p. 62. 



114 R. L. C, I, 231 a. 



115 Ibid., I, 508 b. 



