LEACH. — NORWEGIAN AND ENGLISH CHURCHES, 1066-1399. 559 



taught Olaf Kyrre (1066-1093) the art of psalmody. Martin was King 

 Sverri's chaplain and favorite. Richard of St. Albans (1234, 1238) 

 served as envoy of King Hakon Hakonarson in England. His position 

 with Hakon may have been like that of Matthew, his colleague. We 

 are sure of only one visit of Matthew to Norway (1248), but before that 

 time he was said to be a " special friend " of Hakon. In Eric's reign 

 (1280-1299) a Yorkshire priest served a long time as secretary at the 

 Norwegian court, and returned to England (1293) bearing letters of 

 recommendation from the king and his brother. 



During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Norwegian clergy 

 came in large numbers to England. They appear in the English Rolls 

 usually as merchants and envoys, but we must believe many of them 

 came primarily on church business or for study. The archbishops of 

 Nidaros early secured important trading privileges in England, from 

 Henry \l, and these were renewed by Richard, John, and Henry III. 

 The Norwegian monasteries, Lyse in particular, and the bishops and 

 cathedral chapters, loaded their ships in English ports with provisions 

 for their houses. 



Church dignitaries, lay and secular, served as envoys to the English 

 kings, spending the winter well entertained at London. The same 

 man sometimes served for several succeeding seasons, if, indeed, he did 

 not remain for a term of years in permanent residence abroad. As 

 ambassadors, the abbots and priors of Lyse were most in demand, 

 partly because their ranks were recruited by Englishmen who under- 

 stood both countries, partly because the association of this abbey with 

 England took its officials thither. In much the same way figure the 

 high officials of the see of Bergen. 



The shrine of Becket brought pilgrims ; the English monastic schools 

 drew students from Norway. 



English establishments in Norway, like Lyse and Hovedo, kept in 

 contact with the mother institution. The first Bishop of Lyse returned 

 in his old age to Fountains. A century later (after 1248) the English 

 Abbot of Hovedo came back to be head of the mother abbey of Kirksted. 



Bishops came in person to England or sent their delegates " on affairs 

 of the church." We are sure of three archbishops of Norway who were 

 in England. Eystein spent three years there (1 180-1 183), nine months 

 of it at St. Edmundsbury. The archbishops were doubtless delayed 

 often in England on their way to and from consecration by the pope, 

 as the English route was preferred over the German alternative. 



Papal legates went to Norway via England. England was a stage 

 on the way to the crusades. It was the avenue by which French and 

 Italian influence came to Norway before the fourteenth century. 



