PROCEEDINGS FOR 1897 CV 



PEESIDENTIAL ADDRESS ON CABOT'S LANDFALL. 

 By Most Rev. Archbishop O'Brien, D.D. 



Whilst there is no fact more certain than the activity of the human 

 intelligence in the various epochs of which we have knowledge, and 

 whilst it is admitted that it is essentially active, still there is an increasing- 

 tendency to belittle, or even ignore its achievements in the past. To 

 confine ourselves as seems fitting on this occasion, to geography, we see 

 how in our own day, men have been proclaimed wonderful discoverers 

 for finding places in almost the exact spot in which they had been laid 

 down on maps, for centuries. It would be well if institutions of learning, 

 which call themselves universities, instituted a chair of Ancient, and 

 especially ]\IcdiK?val Cartography. 



"We know, indeed, that some men of certain scientific attainments, 

 would as soon think of swallowing poison as of reading a mediaeval book. 

 And yet, no one can be a scholar who has not studied not only classic ajid 

 modern literature, but also the wonderfully rich one of the Middle Ages. 

 It is to modern discovery, progress and invention, what those ranges of 

 elevated ground called " watersheds " are to the rivers which fertilize the 

 plains, and bear the country's commerce to the seas. A very slight 

 •acquaintance with the cartography and literature of the Middle Ages, 

 would be a revelation to the average university graduate. The source 

 and course of the Nile were as well known as those of the Tiber ; the 

 Northern lands, such as Iceland and Greenland, with the numerous 

 islands of the Arctic Ocean, had regular communication with various 

 parts of Europe. 



Greenland was known in Europe early in the eleventh century ; the 

 Gospel was preached in it before the year 1100 ; and the Episcopal See of 

 Gadar founded shortly after. In the archives of the Vatican, I saw and 

 had copied, a Bull of Pope Innocent III. of date 1205, addressed to the 

 Metropolitan of Norway, in which he recites how his predecessor Eugene 

 (who was Pope from 1145 to 1153) had sent Nicholas, Bishop of Albano, 

 as his legate to " tho.se parts." This legate bore the pallium to the Metro- 

 politan of Norway, and appointed amongst other things, that the bishop- 

 ric of Greenland should be subject to said metropolitan. It is quite 

 possible, in ftict the Bull seems to imply, that the legate visited Greenland. 

 In any ca.se, there was a continuous succession of bishops from 1145 to 



