THE KING'S MIRROR 37 



final decision should- rest, with the bishopsJ 4 The_jitae 



Wfl.s formally ma HP gnhjWf; f |O ftfo rlmrrli It must be 

 rioted, however, that it. wa.s not. tjhf* hparl r)f Cat.hnHn 



marl** t.Tip|gfi glfliTingj Vnf the chief 



prft1a.t.p O f thp naiinrml Norwegian churchy The theory 

 was doubtless this, that if the pope is superioy tp 



^Tppprnr thp arpTiVnghnp j fi fillpfrJW to the king. 



The new arrangement did not long remain 

 lenged. In 1177 the opposition to the ecclesiastical 

 faction found a leader in Sverre, called Sigurdsson, an 

 adventurer from the Faroe Islands, who pretended to 

 be a grandson of Harold Gilchrist, though the proba- 

 bilities are that his father was one Unas, a native of the 

 Faroes. f Sverre's followers were known as Birchshanks, 

 because they had been reduced to such straits that they 

 had to bind birch bark around their legs. The faction in 

 control of the government was called the Croziermen 

 and was composed of the higher clergy with an impor- 

 tant following among the aristocracy. Sverre's fight was, 

 therefore, not against King Magnus alone but against 

 the Guelph party of Norway. For half a century there 

 was intermittent civil warfare between the supporters 

 of an independent and vigorous kingship on the one side 

 and the partisans of clerical control on the other. King 

 Sverre's great service to Norway was that he broke the 



* According to the new rules of succession the oldest legitimate son, if quali- N 

 fied for the office, should inherit the throne. The oldest might be passed over, i 

 however, in favor of a younger legitimate son, or even in favor of an illegiti- 

 mate descendant, if the bishops should find such a procedure expedient. 

 Gjerset, History of the Norwegian People, I, 364. 



t While it seems probable that Sverre was not of royal blood he was not 

 necessarily an impostor; he may have believed his mother's assertions. For 

 a discussion of the problem see ibid., 376-377. 



