Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1968, Side 18
itself independent of the Pope till the middle of the 12th century. Not
only was the English church more independent of the Pope than most
of the other Roman Catholic churches, but the influence of the Irish
church was extensive, also as many of the English clergy studied at
Irish centres of learning, or under teachers educated in such schools.
The aspect of the Norwegian church for the first century and a half
(at least) is rather Irish than English. (1) Its earliest saint was Sun-
niva, said to be an Irish princess who with her followers had landed on
the west coast of Norway towards the end of the lOth century. (2) It
was independent of the Pope and his archbishops till, apparently, the
middle of the 12th century. Thus, when the late King Olaf Haraldsson
was declared a Saint by king and clergy in 1031, neither Archbishop
nor Pope was consulted; and St. Olaf has not been adopted among the
saints of the Roman Catholic Church. And when the Archbishop of
Bremen sent word to the Norwegian king Harald Sigurdsson (1046—66)
requiring to be acknowledged as the head of the Norwegian church,
with the sole right to install bishops there, and complaining that the
King let his bishops be consecrated in France and England, he got the
answer that in Norway the King was the supreme head of the church.
(3) Just as the Irish Church cultivated a strong connection with the
Eastern Church and its metropolis, Constantinople, so did the Norwegian
Church. Russia had been converted to the Greek Orthodox faith in 988;
about that time the young Olaf Tryggvason dwelt there. And in Russia
St. Olaf found asylum when exiled from his kingdom (1029—30): this
he would not have found if he had been a Roman Catholic. His young
son Magnus, who had accompanied him thither, remained there for seve-
ral years, before he returned to Norway (King 1035-47). St. Olaf’s
half-brother, the King Harald mentioned above, did military service
under the Byzantine Emperors (1030—45). Towards the middle of the
llth century three Armenian bishops arri ved in Iceland, probably sent
there by King Harald (if so, they may have accompanied him on his
homeward travel from Constantinople); it is probable that some Greek
bishops came to Norway, too, although nothing is recorded about them.
Harald travelled through Russia both ways; and he married a Russian
princess.
Throughout the llth century and well into the 12th there was a lively
intercourse between Norway and Ireland and the Hebrides. The Nor-
wegian kings often visited those islands (certainly, not seldom ravaging
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