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74 II. CONVERSION OF SWEDEN (A.D. 8301130).
the name of Sigurd in Norway and Sigfrid in England
and Sweden, who was at once a monk of Glastonbury, and
Tryggvason s court-bishop and companion at Salten Fiord,
and who meets us in the central part of Olaf Haraldson s
Saga (chs. 55, 257, 258). This man, according to Adam
(speaking of him under the name of Sigfrid),
"
preached
alike to the Swedes and Northmen "
(ch. 242), and has the
first place among the English bishops and presbyters,
"
by
whose advice and teaching St. Olaf prepared his own heart
for God, and to whom he committed the rule of the people
subject to him "
(ch. 94). He was clearly a missionary,
not a territorial bishop, and, therefore, we may well believe
that he also preached in the district of Verend in Smaland,
where he is venerated as the founder of the Church in
Vexio. That see, however, did not have a regular suces-
sion till much later.
The last definite notice of Sigfrid in the Bremen history
is as attending a funeral of one bishop and the consecration
of another (Adam : ch. 98) after 1029 A.D. But if he was, as
I believe, the consecrator of St. Eskil, he lived till after the
Norman Conquest. He was evidently dead when Adam
wrote in 1072 A.D. He was buried under the altar in Vexio
Cathedral, where his tombstone was visible about the year
i6oo.18
As regards the Church in West Gothland, we have a
passage in Adam s Chronicle which throws much light
both upon the religious and the political history. He is
comparing Skotkonung with St. Olaf (ch. 94).
"
The
other Olaf in Sweden "
(he writes)
"
is said to have been
eminent for a like love of religion. He, in his desire to
convert his subjects to Christianity, was actively zealous
that the idol temple, which is in the middle of Sweden, at
Ubsola, should be destroyed.
19
The heathen, fearing this
18
J. Baaz : Inventarium Eccl. Sveogothorum, p. 105, Lin-
copise, 1642, who says it was found forty years before, when the
altar was removed by Bishop Petrus Jonae.
19
It was perhaps in connection with these efforts that an Eng
lish missionary, Wolfred, attacked an image of Thor and cut
it to pieces, for which he suffered martyrdom (Adam : ch. 97).
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