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8o II. CONVERSION OF SWEDEN (A.D. 8301130).
himself seems to have tried to set up for himself at Skara
(ib. ch. 132; cp. ch. 205). Osmund (Asmund), like his
uncle, Sigfrid, appears as bishop both of Skara and Vexio
on the old lists.
23
This attempt of Adalbert s to get a footing in the court
of Sweden was certainly connected with another of his
ambitious projects, that of holding a general council of the
North at Slesvig. The reasons of discipline given for this
effort were possibly only too true in that age
"
that bishops
sell their benediction i.e., give orders for money and
that the peoples are unwilling to pay tithes, and that they
all are enormously gluttonous and unchaste."
But the bishops from the other side of the sea i.e.,
Norway and Sweden refused to come, and hence the
council fell through. Adalbert seems to have tried for
several years to get his suffragans to meet him, but to no
purpose (Adam : chs. 203-5).
In time, however, Emund was moved by the misfortunes
of his own family and his country to recall Adalward, and
it seems that Adalbert was also reconciled to Osmund (ib.
ch. 206). The Archbishop also ordained five others for
Sweden, including a second Adalward, Stenfi, whom he
called Simon or Symeon, for Helsmgland, and John the
Monk, Bishop of Birka (ch. 206). The latter is the first
monk whom we know to have worked in Sweden after the
time of Anskar.
The elder Adalward laboured successfully in Vermland
(ch. 134). The younger Adalward was active in mission
work in the time of King Stenkil, and converted the people
in the city of Sigtuna and its neighbourhood, and tried to
destroy idolatry at Upsala (ch. 237). Simon, or Stenfi,
became the apostle of the Scritefinni, or Skating Finns, or
Lapps to the far north who, on their snow shoes, or
runners, could beat the wild beasts (ch. 232). His memory
still lives in Helsingland and Norrland under the name of
St. Staffan.
23
The list of Skara begins i, Sigfrid ; 2, Unno ; 3, Asmund ;
4, Stenfrid ; 5, Adalward I.; 6, Adalward II. That of Vexio
begins i, Sigfrid ; 2, Asmund ; 3, Siward ; 4, John.
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