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84 II. CONVERSION OF SWEDEN (A.D. 8301130).
admitted. The reference to the
"
Gallicari Church "
is not
quite clear. Possibly it is an allusion to Anskar as a monk
of Corbey ; possibly Norman monks, perhaps from Bee, had
now begun to come (as was natural) to the North. Rodul-
ward, Ricolf and Edward, bishops of Skara, in the end of
the eleventh century, are all, however, called Englishmen.
The next step towards incorporation of Scandinavia into
the system of the Western Church was the establishment of
the Archbishopric of Lund. This was the result of a visit
to Rome in 1093 A.D. of Eric Eiegod, so called from his
constant kindness and gentleness, the pious king of Den
mark, in the time of Pope Urban II., of which the court
poet, Mark Skeggison, has preserved an interesting record.
I will quote some verses of it from Mr. Vigfusson s
translation (C. P. B., Vol. ii., p. 236) :
"
It shall be told how the king went the long-path to
Rome to win a share in its glory ;
there he saw the fenced
land of refuge. . . . Harold s brother visited the great
halidoms in Rome ;
he adorned the rich shrines with rings
and red gold; he went, with weary feet, round the realm
of the monks for his soul s good; he passed on from the
East and came to Rome withal. Eric carried from abroad
an archbishop s see over the Saxon March, hither in the
North. Our spiritual state is the better by his act. It is
impossible that another king could do as much for our
souls needs. The pope, Christ s friend, in the South,
granted all that he asked of him."
Eric s prayer was granted by the pope, who also
canonized for him his brother Canute, but there was some
delay in the establishment of the Archbishopric of Lund,
which was obviously unpleasing to the see of Hamburg.
From a letter of our own Anselm to the first archbishop,
Asser or Atser, it seems that Anselm had intervened to
overcome the difficulty by putting some pressure upon
Cardinal Alberic (Epp. lib. iv., ep. 90, also repeated as
127; P.L., 159, 247). The dignity was not actually con
ferred until after Eric s death, which occurred on his second
pilgrimage, in Cyprus, and was given, not by Urban, but
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