Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - VII - Ringsted
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
106
RINGSTED.
Chap. VII.
and, in the year 1169, Stephen, Bishop of Upsala, being
at Rome, procured his canonisation from Pope
Alexander III., at the request of Valdemar, who, with all
speed, placed his father’s body in a shrine of great
magnificence, and, when times became more tranquil,
the ceremony of his canonisation took place. King
Valdemar appeared surrounded by all that was greatest
in the land; and, the enshrinement once over, the
history of his sanctification was read aloud, after which
the people sang, with great joy—“ Praise to the Lord, who
has ordained St. Knud to be the patron of Zealand !” and
the King, by way of killing two birds with one stoney
caused his son Knud, a child six years old, having
first arrayed him in purple robes, to be at the same time
elected his successor.
The convent assumed the title of the abbey church of
St. Knud of Ringsted; and from this period became the
favourite burial-place of the Valdemerian dynasty. So
great was the success of the Sainted Shrine, that Bishop
Absalon, jealous of the increasing prosperity of the
convent church, by way of making a diversion, caused an old
cousin of his own—who had been assassinated by her
husband, nothing more—to be routed out from her grave
and canonised (not at Rome) by the name of St.
Margaret, and placed in a shrine in the chapel of our
Lady at Roeskilde.
Some few years since, at the restoration of the church,
the tombs of the early sovereigns were opened in the
presence of his present Majesty, and a long account has
been published by Professor Worsaae of the discoveries
made; the skeletons were measured from head to foot,
and—the fingers, the skulls—nothing escaped the
observation of the learned antiquaries.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
