Nidaros - Pre-Reformation

Pre-Reformation

The Christianization of Norway was begun by Haakon the Good (d. 961), and carried on by Olaf Trygvesson (d. 1000) and Saint Olaf Haraldsson (d. 1030), two Vikings who had converted and been baptized at Andover in England and at Rouen in Normandy respectively.

Olaf Trygvesson founded Nidaros in 997 and constructed a palace and church there. From this base, he worked to spread Christianity in Norway, Orkney, Shetland, the Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland.

Olaf Haraldsson established Nidaros as a see and installed the monk Grimkill as its first bishop. As Norway lacked universities at the time, many English and German priests were brought in for its parishes and bishoprics. The Norwegian bishops were at first dependent on Hamburg and then (after 1103) on Lund in Sweden.

Pope Eugene III resolved to create a metropolitan see at Nidaros and sent Nicholas Breakspeare as his legate in 1151. Nicholas installed Jon Birgerson, then bishop of Stavanger, as the first archbishop of Nidaros. The bishops of Oslo (established 1073), Bergen (c. 1060), Stavanger (1130), Hamar (1151), Orkney (1070), Skálholt (1056) and Hólar (1105) on Iceland, and Garđar on Greenland were made its suffragans.

Jon Birgerson was succeeded as archbishop by Eystein (Beatus Augustinus, 1158–88), previously royal secretary and treasurer, a man of brilliant intellect, strong will and deep piety. Such a man was then needed to defend the liberty of the Catholic Church against the encroachments of King Sverre, who wished to make the Church a mere tool of the temporal power. The archbishop was compelled to flee from Norway to England until he was able to return, and a sort of reconciliation took place later between him and the king. But on Eystein's death Sverre renewed his attacks, and Archbishop Eric had to leave the country and take refuge with Archbishop Absalon of Lund. At last, when Sverre attacked the papal legate, Pope Innocent III laid the king and his partisans under interdict.

King Håkon III Sverresson (1202), son and successor of Sverre, hastened to make peace with the Church, whose liberty had been preserved by the unflinching attitude of the pope and his archbishops. What would have happened, asks the Protestant ecclesiastical historian of Norway, Dr. Anton Christian Bang, if the Church, deprived of all liberty, had become the submissive slave of absolute royalty? What influence would it have exercised at a time when its chief mission was to act as the educator of the people and as the necessary counterpoise to defend the liberty of the people against the brutal whims of the secular lords? And what would have happened when a century later royalty left the country? After that time the Church was in reality the sole centre about which was grouped the whole national life of our country.

To regulate ecclesiastical affairs, which had suffered during the struggles with Sverre, Innocent IV in 1247 sent Cardinal William of Sabina as legate to Norway. He intervened against certain encroachments on the part of the bishops, reformed various abuses, and abolished the ordeal by hot iron. Owing in great measure to the papal legates, Norway became more closely linked with the supreme head of Christendom at Rome. Secular priests, as well as Benedictines, Cistercians, Augustinians, Dominicans and Franciscans worked together for the prosperity of the Church. Archbishops Eilif Kortin (d. 1332), Paul Baardson (d. 1346) and Arne Vade (d. 1349) showed especially remarkable zeal. Provincial councils were held, at which serious efforts were made to eliminate abuses and to encourage Christian education and morality

There at Nidaros was situated the tomb of St. Olaf, and around the patron of Norway, Rex perpetuus Norvegiae (meaning: Perpetual king of Norway), the national and ecclesiastical life of the country was centred. Pilgrims flocked from all quarters to the tomb. The feast of St. Olaf on 29 July was a day or reunion for "all the nations of the Northern seas, Norwegians, Swedes, Goths, Cimbrians, Danes and Slavs", to quote an old chronicler, in the cathedral of Nidaros, where the reliquary of St. Olaf rested near the altar. Built in the Romanesque style by King Olaf Kyrre (d. 1093), the cathedral had been enlarged by Archbishop Eystein in Ogival style. It was finished only in 1248 by Archbishop Sigurd Sim. Although several times damaged by fire, the ancient cathedral was restored each time until the storms of the Reformation.

Archbishop Erik Valkendorf was exiled in 1521 and his successor, Olaf Engelbrektsson, who had been the instrument of the royal will in the introduction of Lutheranism, had also, as a partisan of king Christian II of Denmark and Norway, to fly from the threat of Christian III (1537). The valuable reliquaries of St. Olaf and St. Augustine (Eystein) were taken away to the Danish capital Copenhagen and melted down. The bones of St. Olaf were buried in the cathedral, and the place left unmarked. Tradition holds that this is so that no future despot can ever find them and steal them again.