BISHOPS IN GREENLAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 175, 4 August 1876, Page 13

BISHOPS IN GREENLAND.

Lr 1121, Erik Upsi, first Bishop of Greenland, departed for Vinland. He was Bishop of Gardar, but was replaoed in 1124, on the demaud of the Greenlanders, united in General Diet. America and Greenland, in particular, paid Peter's Pence, and the Crusades were preached there by Olaf in 1261. The donation was made in 1282, and was founded ,'on letters dated Viterbo, December 4th, 1276. In 1279. January 21st, Nicholas 111. confirmed the powers already conferred upon the collector of the ecclesiastical tax. When " the wiso and discreet person " selected, returned with a large number of hippopotamus' teeth, whale-bone and skins, he was at a loss to know what to do with

them ; this was the class of tax he had collected. Martin IV. an-

Bwered by letter, March 4th, 1282, that they should be sold In 1325, .tins Peter's Pence in merchandise, realised twelve livres and fourteen tolt tournois (of Tours). In 1841, Greenland annually paid the Holy See Peter's Pence, which consisted of 2,600 hippopotamus' teeth. Now, perhaps a list of the Bishops from 1121 till 1537 will interest your readers. Here it is : Ericus, 1211 ; Arnaldus, 1124 ; John Knutus, 1150, died in Greenland in 1187 ; John 11., 1188 ; Helgius, 1212, died in 1230 ; Nicelaus, 1234, died in Greenland, 1240 ; Olafus,

1246; Theodorus, 1288, died in Greenland, 1314 ; Jon Calvus, 1343, named while Arnius lived, his whereabouts being lost ; Alfus, 1376, died in 1378; Heuricus, 1389, whose seal has been found and published by the Royal Society of Northern Antiquarians ; Andreas, 1406, sent ro replace Henricus, if dead ; Jabobus, 1417, whose seal has also been found and republished ; it containsjthe inscription : S.

•Tuiuut* Je yiu. cjj't. ymdtii ; !<*•>«>, a Bishop whose name is unknown, was nominated by Eugene IV. ; a letter of Nicholas V., in 1448, to the Bishops of Skalholt, would till a column of the ' Standard ;' suffice it to say that it was discovered in the Vatican, and an extract is published by Beamish in " The Discovery of America by the Northmen in the Tenth Century," pp. 152-154. 'Gregorius, 1450 ; his seal is also republished ; Jacobus, 1487 ; Vincentius, 1537. Here is a happy oonincidence ! The last on my list brings me exactly to its namesake, Bt. Vincent de Paul, whose three hundreth anniversary is to be celebrated with immense pomp on the 24th inst., and I have made arrangements to be present, when his Lordship Monseigneur Dupanloup, will deliver one of his masterly panegyrics. On the 30th, the forty-sixth anniversary of the translation ,of his relics will be celebrated and Pere Chocranp. the distinguished Dominican prior, and the biographer of Lacordaire is to deliver the oration. I promise your readers a full account of those two great occurrences, and reserve all my ideas on that subject for the occasion. This will really be a rich harvest for your correspondent, and may, I trust, interest your thousands of readers.