Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 16.djvu/97

 VESTERVIG

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VIBORG

papjTiis fragments published by Bouriant have been given out anew in a more correct edition by Lacau in "Bulletin de I'lnstitut Frangais d'arch^.ologie orientalc", VIII (Caii-o, 1911), 43-107 (see Coptic Literature in this volume; and Egypt).

H. Hyvernat.

Vestervig. See Borglum, Ancient See of.

Vexio, Ancient See of (Wepionensi.<?), in Sweden, comprised the County of Kronoberg and the hundreds of Ostra, Westra, Ostbo, and Westbo in the County of Jonkoping. John Sigfrid, an Englishman from Northumbria, who had been court bishop to King Olaf Tryggvasson from 977 to 1000, left Norway for Sweden in 1002 and worked si.x years in Westergotland (sccSkara, Ancient See of). About 1008 he arrived at Vexio, and with great success preached Christianity to the heathens of Varend. He built a wooden church at Vexio and remained there till his death about 1030. In 1158 he was canonized by Adrian IV and his shrine was, till the Reformation, the glory of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist and St. Sigfrid at Vexio. He had no immediate successors and in 1126 King Sigurd Jorsalafarer of Norway led a crusade to Smaaland to Christianize its inhabitants. Varend was included in the Diocese of Skara until 1100, when it formed part of the Diocese of Lmkoping. About 11.50 the Diocese of Vexio was re-erected. The first bishop was Stenar, who is mentioned in two letters dating from 1183. In 1191 he quarrelled with the Bishop of Linkoping concerning the frontiers of their re- spective dioceses. Stenar was succeeded in 1193 by John Ehrengisleson. In 1205 the biography of St. Sigfrid was written. Bishop Gregory (about 12-11), or his successor, renewed the boundary dispute with the Bishop of Linkoping, which was settled by the pope in 1248 or 1249. Bishop Bo (1287-91) appealed in a dispute to the Archbishop of Lund, which was regarded as an insult to the Archbishop of Upsala. Conflict was averted by Bo's death and a declaration of obedience to the Archbishop of Upsala, issued by the chapter of Vexio. The most famous of the later bishops was Nicholas Ragwaldi (1426-38), present at the Council of Basle, and in 1438 translated to Upsala. The last Catholic bishop was Ingemar Petri (consecrated 1495), who, by judicious conces- sions, remained at Vexio until his death in 1530. He took no part in episcopal consecrations during Gustavus I's reign. The chapter of Vexio consisted of dean, archdeacon, subdean, and eleven prebenda- ries. There was also a schoolmaster. The cathedral was burnt down in 1740 and rebuilt in 1755. There were apparently no religious houses in the diocese.

HistoTiSKt geogT'iphiskt och slatistiskt Lcxikim d/ver Sverige, VII (Stockholm. 1S76), 32fi, 327, 440, 444; Scriplores rerum tnecicaram, U (Upsala, 1828), 344-76; III (1876), 129-31; JoRQENSEN, Den nordiske Kirkes Grundtfrggelse (Copenhagen, 1874-78), 413-18; supplement no. VIII, 52-55; Hislorisk Tid- tkrift, XI (Stockholm, 1891), 73-88; Kyrkohistorisk Aarsskrifl, XI (Upsala. 1910), 214-19; Recterdahl, Srenska kyrkans Hisloria (5 vols., Lund. 1838-66). The last five works contain information concerning the identity of the various Sigurds. Ll'SDQvlaT. De menska DomkapiUen (Stockholm, 1897), 42. 43.

A. W. Taylor.

Viborg, Ancient See of (Viberg.e, Viberg- ENsis), in Denmark, comprised the Province of Viborg, the town of Aalborg, and the hundreds of Fleskum, Hornum, Helium, Hindsted, Aars, Gislum, and Slet in the Province of .4alborg. The hundreds of Gjerlev, Onsild, Norhald. and Stovring in the Province of Banders also belonged to the Diocese of Viborg until 1.396 when ihev were transferred to that of Aarhus. The diocese was founded in 1065 after the death of Bishop Vale (see Hire, Ancient See of), Herbert was first Bishop of Viborg (106.5- 1100?). In 1080 St Canute endowed the bishopric and chapter The latter consisted of Canons Regular XVI— 6.

of St. Augustine. Bishop Svend I (1106-1112) was drowned in the Elbe by the Count of Stade, and Eskild (1112-33), who began rebuilding the cathedral about 1130, was murdered during Matins in the Church of St. Margaret by command of King Eric Emun. Svend II (1135-51) was succeeded as provost of the chapter by Willo, and he by St. Kjeld or Ketil (d. 27 Sept., 1150). Bishop Niels I (1153-91) was very generous towards his chapter. He founded the hospital of St. Michael, Viborg, in 1159, and the Cistercian nunnery of Asmild in 1169, and finished the original Romanesque cathedral, of which only the crypt now remains. It is also largely due to him that St. Kjeld was beatified, and his body trans- lated to the shrine, suspended from the vaulting of his chapel on 11 July, 1189.

Bishop Gunner was one of the greatest men of his time. He was born in 1152 and educated at the University of Paris, where he acquired a great knowl- edge of law. In 1208 he entered the Cistercian Abbey of Om (Cara Insula), of which he was chosen abbot in 1216. In 1222 he was elected Bishop of Viborg by the chapter on the advice of Cardinal Gregory of Crescent ia. As bishop he devoted special care to the training of the clergy. He probably wrote out the Law of Jutland (Jydske Lov) and composed the original preface to it, and was present when it was published at Vordingborg in 1241. He died at Asmild, 25 Aug., 1251, and was buried in front of the shrine of St. Kjeld. Thorleif Olafsson (1438-50) was translated to Bergen (q. v.), and succeeded at Viborg by Canute Mikkelsen (1451-78), dean of the Church of Our Lady at Copenhagen, and rector of the University of Erfurt in 1434. A great diplomatist and jurist, he was author of the Latin notes appended to the first two editions of the Law of Jutland and of a popular treatise on the plague. The last Catholic bishop was Jorgen Friis (1-521-36). He was aworldly- minded man and quite unable to cope with the move- ment to which the preaching of Hans Tausen at Viborg (1525) gave rise. In 1530 the cathedral was in the possession of the Protestants. Friis retired to the Castle of Hald, where he was imprisoned in his own dungeon in 1536. Two years later he was released on promising to submit to the new order of things. In 1540 he was endowed with the lands of the Abbey of Vrejiev and some of the property of the see, and though he never m;irried, he led the life of a lay nobleman until his death in 1.547.

Though the Danish Reformation began at Viborg, certain Catholic usages were kept up in its cathedral longer than anywhere else in Denmark. The shrines of St. Kjeld and St. Willehad were removed to the choir of the cathedral in 1538, but Lutheran ministers continued to recite daily the Office of the Dead for the soul of King Eric Clipping (d. 1286) from 15(j0 to 1630. The Protestant Bishop Hans Wandal shortened and Protestantized the service and en- trusted its performance to the senior curate of the cathedral and twelve of the school boys. These all benefited by the en<iowment, and continued the service until 1684. Of the twelfth-century cathedral nothing remains but the crypt. The upper church built in 1876 contains splendid frescoes by Joachim Skovgaard begun in 1895 and a seven-branched candlestick from 1494. The abbey church of Grinderslev, the Church of St. Botolph, at Aalborg, and numerous village churches are memorials of the Catholic past. At Karup there wa.s a pilgrimage to Our Lady's Well. The chapter of the (':ilhedral of St. Mary and St. Kjeld was secularized in 1440, after which it consisted of a dean, an archdeacon, a precentor, and twelve secular canons. There were also at Viborg the Benedictine nunnery of St. Botolph, a Franciscan friary from 1235, and a Dominican friary from 1246, as well as the hospitals of St. Michael and of the Holy Ghost. At Aalborg there