Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/225

 S. N<> 11., MAR. 15. '56.]

NOTES AND QUEEIES.

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he himself, undoubtedly the most powerful of the Earls of Orkney, is said to have been monarch of all the north of Scotland. He built the first bishop's kirk in Orkney, Christ's Kirk in Birsay, portions of the walls of which still exist as a part of the parish kirk in Birsay.

The early introduction of Christianity in Ork- ney is spoken of doubtfully by Dr. Barry, but, in addition to the historical evidence, has received some support from archaeology within these fear days. The kirk of Egilshay, from its round tower and style of architecture, as well as some churches in Zetland, have been assigned to a date prior to the Norwegian invasion and colonisation in the end of the ninth century, and referred to as a model in the Irish churches of an earlier date. The Archbishop of York seems to have claimed and exercised a right of consecrating bishops in Scotland, originating at a remote period. This right at the nomination of Turgot, Bishop of the Scots and St. Andrews, on the death of Godric in 1107, always denied by the Scots, was also con- tested by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and settled by compromise through the mediation of Henry I. and Alexander I., Kings of England and Scotland, saving the rights of either church, and the consecration was performed in 1109 by the Archbishop of York. (Chalmers's Caledonia, vol. i. pp. 674-5.) When noticing this I may mention that the question of superiority and right to con- secrate Scottish bishops, claimed by the Arch- bishops of York, was finally settled and decided against them, and the church of Scotland declared to be exempt from all jurisdiction except that of Home, by papal bull of Alexander III. in 1164, given in Keith's Scottish Bishops, p. 139. I see it stated in Torfteus's Orcades, beginning of book ii. pp. 157-61., that Thomas, Archbishop of York, from 1070 to 1090, consecrated Rodolfus or Ralph Bishop of Orkney ; Archbishop Gerhard, 1090 to 1107, consecrated Roger Bishop of Orkney ; and a younger Thomas, Archbishop of York, 1107 to 1114, consecrated Rodolfus Novellus, or Ralph Nowell, who acted as Vicegerent of Archbishop Thurston of York at the battle of the Standard in 1138. A note to vol. i. p. 675. of Chalmers's Caledonia, mentions the letter of Pope Nicholas to the King of Norway, admonishing him in the Lord to place the Bishop of Orkney and the Isles under the See of York. Names and date not given, but reference to Anglia Sacra, ii. 234236.

In the same part of the Orcades it is mentioned by Torfasus, referring to Adam of Bremen (His- toria Ecclesiastica, lib. in. cap. xliv.), that Adal- bert, Archbishop of Hamburgh, who died 1072, ordained and sent to Orkney a bishop callt-d Thoralf, and afterwards one named Adalbert, both in the time of Earl Thorfin. Among other northern nations Orkney is said to have applied

to Archbishop Adalbert for preachers of the divine word :

" Istum Thorolfum in Orcadum descriptione idem auctor jussu Pontiftcis in civitate Blaseona ordinatum refert : Non tamen dissimulat, eas insulas prius ab Anglorum et Scotorum Episcopis directas. Memorat etiatn postea Episcopum, qui eas insederit. His ut videtur priorem Henricum, qui in Anglia Danise Angliaeque Regis Knuti Magni Sacellarius fuerat posteaa Sveino Estrithio Scaniaj Episcopus constitutus, Lundensiq; dicecesi pragfectus, verum ab Archiepiscopo Hamburgensi initiatura negat." Orcades, p. 157.

However this may be, it is very doubtful if any of these bishops were in Orkney. The Orkneyinga Saga, p. 136., says that,

"At this time (Martyrdom of Saint Magnus, 1110) was William bishop in Orkney. He was the first bishop, and had his bisliop's cathedral at Christ's Kirk in Ber- gisherad (or Birsay). William was bishop sixty-six years."

He is supposed to have been bishop from 1102 to 1168. The plate with the inscription may be mentioned as strengthening the evidence that would make him the first resident bishop. His remains in a wooden coffin were found at the north side of the altar, in the choir of St. Magnus, in the addition made to the east end of that ca- thedral about the beginning of the sixteenth cen- tury, and the plate must have been deposited at the time of his exhumation, probably near the former altar at the re- interment, for the purpose of identification. It was found in the breast of the doubled skeleton in presence of myself and others, and is at this moment in the possession of a gentleman at Kirkvvall. Torfaeus says (p. 159.), as to the different bishops of Orkney at the same time:

" Annales Islandici obitum ejus (Vilhelmi) in annum Christi MCLXVHI. referunt, factus itaq; erat Episcopus anno MCIT. Rogeriq; et Radulphi tempore, floruit. Ad hsec respondeo, utrumq ; posse subsistere ; Eboracenses enim Archiepiscopi, jam dudum sibi jus per Scotiam et Orcades Episcopos constituendi arrogarunt, quorum aucto- ritati Scoti acquiescere noluerunt, Orcadenses etiam licet maxime vellent, ab Episcopis tamen Hamburgensibus id iis permissum non est, scribit enim Adamus Bremeusis, ubi de insulis extra Norwegian! agit.

" Post Normanniam qute est ultima aquilonis pro- vincia, nihil habitationis humanaa, nisi teribilem visu, et infinitum oceanum, qui totum mundum amplectitur, inve- nies, is habet ex adverso Normanniae, insulas multas, non ignobiles, quse nunc fereomnes Normannorum ditioni sub- jacent, ideoq; a nobis non sunt praetereunda?, quoniam Hamburgensemparrochiam et ipsi re.spiciunt.quarum primaa sunt Orcades insulaj, quas Barbari vocant Organas ritu Cycladum, illro sunt dispersas per Oceanum.

"" Patet hi nc eleetionem Episcoporum Orcadensibus aliter permissam non fuisse, ab Archiepiscopis Hambur- gensibus probaretur, ab iisq; Episcopus ipse inaugura- retur."

It will be news to any Orkney reader to see Orkney looked on as a parish of Hamburgh. And as to the competing appointments of Orkney bishops, it has been shown that the archbishops of York claimed a supremacy over Scotland ; and