389 Because of this fact we have to ask ourselves if the difference between these three kinds of bishops is, in the first place, a question about a difference between various kinds of sources. It is very probable that also bishops on a so-called temporary visit and bishops belonging to the king’s retinue have been consecrated and ordained for defined peoples in Scandinavia, although we lack primary sources from their native countries and thus do not know about them. In the cases where German bishops are treated of in German sources, and English bishops in English-influenced legends, the bishop always has a connection with a defined people and bishopric. From the tenth century more and more bishoprics arose in the Scandinavian countries, all of them having connections with special provinces. The most important source is the chronicle written by Adam of Bremen, completed with some other sources. These bishops became suffragans under the German archbishop in Hamburg-Bremen or under the English archbishop. The organization of dioceses was carried through gradually by the bishops’ being connected to more and more provinces and peoples. The development was first finished in Denmark. As the earliest Swedish bishoprics arc mentioned (Western) Götaland and Svealand. By and by, the bigger dioceses were, here too, divided into smaller ones. From the eleventh century there is a number of source notices about Swedish dioceses and bishops, and during the twelfth century the Uppsala church province took shape for the whole of the Middle Ages. In the year 1164, when the Uppsala archbishopric was established, the suffragan dioceses Skara, Linköping, Strängnäs and Västenås were already functioning unities. Shortly afterwards, also the Växjö diocese appears in the sources, and a short time after that the Åbo diocese. Naturally, Lund had even long before, namely in 1104, become the archbishopric for Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia. The Uppsala archbishopric marked the last phase of a development where the Scandinavian unions of provinces —the earlier nations —become Ghurch provinces of their own. Some years after 1150 Norway had become an archbishopric under the bishop of Trondheim (Nidaros). In Sweden the provinces became the natural foundation for the growing up of the dioceses. The organization of the dioceses in Sweden arose quite as little as in Denmark at some royal dictation, but as the consequence of a slow, continuous development after easily observable patterns. The connection between the Old Scandinavian nations, countries and provinces and the dioceses of the Church, between the episcopal see and the central place in the country etc. is clear. Owing to this, the bishop and the ecclesiastical law became depending on the
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=