OLAF
234
OLAH
1908 thoro wore baptisms, whito children 1248, adults
327, Indians 172, ncKrocs 9; marriages 290; confirma-
tions 1185. The Catholic population of the diocese
on 31 Dec, 190S, nuinhereU about 3:5,472, of which
29,613 were whites, 3463 Indians, 396 negroes.
Hll L, 1 IIMory of the Stale of Oklahoma (ChicaRO, 190S) ; Rock. Hi>lonj of Oklahoma (Widiitn. 1890): Tindall. MakerR of Okla- homa (Guthrie. 1905); Thobuhx and Holcomb. A History of Oklahoma (San Francisco. 190.S); The Oklahoman Annual Al- manac, and Industrial Record (Oklahoma City. 1909).
Mont F. Highley.
Olaf Haraldson, S.\int, martyr and King of Nor- way (ll)l.'i-:;i)). 1). 99.5; d. 29 July, 1030. He was a son of King llaruld C.renskeof Norway. According to Snorre. he was l)iii)tizcd in 998 in Norway, but more probably about 1011) in Koucn. I^'rance, by Archbishop Robert." In his early youth he went as a viking to England, where he partook in many battles and be- came earnestly interested in Christianity. After many difficulties he was electeil King of Norway, and made i t his object to extiriiat e heathenism and make the Christian religion the basis of his kingdom. He is the great Norwegian legislator for the Church, and, like his ancestor (Olaf Trygvesson), made frequent severe attacks on the old faith and customs, demolishing the temples and building Christian churches in their place. He brought many bishops and priests from England, as King Saint Cnut later did to Denmark. Some few are known by name (Grimkel, Sigfrid, Ru- dolf, Bernliard) . He seems on the whole to have taken the Anglo-Saxon conditions as a model for the ecclesi- astical organization of his kingdom. But at last the exasperation against him got so strong that the mighty clans rose in rebellion against him and applied to Kiiig Cnut of Denmark and England for help. This was willingly given, whereupon Olaf was expelled and Cnut elected" King of Norway. It must be re- membered that the resentment against Olaf was due not alone to his Christianity, but also in a high degree to his unflinching struggle against the old constitution of shires and for the unity of Norway. He is thus regariied by the Norwegians of our days as the great champion of national independence, and CathoUc and Protestant alike may find in Saint Olaf their great ideal.
After two years' exile he returned to Norw-ay with an army and met his rebellious subjects at Stiklestad, where the celebrated battle took place 29 July, 1030. Neither King Cnut nor the Danes took part at that battle. King Olaf fought with great cour- age, but was mortally wounded and fell on the battlefield, praying "God help me". ^Iany miracu- lous occurrences are related in connexion with his death and his disinterment a year later, after belief in ids sanctity had spread widely. His friends. Bishop Grimkel and Earl Einar Tambeskjelver, laid the corpse in a coffin and set it on the high-altar in the church of St. Clement in Nidaros (now Trondhjem). Olaf has since been held as a saint, not only by the people of Norway, but also by Rome. His cult spread widely in the Middle Ages, not only in Norway, but also in Denmark and Sweden; even in London, there is in Hart Street a St. Olave's Church, long dedicated to the canonized King of Norway. In 1856 a fine St. Olave's Church was erected in Christiania, the capital of Norway, where a large relic of St. Olaf (a donation from the Danish Royal Museum) is preserved and venerated. The arms of Norway are a lion with the battle-axe of St. Olaf in the forepaws.
Storu. Snorre Slurlason's Olav den Helliges Saga ; Munch, Det norske Polks Historic; Sars, Udsigt oner den norske Historic; Daae, Norges Helgener; Oeverland, Illustreret Norges Historic (not rehable); Vicabv, Oiac the King and Olav King and Martyr (London, 1887).
Niels Hansen.
Olah ("OLAFifs), NicoLAi'S, Archbishop of Gran and Primate of Hungarj% a distinguished prelate, b. 10 January, 1493, at Nagyszeben (Hermanstadt) ; d. at
Nagyszombat, 15 Jan., 1.568. His father, Stephen, a
brother-in-law of John Hunyadi, W!us of Wallachian
descent; his mother w.'is Rarb.ara lluszar (also known
iis Csaszar). His autobiographical notes and corre-
spondcnre throw light on his life. After having studied
at the Chaiiter School of V^rad from 1505 to 1512, he
became a page at the courtof Wladislaw II, butshortly
afterwartls chose an ecclesiastical career, and was or-
dained a priest in 1516 or 1518. While acting as secre-
tary to Georg Szatmdry, Bishop of Funfkirchen, he
was appointed a canon of that chapter, later of Gran,
and 1522 became Archdi'acon of Koniorn. In 1526 he
was made secretary to King L<iuis II; but was trans-
ferred to the service of (^icen Maria. After the battle
of Mohdcs, Oldh attached himself to the party of King
Ferdinand I, but retained his position with the queen-
dowager. In 1527 he w;us appointed "custos" or head
of the Chapter of Stuhlweissenburg, and accompanied
the queen-dowager in 1530 to the imperial diet at
Augsburg. When in 1531 she became Stadtholder of
the Netherlands, he went with her to Belgium, where
he remained (with a brief interruption in 1539) until
his return to Hungary in 1542. In the following year
he was made by r"erdinand I royal chancellor and
Bishop of Agram. In 1548 he became Bishop of Er-
lau, and in 1553 Archbishop of Gran. As such he
crowned Maximilian King of Hungary, and performed
the solemn obsequies (1563) over Ferdinand I. As
Archbishop of Gran, Oldh's first care was to put order
into the finances and property of the archdiocese. He
had the "Jus Piseti" again enforced, i. e. the right of
supervision over the mint at Kormoczbdnya, for
which surveillance the archdiocese enjoyed a large
revenue. At his own expense, he redeemed the hypoth-
ecated provostship of Tur6cz, also the encumbered
possessions of the Diocese of Neutra. Oldh likewise,
as Archbishop of Gran, exercised a supervision over
the Diocese of Erlau, and (with the consent of the
Holy See) administered the Archdiocese of Kalocsa,
vacant for 20 years. After the capture of Gran by the
Turks, the archiepiscopal residence was at Nagyszom-
bat or Pozsony.
Oldh was particularly active in the Counter-Refor- mation (q. v.); even before his elevation to the Arch- bishopric of Gran, he had been a very zealous oppo- nent of the new Protestant teachings. As Primate of Hungary he threw himself with renewed energy into the great conflict, aiming especially at the purity of Catholic Faith, the restoration of ecclesiastical disci- pline, the reformation of the clergy, and the establish- ment of new schools. The mountain cities of Upper Hungary, in which the doctrines of the Reformation had made considerable progress, attracted his partic- ular attention. He organized a visitation of the arch- diocese, which he in great part conducted in person, besides convoking, with a similar intention, a number of diocesan synods. The first of these synods was held in 1560 at Nagyszombat; at its close he promulgated a code of dogmatic and moral instructions, intended for the clergy, pubhshed during that and the following year. In 1561 a provincial synod was held, likewise at Nagyszombat, to discuss the participation of the bish- ops of Hungary in the Council of Trent, short ly before re-convened. While it is not certain that Oldh took part in that council, or that he promulgated in Hun- gary its decrees of 1562 and 1564, it is known that he folfowed its dehberations with close attention and practically adopted in Hungary some of its decisions. In 1563 Oldh submitted to the council a lengthy mem- orial, in which he urged the importance of dealing with the critical situation of the Hungarian Church and de- scribing in strong language the cfTorts he had made to overcome the demorahzation that had seized on the clergy. It was particularly through school-reform and the proper instruction of youth that he hoped to offset the progress of the Reformation. He restored the ca- thedral school at Gran,which had fallen into decay when
