SMITS
SMITS
1104), to Lund (1104-64), and finally to Upsala (1104-
1530). This diocese, the most ancient in Sweden, in-
cluded the Counties of Skaraborg, Elfsborg, and
Vermland. It was founded about 990 at Skara, the
capital of the country of the Goths (Gauthiod), the
whole of which it embraced until about 1100, when
the eastern portion of the Diocese of Skara was
formed into that of Linkoping. At the beginning
there was no strict division of the country into dio-
ceses, and the missionary bishops went about preaching
wherever they would. Thus it is that, though Odinkar
Hvite the Elder was apparently the first bishop
stationed at Skara about 990, Sigurd, a court bishop
of King Olaf Tryggve.«!on of Norway, is named as the
first Bishop of Skara in the list of bishops written
down about 1325 as an appendi.x to the Laws of the
Western Goths (Vestgotalagen). It is added that he
founded three churches in \'estergotland, and he also
seems to have baptized Olaf Skotkonung, first Chris-
tian King of Sweden, at Husaby near Skara in lOOS.
Odinkar's successor was Thurgaut, first diocesan
Bishop of Skara (about 1012-30). He was nominally
succeeded by Gotskalk, a monk of the Benedictine
abbey at Liineburg, who never left his abbey, al-
though he had been consecrated to the See of Skara
by Archbi.shop Liavizo of Hamburg (1030-32).
Meanwhile Sigurd, or Sigfrid, an Englishman of
Scandinavian origin and a monk of Glastonbury (?),
took possession of the See of Skara about 1031, and
remained there till after 1043. Although he en-
tered into communication with Bremen and sent his
relative and successor Osmund to be educated there,
both Sigurd and Osmund seem to have been regarded
as intruders by the Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen.
Osmund was consecrated in Poland, and refused to
acknowledge the primacy of Hamburg. In this re-
fusal he w!vs supported by King Anund Jacob. Con-
sequently when Adalvard the Elder, subdean of
Bremen, who had been consecrated Bishop of Skara
by Archbishop Adalbert on the death of Bishop
Gotskalk, came to Skara about 10.50 to take po.ssession
of his see, he was prevented from doing so, and had to
wait for Osmund's departure for England in 1057 (?)
before he could become Bishop of Skara dc facto.
Adalvard the Elder died in 1060 and was buried near
the first Cathedral of St. Mary, which he had built.
Acelin, dean of Bremen, was consecrated bishop in
1061, but never took possession of the see. Adalvard
the Younger, who had visited and buried his elder
namesake in 1060, was invited on his expulsion from
the See of Sigtuna in 1067 to become Bishop of Skara,
but was recalled to Bremen by Archbishop Adalbert.
Of the next four bishops of Skara hardly anything
is known. Concerning Bishop Oedgrim the fdllowing
facts arc recorded. He was present at the consecra-
tion of Lund cathedral in 1145. During his episco-
pate the abbey at Varnhem was founded (1150) by
some Cistercians of Clair\'aux who came from Alvas-
tra. Finally in 1151 Bishop Oedgrim consecrated
part of the present cathedral, which Bishop Benedict
I (11.58-90) enlarged and furnished. The latter also
built the Churches of St. Nicholas and of St. Peter at
Skara as well ;i,s many roads and bridges. Bishop
Jerptilf n 191-1201) persuaded a popular assembly
at A.skubeck to assign to the bishop part of the tithe.
Benedict II (1217-30) founded several secular canon-
ries in 1220, and thus originated the cathedral chapter.
St. Bryniolph Algotsson (1248?-1317) is the best
known bishop. He studied for eighteen years at
Paris, became dean of Linkoping, and in 1278 Bishop
of Skara. He issued statutes in 1231, and composed
hymns and other works, amongst them a "Life of
St. Helena of Skoffde" (Schedvia), who was murdered
in 1140 and was canonized by Pope Honorius III,
and whose remains were translated to Upsala in 1164.
She w;us also greatly venerated at Tidsvilde (Zealand)
and elsewhere in Denmark. St. Bryniolph died on
6 February, 1317. In 1499 Alexander \T granted
leave for the translation of his relics, but St. Bry-
niolph was never formally canonized. Under him
and his successor. Bishop Benedict III Tunnesson
(1317-21), that is between 1312 and 1320, the whole
of the cathedral was restored. Bishop Swen the
Great (1435-48?) painted it in fresco.
Bishop Bryniolph III Gerlaktsson (1478-1505) regulated the frontier between his diocese and that of Lund. His successor, Bishop Vincent Hennings, was beheaded by Christian II at the Massacre of Stock- holm on 8 November, 1520, although he protested aloud on his way to the scaffold against the injustice of his condemnation. He was succeeded by Didrik Slaghek (1520-22). Then came Magnus Haraldsson (1.523), whose election was not confirmed by the pope in spite of King Gustavus I Vasa's request. Johannes Franciscus de Potentia, a Franciscan, was nominated Bishop of Skara the same year by papal provision, but the king refused to receive him. Bishop Magnus Haraldsson, though at first submissive towards Gus- tavus I, led his diocesans to Larf to take part in the ris- ing of 1529. He was accordingly deposed by the king, who appointed in 1530 a Protestant, Svend Jacobsson, in his place. Besides Skara cathedral and the abbey church at Varnhem, there are interesting Romanesque churches at Asklanda and elsewhere. At Husaby there was a spring dedicated to St. Brigid of Kildare. This Irish dedication may be accounted for by the fact that Olaf Skotkonung was, as mentioned above, baptized there in 1008 by Sigurd, court bishop of King Olaf Tryggveson, who had many connexions with Ireland. St. Olaf was specially venerated at Dalby and Elgaa in Vermland.
At Skara the cathedral chapter consisted latterly of a dean, an archdeacon, a subdean, and twenty-one canons. There were also in the town a Franciscan priory dating from about 1242 and a Dominican priory from about 1260. At Lodose there were also Franciscans from 1283 and Dominicans from 1286. Finally there were the Cistercian monastery at Varnhem and the Cistercian nunnery at Gudhem; the latter was founded about 1160.
Scriplores rerum siiecicarum, in I; !-, JO, 135-
85: BORTZELL AND WiESELOREN. V Ii/.Hr]/k
(Stockholm, 1889); Jorgensen. / ',rund-
Utggehe (2 vols., Copenhagen, l^^, i '/, XI
(Stockholm, 1891), 73-88; A,',' I r>sala,
1910), 214-20; Reuterdahi , - ,' i vols.,
Lund, 1.S38-66); Idem, ,-' , svio-
oolhica (Lund, 1S41): > I'Hska
/dreningen, 111: C. ' ^ ' li-lm. 1902),
8-20. 25-29, 46-^. -< i.:i, 1.M2-16);
LiNDBERG, VeM'ii: W - Khi U'. Skara
Sli/ls Kyrkor. (.' . H :.ii.ihm>, Skara
Domkyrk'i i>iii< I ! • l • il ; < n^nlrjt i Srerige
(Gefic. IN'i' i I I -' I! ■ I of Skoffde see
Chevamjk /■ ' I li i '" 1 . Fro.ndin and
FoRssENii ^, .^■1'- ■ . :'" ■: ' r.'i/'uin i> >'- ' j.! nrbe (Upsala
1734-36), disputation; Museum, pt. 11 l(•c^).•^llagen, 1895), 1-34. For St. Bryniolph see Acta SS., Feb., 1 (Antwerp, 1G58), 925-26.
A. W. Taylor.
Smits, William, Orientalist and exegete, b. at Kevelaer in the Duchy of Geldern, 1704; d. 1 Dec, 1770. He entered the Order of Friars Minor, in the Belgian province, at the age of eighteen. As a re- ligious he applied himself with reinark;ible success to the study of Biblical languages and Siicred Scripture and was appointed lector. From 1732 to 1744 he published, at Antwerp, seveml Biblical theses dealing chiefly with questions of textual crit icisni and chronol- ogy. In one of these, " Isagoge Homano-Catholica ad textumhebrxum . . .", he shows that the Latin Vulgate is substantially a faithful translation of the original Hebrew; and in another, "Isagoge Romano-Cat holica ad textum gra^cum vulgo LXX . . .", he states the rciusons why the LXX is preferable to the actual He- brew text. Yielding to the entreaties of Cardinal Thomas Philip of Alsace, then Archbishop of Mechlin Smits undertook the translation of the entire Bible
