King Eric and the Outlaws, Vol. 3: or, the Throne, the Church, and the People in the Thirteenth Century.Ingemann, Bernhard Severin
History
King Eric and the Outlaws, Vol. 3: or, the Throne, the Church, and the People in the Thirteenth Century.
Ingemann, Bernhard Severin
Denmark -- History -- Erik Menved, 1286-1319 -- Fiction
The public tranquillity was thus restored. The dignity of the
prelatical government was upheld, and the arrogance of the insurgents
subdued. The turbulent guild-brethren had dispersed, and there was no
reason to apprehend a fresh outbreak of the revolt, as the burghers
themselves, with the permission of the bishop, had agreed with the
provost's men and the bishop's retainers to observe the treaty and
prevent all disturbances. Despite this apparent victory, the bishop was
notwithstanding extremely pensive and taciturn. The king's generous
protection appeared to have confounded him, and he seemed to experience
a feeling of painful humiliation, by the side of his temporal
protector. The revolt, and the danger which had menaced his life, had
taught him to know his own powerlessness. The king had indeed treated
him, while at Sorretslov castle, as a distinguished guest, but with
cold courtesy, without even giving vent to his displeasure by a
single word; it was those words only in the treaty relating to the
bishop's dependence on the assent of the chapter, which the king had
ordered to be inserted, in an emphatic tone (with the approval of the
general-superior there present), and in a voice of command, which
admitted of no contradiction. The bishop of Roskild, lately so
confident and haughty, who a few days since sat between a cardinal and
an archbishop in his fortified castle, and had, for the first time,
issued the exasperating church interdict in his own town, was now
forced to acknowledge, in silent anger, that since, the cardinal's
departure, the banishment of the archbishop, and his having himself
been subjected to the scoffs of the lowest rabble, he would be able to
maintain the authority of the church in Denmark only so far as the
Danish clergy considered it expedient, and as the king himself would
support ecclesiastical government.
During the whole of the transaction at the council-house, the bishop
was quiet and dejected. The king treated him here also with cold
courtesy. His looks were stern and grave; another important and serious
matter seemed to have weighed on his heart since he heard the last
words of the archbishop to Count Henrik.
From the council-house the whole procession rode to St. Mary's church,
where, besides the customary Ave, a Te Deum was sung on occasion of the
treaty. The king then immediately rode back to Sorretslov, from whence
he purposed to set out on his journey the following morning. The
bishop, with the abbot of the Forest Monastery, and the other
ecclesiastics, accompanied him (in compliance with customary courtesy),
besides the deputies of the town and the burghers.
The bishop desired not to return to Axelhuus ere every trace of hostile
attack on the castle was effaced, and the humiliating insurrection
forgotten. He purposed to accompany the king, the following day, to
Roskild, where some disturbances had taken place on the occasion of
their rulers' attempt to enforce the interdict.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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