[Footnote A: Munch, iii., 391.] In many respects he was much in advance of his age. Thus, it is told of him that, so far from regarding the national vice, drunkeness, as an amiable weakness, for which no man was any the worse, he endeavored earnestly to check it, and punished with severity those who committed excesses under the influence of drink. As far as his constant occupation with war permitted him, he encouraged trade and all industrial pursuits. For learning he had a high regard; was himself a good Latin scholar and well read in the law, and displayed much zeal in procuring for his sons the best educational advantages that the time afforded. In spite of the hardships and dangers, to which he was constantly exposed, he lived to be fifty years old,--an age which, since the death of Harold the Fairhaired, but one king of Norway had reached. [Illustration] CHAPTER XXV. HAAKON SVERRESSON (1202-1204). In his dying message to his son Sverre advised him to make peace with the Church. He foresaw that the interdict which was weighing heavily upon the land would be an increasingly powerful weapon in the hands of the Baglers, and would continue to alienate the hearts of the people from the king. Haakon, who had not personally been engaged in the controversy, could, without loss of dignity, make overtures for a reconciliation, and might, if necessary, make concessions. The bishops were, however, so tired of their long exile and dependence upon foreign bounty, that they accepted with eagerness his offer of peace and hastened to return to their bishoprics. What the terms of the reconciliation were we do not know. The old Archbishop Erik, who was now blind and decrepit, was especially glad to return home, as his patron, Archbishop Absalon, had recently died, and his position in Denmark, as a dependent of the king, was scarcely an agreeable one. No sooner had he set foot on Norse soil than he declared the interdict revoked, without even awaiting the Pope's consent--a rashness for which he was later rebuked by Innocent III. The Pope, however, though he no doubt enjoyed wielding the tremendous weapons of his wrath, acquiesced in the terms of the peace, and had no fault to find with the new king's attitude toward the Church. The fact was, Haakon Sverresson was a gentle and lovable character, who delighted in peace rather than war. All the people, weary of the long and bloody civil feud, felt drawn toward him and hastened to acknowledge him. After his proclamation as king at Oere-_thing_, and the revocation of the interdict, he was undisputed master of the land; and the star of the Baglers seemed forever to have set. Many of their influential chiefs deserted to Haakon; and their so-called king, Inge, was slain on an island in Mjösen by his own men and the peasants. Bishop Nicholas exchanged temporarily the helmet for the mitre, and kept as quiet as his restlessly intriguing mind would permit. Reidar Messenger