Ebook History of the Church and State in Norway

English readers are more or less familiar with the most striking events in the history of Norway in the heroic days, but so far as I have been able to discover, no English writer has endeavoured to trace the history of the Church in Norway, from its foundation in the time of Olaf Trvgvesson, down to the period of the Reformation. If I am correct in this, the omission seems a strange one, as the Church in Norway was the only daughter of that of England to be found in Europe. Her missionaries, it is true, laboured in many parts of the Continent, but I think that in no country, except Norway, could it be said, that they helped to found and nurture a national Church, where none before existed.

Under these circumstances, I have for a long time wished to supply English readers with a history of this Church; and a close acquaintance with Norway, extending over thirty years, makes it, I hope, not altogether presumptuous to attempt the task. With this object in view, I obtained, some ten years ago (through my friend, the late Pastor Andreas Hansen), the kind permission of Dr. A. Chr. Bang, now Bishop of Christiania, to translate his valuable Udsigt over den Nor she Kirkes Historic under Katholicismen. Further consideration, however, showed me that this work presupposed an acquaintance with the history of the Norwegian Church, such as few English readers possessed, and which was necessary in order fully to appreciate this valuable survey.