THE USEFUL RESULTS OF HISTORICAL
CONTROVERSY
An Illustration and Suggestion.
WILLIAM Z. DAVIS, LL. D.
Judge, Ohio Supreme Court.
The present controversy about the
discovery of the North
Pole suggests the thought that the truth
of history is established
by adverse criticism and thorough
investigaton; and that the truth
cannot be hidden forever. A striking
illustration of this is found
in the bibliography of the discussion
over the question, Who dis-
covered the North American Continent?
Christopher Columbus died in the belief
that he had found
the mainland of Cathay and while he had
in truth touched the
shores of South America, he never saw
the mainland of North
America. The distinguished honor of
first finding out this won-
derful land of ours was for a long time
awarded to Amerigo
Vespucci and hence the name America; but
more recent histor-
ical investigators have placed that
great achievement to the
credit of John Cabot; and some,
apparently with good reason,
even doubt that Vespucci was ever near
the countries which he
claims to have discovered. If he was,
his mendacity was equal
to his heroism. For example, he says
that after reaching the 23°
north latitude, he sailed along the
coast, steadily northwest, a dis-
tance of eight hundred and seventy
leagues. That is, if we fol-
low his course, he sailed from about
Tampico, Mexico, through
the latter country northwesterly along
the line of the Rocky
Mountains to a point somewhere in the
Dominion of Can-
ada. The case against Vespucci is
strongly stated by Ridpath,
New Complete Hist. U. S., edition of
1904, chap. X.
But long before the time of any of these
voyagers the ven-
turesome and hardy Norse sailors had
trailed first to Iceland,
then to Greenland, then to a place on
the continent which they
called Vinland, or Wineland. There they
established and main-
tained a colony for three years; there
was born the first white
566
The Useful Results of Historical
Controversy. 567
child born on the North American
Continent and thence were
they driven, by hardships and
pestilence, back to Greenland. In
the paralysis of ignorance and darkness
which overspread Europe
during the middle ages, these things
were not widely known and
were at last forgotten; but they were
preserved in the annals and
sagas of Iceland and in that
unfrequented island have continued
to be the subject of history, tradition,
poetry and story to the
present time. The adventures of the
Norsemen slumbered within
the frozen boundaries of Iceland for
centuries, with only now and
then an allusion, generally
discrediting, by some learned anti-
quary; but there was little to draw
popular attention to the sub-
ject until the publication in 1831, by Henry
Wheaton, who had
been U. S. Minister at Copenhagen, of
his history of the North-
men, and by Prof. Rafn, the Danish
scholar, in 1837, of his great
collection, Antiquates Americanae.
Gradually, it has come to be the
accepted belief, I think we
may safely say, that the Norse
navigators not only discovered
Greenland and maintained colonies
there-of that there can be
no reasonable doubt-but that they also
skirted southward along
the coast of North America and made
temporary settlements
there. The more intimately acquainted we
become with the
Norse records and sagas, the more firmly
fixed becomes the be-
lief that so much of historical basis
must be conceded to be at
the bottom of the sagas. It finds
expression in all the later his-
tories and school text-books of history,
although the identification
of localities is still an unsolved
problem and perhaps it is un-
solvable.
Recently, the parts of the Flateyjarbok
and of the Haksbok
relating to this subject have become
accessible to English stu-
dents in the original Icelandic, with
parallel Danish and Eng-
lish translations; but the most
significant new material in the
controversy is found in the fac
similes contained in the same
book (The Flatey Book and Recently
Discovered Vatican Manu-
scripts. Published by The Norroena
Society. London, Stock-
holm, Copenhagen, Berlin, New York,
1906), of the papal letters
from the Vatican library, which were
discovered in 1903 and
exhibited at the World's Exposition at
St. Louis in 1906. These
put beyond dispute the fact that the
church had followed up the
568 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
colonists and established a bishopric
over them in Greenland;
and inasmuch as a sentence occurs in the
Flatey Book under the
date A. D. 1221, stating that "Eric, bishop of Greenland, went
to seek Wineland," the strong
presumption is raised that the
existence of Wineland was known to the
head of the church, at
Rome.
A letter of Innocent III, dated
February, 1206, addressed
to the Archbishop of Nidros, declares
that Pope Eugenius by
the papal legate Nicolas had decreed
that the city of Nidros "be
the permanent metropolis of the
provinces," including with others,
"the Orcade Islands (Orkneys), the
islands of Farcia (Faroes),
the bishoprics of Sutrhaia, Iseland, and
Greenland, be subject to
it forever as its metropolis and that
their bishops obey both him
(your predecessor) and his successors as
their metropolitans."
A letter of Pope John XXI, dated
December 4, 1276, ad-
dressed to the Archbishop of Nidros,
refers to the difficulty of
personal visitation by the archbishop to
all parts of the Kingdom
of Norway, "since the diocese of
Garda, subject to your province
and said kingdom is so far distant from
the metropolitan church
that, because of the difficulties of
navigation, one can scarcely
make the voyage, thither and return, in
less than five years."
Elsewhere in the same letter, Pope John
says that "the majority
of the dioceses of the Kingdom and of
your provinces are so
scattered through the expanse of the sea
and so extended within
their own limits, that it would be
difficult for you to visit all
parts of the said dioceses even in six
years," etc.
On January 31, 1279, Pope Nicolas III
addressed "Our
Venerable Brother-Archbishop of
Nidros," as follows: "From
the series of your letters lately
transmitted to us, we gather that
the island on which stands the city of
Garda, is seldom visited
by ships, because of the dangers of the
ocean surrounding it,"
etc.
Pope Martin IV, writing on March 4, 1282, to the Arch-
bishop of Nidros, mentions "the
Island of Iceland and Feroyes
of the Kingdom of Norway," and then
proceeds as follows, "You
have added, moreover, that the tithe of
Greenland is received
entirely in cattle-skins, the skins and
tusks of seals, and whale-
bone (?) which you assert can hardly be
sold at a fair price."
The Useful Results of Historical
Controversy 569
Addressing the Bishops of Shaoltensus
and Olensus, Sep-
tember 20, 1448, Pope Nicolas V in part
wrote as follows: "In-
deed, as regards our beloved sons, the
natives and all the inhabi-
tants of the Island of Greenland, which
is said to lie in the prov-
ince of Nidrosi, in the extremity of the
ocean, in the northern
region of the Kingdom of Norway, we have
heard with sad and
anxious heart the doleful story of that
same island, whose in-
habitants and natives, for almost six
hundred years, have kept
the Faith of Christ, received under the
preaching of their glor-
ious evangelist, the blessed King Olaf,
firm and unspotted, under
the guidance of the Holy Roman Church
and the Apostolic See,
and where for all succeeding time the
people, inflamed with
eager devotion, erected many temples of
the saints and a famous
Cathedral, in which divine worship was
sedulously carried on;
but at length, thirty years ago, with
the permission of Him Who,
in the disposition of His inscrutable
wisdom, afflicts for a time
and chastises for their great good those
whom He loves, the
barbarians, gathering together in a
fleet on the neighborhood
shores of the Pagans, attacked this
entire people in a cruel in-
vasion, devastating their fatherland and
sacred temples by fire
and sword, leaving in the island only
nine parochial churches,
these, it is said, extend into the
farthest districts, which they
could not approach conveniently, because
of the defiles of the
mountains, and carrying away captive to
their possessions the
natives of both sexes, especially such
as they deemed brave and
fit to undergo the burden of perpetual
slavery, just as if adjusted
to their tyranny. As the same report
subjoins, however, very
many, after a time, returned to their
own from said captivity
and, having thenceforth repaired the
ruins of those places, desired
to renew and extend the divine worship
as much as possible after
the pristine fashion, but because,
overwhelmed by the past calam-
ities, and laboring under famine and
want, they were unable to
support priests and a bishop, they were
deprived, for that en-
tire period of thirty years, of the
consolation of a bishop and
the ministry of the priests, except when
anyone, in the desire
of serving God, after traveling far and
long, had succeeded in
reaching those churches which the
barbarian hand had passed
unhurt; wherefore, they have humbly
petitioned us to deign to
570
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
meet their pious and salutary design
with a fatherly commisera-
tion, and to supply their spiritual
wants and impart our benevo-
lent approbation and that of the
Apostolic See to the foregoing."
In the early years of his pontificate,
Alexander VI wrote:
"Since, as we have heard, the
Church of Garda is situated
at the extremity of the earth in the
country of Greenland, whose
inhabitants are accustomed to use dried
fish and milk because of
the want of bread, wine and oil,
wherefore, and also on account
of the rare shipping to said country,
due to the intense freez-
ing of the sea, no vessel is believed to
have put to land there for
eighty years back, or if it happened
that such voyages were made,
surely, it is thought, they could not
have been accomplished save
in the month of August, when the ice was
dissolved; and since
it is likewise said that for eighty
years, or thereabouts, abso-
lutely no bishop or priest governed that
Church in personal resi-
dence, which fact, together with the
absence of Catholic priests,
brought it to pass that very many of the
diocese unhappily re-
pudiated their sacred baptismal vows;
and since the inhabitants
of that land have no relic of the
Christian religion, save a cer-
tain Corporale, annually set forth, upon
which, a hundred years
ago, the Body of Christ was consecrated
by the last priest then
living there-for these, then, and for
other considerations, Pope
Innocent VIII, of blessed memory, our
predecessor wishing to
provide a suitable pastor for that
Church, at the time deprived
of the useful solace of the same, at the
advice of his brethren,
of whom we were then one, appointed
bishop and pastor to that
place, our venerable Brother Matthias;
the latter was Bishop-
elect of Garda, a professed member of
the Order of St. Bene-
dict, and had been announced, at our
urging, while we were
still in Minor Orders, as intending to
said personally for said
Church, inspired with great fervor of
devotion to lead back the
souls of the strayed and apostate to the
way of eternal salvation
and to expose his life to the greatest
danger, freely and spon-
taneously, to obliterate such
errors."'
Twenty years ago Justin Winsor
(Narrative and Critical.
History America, vol. I, p. 69) cast doubt
upon the authenticity
of the letter of Nicolas V, which had
been published and com-
mented upon by Rafn and others. The
answer is that the docu-
The Useful Results of Historical
Controversy. 571
ment itself was, with the others quoted
above, brought from the
Vatican Library and exhibited at the
Louisiana Purchase Expo-
sition at St. Louis, in 1906; and that
the same were photographed
and published by permission granted
through the Papal Secre-
tary of State, the Cardinal Merry De
Val.
Thus, the Pre-Columbian Discovery of
America was first
announced, and the records establishing
the same were first
brought to the notice of the world, at
Copenhagen; and it seems
not improbable that the discovery of the
North Pole, which was
first announced from that city, may
finally be established thereat.