La Santa Sede e la riforma della Chiesa norvegese nei secoli XII-XIII

The reform of the Norwegian Church was first undertaken in the latter half of the twelfth century, when a series of papal decretals answered to specific questions of the archbishops of Nidaros. During the thirteenth century, instead, the Holy See addressed more general topics, but the absence of Norwegian delegates in Lateran in 1215 and the ongoing civil war in the kingdom hindered the immediate adoption of the conciliar canons in Norway. The decrees were adopted only in 1247, when Cardinal William of Sabina went to Scandinavia as a papal legate: according to the Saga of king Hakon Hakonarson and the statutes issued by the cardinal himself, William forbade the ordeals amd regulated the episcopal elections, the pastoral visits of the bishops and the separation between secular and ecclesiastical justice. Thus his mission furthered the integration of Norway in the Western Christianity.