Narve

Narve (also Narfi ) OP († 1304 ) was a Norwegian religious. From 1278 he was Bishop of Bergen .

Origin and appointment as bishop

The origin of Narve is unknown. He belonged to the Dominican order , which probably gave him a good spiritual education. Probably at the suggestion of King Magnus lagabætir , who was a patron of the Dominican order, the cathedral chapter of the Apostle Church of Bergen elected him bishop in 1278. Since Narve was a religious chaplain , he had to be appointed bishop by the Pope.

Political activity

After the death of King Magnus in 1280, a serious conflict broke out between the new government, which led the reign of the minor King Erik II , and the Norwegian Archbishop Jon Raude . Narve apparently loyally supported the archbishop against the government dominated by Bjarne Erlingsson and Audun Hugleiksson . After the archbishop's death in exile in Sweden in 1282, Narve sought reconciliation with the government. From 1283 he attested to royal documents and in 1285 he belonged to an embassy that traveled to Sweden and Denmark. They were supposed to lead peace negotiations with the Hanseatic cities with which there was an open conflict. Apparently, Narve was the only Norwegian bishop at the time who was on the royal council. When a Scottish embassy reached Bergen in 1290 to honor the king's daughter Margaret as the only descendant of the Scottish King Alexander III. offering the Scottish crown, Narve advocated this. He accompanied Margaret on the crossing to Scotland, but the girl fell ill and died at the end of September in the arms of the bishop of Orkney . Narve brought the body back to Norway, where it was buried in Bergen. After the death of King Erik II in 1299, Narve also belonged to the council of his brother and successor Håkon Magnusson .

Activity as a clergyman

In 1284 the cathedral chapter of Nidaros tried to propose Narve as the new archbishop. However, since it was feared that he would not vigorously represent the rights of the church vis-à-vis the king, a church commission rejected the proposal. When Narve tried to stand up for his old order in a dispute between his cathedral chapter and the Dominicans in Bergen, he could not prevail against his canons . Nevertheless, there were no such bitter conflicts between him and the canons as in Nidaros against Archbishop Jørund or under Bishop Arne in Stavanger . In 1297 Pope Boniface VIII appointed him judge for ecclesiastical conflicts. Among other things, he decided in the long-standing dispute between Archbishop Jørund and his cathedral chapter in favor of the cathedral chapter or had to mediate in a dispute between the Lyse monastery and fishermen. To this end, he began as a bishop to set up a register of documents . Narve probably died in Bergen. After his death there was another dispute between the Dominican order and the cathedral chapter about his burial place. The cathedral chapter prevailed again and Narve was buried in the Christ Church near the royal residence Holmen in Bergen.

Web links

• Norsk Biografisk Leksikon: Narve

Individual evidence

1. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 42.

predecessor	Office	successor
Askatin	Bishop of Bergen 1278–1304	Arne Sigurdsson