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§ 7—SKOTKONUNG, SIGFRID AND UNWAN. 75 
intention, are said to have passed a statute (placitum), 
together with their king, that if he wished to be a Christian 
he should hold as his own the best district of Sweden, 
wherever he desired to live, and might there establish a 
Church and Christianity, but should not use force to make 
any of the people give up the worship of the gods, and only 
admit such as wished of his own free will to be converted 
to Christ. The king, gladly accepting this statute, 
founded a Church to God and a Bishopric in West Goth- 
land, which is close to the Danes or Norwegians. This is 
the great City of Skara, for which, on the petition of the 
most Christian king, Thurgot was first ordained by Arch- 
bishop Unwan (1013 A.p.—1029 A.D.).® He vigorously 
discharged his mission to the Gentiles, and, by his labour, 
gained to Christ the two noble peoples of the Goths.’’ 
Although this gives a different reason for Skétkonung’s 
unpopularity from that which is recorded in the Saga, the 
facts all fit well together, and agree with the well-known 
dislike of the Swedes to religious persecution and their 
adherence to the old precedents from the time of Biorn, 
which allowed each to maintain or advance their faith by 
persuasion. We shall have other evidence of this feeling 
later on. 
The foundation of the see of Skara is, therefore, fixed to 
about the year 1020 A.D., a year or two before Skotkonung’s 
death, 
No doubt Sktkonung’s request to Archbishop Unwan 
lo consecrate a bishop for Skara was a very acceptable one. 
There was a natural, and sometimes a very strong, 
jealousy on the part of the Archbishops of Hamburg 
against the English missionaries, who were brought in first 
by Tryggvason, and then by St. Olaf, and also by Knut. 
In any case, it was during the pontificate of Unwan, but, per- 
haps, ahout its close, as it is recorded in connection with the 
death of Haraldson, 1030 A.D. 
_ ®Thurgot’s name is not, however, mentioned in the early 
lists of the Bishops of Skara in Scr. Rer. Suec., t. 111., cp. 
Rivyzelius Episcoposcopia, Pp. 163-4. (See the names in note