P.G. Foote - Olaus Magnus, A Description of the Northern Peoples, 1555

WORKS ISSUED BY THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY

OLAUS MAGNUS
DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLES
VOLUME III

SECOND SERIES
NO. 188

HAKLUYT SOCIETY

Council and Officers 1997-1998

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VICE PRESIDENTS

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OLAUS MAGNUS

Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus

Rom 1555

Description of the Northern Peoples

Rome 1555

VOLUME III

Translated by

PETER FISHER and HUMPHREY HIGGENS

Edited by

PETER FOOTE

with Annotation derived from the Commentary by

JOHN GRANLUND

abridged and augmented

PUBLISHED BY ROUTLEDGE FOR

THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY

LONDON

1998

First published 1998 by Hakluyt Society

Published 2017 by Routledge

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Copyright 1998 by Taylor & Francis.

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PREFACE

I have written above about the various activities of the northern peoples, looking at their violent struggles in war, their buildings, their social intercourse, and also the cheerful processions that entertain this race, who live under the influence of the harsher planets,1 and how they celebrate their feast days in the regular yearly course, as other nations do. Now I shall have to add something more remarkable, on the way the Church conducts itself and how those Northerners, when they accepted baptism six hundred years ago,2 were from their childhood most carefully instructed in an excellent mode of living and in good reading and writing. In accordance with these precepts they lived commendably from tender youth until the last stage of their lives when, leaving behind them the renown of a virtuous name and holy works, they were entombed with a Catholic burial.3 The learned teachers, sent from heaven to aid that uncultivated generation, strove to remove the superstitious errors of the pagans, plant little by little the seeds of the virtues, and convert severity into gentleness in order to combat all their vicious passions, or at least moderate them in their evil ways. Through their zeal these men were observed to have made such great progress that those people of the North, preserving the unity of the Church and their obedience to it, did nothing by land or sea, nor transacted any business, without the blessing of their priests, as I shall also describe below in discussing the undying glory of good princes and the everlasting ignominy and disgrace of the sacrilegious, who, unless they were cleansed by penitence, made themselves and their heirs obnoxious and contemptible to God and man through their cruelty.4

Northerners baptized

Catholic burial Teachers sent from heaven

Unity and obedience welcome Blessing was cherished by all

Sacrilegious were infamous

CHAPTER ONE

On schools and the education of the young

T HE great concern of ancient teachers, especially Plato, for the careful and reliable education of children and young people is proved with very clear evidence in many books of their laws. Whoever perused these, or heard them read, would not be able to admire them sufficiently, and certainly could not imitate them. Plato himself, a man endued with such eminent wisdom, is anxious to guide young folk of that age, whose propensities, as the wise Solomon confirms, are very difficult to fathom. He maintains also that such people as have been educated in good morals in their youth are given office in the state.1