Eskil of Lund (d. 1181)

Archbishop of Lund (1137-1177).

Eskil was born into the Danish nobility around 1100. After studies in Hildesheim, he became bishop of Roskilde (1134), then archbishop of Lund (1137). Through his contacts with Bernard of Clairvaux, Eskil introduced the Cistercian Order into Denmark and Sweden in 1143-1144. In 1159 he found himself in opposition to King Valdemar I of Denmark in the conflict between Pope Alexander III and Frederick I Bar-barossa, the Holy Roman Emperor. As a consequence, in 1161 Eskil went into exile. Upon his return, followed by a partial reconciliation with the king, Eskil participated in a crusade against the Wends, resulting in the conquest of the island of Rugen off the southern coast of the Baltic Sea in 1168. In 1170 he took part in the coronation of the king’s son, Knud VI, and the canonization of the king’s father, Knud Lavard. Around this time renewed archiepiscopal and royal collaboration resulted in the introduction into Scandinavia of the Order of the Hospital.

Eskil was apparently the architect behind letters from Pope Alexander III issued in the years 1171-1174 that called for crusade and mission toward Estonia, and possibly also Finland. Kings and magnates from Scandinavia were urged to defend and expand the Christian faith. This endeavor was to be headed by Fulco, presumably a Benedictine monk from St. Remi in France, whom Eskil had apparently ordained as missionary bishop of Estonia many years previously. It remains uncertain, however, whether Fulco ever reached Estonia. Eskil resigned from office in 1177 to spend his last years at the monastery of Clairvaux.

-Torben K. Nielsen

Bibliography

Jorgensen, Kaare Rubner, “Lundensis eccl. (Lund),” in Series episcoporum ecclesiae catholicae occidentalis, 6/2: Archiepiscopatus Lundensis, ed. Odilo Engels and Stefan Weinfurter (Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1992), pp. 7-33.

Nyberg, Tore, “Deutsche, danische und schwedische

Christianisierungsversuche ostlich des Ostsee im Geiste des 2. und 3. Kreuzzuges,” in Die Rolle der Ritterorden in der Christianisierung undKolonisierung des Ostseegebietes, ed. Zenon Hubert Nowak (Torun: Cohoquia Torunensia Historica, 1983), pp. 93-114

-, “The Danish Church and Mission in Estonia,”

Nordeuropa-Forum 1 (1998), 49-72.