The Oslofjord stretches for some 100 km south of Oslo until it reaches the Skagerrak strait and ultimately Denmark or Sweden. Hovedøya is the island in the archipelago closest to Oslo. It’s a beautiful wooded, hilly island with scenic walks and a chance to dive into nature or the fjord as the mood takes you. Now remember what started here in 1147. Only ruins remain of the church and abbey built by the Cistercians who came here from Kirkstead Abbey in Lincolnshire. Until the Reformation the monks were among the largest and richest institutions in Norway but adapting to life in Scandinavia posed difficulties.
In the Catholic Church were there’s wonga there’s a way and a petition to the Vatican bought and brought exemptions that might loosely be called the Scandinavian Exception or, if you are a purist, a universal papal exception called an institutional exemption. Granted directly by the Holy See to the entire Cistercian Order, this privilege meant that Norwegian abbeys became entirely free from the jurisdiction, visitations, and financial control of local Norwegian bishops. Most vexing for the bishops but it enabled the Cistercians to prosper.
It was a small footnote to grant the monks in Scandinavia specific exemptions to cope with their new environs. First to go was an injunction to sleep at night and stay up in the daytime, meaning they would have been up all summer and in bed all winter. The second local difficulty was dietary.
“A strict 12th-century Cistercian Rule banned the consumption of meat and lard, demanding a vegetarian lifestyle. However, in the harsh climate of medieval Norway, it was practically impossible to grow enough grain, vegetables, and oil-producing plants to sustain human life through winter.” (ocso.org) Furthermore the food was supposed to be grown at the monastery. The work around was to start farming on the mainland and to establish fish farms as well as eating fish from the sea.
I paid tribute to the Cistercians yesterday having shrimp, snow crab and salmon all from the fjord, I hope.