Hoskuld Hoskuldsson

Hoskuld Hoskuldsson (1465/1470–c.1537 ) was the 28th and last Roman Catholic Bishop of Stavanger, from 1513 until the Reformation in 1537, and also a member of the Riksråd.

Hoskuld is thought to have been from the local gentry of Ryfylke in Norway, because his known writings showed words and phrases from the dialect of Ryfylke. He was enrolled in 1491 at the in Germany and graduated two years later with a Magister's degree. He held services at the cathedral chapter in Stavanger, where he was described as an archdeacon. He was elected as the Bishop of Stavanger in 1513 and consecrated in Rome on 19 June in the same year. For the rest of his life, he used a cross as his personal seal, with several variations, for the documents of his diocese and the Riksråd.

Hoskuld came early into a serious conflict with the abbot of the Utstein Abbey. In 1515 the abbot, Henrik of Utstein, complained to the King of Denmark and Norway, Christian II, about the treatment he and his monastery had been getting from Bishop Hoskuld. Accused of "unpredictable realities" [ Wskelligt leffnet ] by the Bishop, Henrik had been brought to Stavanger and "put in the tower and irons" [ i tårn og jern ] in a bloody state. Hoskuld had accused Henrik of being a heretic. He also sent his servants to the Utstein Abbey to arrest a woman there. Hoskuld had her tortured, forcing her to lie about Henrik and herself. He then sent her to Sweden. The King ordered six clerics to judge and settle the dispute but the verdict is not known.

What is known is that Hoskuld afterwards sided with the next King of Denmark and Norway, Frederick I, especially after 1521, when Christian II had the Bishop's kinsman, Orm Eriksson, tried and executed on the charges of leading a tax revolt in Rogaland. In the autumn of 1523, together with the Bishop of Bergen, Olav Torkelsson, and the rikshovmester [ Lord High Steward ] of Norway, Nils Henriksson of Austrått ( who died soon afterwards), Hoskuld called for a meeting in Bergen to deliver the support at the Bergenhus to Frederick.

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