Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman and Scandinavian Martyrologies. Authority: — The Acts written by Israel, Canon of Upsal, after 1409, and the Swedish rhymed Chronicle, Adam of Bremen, &c.] S. Erick’s father was called Edward, “a good and wealthy yeoman,” says the old Swedish chronicle; his mother, Cecilia, was the sister of Erick, king of Swedeland. He was himself married to Christina, daughter of Ingi the Younger, or as others state, of Ingi the Elder. “Three things did holy King Erick endeavour,” says the legend, “to build churches, and reform religion, to govern the people as law and justice pointed out, and to overcome the enemies of his faith and realm.” The establishment of Christianity in Upper Sweden was undoubtedly his work. Before his reign, even at Upsala, there were neither priests nor a convenient church, wherefore he first applied himself to the completion of the church, “ now called Old Upsala, and appointed clerks for the ministry of the altar.” An old table of kings denominates him the Lawgiver, and the rights of Swedish matrons to the place of honour and housewifedom, to lock and key, to the half of the marriagebed, and the legal third of the property, as the law of Upland expresses it, are said to have been conferred by the law of S. Eric. Against the heathens of Finland, whose piracies harassed the Swedish coast, he undertook a crusade, and by introducing Christianity, as also probably by transplanting Swedish colonists thither, he laid the foundation of the connection which so long subsisted between Sweden and that country. S. Henry, the first bishop of Upsala, of whose active exertions in propagating Christianity, history has preserved some record, accompanied the king on this expedition; he was the first <S\ Erick.

…apostle of the Finns, and suffered at their hands the death of a martyr. At last, Erick was unexpectedly beleaguered in Upsala by the Danish prince, Magnus, during the celebration of divine service. The king heard the mass out, and marched against the enemy. After a short but valiant resistance he fell dead, covered with wounds,1 May, it 60. His virtues, and the austerity of his life, procured him after death the reputation of a saint. He was reverenced as the protector of Sweden; his banner waved in the field to encourage the Swedes in battle with enemies of the realm; the anniversary of his death was kept sacred throughout all the provinces; the town of Stockholm bears his effigy on its arms, and the cathedral of Upsala still preserves his relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor], once the objects of veneration. By the Church he was never canonized, although a hundred years after his death, the popes, informed of the homage which the people continued to pay to his memory, exhorted the devout to make pilgrimages to his tomb. The Roman Court, however, was far from being well-inclined to him at one time, for in a papal rescript of 1208, his family is represented as having violently usurped the crown, to the injury of the house of Swerker, its legitimate owners. The old accounts unanimously assign him a reign of ten years; he was therefore raised to the crown in 1150, five years before the death of Swerker. His sovereignty at first extended only over Sweden Proper; indeed he was acknowledged but for a time in Gothland, whose inhabitants had nominated Charles Swerkerson. The latter is said to have held real possession of the government for two years before the death of Erick, and is even accused of being a party to the plot against him.

x At East Aros, the present Upsala, on the z8th of May, 1160. VOL. V.