Mogens Lauritssøn

Mogens Lauritssøn, also known as Magnus Lauretii (died 3 October 1542, Antvorskov Monastery, Zealand, Denmark), was the 27th and last Roman Catholic Bishop of Hamar.

On 28 January 1513, he was already mentioned as the Electus so the election of the new Bishop of Hamar must have happened either in late 1512 or early 1513.

[1][2] Of Mogens Lauritssøn, Anton Christian Bang, the Norwegian historian, gave him only a short paragraph in his 1912 book, Den Norske kirkes historie (The History of the Norwegian Church), and remarked:[3] "He apparently was not without zeal in his office; at any case, he seemed to have frequently gone out on his visitations in his sprawling diocese.

Han synes ogsaa at have været en god mand og almindelig afholdt.

Eventually, the campaign for the independence of Norway withered until only Lauritssøn remained at the side of the Archbishop.

In April 1537, to turn Norway into a Lutheran province/client kingdom, the new King of Denmark, Christian III, sent an army across the North Sea.

Led by Truid Ulfstand, they headed for Niðaros but the Archbishop had already fled to exile in the Habsburg Netherlands.

[4] According to Thomas Benjamin Willson, the British historian, Lauritssøn was ready to make a last stand so he had his palace prepared for a siege but, when he saw the forces of Ulfstand, he lost his courage.

Willson then narrated the "truly pathetic" scene of the departure[5] with the English translation of Anton Christian Bang's Danish quotation:[6] "As Herr Truid and the bishop went together to Strandbakken, he fell on his knees and thanked God in heaven for every day he had lived.

Then he bid good-night to the canons and the priests, then to his cathedral and cloister, then to his chief men, to the common people, both townsmen and bønder (landowners), entreating them all to pray heartily for him, and said he hoped he would soon come to them again.