Uusi andmeid Mihkli kiriku vanemast ajaloost / New data on the early history of the church of Mihkli

The church of Mihkli is located in P rnumaa County, approximately 40 km north-west of P rnu. It is unknown when the limestone building of the church was constructed. The current vaulted church was probably built in the fourth quarter of the 13th century.Preparatory works for building a new roof for the church of Mihkli were carried out in August 2011. The removal of a layer of debris, which had cumulated on top of the vaults of the church, uncovered a layer of soil containing human bones. The results of the archaeological excavations there have led to the assumption that the human bones were brought there in the 19th century together with soil taken from the immediate vicinity of the church, where there used to be a cemetery during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern periodSome of the 55 finds were originally grave goods. A bronze ring, three iron knives, an iron belt-buckle and four silver coins can be considered as such. The artefacts have been dated to the 15th and 16th centuries, whereas the coins were minted in 1515 (?), 1577, 1621 and 1664.The 26 shards of window-glass, some with traces of painting, which were found in the soil, are probably remnants of the church windows. The extraordinary finds were two bronze book clasps that are similar to book clasps used in Northern-Germany and the Netherlands in the 16th century.Three three-ponged sconces produced at the end of the 19th century were found in the holes in the walls located 80–90 cm below the top of the northern and southern walls of the church. The sconces were taken apart and hid in these holes in 1943 during the Second World War.It is now clear, as a result of the excavations that the original stone church had been without vaults, with a simple beam ceiling and plastered from the inside. A two metre long passage within the upper part of the northern wall of the church revealed that it had originally been a fortified church.This paper also discusses if priest Henry, the author of the Chronicle of Livonia, could have acted for some time as the parish priest of Soontagana, which has been assumed by some historians on the basis of a legal document from the year 1259. As a hypothesis I propose, that Henry may have been appointed there in 1226 by the papal legate Guillelmus of Modena. Additionally, names of some of the parish priests of the church of Mihkli from the 14th to the first half of the 16th centuries are mentioned. These names were found in different sources and publications.