Gripla - 01.01.1993, Blaðsíða 236

236
GRIPLA
martyrdom in office was sufficient in itself for a claim to sanctity. His
stature required no confirmation by martyrdom in death.16
Arngrímr begins his account of Guðmundr’s trial by introducing the
theme of wrongful, illegal persecution in a historical and universal set-
ting.17 The first chapters dwell on the illegal and disruptive opposition
of secular princes to the rightful leaders of the Church. First, Arngrímr
expounds Frederick Barbarossa’s (11237-1190) responsibility for the
papal schism during the pontificate of Alexander III.18 Then he relates
Henry II’s intrigues against Thomas of Becket. This historical back-
ground, the persecution of legitimate church leaders by secular rulers,
elucidates and exonerates the turbulence during Guðmundr’s episco-
pacy. His fearless defense of the liberties and property of the church
necessarily led to conflict.19 The causes of his persecution and of his
suffering are hence not bound to a unique political context on a re-
mote and largely unknown island. His tribulations are solely the out-
growth of a wearying conflict periodically faced by the church and its
representatives.20
The imperial machinations of Frederick Barbarossa, as described by
fegurð í andanum’Archbishop Thomas still lives in the flesh. but spiritually, he will be
crowned instantly with the glory of a martyr.'
16 See Vauchez, p. 152, on the standard hagiographic device, a vision, to confirm this:
A woman, whose soul was led through hell and paradise, was told by the Norse saints,
Oláfr, Magnús, and Hallvarðr that Guðmundr's stature was as eminent as that of the
[martyred] Thomas of Becket (ch. 4, pp. 156-60). See also Guðmundar saga A, chs. 58-
60, pp. 92-99. Nevertheless, Arngrímr stresses Guðmundr’s sufferings by explicating his
threefold martyrdom following the battle of Grímsey in 1222 (ch. 58, p. 347).
Cf. Magnússon, II, pp. lxiv-lxv, who considers this introduction “irrelevant" bor-
rowing.
18 Ch. 1, pp. 147-48. The image of Frederick Barbarossa as the persecutor of the
church is perhaps ultimately derived from Boso’s Life of Alexander 111, intro. Peter
Munz, trans. G.M. EIlis (Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1973), pp. 50-51.
1 ’ Implicit in this description is also a reference to the intellectual battle among can-
onists of the twelfth century, who were concerned with defining and justifying the papal
and imperial, or secular, spheres of political competency. See Friedrich Kempf, “Zur
politischen Lehre der friih- und hochmittelalterlichen Kirche,“ Zeitschrift der Savigny-
Stiftung fiir Rechtsgeschichte, Kanonistische Abteilung, 47 (1961), 309-10.
20
Ideologically, the struggle appears to be based on the principles proclaimed by
Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085), as recorded in the register. See John Gilchrist, “Gregory
VII and the Juristic Sources of His Ideology," Studia Gratiana 12 (1967), 4ff and foot-
note 5, for manuscripts of Gregory’s register.