Gripla - 01.01.1993, Page 241

ABBOT ARNGRÍMR’S GUÐMUNDAR SAGA BISKUPS
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his contest against Henry.30 To Thomas’ murderers, as to Guðmundr’s
foes, excommunication was a central issue. Even the ideological basis
of Thomas’ position, his linkage of the Lord’s dictum, “I am the
truth,“ to its political exegesis, “the Lord did not say I am consuetudo,
‘custom,’31 is implicit in Guðmundr’s defiance of customary law.
Throughout the lengthy litigation, Arngrímr focuses on the right-
eousness of Guðmundr’s cause, which put Guðmundr and his see at
risk. Guðmundr proclaimed the illegality of Kolbeinn’s suit on the ba-
sis of the church’s right to property owned by clerics and placed under
episcopal protection. Kolbeinn, in turn, attempted to thwart recog-
nition of canonical juristic principles with a series of legal and armed
countermoves. At the judicial assembly, Guðmundr appeared with
staff and stole, the symbols of jurisdiction and of his office,32 to forbid
the sentencing of the priest. When the priest was, nevertheless, out-
lawed, Guðmundr, assuming legatine power, pronounced minor ex-
communication on Kolbeinn and his allies on behalf of the church and
of the pope. Truculent, Kolbeinn rode to the see with an armed force,
to threaten outlawry to any who might help the priest. Guðmundr then
forewarned Kolbeinn that he faced major excommunication, unless he
submitted himself to the jurisdiction of the church. Eventually, the
case was settled, if unsatisfactorily, for Kolbeinn paid only half the
fines imposed upon him on the althing. Still, Guðmundr had won a
precedent. Reflecting upon this incident, Arngrímr rightly excoriates
Kolbeinn for having violated the liberty of the church and the canon
on the immunity of clerks by the use of armed force.
30
See Thómas saga, chs. 71, 78, pp. 406, 530, for an explication of the causes for
excommunication and for the repeated reference by Thomas’ murderers to excommun-
ication.
This interpretation had a long tradition. It was first used in 256 by Libosus of
Vaga during the Third Carthaginian Synod in the fight against heresy. For a discussion
and bibliographical reference, see Hans Martin Klinkenberg, “Die Theorie der Ver-
anderbarkeit des Rechts im frtihen und hohen Mittelalter," Miscellanea mediaevalia, 6
(1969), 163.
32
See the reference to the [S]tola iusticie in NKS 133f. fol., dated the middle or last
half of the thirteenth century, ed. Helge Fæhn, Manuale Norvegicum (Presta handbók)
ex tribus codicibus saec. XII-XIV apographis ab Oluf Kolsrud confectis usus (Oslo: Uni-
versitetsforlaget, 1962), p. 110. Bengt Stolt, “Liturgisk drakt: Stola,“ Kulturhistorisk
leksikon 10 (1965), col. 635, points out that the stole signifies symbolically Christ (Math.
11:29). Cf. Ludwig Eisenhofer, Handbuch der Katholischen Liturgik, 2nd. ed. (Freiburg:
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