Gripla - 01.01.1993, Síða 245

ABBOT ARNGRÍMR'S GUÐMUNDAR SAGA BISKUPS 245
indeed, Kolbeinn composed the poem, Sturla presumably knew it.
Still, it is unlikely that he would have attributed the poem's birth to
Kolbeinn’s last attack on the see.40 Sturla’s account of the incident be-
speaks Kolbeinn’s superbia, his dogged persistence in forcing Guð-
mundr’s army to battle. In this context, the poem with its protestation
of religious humility, even of servility, would appear incongruous and
sacrilegious. To Sturla, Kolbeinn's true state of mind and, concom-
itantly, divine censure were manifest to all, as he failed to hear the ca-
thedral bells summoning the faithful.41 Guðmundr’s permission that
Kolbeinn be granted the last rites was thus a true act of mercy, inde-
pendent of any other acts either by Guðmundr or by Kolbeinn.
Kolbeinn died in peace with the church. Arngrímr exploits this fact
by inflating Sturla’s terse wording and by supplying a gratuitous poem.
The bloated scene illustrates Guðmundr’s saintliness in two ways.
Guðmundr had led a notorious sinner to repentance, a requirement
verbalized by Honorius III in the case of William of York (canonized
1227).42 More importantly, Guðmundr’s conduct was consonant with
the saint’s established image as a spiritual leader full of mercy and jus-
tice.43 This image had been carefully prepared. That mercy had to be
merited was a principle articulated in a prefatory chapter (ch. 7, p.
169). Men with hearts of stone could be turned to God only if they
evinced contrition and turned from a life of sin. Analogously, Guð-
mundr had pronounced a sentencia, Anima justi, as he landed in Ice-
land after his consecration as bishop (ch. 25, pp. 238). The sentencia,
ing to which God often granted Gudmundr the ability to turn petrified hearts to remor-
se.
411 For a discussion of the poem and for a more likely occasion for its composition
(1206), see Ftermann Pálsson, “Skáldiö á Víöimýri," Tólfta öldin. Þœttir um menn og
málefni (Reykjavík: Jón Helgason, 1970), 11-20. See also Bjarni Einarsson, “Kolbeinn
Tumason og hómilíubókin," Maukastella fcerð Jónasi Kristjánssyni fimmtugum (Reykja-
vík, [1974]), 10-11.
41 For the twofold signification of the ringing of the bells, see “Sermo ad populum,"
Gamal Norsk Homiliebok, p. 71. It signifies, on the one hand, Christ exhorting the faith-
ful to attend church to glorify Him and to secure salvation and, on the other hand, the
trumpet blast calling for repentance.
4" August Potthast. Regesta Pontificium Romanorum. nr. 7551, p. 650. cited by
Michael Goodich, p. 182.
43 See Ward, pp. 185-86, for the requirements for canonization: proven virtues, mer-
its and authenticated miracles.