Ritröð Guðfræðistofnunar - 01.01.1988, Page 84

Jónas Gíslason
2. Our main medieval historical sources were written by priests or
monks long after the events happened. The Catholic Church always seems
to have been interested in proving, that Christianity developed in „the
right way“ from Rome, and it has often tried to disparage the influence of
other churches, which happened to be in opposition to the Catholic
Church.
This seems clear in the history of the Christianisation of Iceland.
There is very little told about the influence of the Celtic Church in Ireland,
although Irish monks, „papar“, were first to settle Iceland. It is the
Norwegian influence which is stressed. The existing accounts of the
Christianisation of Iceland do not hold up under critical examination.
They are evidently written from the viewpoint of the Catholic Church.
3. Archeological excavations in Iceland have been very few.
Systematic excavations in the places where the first Christians lived could
possibly shed new light over our Christianisation.
A few years ago some new sources were discovered in the Vatican
Archives. It would be worth while to try to fínd out if some as-yet-
unknown sources exist in other archives abroad.
The one thousandth anniversary of the Christianisation of Iceland
will soon take place. It would be worthy to commemorate it by writing a
new and detailed history of the Icelandic Church.
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