Gripla - 20.12.2016, Síða 246

GRIPLA246
evidence, however, points to the two centuries immediately following the
Christianisation of Iceland. It supports a tradition of written preaching
literature but does not reflect the actual performance in Church, which
was oral. If and how Icelandic clergy undertook sermon preaching from
the middle of the twelfth century onwards, however, is much less easy to
ascertain. the mendicant orders never established houses on the island
although we can trace Dominican influence at the beginning of the four-
teenth century through certain prominent individuals like Bishop Jón
Halldórsson. the possibility that the Dominican order, at least, sent more
friars to Iceland cannot be excluded, but the order may not have considered
establishing houses due to the distinctly rural profile of the country.
there are traces of some model sermon collections in the Icelandic
textual record. apart from C 301 and its fragmentary sister manu-
script aM 241 b I α fol., which both contain the Themata sermonum
by nicolas de Gorran, there is a fragmentary copy of the Sermones de
tempore by Guilelmus de Malliaco in aM acc. 7, ms. 134 (Iceland, four-
teenth century).45 A fragment of the Sermones aurei de sanctis by Leonardus
Matthaei de utino in aM acc. 7, ms. 105 (Italy, fifteenth century) might
have been imported to Iceland in the late Middle ages.46 We can see that
at the time of the last Catholic Bishop, Jón arason (d. 1550), a considerable
number of sermon collections and virtue treatises, featuring some promi-
nent preachers of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, were present
at Hólar.47 Model collections are a good indicator of an active preaching
culture, since they helped preachers in the preparation and delivery of new
sermons in Church.
45 Merete Geert Andersen, Katalog over AM Accessoria 7: De latinske fragmenter, Bibliotheca
arnamagnæana 46 (Copenhagen: reitzel, 2008), 128. the sermons are Guilelmus de
Malliaco nos. 1, 7 and 13, Schneyer, Repertorium, vol. 2, 473–74. note that no. 7 on 2ra had
not been identified and was thus wrongly assigned to Christmas Day by andersen.
46 Leonardus Matteo de Utino, Sermones aurei de sanctis (Colonia: anton Koberger, 1473),
sermo xxiv. the fragment is listed in the aM accessoria 7 catalogue but as containing an
unidentified theological treatise and being written in Iceland in the fourteenth century,
cf. andersen, Katalog over AM Accessoria 7, 93. the identification is my own, but I am
indebted to Michael robert Gullick for helping me with the provenance and date.
47 Sermons by thomas aquinas and Johannes de Verdena, as well as known preacher
manuals, were among the possessions of Hólar cathedral, cf. Íslenzka bókmentafélag, ed.,
Diplomatarium Islandicum: Íslenzkt fornbrèfasafn sem hefir inni að halda brèf og gjörnínga,
dóma og máldaga, og aðrar skrár, er snerta Ísland eða íslenzka menn, 16 vols. (Copenhagen:
Bókmentafèlag, 1857–1972), vol. 9, 297 ff.