Gripla - 20.12.2018, Síða 208

GRIPLA208
Europe.15 When Pope Gregory IX gave another law professor, raymond
of Penyafort, the assignment of taking what was most useful among the
precedents that were used in Bologna and putting together a definite and
official collection, raymond decided to include the letter to archbishop
tore in the book he produced, which is variously known as the Decretals
of Gregory IX or the Liber extra. this book was promulgated in 1234 and
became the second volume in the official Corpus iuris canonici. The Liber
extra came to Iceland at the latest in 1269, when archbishop Jón raude of
trondheim gave a copy to Bishop Árni of Skálholt.16 We know from book
inventories made at each of Iceland’s two cathedrals that several copies of
the Liber extra were available there, and not only this book, but also the
rest of the official body of canon lawbooks known as the Corpus iuris cano-
nici. the libraries also contained several law school textbooks of European
canon law and Icelandic lawbooks.17 the cathedrals were the centers for ec-
clesiastical jurisdiction in Iceland, and the fact that the Icelandic lawbooks
in the bishops’ working libraries were surrounded by European lawbooks
strongly suggests that they need to be seen in that context.
When Pope Innocent III wrote to archbishop tore, his decision was
a specific verdict in an individual case, and thus not strictly speaking law.
When Peter of Benevento began to teach the precedent in his law school
classes, it became as good as law, since the standard textbooks in Bologna
were respected as such. Innocent’s decision officially became law with the
publication of the Liber extra in 1234. as such, his rule was accepted all
around Europe, also in Iceland, as we have seen.18
15 Kenneth C. Pennington, “Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Medieval and Early Modern Jurists,”
http://amesfoundation.law.harvard.edu/BioBibCanonists/, s.v. “Compilatio tertia.”
16 “Árna saga biskups,” 13.
17 the 1396 inventory from Hólar is printed in Diplomatarium Islandicum: Íslenzkt forn-
bréfasafn, (Kaupmannahöfn and reykjavík: Hið íslenzka bókmenntafélag, 1857–1972),
3.612–613 and mentions two copies of the Liber extra and two copies of Gratian’s Decretum,
as well as single copies of the Liber sextus and the Clementines. See also Sigurður Líndal,
“Um þekkingu íslendinga á rómverskum og kanónískum rétti frá 12. öld til miðrar 16.
aldar,” Úlfljótur 50 (1997): 260–267.
18 a couple of late medieval and early modern treatises usefully summarize the developed
medieval canon law and theology on baptism: Martinus Bonacina, Tractatuum moralium
de casibus conscientiae ... tomus (Mediolani: apud haer. Pacifici Pontij & Ioannes Baptista
Piccalea, 1623), 42–43: Tractatus de sacramentis disp. 2, quest. 2, punct. 3, no. 3–5; nicolaus
de Plove, “tractatus de sacramentis” pars 1, cap. 1, par. 5, Tractatus universi iuris, (Venetiis,
1584–1586), 14.78, who explicitly rules out baptism in snow: “Et similiter in glacie non est