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this is the kind of practical, detailed rule that the canon law allowed, or
indeed encouraged local bishops to set down.26
But perhaps more interesting is the role of women. Clearly, the original
compilation of the older Christian Law of Iceland did not allow women
to baptize, even in an emergency. Later, it was discovered that this did not
reflect general canon law, so owners and readers corrected their copies of
the lawbook (which, in itself, demonstrates that owners were keen to have
up-to-date law, suggesting that the books were, in fact, used as sources
of law).27 this conclusion warns, again, against assuming that the older
Christian Law of Iceland as preserved in the manuscripts was, in its en-
tirety, composed in the 1120s.
I want to give a final illustration from the law of emergency baptism.
the older Christian Law of Iceland foresees the possibility that no one
but the parents may be present when a sickly child is close to death. Might
one of its parents perform an emergency baptism? the reason that this
question is asked is that a complication arises from the canonical incest
prohibitions of the Middle ages. Canon law prohibited a wide circle of
blood relatives from marrying each other, and also extended the same
prohibition to spiritual kin.28 anyone involved in a baptism becomes
spiritually related to everyone else: child, parents, god-parents, priest, etc.
that prohibition appears, for example, in the Christian Law of Bishop
Árni.29 So, if a child’s father baptizes the child, he becomes spiritual kin
of the child and also her mother.30 their continued relationship would be
26 anthony Perron, “Local Knowledge of Canon Law, ca. 1150–1250,” in Cambridge History
of Medieval Canon Law.
27 Sveinbjörn Rafnsson, Af fornum lögum og sögum, 41–46, identifies, again, the trondheim
archbishop Jón Birgisson as the agent responsible for this change.
28 Joseph H. Lynch, Godparents and Kinship in Early Medieval Europe (Princeton, n.J.:
Princeton university Press, 1986); Joseph H. Lynch, Christianizing Kinship: Ritual
Sponsorship in Anglo-Saxon England (Ithaca, n.Y.: Cornell university Press, 1998); John
Witte Jr. and Gary S. Hauk, Christianity and Family Law: An Introduction (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2017).
29 “Kristinréttur Árna,” ch. 28: “Þat er fẏrir boðit af gvðs halfo at noccor maþr hafi guþsifia
sinn at likams losta. … oc þvi eiga prestar guþsifiar uið aull þau bornn sem þeir scira. oc uið
oll þeira feðgin. … Hefir maþr gvðsifia sinn at licams losta. þa scolu þau sciliaz oc gangi til
scripta. oc gialldi hvart þa .iij. merkr byscopi.” See also pp. 103–104.
30 Gratian, Decretum (second recension) C. 30 q. 1 d.p.c. 7, ed. Corpus iuris canonici, 1.1099:
“filia dicitur spiritualis non solum eius, qui accipit, sed etiam eius, qui trinae mersionis
uocabulo eam sacro baptismate tingit.”
THE CANON LAW OF EMERGENCY BAPTISM