Gripla - 20.12.2018, Page 214

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known until Gratian’s Decretum began to circulate at the middle of the
twelfth century. It thus makes sense that the earliest version of the old
Christian Law of Iceland did not know this law, but that some Icelander
(or Icelanders) noticed the discrepancy after Pope John’s verdict had
been publicized in Gratian’s Decretum. the texts of the Christian Law in
Icelandic were then corrected. this proves two things. first, that the old
Christian Law of Iceland (as already pointed out) was a living text that
was changed when needed. What the manuscripts from the late thirteenth
century and later preserve is not the text of the 1120s, but a later text of
which parts (i.e. individual passages) may go back to the 1120s: we simply
cannot know without closer examination, if even then.40 Second, it shows
that Icelanders kept up with the development of canon law in Europe.
It was not just for show that the bishops of Skálholt and Hólar acquired
copies of European lawbooks at what must have been great cost. they
and their clergy read and understood them, and used them to revise local
law. of course, it is likely that they discussed these matters with and were
influenced by foreigners, including the archbishop of trondheim, but it is
not, strictly speaking, necessary to posit such influence.
this contention becomes even clearer if we move from the law of bap-
tism to the law of marriage.41 the older Christian Law of Iceland did not
of the eleventh century. Cf. Linda fowler-Magerl, Clavis Canonum: Selected Canon Law
Collections before 1140; Access with Data Processing (Hannover: Hahn, 2005), 100; the one
apparent earlier appearance mentioned here is in a collection that, in fact, only survives in
manuscripts from the second half of the eleventh century, so this instance of the text cannot
securely be dated earlier.
40 Sveinbjörn Rafnsson, Af fornum lögum og sögum, 25–82, discusses many additions to the
older Christian Law. note his verdict on p. 76: “Komið hefur í ljós að í handritum kristin-
réttarins er ekki einungis kristinrétturinn eins og hann virðist hafa verið settur í tíð bisk-
upanna Þorláks og Ketils einhvern tíma á árabilinu 1122–1133. Í handritunum ægir saman
innskotum sem ýmist eru eldri eða yngri að uppruna en kristinrétturinn sjálfur.” See also
Sveinbjörn rafnsson, “the Penitential of St. Þorlákur in its Icelandic Context,” Bulletin of
Medieval Canon Law 15 (1985).
41 the law and practice of marriage in medieval Iceland have been much discussed in
scholarship, and many scholars have, in the process, situated Icelandic law against the
background of developments in general canon law, although usually relying on secondary
literature, notably James A. Brundage, Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe
(Chicago: university of Chicago Press, 1987), without referring directly to the sources of
canon law. See, to mention only a few representative examples, roberta frank, “Marriage
in twelfth- and thirteenth-Century Iceland,” Viator 4 (1973); Jenny M. Jochens, “Consent
in Marriage: old norse Law, Life, and Literature,” Scandinavian Studies 58 (1986); Birgit