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tions, including a chapter that refers to 16 offenses that lead to automatic
excommunication (a text, “vm banns verk,” discussed below) although this
text is placed late in the code or as an appendix rather than being incorpo-
rated into the original discussion in chapter 14.
Both Jón’s and Árni’s lawcodes translate from the canon Si quis suad-
ente. They are not a complete reproduction of the canon but rather take the
basic concept and a few key phrases such as heiptugri hendi “violent hand”
for uiolentas manus “violent hands” and translate them into Norse.45 It is
notable that the Norwegian code refers to the idea that those committing
violence against clerics are under papal ban while the Icelandic code, in
its earliest surviving manuscript, simply refers further interpretation to
the bishop. Some copies also refer cases to the bishops’ umboðsmenn or
agents.46 In addition to these lawcodes, there are other texts that were in-
corporated into manuscripts of church law that further explain the concept
of automatic excommunication and address the pastoral duties tied to such
excommunications.
An important group of these texts documents a church council that
was held in Bergen in 1280. One of the points of discussion during this
council was the administration of automatic excommunications at a local
level. A statement derived from this council is preserved in five Icelandic
manuscripts, three of which also contain a copy of Kristinréttr Árna.47
The first part of the text gives the reasoning behind the text being pro-
duced, explaining that people cannot know that they have sinned unless
they know what actions are forbidden. The bishops compare themselves
to a doctor who takes responsibility for a person’s physical health: they
were responsible for a person’s spiritual health and needed to outline the
spiritual consequences of forbidden actions for their flocks. They use a
dramatic phrasing from the Pauline epistles saying that not to warn people
would mean that the bishops themselves had blood on their hands.48
45 on the translation in Kristinréttr Árna see, Lára Magnúsardóttir, Bannfæring, 83.
46 the version of Kristinréttr Árna in aM 135 4to (arnarbælisbók) fol 77r from ca. 1340 refers
cases to either bishops or their vmboðs men “delegates.”
47 Diplomatarium Islandicum, 2.174. AM 351 fol., AM 354 fol. and AM 347 fol. all contain
both this skipan and a copy of Kristinréttr Árna. a shorter version of this decree is also
preserved, but this version does not present a list of actions leading to automatic excomm-
unication. See, Diplomatarium Islandicum, 2.185–88.
48 Diplomatarium Islandicum, 2.175.
THE CANON SI QUIS SUADENTE