Gripla - 2019, Qupperneq 168

GRIPLA168
This introduction is followed by a list of offenses punishable with
automatic excommunication that the bishops stipulate was to be read out
every year. The list is not an independent production but a translation of
one of the lists of automatic excommunications that became common in
canonical commentaries in the thirteenth century, although no source is
mentioned beyond saying that it is in “God’s laws.”49 Kristoffer Vadum
has identified the particular source of this text as Raymond of Penyafort’s
Summa de paenitentia.50 The document names eight bishops (seven dio-
cesan bishops and the archbishop) said to have been present at the council,
including both Bishop Árni of Skálaholt and Bishop Jörundr of Hólar.51
If Árni Þorláksson can be taken as an example, it seems that these bishops
took their pastoral duties seriously, Árni ensured that the list was read out
at the Alþing.52
The document from the Bergen council is tied to a specific group of
bishops at a specific point in time. Another text, which occurs in at least
nine fourteenth-century manuscripts, is a more general rendering of a simi-
lar idea.53 The text is referred to as “vm banns verk” in the Diplomatarium
Islandicum. It provides a short explanation of why it is needed, and then lists
a number of actions that led to automatic excommunication, a list that is de-
rived from Raymond of Penyafort, like the text from the Bergen council.54
The introduction offered in this shorter text is less focused on the
potential consequences for individual sinners who might unknowingly
commit mortal sins and more focused on ensuring that local priests do not
inadvertently overstretch and grant their parishioners absolution in cases
where they do not have the authority to do so.55 Although 16 offenses are
49 Diplomatarium Islandicum, 2.176.
50 Vadum, “Canon law and politics,” 201–202. Cf. Haug, “Konkordat – Konflikt – Privi-
legium,” 99.
51 For further discussion of this council see Eldbjørg Haug, “Concordats, Statute and Conflict
in Árna saga biskups,” Collegium Medievale 28 (2015): 81–95.
52 Árna saga biskups, 94.
53 The Diplomatarium Islandicum lists 8 fourteenth-century manuscripts of this text. I have
found an additional, incomplete copy in Stock, Perg, nr. 26 4to, fol 4v.
54 Vadum,“Canon law and politics,” 201–203.
55 Diplomatarium Islandicum, 2.212 (text corrected from AM 48 8vo): “Nv af þvi at varla ma
illt varaz nema viti þa sýniz oss nytsamligt ok allra hellz navdsynligt at prestarnir se vissir
at eigi lati þeir fyri vanvizkv sakir bannsetta menn samneyta ǫdrvm ok fara oleysta eda taki
a sik þav mal ok latiz leysa er þeir hafa ecki valld til.”