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mentioned at the beginning, only 12 are actually enumerated. It also con-
tains a list of seven circumstances in which striking a cleric does not lead
to excommunication requiring papal absolution, which is also derived from
Raymond of Penyafort as Vadum has shown.
This is likely an independent translation from Latin rather than a
condensed version of the list given in the document from the Bergen
council.56 Not only are the offenses listed with less detail in “vm banns
verk,” some of the offenses are left out altogether. The writer explains that
because it is unlikely that certain offenses could be relevant in “this part
of the world” he has not bothered to translate them into Norse – perhaps
an understandable omission given the likelihood of the average Icelandic
parishioner robbing Roman merchants or aiding Muslims fighting against
crusaders..57 Although the source for both of these documents about au-
tomatic excommunication might be the same, it appears that they are two
more or less independent translations, the later more intently focused, I
argue, on an audience of local priests. Priests are, in any event, mentioned
as the specific audience for the text, which explains that they need to be
informed about these types of excommunication so that they do not over-
step their authority.58
Most of the Icelandic manuscripts that contain a version of Raymond
of Penyafort’s text contain this shorter translation. Between this short
text and the document from the Bergen council there were at least two
independent translations of this portion of De paenitentia circulating in
Norse ecclesiastical circles in the fourteenth century. In three instances
both versions are copied into the same manuscripts (AM 347 fol., AM 351
fol., and AM 354 fol.).59
56 Kristoffer Vadum has reached this same conclusion on other grounds, “Canon law and
politics,” 201–203.
57 Diplomatarium Islandicum, 2.213–14: “kvnnv sidr at beraz i þessvm halfvm veralldarinnar
sem ver byggjum.” See also, Lára Magnúsardóttir, Bannfæring, 395.
58 Diplomatarium Islandicum, 2.212: “taki a sik þav mal ok jlatiz leysa er þeir hafa ecki valld
til.”
59 AM 351 fol. and AM 354 fol. are strongly associated with Skálaholt, while AM 347 fol. has
been identified as a Helgafell manuscript.
THE CANON SI QUIS SUADENTE