Gripla - 2019, Blaðsíða 170
GRIPLA170
Bishops, clerics and the administration
of Si quis suadente excommunications
Although the most common text in Old Norse-Icelandic that addresses
automatic excommunication is “vm banns verk,” another explanation about
automatic excommunication also survives, in a statute or skipan attributed
to Bishop Jón Halldórsson and dated to 1326. The text is preserved in at
least six medieval manuscripts, although several of these are now fragmen-
tary.60 The most complete versions of this decree list 24 separate actions
that led to automatic excommunication as well as mentioning that there are
many other actions not listed because “it is not expected that people might
fall into them here in our land.”61 The first 16 actions follow the earlier
lists derived from Raymond of Penyafort. Kristoffer Vadum has argued
that the additional offenses mentioned by Bishop Jón that are not derived
from Raymond of Penyafort can all be traced to Latin sources, including
the official collection of Pope Clement V’s legislation, the Clementines,
which were promulgated in 1317.62
In addition to translations from various canonical works Jón Halldórs-
son’s skipan also contains more details and explanations on how these rules
are to be disseminated and enforced. He focuses on the practical adminis-
tration of automatic excommunications, insisting that provosts copy the
document and read it out to their constituents at least twice a year.63 He
also insists that certain offenders should be identified by provosts and sent
to Skálaholt on Ash Wednesday and Ascension Thursday to be seen by the
bishop.64 Although the language of the “papal ban” appears, it is clear that
the actual administrative authority is being exercised by the bishop.
This decree further emphasizes points made in an earlier decree asso-
ciated with Bishop Árni Þorláksson, which provides, in much less detail,
instructions for priests about how to administer excommunication.65 The
60 Diplomatarium Islandicum, 2.582.
61 Diplomatarium Islandicum, 2.592: “þi at eigi er jafnbætt at menn falli j þa her a varu landi.”
62 Vadum, “Bruk af kanonistisk litturatur,” 397–410.
63 Diplomatarium Islandicum, 2.592: “þa biodum ver ollum profastum varum at taka transkrip-
tum eptir þessu varo brefi.”
64 Diplomatarium Islandicum, 2.592.
65 It occurs in at least three fourteenth-century manuscripts AM 350 fol., AM 175 a 4to,
and AM 671 4to. Diplomatarium Islandicum, 2.23–28. AM 350 fol. also contains Jón
Halldórsson’s list of automatic excommunications.