Gripla - 2019, Page 173

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want to improve themselves and atone before God and men.”73 This letter
survives in two fifteenth-century copies from Iceland, as well as at least
one fourteenth-century Norwegian manuscript, AM 65 4to.74 It was not
something emphasized within the large number of Icelandic law manu-
scripts that have survived from the fourteenth century. The privileges from
Cardinal William that fourteenth-century Icelandic manuscripts seem
most keen to preserve are those concerning the easing of rules about work
on holy days and fasting.75
Árni Þorláksson himself is said to have obtained a privilege to absolve
automatic excommunications. The composer of his saga mentions that: “At
this time [1272] Sighvatr, a canon of Niðaróss cathedral, a friend of Bishop
Árni, was at the papal court and at his [Árni’s] request, this same Sighvatr
obtained from the above-mentioned Pope Gregory [X] the privilege under
the seal of Herman, who was then a papal penitentiary, stating that the
aforementioned Árni should be able to absolve in 30 [types] of those cases
which he earlier did not have authority over in the fashion that the same
letter granted him.”76 The writer of Árna saga saw fit to make it clear that
Bishop Árni was officially delegated to absolve and judge a number of
cases. the saga emphasizes that Bishop Árni obtained a direct papal grant
to adjudicate in many matters, many of which were likely ipso facto excom-
munication cases, as many reserved papal powers were connected to such
cases.77 Bishop Árni is probably one of the best documented of Icelandic
73 Diplomatarium Islandicum, 1.550: “Um þessar banns pinur oc allar adrar þer er ver budum i
Norighi þa fam ver valld vart biskupum þeirra er i þvilik storfelli oc stormeli kunnu i falla at
þeir meghi lysa þa af ef þeir vilia betra sik oc bta vidur god oc men. ” the Latin version,
which survives in an early modern copy of a now lost codex made by Árni Magnússon, is
printed in Diplomatarium Islandicum, 1.548 and Norges gamle lov, 1.450.
74 One of these copies is in AM 186 4to Hvanneyrarbók, which also contains the only copy
of the letter on Si quis suadente sent to Iceland and dated to 1177. See above page 163.
75 Short versions of this privilege as well as its confirmation by pope Innocent IV are very
common in fourteenth-century Icelandic manuscripts. It occurs in 35 of the 50 Kristinréttr
Árna manuscripts from before 1550.
76 Árna saga, 30: “Í þenna tíma var í páfans hirð síra Sighvatr kórsbróðir af niðarósi, vin Árna
byskups, ok fyrir hans bæn fekk þessi sami Sighvatr af fyrrnefndum páfa Gregorio þat
privilegium undir innsigli Hermanni, er þá var poenitentiarius herra páfans, at fyrrnefndr
Árni byskup skyldi leysa mega þrjá tigi þeira mála sem áðr hafði hann eigi vald til eptir þeim
hætti sem þat sama bréf váttar.”
77 For a list of these powers and their appearance in the Decretalists see, Figueira, “Papal
Reserved Powers,” 206–11. See also Eldbjørg Haug, “Minor Papal Penitentiaries of Dacia,
their Lives and Careers in Context (1263 –1408).” Collegium Medievale 21 (2008): 98.
THE CANON SI QUIS SUADENTE