Gripla - 2019, Blaðsíða 176
GRIPLA176
this formula is impersonal, it is not the speaker who does the absolving,
rather, he uses the subjunctive of absolvere with the name Jesus, absoluat te
Jesus Christus “let Jesus Christ absolve you.”87 The second part switches to
the first person et ego absoluo te “and I absolve you” for cases of adultery;
incest in the second, third, and fourth degrees; and for fornication.88 It
may be a fine grammatical point, but it is worth noting that this Latin for-
mula distinguishes between the excommunication incurred by violating Si
quis suadente and the excommunication that one faced for various sexual
offenses. Although, even if formally it was Jesus rather than an individual
bishop or judge who was granting the absolution, this oath still implies
that cases of violence against clerics and other automatic excommunica-
tions were usually addressed locally. Given their frequent placement in the
margins of legal manuscripts, these formulas had a practical value for the
bishops, provosts, or priests who consulted them. These types of oaths
further suggest that local resolution of automatic excommunication cases
was routine.
Conclusions
Key phrases and concepts from the canon Si quis suadente as well as from
canonical commentaries on this canon were translated into Old Norse-
Icelandic, on multiple occasions and likely from different exemplars. They
were also adapted to fit the reality of Icelandic conditions. Given the sur-
vival of translations and discussions in a wide range of fourteenth century
manuscripts, we can conclude that there was broad knowledge among cler-
ics of the formal rules and the canonical interpretations of the canon, which
circulated most widely through translations of Raymond of Penyafort’s
Summa de paenitentia, which was copied both as part of a decree from a
local council and as a text “vm banns verk,” which was often incorporated
as a chapter of Kristinréttr Árna or appended to it in manuscripts. the
shift identified by Richard Helmholz and Elisabeth Vodola away from
excommunication as a dramatic curse toward its more measured, more
87 Diplomatarium Islandicum, 2.48: “A vinculis peccatorum et excommunicationis si aliqua
teneris eoquod violentas manus in presbyterum vel clericum vel laicum jn tali dominica vel
tali festiuitate injecisti absoluat te Jesus Christus.”
88 Diplomatarium Islandicum, 2.48.