Studia Islandica - 01.06.1960, Page 41

Tryggvi J. Oleson
A Note on Bishop Gottskálk's
Childien
In an article on Bishop Jón Arason1 I quoted Páll
Eggert Ólason as writing: “It is not known that bishops
begot children after being ordained to the episcopacy,
during the latter centuries of Catholic Christianity [in
Iceland].”2 Recently, however, Dr. Einar Arnórsson has
suggested:i that Bishop Gottskálk Nikulásson of Hólar
(1496—1520)4 had two children by his concubine Val-
gerður Jónsdóttir after his elevation to the bishopric.
Dr. Arnórsson, however, does not discuss all the evi-
dence. I wish therefore to examine here both his argu-
ments and such other evidence on this question as is
known to me.
There are really only two reasons for believing that
Bishop Gottskálk begot children after his election in
1496 and his consecration in 1498. The first is that Bishop
Guðbrandur Þorláksson of Hólar (1571—1627) says that
his grandfather, Jón Sigmundsson (ob. 1520), was
charged with having slandered Bishop Gottskálk during
his long controversy with him.5 What the slander was,
Bishop Guðbrandur says he does not know, but that it
is likely that Jón related in what a holy fashion this
most holy father (Bishop Gottskálk) observed at that
time the laws of holy church concerning the office of
bishop by an unchaste life and by notoriously begetting
three children.6 The second reason is that it is said that