Gripla - 2021, Qupperneq 161

159
enter their bed. In other words, this refers to the ancient ceremony where
the wedding guests bring the couple to their bed and witness that they get
in together. It stands in stark contrast to what Bishop Árni said on the sub-
ject, which is entirely based on general canon law. Árni did not mention the
need to witness the couple in bed, but instead emphasized the consent of
both parties, which Gratian of Bologna in about 1140 made a basic canoni-
cal condition for a valid marriage.26
I can perhaps discern two overarching themes in Belgsdalsbók’s selec-
tions from Grágás. On one hand, many of the chapters concern details of
procedural law, for example who should be the principal plaintiff with the
right to prosecute murder and unlawful intercourse. On the other hand,
most chapters concern themes that are also touched on by canon law. This
is obvious for marriage law, which is treated at length in Grágás but only
briefly in Jónsbók, reflecting how marriage law became primarily a church
matter in most of Europe during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The
law of inheritance, in addition to being connected to marriage law, was of
inherent interest to the church, which was always looking for donations
through people’s last wills.
The two last quires, folios 85–98, were added to the manuscript after
it was first produced, and they contain further church law, notably in the
shape of numerous statutes issued by provincial synods under the arch-
bishops of Niðarós between 1280 and 1342. Two additional items in these
quires are direct reflections of European jurisprudence, conveying the
teaching traditions of Europe, especially in Bologna.
Item no. 12 in Belgsdalsbók lists sixteen reasons for which a sinner
might get excommunicated automatically (excommunicatio latae sententiae).
It is a text that also appears in many other Icelandic manuscripts. For in-
stance (as point 7), anyone who on purpose sets fire to a church is automat-
ically excommunicated. As Kristoffer Vadum has established, item no. 12 is
a straight-forward translation of a passage in a Bologna text book authored
in about 1230 by the Dominican friar Raymond of Penyaforte.27
26 Anders Winroth, “The Canon Law of Emergency Baptism and of Marriage in Medieval
Iceland and Europe,” Gripla 29 (2018).
27 Kristoffer Vadum, “Bruk av kanonistisk litteratur i Nidarosprovinsen ca. 1250–1340”
(Ph.D. Dissertation, Universitetet i Oslo, 2015).
HÓ LAR AND BELGSDALSBÓ K