Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1980, Page 180

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Skålholt, Finnur Jonsson (1754-89), affirms him to have been of
Danish nationality, ‘Jonam Stephani filium, cognomento Krabbe,
natione Danum’.17 The question of his nationality has, however, been
re-examined in a recent work by O. Grønli: for one, his nationality is
not expressed in contemporary documents. On account of his sumame
Krabbe, he has been surmised to be descended from the Danish
noble family of that name, but the sumame Krabbe is also found in
late-medieval records from the diocese of Nidaros.18
Johannes Stephani Krabbe, canon of Nidaros, appears on record for
the first time in Rome in 1434, when he committed to writing the
delivery of a testamentary gift to the Swedish Hospital of St. Bridget in
Urbe. This deed he entered on f. 2v of the Missal of the Hospital, the
present Cod. Vat. Lat. 5742. In 1436 he acted as publicus notarius
imperiali auctoritate in Bergen. The same year he represented the
Chapter of Nidaros at the provincial council of Oslo, and in 1437 he
was delegated by the Archbishop to the council of Basel.19 When, in
1463, he succeeded to the See of Skålholt, he found there a surcharge
of liturgical practices which, to the modem mind of Bishop Jon VII,
seemed obsolete, as expressed in his carefully worded letter. He styles
himself ‘biskup j skalholltti oc prelatus ecclesie stafangrensis’, probably
because he held in expectancy the See of Stavanger, vacant since
1460.
He had, he says, together with his clergy, attentively studied the
Ordinary of the Church and found it in every way conforming to that
of Nidaros Cathedral, except that much had been added to it, for
which he could see no reason, such as commendationes and kantica
graduum. He fully understood that his predecessors, the good bishops
who had been monks before they mied the Cathedral, had added such
devotions because they wanted to retain uses to which they were
accustomed; in the future, however, the services in Skålholt Cathedral
should be conducted as laid down in the Ordinary; whoever wanted to
retain these devotions, would be free to do so, privately. In that way he
hoped to assure a good performance of the basic curriculum. However,
he warmly approved of the Office of Our Lady (vor fru tider) and the
17 Jonsson 2, p. 482.
18 O. Grønli, Ei ættetavla frå reformasjonstida: Norsk slektshistorisk tidsskrift, 14
(Oslo 1954), pp. 352-54.
19 Ibid., p. 354.