with Norway is much more easily affected by the talent of any one of its members. New ideas run more easily over the land, and it happened that in Iceland both sides were much better represented than in Norway. The Protestant Reformation in Iceland was not merely a Lutheran ordinance imposed by a king. Although there was much dissatisfaction with the change, it cannot be said that the Reformation in Iceland was carried through without the general consent of the people. Icelandic history brings out very clearly the same unpleasant interests, particularly the appetite for church lands, as may be found in the history of the Reformation in other countries. But there was also very early a movement for the translation of the Scriptures, and afterwards the honour of the Reformation was maintained in Iceland by the great translator, Bishop Gudbrand.

Jón Arason was born in 1484; little is told of his early life. His father died, and Jón acted as steward for his mother at Laugaland (near Akreyrī) till he was twenty-four. Then he took Holy Orders, and shortly afterwards was married in some form or other to his wife Helga a contract recognised by Icelandic tradition, and not apparently at any time challenged on any ground either by Catholics or Protestants. He made two voyages to Norway for Bishop Gottskalk of Hólar, and after the death of Gottskalk (1520) was elected bishop himself (1522) by all the priests with one dissentient.

At that time Bishop Ogmund, of Skalholt, had just been consecrated, a man in some things resembling Jón Arason, and very well fitted to be his rival or his friend. At first he was a decided enemy. It is curious how just before the Reformation-the " change of fashion "

(siðaskipti), as it is called in Icelandic-there should
have been, after so many foreign bishops, a return to
the old natural conditions, with two men in the two
cathedrals so thoroughly like their ancestors. Ogmund
was a tall stout gentleman, with a remarkable talent for
strong language and little regard for his personal
appearance, though much for his episcopal dignity and
power. He was indeed a chieftain of the old school like
Jón Arason, but without his wit and poetry. He tried
at first to keep Jón Arason out of the bishopric of
Hólar; he and Jón met once in the old fashion at the
Althing, each with his tail of fighting men, and there
was likelihood of a battle. But peace was made by the
intervention of the abbots and other clergy, and there
was no more trouble of that kind.1

The contention between the bishops is told with some
detail, and evidently with much enjoyment of the old-
fashioned tricks and stratagems. In that respect there
was little change after five centuries.

Generally the two bishops behaved like heroes of the
older sagas, and made their fortunes in the old way-
by authority, maintenance, ingenious use of the law.
There is material for the history of a law case in which
Jón was concerned; 2 the facts resemble those of the
Sturlung time. He thinks of his sons in the same way
as Sighvat Sturluson might; the true meaning of
heredity is proved when his son Ari is made Lawman.
At the same time (in this also like the Sturlung house) he
attends to the liberal arts; to his own poetry especially.
He had no reputation for scholarship; it was a common

1 Jón Egilson has a curious story of a wager of battle in the old
place the island in Oxará-between champions of the bishops.
See Dict. s.v. hólmganga.

2 Biskupa Sögur, ii. p. 430 sqq.

belief that he knew no Latin. The Reformation, it should be remembered, encouraged the growth of classical learning in Iceland; the standard was raised after Bishop Jón's time. An interesting document is the Latin account of him written by a Protestant about 1600, pitying Jón for the want of proper Latin education in his youth. Adeo miserum est infelici tempore natum esse. This author recognises very fully the native genius of Jón Arason and his accomplishment in Icelandic verse.

It is not quite easy to make out the extent of his learning. He was undoubtedly fond of books, and the first printer in Iceland, Síra Jón Matthiasson the Swede, worked under his patronage.1 The Reformers did much for the encouragement of study, but they had not to begin at the very beginning.

Jón Arason does not appear very definitely in the earlier stages of the Reformation in Iceland.

The Reformation touched the southern diocese first; the south was more exposed to innovation, as the Danish government house was at Bessastad; and Bishop Ogmund of Skalholt had to meet the impinging forces alone. His tragedy is represented with some liveliness in the extant narratives.

The time is 1539-1541; the chief personages are Bishop Ogmund; his Protestant successor, Gizur Einarsson; Didrik van Minden, a man from Hamburg, deputy of the Governor Claus van Marwitz; Christopher Hvitfeldt, a Danish commissioner with a ship of war. The chief witnesses, besides original letters and other documents, are Síra Einar, a priest who was faithful to the bishop, and his son Egil, then about seventeen years old. Egil was alive, aged seventy, in 1593, when one

1 Biskupa Sögur, ii. p. 440 sqq.

of the narratives was written (Bs. ii. 237-259). Another is the work of his son Jón, parson at Hrepphólar in Arnessýsla about 1600.1

Bishop Ogmund was old and blind when the "change of manners" befell. He was riding with his attendants one sunny day when his sight went from him. He asked and was told that the sun was shining bright; then he said: "Farewell, world! long enough hast thou served me!"

He had to find an assistant and successor; first he chose his sister's son Sigmund, but Sigmund died in Norway not twenty days after his consecration (1537).2

Then Bishop Ogmund, with the assent of the clergy, chose Gizur Einarsson to succeed him. This was the first Protestant bishop in Iceland, and if he was not an absolute sneak, the witnesses (including himself) have done him great wrong. Bishop Ogmund was his patron from very early days, and Gizur made good use of his opportunities. He was a very able man, and the bishop was right in thinking so. It is hard to discover how much the bishop knew about Gizur's Protestant sympathies. There is no reason to doubt that Gizur was an earnest reformer. Like other men of the time, he had unpleasant ways of mixing his own profit with evangelical religion, but he seems to have obtained his religious principles through study, and

1 Biskupa Annálar Jóns Egilssonar, edited by Jón Sigurdsson in Safn til Sögu Islands, i. 29-117.

2 Bs. ii. p. 269. Sigmund's daughter Katrín was wife of Egil above-mentioned, and mother of Síra Jón who wrote the Bishops' Annals. She was a child of nine, staying with her grandmother at Hjalli when her grand-uncle, Bishop Ogmund, was arrested by the Danes in 1541. She was keeping the bishop's feet warm that morning, and saw what happened. Cf. Jón Egilsson, p. 73. Hinir ... kómu til Hjalla fyrir dagmál, og tóku þar biskupinn í baðstofunni ; móðir mín lá á fótum hans og var níu vetra; þeir leiddu hann út, etc.

not in a casual or superficial manner.

He was associ

ated with Odd Gottskalksson, the translator, and with other young Icelandic students who came under the influence of Luther.

In 1539 Gizur sailed for Denmark as Bishop-elect of Skalholt; and that same year the Reformation displayed itself in a Danish attack on the island of Videy at Reykjavík, and in spoliation of the monastery there. The agent in this was Didrik van Minden; fourteen men in an eight-oared boat were enough for the business. It seems a paltry thing, but, as usual, one must remember the Icelandic scale; the ruin of Videy was no less for Iceland than the ruin of the Charterhouse was for London. In Iceland the retribution was not slow. At the Althing, a few weeks later, all the Danes who had attacked the cloister were outlawed and their lives forfeited. The Danes made very little of the Althing and its sentence, but here they were wrong. In August Didrik and his men went to Skalholt to bully the old bishop, meaning to go further east and break up the great cloisters of Thykkvabæ and Kirkjubæ. Didrik blustered in his bad language, bawling at the "divelz blindi biskup," but that was the end of him. The country-side rose; as he sat in the bishop's parlour he looked out of the window and asked, "What is the meaning of all those halbards?" The meaning was that the avengers had come for him; he had to fight for his life; the man who killed him told Jón Egilsson all about it (op. cit., p. 70). This happened on St. Lawrence's Day, August 10th, 1539. It was followed by strong political action on the part of the Althing. Iceland was roused; not only were Didrik and his men convicted after execution and declared outlaws (óbótamenn), but a strong and clear description of Claus van

W.K.E. II.