In 1050, it was farther decreed, in a solemn
assembly, that the temporal or politic law,
which was introduced from Norway by one
Ulfliot*, in the year 928, should every where
give place to the canon or divine law.
After this period monks and convents
began to abound in the island, and the
people paid a yearly tribute to the Roman
see of ten ells of wadmal for each family.
In the year 1056 the Icelanders received
the first of their bishops, Islief, who was
consecrated to the see of Skalholt, and a
second was instituted to that of Holum, in
I I 07. Both were originally under the jurisdiction
of the Archbishop of Bremen and
Hamburgh; but, in 1103 or 1104, they became
subordinate to Azerus, the first Archbishop
of Lund in Scania, and in 1152 to
the Bishop of Drontheim.
* Uljliots Laug (le code d’ JJlfliotJ fut le premier
code de l’Islande, et en grande partie incorporé dans
celui d’aujourdhui, nommé Graagaasen; son auteur
fut le prévôt Ulfliot qui demeurait dans ce quartier,
dans le canton de Lon; il fit accepter ce code en 928,
et le tribunal supérieur, nommé Althing, fut établi
peu après. Voyage en Mande, iv. p. 44.
The Lutheran religion was introduced by
King Christian 111. in the year 1540, but
the zeal, with which the bishops opposed
this new sect, prevented it from gaining
ground till 1551;<D when the last and most
earnest supporter of popish superstitions,
Jon Areseni * was beheaded by order of the
King’s Lieutenant. Soon after this period
all the inhabitants embraced the Lutheran
faith.
Iceland at present has only one bishop; for,
in the year 1785, the King of Denmark
ordered that all the estates belonging to the
see of Skalholt should be sold, and the money
deposited in the funds called Jordebog’s
Casse. The episcopal see was removed to
Reikevig, and a certain yearly salary granted
to the bishop in lieu of his former privileges.
So also were the estates belonging
to Holum sold in the year 1801; the money
secured in the same funds; and the two
dioceses incorporated into one. Among the
Danish clergy there is no metropolitan or
archbishop, but each bishop has the full
* Arngrim Jonæ Comment, de Islandiâ,