Enveloped in darknefs. The fchools!
began to decay, and in many places
they even had none at all. It was very
uncommon for any one to nnderiland
Latin, and few prieils could with fluency
read tiieir breviary and rituals.
But this was not the cafe alone in
Iceland, the greater part of Europe
experienced the fame change. For
the dawn o f a more bright day that
had begun to ipread from Greece over
Italy and the fouthern part o f Europe,
after the taking of Conflantinople by
the Turks in 1453, had not yet penetrated
to the north. Whatever bore
the name o f learning was not only de-
fpifed ; but Ibgrofs was their ignorance,
that men of the higheft rank, both
fpiritual and temporal, were incapable
o f writing their names. We cannot
wonder at this in Iceland, when the
hiftory o f the church affords fo many
examples of biiliops who were preient
at councils, at the conclufion of which
they caufed to be written under the
aéls, quoniam Dominus N. Epifcopus
fcribere 7iefcity ideo ejus loco fubfcripfit
N, iV. We are alfo informed, that the
ignorance
Ignorance of this age was fo great, that
ftarce any Swedifli king before Gufta-
vus I. knew how to write his name.
In the annals o f Komingaoch Hdfdinga
fiyrdje (fuppofed to be written by
bifliop Brynolf CarliTon, who died at
Skara in 1430) it Is faid, no more ought
to be required o f a fovereign, than to
know how to read, underftand, and
explain his letters.
The Reformation produced here, as
in moft places, a new dawn o f knowledge.
Some time before a printing
preis had been brought to Iceland,
bifliop Giifur propofed to open a new
fchool in the convent o f Videy, which
had been feized by the crown ; but as
this had been deiigned for a dwelling-
place to the king’s receivers of the
cuftoms, Chriftian III. intheyear r 552,
commanded that a fchool-houfe fliould
be built near each o f the cathedral
churches ; that at Skallholt for forty
fcholars, and that at Hoolum for
thirty-four; but iince they have been
reduced, the one to thirty-four, and
the other to twenty-four fcholars.
Each o f thefe fchools was to be provided
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