Note 141 — SECTION III. HISTORICAL NOTES.[111]

“In the sixteenth century the Reformation was forced upon the people by the united kingdoms of Denmark and Norway; its progress was everywhere marked by blood, and even the Lutheran historian, Finn Jónsson, is unable to veil completely the atrocities which were committed. The venerable bishop of Hólar, Jón Arnason (sic, doubtless a clerical error), the last Catholic prelate, received the crown of martyrdom along with his two sons, uttering with his dying breath, ‘Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit!’” Thus writes Baring-Gould (Introduction, xl.). Mr Jón A. Hjaltalín hereupon observes: “I must call attention to this quotation from Mr Baring-Gould regarding the introduction of the Reformation into Iceland. I cannot protest too strongly against it. It is utterly false from beginning to end. Every one who has the slightest acquaintance with the history of Iceland during the sixteenth century knows that Lutheranism was not forced upon the Icelanders. The Reformation movement was only encouraged by the king of Denmark. Old men, Bishop Jón Arason among others, were permitted to retain their former faith if they were willing to leave others equally undisturbed in the exercises of their religion. This fact is corroborated by the bishop’s immediate descendants, who in everything glorified their ancestor as a martyr. Further, it cannot be shown that a single person lost his life in Iceland in connection with the introduction of the Reformation. The quarrel which led to the death of the bishop and his two sons arose from a dispute about the sale and occupation of a farm in the west. Bishop Jón Arason was an exact counterpart of the chiefs of the Sturlunga times; he delighted to ride about the island with hundreds of followers, and to engage in fights and broils with every one who had any property to lose. That it was not religious zeal that devoured him or his sons may be seen from the fact, that in a letter to the chancellor of the king of Denmark (dated 10th August 1550) they say that ‘their father the bishop, as well as themselves, are ready to keep the holy Evangelium, as His Majesty has ordered it to be preached everywhere in Iceland.’ There is all probability that they would have come to an untimely end even if there had been no Reformation. The king had indeed ordered their arrest as disturbers of the public peace. He did not, however, order their execution. The responsibility for that act must rest upon the Icelanders who seized them, and mistrusted their ability to keep them in safe custody until they could be brought before the proper tribunal. So far from anybody losing his life through the introduction of the Reformation, no one was even deprived of his liberty for a single hour except by Bishop Arason and his sons. I hope it was through crass ignorance only that Mr Baring-Gould penned such an extraordinary statement as the one quoted. Or is he able to name the people who suffered during the introduction of the Reformation, and to show trustworthy documents that they did thus suffer?”