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Abstract
From around 1130 to 1240, Norway was troubled by a series of internal conflicts and succession disputes. In this article, I explore one element of Norwegian prelates’ conduct during this period which has received little attention: their involvement in military activities. By comparing how prelates are shown to behave during periods of military conflict in the kings’ sagas with the ideal mode of behaviour set out in canon law, instructional treatises, and papal letters, I explore the extent to which clerical involvement in military activities was considered acceptable in Norway across the high medieval period. I conclude that although it was considered ideal for clerics to eschew involvement in violent conflict, some direct participation in military activities was tacitly accepted within high medieval Norway. This role was limited, however, by the belief that the clergy should not shed blood or bear arms. Although there is some suggestion in sources for mid-13th-century Norway that prelates became less involved in military affairs across this period, there is little evidence that attitudes within Norway towards clerical participation in war had significantly shifted by the conclusion of the so-called ‘civil war’ period.
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Notes
1 A number of scholars have commented upon the Norwegian archbishop, Eysteinn Erlendsson’s, dual role as prelate and secular elite, and noted his involvement in military affairs. Imsen, ‘Erkebiskop Eystein Erlendsson som Politiker’, 16; Gunnes, Erkebiskop Øystein: Statsmann og Kirkebygger, 144–7, 170–1. Sverre Bagge has considered the behaviour of prelates during a large part of these conflicts: Bagge, ‘Den heroiske tid - Kirkereform og kirkekamp 1153-1214’, 51–80.
2 For an overview of scholarship in this area, see Kotecki, Maciejewski, and Ott, ‘The Medieval Clergy and War’.
3 This focus on the legalistic aspects of clerical participation in war can be seen in, for example, Duggan, Armsbearing and the Clergy; Prinz, ‘King, Clergy and War’. Discussions about holy war also often touch on the issue of permitted clerical involvement in military affairs. See, for example, Brundage, ‘Holy War and the Medieval Lawyers’; Russell, Just War.
4 Arnold, ‘German Bishops and Their Military Retinues’; Reuter, ‘Episcopi Cum Sua Militia’; Pavlac, A Warrior Bishop of the Twelfth Century.
5 Gerrard, The Church at War; Nakashian, Warrior Churchmen of Medieval England; Kotecki, Maciejewski, and Ott, ‘The Medieval Clergy and War’. Studies of individual bishops also often discuss their military activities; for example, Lund, ‘A Bishop in Arms’; Vincent, Peter Des Roches.
6 Gerrard, The Church at War; Nakashian, Warrior Churchmen of Medieval England.
7 For more on this, see Robinson, The Papacy, 1073-1198; Perron, ‘The Bishops of Rome’.
8 ‘Magnús konungr ok Erlingr jarl, Eysteinn erkibyskup, Ormr konungsbróðir ok mart lendra manna.’ Þorleifur Hauksson, ed. Sverris saga (hereafter Ss ÍF), 51. (All translations of Sverris saga are my own.)
9 ‘Jarl segir at hann vill at erkibyskup ok Ormr konungsbróðir fari suðr til Bjǫrgynjar ok aðrir lendir menn ok skipstjórnarmenn, þeir sem hann vill nefna, at verja þar land.’ Ss ÍF, 52.
10 ‘Mun ek láta til mín skip ok alla húskarla mína, þá er í byskupsgarði eru staddir, ef bœjarmenn ok kaupmenn vilja sik til leggja.’ Ss ÍF, 45–6.
11 Ss ÍF, 120.
12 Ss ÍF, 45–6.
13 Ss ÍF, 92.
14 Ss ÍF, 89.
15 Ss ÍF, 177–8.
16 Ármann Jakobsson and Þórður Ingi Guðjónsson, Morkinskinna II (hereafter Msk II ÍF), 198; Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla III, ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson (hereafter Hkr III ÍF), 313.
17 Msk II ÍF, 205.
18 Nakashian, Warrior Churchmen of Medieval England, 8–9.
19 Msk II ÍF, 205.
20 Ss ÍF, Viðauki, 295.
21 Ss ÍF, Viðauki, 71–2, 75, 94.
22 Ss ÍF, Viðauki, 61.
23 Ss ÍF, Viðauki, 186–7.
24 Duggan, Armsbearing and the Clergy, 99–100.
25 Duggan, Armsbearing and the Clergy, 102–23; Nakashian, Warrior Churchmen of Medieval England, 94–8.
26 Gerrard, ‘Military Activities of Bishops’, 153–68; Nakashian, Warrior Churchmen of Medieval England, 98–9.
27 Nakashian, Warrior Churchmen of Medieval England, 98.
28 Russell, Just War, 77–84. The issue of ‘just war’ is a complicated one, which I do not have time to discuss here. For more on this, see Russell’s book cited here. For more on Gratian’s views on the involvement of clerics in war see Brundage, ‘Holy War and the Medieval Lawyers’, 106–12.
29 Gerrard, ‘Military Activities of Bishops’, 157.
30 Winroth, ‘Decretum Gratiani’, 73–85.
31 ‘Episcopos, sacerdotes ac reliquos in ecclesia militantes a militibus seculi decet esse discretos et separatos nec oportet eos aliquando in seculo militare per quod ad effusionem sanguinis peruenientes ab ecclesiasticis officiis repellantur. Decernimus itaque ut arma non sumant…’. Skånland, Det eldste norske provinsialstatutt, 188–9 (my translation).
32 Skånland, Det eldste norske provinsialstatutt, 188–9.
33 For a full discussion of how the Decretum Gratiani was used within the Canones Nidrosienses, see Anders Winroth, ‘Decretum Gratiani’, 73–85.
34 Nakashian, Warrior Churchmen of Medieval England, 64.
35 Heidi Anett Øvergård Beistad and Steinar Imsen have both pointed to the pragmatism shown by Archbishop Eysteinn in his attempts to establish and strengthen the authority of the see of Nidaros and implement papal reforms. Imsen, ‘Erkebiskop Eystein Erlendsson som politiker’, 11–25; Beistad, ‘An Almost Fanatical Devotion to the Pope?’, 56–7.
36 Holm-Olsen, Konungs skuggsiá, 126.
37 Vandvik, Latinske dokument, 84–7, no. 24.
38 Translation from Nielsen, ‘Pope Innocent III’, 17: ‘Quia uero tam sacerdotes, qui gubernant naues ad pugnam, quam qui personaliter exercent pugne conflictum, et hii, qui alios incitant ad pugnandum, omnes quidem enormiter peccant, de rigore canonum credimus deponendos.’ Vandvik, Latinske dokument, 124, no. 38.
39 Vandvik, Latinske dokument, 98–9, no. 29.
40 Winroth, ‘Decretum Gratiani’, 74.
41 Bagge, ‘Archbishop Eystein’, 18.
42 Landau, ‘Canon Law’, 67.
43 Phelpstead, History of Norway, xxvi–xxxix.
44 Storm, ‘Theodrici Monachi historia’, 3.
45 Beistad, ‘An Almost Fanatical Devotion to the Pope?’, 11–14; Ott and Jones, ‘Introduction: The Bishop Reformed’, 1–20.
46 Ss ÍF, 3.
47 Lars Lönnroth has discussed how dreams are used within Sverris Saga to establish Sverrir’s position as a legitimate, Christian king of Norway. Lönnroth, ‘Sverrir’s Dreams’.
48 ‘…hann hefði meira af tekit um mótgang við sik en svá at hann vissi at þat væri guðréttligt, ok eigi hefði minnr aðrir hlutir til borit er hann þóttisk eigi mega í frá skiljask liðveizlu við Magnús konung.’ Ss ÍF, 164–5.
49 ‘Erkibyskup þarf enga hirð at hafa eða hermenn eða skip, ok hefir hann eigi minna yfirburð um þat er lǫgin segja en hann ferr með snekkju tvítøgsessu ok hefir þar á níu tegu manna eða meirr ok allt skjaldat. Ok munu vér Birkibeinar rekja minni til at oss þótti hølzti harðskipat þat sama skip er erkibyskup lét leggja at oss undir Hattarhamri. Svá var ok í Bjǫrgyn þá er vér sóttum skipin. Þá var erkibyskups skip ok hans sveit skjótara til vápna at berjask í mót oss heldr en konungssveitin. Þœtti mér erkibyskupi guðréttligra at hafa enga hirð svá at aflaga væri, fyrir því at engi mun herja á hann eða staðinn…’ Ss ÍF, 177–8.
50 Ss ÍF, 177–9.
51 Ss ÍF, 71–2, 75, 94.
52 Ss ÍF, 194.
53 Ss ÍF, 196–7, 201–3.
54 Ss ÍF, 200, 234.
55 Ss ÍF, 228–9.
56 ‘nú hefi ek mítr ok þann staf er ek skal bera at páfans boðorði, en þat er stálhúfa ok sverð. Þessi sǫmu vápn skal ek bera þar til er þú er drepinn eða rekinn af þínu ríki eða af landi.’ Ss ÍF, 196.
57 Ss ÍF, 228–9.
58 Ss ÍF, 238–9.
59 Ss ÍF, Viðauki, 289.
60 Ss ÍF, Viðauki, 289–90.
61 Ss ÍF, Viðauki, 288, 289, 292.
62 Ss ÍF, Viðauki, 292, 297–9.
63 Ss ÍF, 234.
64 Ss ÍF, 8–9.
65 ‘Tak nú við merkinu, herra, ok ætla þat með sjálfum þér at þetta merki skaltu jafnan bera heðan í frá.’ Ss ÍF, 9.
66 Þorleifur Hauksson, Sverrir Jakobsson, and Tor Ulset, Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar i Böglunga saga (Hereafer HsH I ÍF), 11–12.
67 Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla Volume III Magnús Óláfsson to Magnús Erlingsson, 3, 182; ‘En er hann gerðisk fullkominn at aldri ok afli, þá var hann allra manna vaskligastr ok sterkr, mikill maðr, ok á alla atgørvi var hann um fram alla jafnaldra sína ok náliga hvern annan í Nóregi. Sigurðr var snimma ofsamaðr mikill ok óeirarmaðr.’ Hkr III ÍF, 297.
68 Ss ÍF, 6; Hkr III ÍF, 297–8.
69 Msk II ÍF, 175.
70 Msk II ÍF, 207–8.
71 Andersson and Gade, Morkinskinna, 387; ‘Ok er hann var dauðr urðu allir á eitt sáttir, bæði vinir hans ok óvinir, at engi maðr hefði gervari at sér verit en Sigurðr um alla hluti…’ Msk II ÍF, 209.
72 Hkr III ÍF, 319–20.
73 Nakashian, Warrior Churchmen of Medieval England, chapters 4–8, esp. 183, 203.
74 Þorleifur Hauksson, Sverrir Jakobsson, and Tor Ulset, Hákonar Saga Hákonarsonar II (Hereafer HsH II ÍF), 121–2.
75 HsH II ÍF, 206, 208–9.
76 HsH II ÍF, 183–4.
77 HsH II ÍF, 234.
78 HsH II ÍF, 261.
79 HsH II ÍF, 188–9, 238.
80 HsH II ÍF, 193, 244–5.
81 HsH I ÍF, 212.
82 HsH I ÍF, 210.
83 HsH I ÍF, 232, 243–4.
84 HsH I ÍF, 214–22, 248, 311–12, 317.
85 HsH II ÍF, 22–3, 30, 32, 45, 78.
86 Jón Viðar Sigurðsson and Sverrir Jakobsson, ‘Sturla Þórðarson, The Politician’, 5.
87 Jón Jóhannesson, Magnús Finnbogason, and Kristján Eldjárn, ‘Íslendinga Saga’ (Hereafter Ísl.s), 252, 290.
88 Ísl.s, 248–9, 252–3; quote at 252.
89 McGrew, Sturlunga Saga, 236; ‘Hann reið jafnan með vápn, því at hann var ódæll ok embættislauss.’ Ísl.s, 337.
90 HsH I ÍF, 289, 303, 307.
91 Bagge, ‘Den heroiske tid - Kirkereform og kirkekamp 1153-1214’, 75–6.
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Louisa Taylor
Louisa Taylor completed a PhD at University College London in December 2016. Her doctoral research compared the ideals and norms which governed the behaviour of elite warriors during conflict in high medieval England, Norway, and Denmark. From May 2017 until May 2019, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Oslo working on the topic of civil wars. Dr Taylor is currently a Lecturer in Medieval History at Aberystwyth University. Address: Department of History and Welsh History, International Politics Building, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3FE. [email: [email protected]]