The archbishop takes sworn testimony against Bjarne of Giske
DN 3/30 · 9 March 1291 · Nidaros
What the letter says
On 9 March 1291 Archbishop Jørund of Nidaros announces that he had summoned Sir Bjarne Erlingsson of Giske to appear in Nidaros by 22 February, but that Bjarne did not come. Jørund therefore took sworn testimony from five clerics and several others in the presence of the bishops of Hólar and Skálholt. The witnesses state that Bjarne recalled the church's letter of confirmation from King Magnus, and that at a meeting at Brudarberg in Vågan in Lofoten he forbade the reading of the Vågabok and abolished the boat tithe, the cow tithe and the cheese tithe. He is also said to have decided that the king's lawman should judge in church cases, and he sentenced priests to pay fines.
The letter in modern English (excerpt)
Jørund, by God's mercy Archbishop of Nidaros, sends all clergy and laymen, friends of God and of his own, who see or hear this letter, God's greeting and his own. Let it be known to all that in the winter when 1290 years had passed since the birth of our Lord, in the week after All Saints' Day (1 November) 1290, we summoned and called Sir Bjarne of Giske to us by our letter. He was to come north to Nidaros within three months of the day he had seen or heard our letter, to answer for what he had done against the holy church while he was at the king's court: He had recalled the letter of confirmation and thereby taken from the church all the freedom stated in it, contrary to right. He had taken from the church tithes in Hålogaland, and more that was proven there. And he was to make amends for everything that was proven in this case. We charged the two, Sira Lodin of Vigr and Sira Jon Birkebein, to show him this and lawfully remind him to come at the time he was summoned. They afterwards wrote back to us an open letter under their seals saying that they had shown him our summons and reminded him to come north as we had ordered, with trustworthy men present at all of this. They summoned him on St Clement's Day (23 November) to have come north by the Chair of St Peter (22 February). That time passed, and he did not come. So that the truth might nevertheless come to light for posterity, and so that there would be evidence of his conduct, we went furth
Original text (excerpt)
J[erundr] meðr guðs miskunn ærchibiscup i Nidarose sændir lærdom oc læikmannum allum guðs vinum oc sinum þæim sem þetta bref sia eda hœyra. q. g. oc sina. þat see allum kunnict at vm vetrenn þa er lidnir varo fra burd vaars herra. m. vettra oc cc. oc xc vættra i vikunni æptir allra hæilagra messo. citeradom ver oc kalladom meðr brefe varo herra Biarna i Gizska til vaar at hann uære komenn nordr til Nidaros innan þriggia manada fra þæim dægi sem hann hæfdi seet eða hœyrt þat bref vaart at ansuara
Background
Bjarne Erlingsson (died 1313) of Giske and Bjarkøy was one of the most powerful men in the regency government for the young King Eirik Magnusson, and he led the crown's conflict with the church in the 1280s. Archbishop Jon Raude had excommunicated him because he withdrew the privileges the church had received from King Magnus the Lawmender, and his successor Jørund pursued the case further. The letter is a letter of testimony, a procedural document in which a court gathers sworn statements so that the evidence will exist for posterity even if the accused does not appear. The conflict was to a large extent about money from the fisheries in the north: Vågan was the great stockfish market in Lofoten, and the church demanded tithes on the boats, the cows, the cheese and the skrei (spawning cod). The Vågabok was probably a collection of church rules on tithes and duties in Hålogaland, and when Bjarne abolished it, he ensured that more of the fishing wealth stayed with the farmers and the king. The letter shows that Bjarne acted as the king's man in the north, where the Bjarkøy family had its old interests.
People: Bjarne Erlingsson