1550: Jon Arason, the last Catholic bishop of Iceland

ExecutedToday.com ^ | November 7, 2009 | Headsman

[CheshireTheCat]

At dawn this date in 1550, two sons* of Jon Arason were beheaded at Skalholt, followed by the energetic sextegenerian prelate himself — cementing Lutheranism in Iceland.

As bishop of the northern diocese of Holar and one of the most powerful pols in Iceland, Arason did what he could to maintain papal authority when the Danish King Christian III began pushing Protestantism.

Arason was a practical guy; remote from any prospect of aid, he was content to maintain a cordial balance between his diocese and the southern one of Skalholt. (The two sees were political rivals of long standing; Skalholt’s previous Catholic representative, Ogmundur, had at one point many years before our narrative excommunicated Arason and forced the latter to flee to Denmark.)

Whether driven by the prince or the bishop within,** Arason took advantage of his Protestant opposite number’s timely passing in 1548 to make a play for power in the south as well. Early returns augured well; Arason arrested the Lutheran replacement, got the Icelandic parliament to throw in with him, and captured key points in the Holar diocese, reconsecrating ecclesiastical properties as Catholic.†

But his rival Dadi Gudmundsson turned the tables on the man who was becoming the de facto ruler of the island by ambushing him at a parley. The cleric and the two sons, having been declared outlaws months before by Danish decree, were executed on that basis without trial, lest holding them for the planned hearing the following spring enable their supporters to rally. Arason’s beheading was reportedly botched....

[Paleo Conservative]

So how did the cleric have two sons? I thought clerics were supposed to be celibate.

[kempster]

Did he die today?

[fieldmarshaldj]

From the article:

* Although this is well into the period when Catholic clergy were supposed to be practicing celibacy, Arason’s indifference to this particular mortification of the flesh is just another bit of his charm. With his mistress Helga Sigurdardottir, he sired nine sons and daughters, marrying them into politically advantageous allegiances where possible. At least eight subsequent Lutheran bishops sprang from his seed; by the present, “virtually all Icelanders can validly claim direct descent” from Jon Arason, according to Iceland, the First New Society.

[chajin]

This is why you never ship a Crown Victoria to Iceland, there’s always someone there who will Reykjavik

[Vigilanteman]

Cardinal Woolsey has a son, from whom I am descended, and a daughter as well. It was described as a non-canonical or a common law marriage with a woman named Joan Larke. His successor, Thomas More, was married twice and sired three daughters and a son.

In the next century, Cardinal Richelieu (French, of course) was widely rumored to have spread his seed around under Louis XIII, something neither proven nor acknowledged, but he did alienate the Pope and celibacy among the clergy became policy shortly thereafter.