Religious Images and Iconoclasm in Reformation Iceland

Sigrún Hannesdóttir

doi:10.3390/rel12060428

Abstract

This work assesses what happened to liturgical objects from Icelandic churches and monastic houses during and after the Lutheran Reformation, through an examination of written sources, such as inventories and Visitation books, and material evidence in museum collections and from archaeological excavations. The aim of this work is first, to assess the extent and nature of iconoclasm in Iceland and secondly to re-examine traditional narratives of the Icelandic Reformation in the light of material culture.

Highlights

This work assesses what happened to religious images and devotional objects during and after the Lutheran Reformation in Iceland through an examination of written sources, such as church inventories and Visitation books, and material evidence in museum collections and from archaeological excavations
Two collections of inventories were examined in order to compare the listings before and after the Reformation: first, the abovementioned inventory book made by Bishop Marteinn Einarsson during his tour of the diocese in the period 1553–1554, only little over a decade after the Lutheran church ordinance was officially brought into force there
Returning to Cormack’s study, one of the most interesting results is the difference in the two inventories she examines: whereas Brynjólfur, writing his inventories in the mid-17th century, lists various effigies of saints and other devotional objects of a Catholic nature, Gísli, who served within the first decades after the Reformation, very similar to Marteinn Einarsson, does not mention effigies, and lists only a few crucifixes and relics as well as two hagiographies (Cormack 2017, pp. 249–50)

Summary

Introduction

This work assesses what happened to religious images and devotional objects during and after the Lutheran Reformation in Iceland through an examination of written sources, such as church inventories and Visitation books, and material evidence in museum collections and from archaeological excavations. As in the case of the effigy of St. Andrew, a great part of the religious imagery and devotional objects from the Catholic period is missing from inventories shortly after the Reformation.

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Results

Conclusion