Scheeps-togt na Ysland en Groenland, gedaan door Dithmar Blefkenius, in 't jaar 1563. : Waa...

1563. How the reformation according to the doctrine of Luther was introduced there.

They had—as shall still be said—served the Duyvelen devils as their common house-friends until Luther became known, when King Christian of Denmark accepted the reformation according to the doctrine of Luther and had it propagated in his kingdoms and lands, purging them of all superstition and image worship. To this end, he also sent preachers to Iceland, as well as a printer, who was to print the Bible for the teachers who did not understand the Latin language (of which there were many then), and also for the service of the congregation, in the known or their mother tongue, with the annotations of Melanchton Melanchthon, and all the books of Urban the King and others. He also summoned able young men from Iceland, whom he raised and let study at his own expense at the University of Copenhagen for the service of the churches and schools of their fatherland.

Meager income of the Bishops.

At the time of King Woldemar, when Christianity was first planted in Iceland, he had ordained two bishops there: one in Schalholden Skálholt, being in the east, and the other in Hollen Hólar, or towards the west. The successors of these bishops now have nothing but the empty name and title, without other income than butter and fish.

Those of Schalholden oppose the Reformation.

Now when the Reformation in Iceland had occurred under King Christian, the bishop of Skálholt rose up against it with the common people, shouting the Euangelium Gospel and killing the King's commanders.

In the following year, 1535, the King sent a nobleman from the knighthood named Paulus Hitfeld (whom I still saw in Denmark in my time when he was already quite old) to Iceland, providing him with everything necessary for his purpose, such as troops and weapons, who, having arrived there, quelled the rioters and renewed and established the doctrine of the Gospel. Upon his return to Denmark, he left another nobleman there to govern the land,