The first people setting foot on Icelandic soil were Chalcedonian Irish hermits (see Papar), seeking refuge on these remote shores to worship Christ.

Ari Þorgilsson, in his historical work Íslendingabók, recounts that the society was deeply divided between the adherents of the different religions that would not tolerate each other.

They chose a person that everybody respected for his wisdom, the heathen priest and chieftain, Þorgeir of Ljósavatn, to decide which way the people should go.

Once Þorgeir was baptized he returned to his farm in Ljósavatn, gathered the images of his gods, and threw them into a waterfall to show his commitment to the new law.

[4] At the inauguration of Christianity in Iceland, missionary bishops and priests from Germany, England, and Eastern Europe worked among the population.

The first Icelandic bishop, Ísleifur Gissurarson, was consecrated in Bremen in 1056, and he made Skálholt the episcopal see.

Then Iceland, having suffered civil war and anarchy, came under the rule of the Norwegian Realm and in 1380 with Norway under the Danish crown.

Returning to Iceland, Þorlákur became an abbot of the Canon Regular monastery of Þykkvibær, soon gaining a reputation for his sanctity.

As a bishop of Skálholt, he sought to enforce the decrees of Rome regarding the ownership of church property and morality of the clergy.

There was great literary activity during the 12th and 13th centuries, producing extensive religious literature in the Icelandic language as well as the well-known sagas.

The monasteries were dissolved and much of the property of the episcopal sees confiscated by the King of Denmark, who became the supreme head of the church.

A dark spot in the history of the Reformation is the lawless execution in 1550 of the last Roman Catholic bishop of Hólar, Jón Arason, and his two sons.

The "Hymns of the Passion", 50 meditations on the cross by the 17th century poet and minister Hallgrímur Pétursson (1614–1674), were for generations the most important school of prayer and wisdom.

Its foundation was the fruit of the visit of a Scottish minister, Ebenezer Henderson, who travelled around the country distributing Bibles and New Testaments.

Around the start of the 20th century, the church legislation was reformed, parish councils were established and the congregations gained the right to elect their pastors.

Regular Sunday morning worshippers are a much lower percentage of the population, even though church festivals and special events frequently draw large crowds.

[9] On 1 January 1998, a new law came into effect defining the status of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland and its relations to the government.

The highest executive authority is the Church Council, Kirkjuráð, with two clergy and two lay-persons elected by the Kirkjuþing, and presided over by the Bishop of Iceland.

Besides dealing with financial matters and personnel, it also has departments of education and diaconia, ecumenical affairs, church and society and communication.

After the Reformation, the Icelandic church retained the two traditional dioceses of Skálholt and Hólar until 1801, when the sees were united into a single bishopric.

Each parish is a financially independent unit, responsible for the construction and upkeep of its church buildings and all the work of the congregation.

The theological faculty of the University of Iceland, founded in 1911, educates the clergy (priests and deacons) for the Lutheran Church.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland is far from being isolated and is open to all contemporary influences and theological trends.