Guðmundur Arason

In his years as a simple priest, he did not exhibit any interest in strengthening the Church as an institution, and did not seek wealth or other worldly goods.

He was amongst the clerical visionaries who praised the virtue of poverty and believed the Church had been led astray by the acquisition of wealth.

Guðmundur wanted the see to remain independent from the chieftains who had elected him, and made the first documented attempt in Iceland to maintain the judicial powers of the church over its own members.

Kolbeinn Tumason, chieftain of the Ásbirningar clan, had played an important part in Guðmundur's election, but in 1205 a dispute arose between the two.

In the autumn of 1208, Kolbeinn travelled with a body of men to Hólar to carry out a sentence against a priest guilty of impregnating a woman.

Within living memory, he was regarded as a holy man (or saint), and in 1315 his physical remains were interred in a grand ceremony under the auspices of Auðunn rauði Þorbergsson, the bishop of Hólar.

By the time a concerted effort was made to establish Guðmundr's sanctity in the first half of the fourteenth century, papal permission was necessary - and expensive.