Stóridómur (, English: ''The Grand Judgment'') was a set of laws passed by the

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

ic parliament,

Alþingi The Alþingi (''general meeting'' in Icelandic, , anglicised as ' or ') is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is one of the oldest surviving parliaments in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at ("thing fields" or "assembl ...

, in the summer of 1564, following the adoption of Lutheranism in Iceland. The instigators of the laws were the two

lawspeaker A lawspeaker or lawman (Swedish: ''lagman'', Old Swedish: ''laghmaþer'' or ''laghman'', Danish: ''lovsigemand'', Norwegian: ''lagmann'', Icelandic: , Faroese: ''løgmaður'', Finnish: ''laamanni'', kl, inatsitinuk) is a unique Scandinavi ...

s of the

and the

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

King's representative in Iceland, Páll Stígsson. The King confirmed the laws in the following year. Iceland had recently adopted Lutheranism, and the laws were enacted to reduce moral licentiousness and sexual lasciviousness in the country. The laws introduced harsher punishments for various moral crimes, such as incest and having children out of wedlock, and placed the executive power of meting out punishment and collecting fines in the hands of the emissaries of the Danish King.Már Jónsson. „Hvað er Stóridómur? “. ''Vísindavefurinn'' 23.8.2004

(Dated 7.5.2010).

References

History of Christianity in Iceland Protestantism in Iceland Legal history of Iceland {{iceland-poli-stub

See also

References