Background
Jon Arason was born in Gryta in 1484. He was the son of poor parents.
Jon Arason was born in Gryta in 1484. He was the son of poor parents.
Jon Arason was educated at Munkaþverá, the Benedictine abbey of Iceland.
Arason rose quickly to eminence in the church and was consecrated bishop of Hólar, the northern diocese of Iceland, in 1522.
He administered his diocese prosperously until Christian III of Denmark began to impose Lutheranism on all his subjects.
The two Icelandic bishops, Jón in the north and Ögmundr in the south, protested (1537). Ögmundr was deported by the Danes in 1541, but Jón continued his resistance.
He captured the Lutheran bishop Marteinn and seized his see (1549–50) but was soon afterward taken by the King’s agents and beheaded with two of his sons.
Jon Arason was an Icelandic Roman Catholic bishop and poet, who was executed in his struggle against the imposition of the Protestant Reformation in Iceland. Arason was the last Roman Catholic bishop in Iceland, is celebrated as a poet, and as the man who introduced printing into the island. In Houlard Arason founded the first printing house in Iceland.
He is remembered as a national as well as a religious hero.
Jón was the author of splendid religious and satirical poetry; he brought the first printing press to Iceland. His life was the subject of novels and plays by later Icelandic writers.
Gunnar Gunnarsson wrote Jón Arason (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1930), a fictionalized account of the life of Jon. Originally written in Danish, the book has been translated into other languages including English.
He refused to further the progress of Lutheranism in the island.
Jon Arason's continued resistance is thought to have come from a kind of primitive nationalism and simple ambition as much as religion. He resented the Danes' changing the religious landscape of Iceland and felt their culture would be less disrupted by staying Catholic. Hence he took encouragement from a letter of support from Pope Paul III in continuing his efforts against the Lutheran cause. For the Pope, this seems to have been a generalized opposition to the spread of Protestantism, not necessarily support for the peculiarities of Jon's life or Icelandic culture. Still, the encouragement helped strengthen the opposition against the Lutherans into a kind of civil war.
His character he was powerful and purposeful.
Despite the high church rank, J. Areson had a family and several children.
