Jens Grand - Grand As Archbishop of Lund

Grand As Archbishop of Lund

Grand appeared as a political figure when in 1289 the cathedral chapter of Lund elected him as archbishop. This position included the Scandinavian primacy. Even though the Danish King Eric VI Menved sharply protested at the Holy See, Nicholas IV confirmed Grand's election in 1290. From the start Grand firmly opposed the royal power, openly sympathising with the exiled magnates and refusing any support of the royal family. Like Lund's former Archbishop Jacob Erlandsen, whose sister was Grand's maternal grandmother, he seems to have been the supporter of an independent church without any obligations towards the State or the king. These views, which seem to have been expressed in a both daring and provoking way, made him appear to the young Eric Menved as a pure traitor - especially at a time of danger.

In 1291 Grand approved himself as a jurist and decreed the new Constitutio cum Ecclesia Daciana, asserting canon law in Denmark at the expense of royal privileges. This affront escalated in a dispute between Eric Menved and Grand on the investiture of Lund's dean, Thorkil, and its provost, Jakob Lange, with additional prebends. In the following year Grand initiated to set up a necrologium of the Archdiocese, an inventory recording all the dead to be clerically commemorated by Offices of the Dead and the pertaining prebends and foundations donated to account for these ceremonies. In the course of the dispute - ostensibly on the prebends Grand invested disregarding the royal say in investiture - Grand excommunicated Eric Menved.

In 1294, Eric Menved in return ordered Grand's and Lange's arrestment. Grand was imprisoned in Søborg Castle in Northern Zealand under both humiliating and unhealthy conditions. After some months in terrible conditions, Eric Menved sent a messenger to Grand to see if he would swear allegiance again and promise to seek no revenge for his captivity. He replied: "Rather than bend to his will, I would rather that the king sliced me apart joint by joint than submit to his commands." Pope Celestine V protested Grand's imprisonment, but in vain. Lange was held in captivity in Kalundborg castle. At the beginning of 1295 Lange managed to escape and fled to Rome pleading the new Pope Boniface VIII for help.

On 14 December 1295, Grand too, succeeded in escaping with the help of a cook and fled to his castle Hammershus on Bornholm, whereafter he sought help from Boniface VIII. While Grand was in Rome, Eric Menved took his revenge by ravaging the estates of Grand and his supporters. Grand preferred a charge on Eric Menved at the curia, demanding a huge compensation for his arrest, the ravage of his estates, together with general royal concessions. In return Eric Menved accused him of disloyal behaviour and treason.

In 1297 the curial verdict obliged Eric Menved to compensate Grand with a silver weight of 40,000 marks of Lund, an enormous amount at that time. When Eric Menved refused to provide that amount of silver, Boniface issued an interdict on Denmark and a ban on Eric Menved, but without much effect. Both the Danish bishops and much of the people seem to have preferred a peaceful solution. The papal nuncio sent out to execute the verdict, Isarnus Tacconi (also Isarno Morlane) from Fontiès-d'Aude, archpriest of Carcassonne, came off empty-handed. In 1301 Tacconi became Prince-Archbishop of Riga.

The Grand affair lasted from 1297 to 1302 and was a foreign political strain on the Danish government. Eric Menved's firm attitude, together with a half-hearted support from the church, weakened Grand's case. After a royal rapprochement to Pope Boniface VIII - negotiated by Martin (Morten Mogensen) of Dacia, canon of the Ribe Cathedral in the Ribe diocese, later Rector of the University of Paris -, the affair ended in 1302 with a reduced compensation of silver weighing 10,000 marks. In the end Eric Menved only provided 4,000 marks in 1304, so that then Pope Benedict XI, Boniface' successor, lifted the ban on him. As part of the deal, Grand was removed from the rich see of Lund. Grand's later career was marked by new struggles.