Leiðarhólmsskrá was an agreement and an open letter to the King, named officials and the whole public, signed by 26 Iceland

Iceland

Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

ic chieftains in 1513, protesting ecclesiastical encroachment. Primarily the violation of the Sættargjörðin í Túnsbergi, a treaty from 1277, reinstated in 1458, where power was divided between Church and King.

Background

In the 15th and 16th century the Icelandic Church

Church of Iceland

The National Church of Iceland, or Þjóðkirkjan, formally called the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland, is the state church in Iceland. Like the established churches in the other Nordic countries, the National Church of Iceland professes the Lutheran branch of Christianity. Its head is the...

 had become the most powerful entity in the country, both economically and in military

Military

A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...

 matters and had separate laws. Both Bishops and Clerics used had used this to further their powers even more by taking lands from their legal owners without the chieftains being capable of challenging this.
The Church also dispensed Canonical law excessively, punishing harshly those who offended them while protecting murderers of non-clerics and other criminals.

Source

1. Vilborg Auður Ísleifsdóttir, Siðbreytingin á Íslandi 1537-1565, Hið íslenzka bókmenntafélag. Reykjavík. 1997. p.109-114. ISBN 997980498X