SWEDEN
349
SWEDEN
the reign of King Magnus Eriksson; she also ex-
erted influence as a writer on mystical subjects, and
died at a great age at Rome duiing the latter part of
the fourteenth century. At a later date she was
canonized.
The civil wars which wasted the country for hun- dreds of years were alike injurious to faith and morals. In the course of time the possessions of both nobility and clergy became very great ; consequently Mar- garet, queen of the united Scundinaxian countries at the end of the fourteenth century, found it necessary to confiscate a part of tliesc lands, which frequently had been gained by doubtful means. On the other hand there were also excellent ])rinces of the Church, as for example, Archbishop James Ulfsson, for whom may be claimed the honour not only of establishing the first printing press in Sweden in 1483, but, what is more, that of founding the University of Upsala. The last Catholic Bishoj) of Linkiiping, Hans Brask, also showed much ability and w:i,s as zealous in his episcopal duties as in liis proniot ion of learning. How- ever, the great lack of the true .\postolic .spirit among the other Church dignitaries is shown by the fact that Archbishop Bengtsson and Bishop Carlsson led lr'>ops against tlieir kings. In addition, Bishop Hemming Gad did everything he coidd in l.")l)() and the following years to o\'erthrow the union of the three kingdoms, and then made common cause with the Danes, while .\rchbishop Gustavus Trolle, who was a strong sup- porter of the idea of unity, was deposed on this ac- count by the Swedish national council. This last pro- cedure led to the interference of the pope, an act which though just was ill-timed. The victorious King Chri.stian II was guilty of great cruelty to his former foes, largely due to the influence of Archbishop Trolle, and this made the Church verj' unpopular among a large portion of the popidation. Conse- quently Gustavus Eriksson (\'asa), who was elected king in 1523 on account of having incited and led a successful revolution against the domination of Den- mark, found the way only too well prepared for the overthrow of all religious conditions.
The first representative of what is called the "ideas of the Reformation" was Olavus. Petri, the son of a smith, who was bom in 1497 at Orebro. He was a pupil of Luther at Wittenberg and returned home in 1519. As cathedral canon at Straengnaes he won over to his opinions the archdeacon Laurentius An- dreas. ^'erv soon the new ruler saw how advantage- ous it would be to him if he were able to crush the power of the bishops and to confiscate the lands of the Church. As early .as 1524 Gustavus Vasa broke off the official connexion of the count rj' with the Roman Curia and permitted Olavus to preach the heretical principles of liis former teacher openlj' in the chief church of Stockholm. Prelates who held strictly to the Faith, as Bishop Peter Jakobsson (Sunnan- wiider) and the cathedral [irovost Knut of Vaster&s, were accused of treason and executed without any fur- ther legal process. At a diet at V'asterils three years later Gusta\-us Va,sa was able, by skilful dissimula- tion, to obtain the piissageof laws whirh made him the summiix episcojiiis of the Swedi.sh Church :iii<l brought the Churi-h into helpless subordination to the State. In order to dui)e the people the Ma.ss, veneration of saints, and pilgrimages were not discontinued at first, ecclesiastical vestments and ceremonies were also re- tainecl almost without change. But at the same time, the king and the nobility ap[)ropriated :us much of the Church lands for th<?m.selves as was possible, t.aking twehc thousand large pe.'isant farms. Even the sa- cred utensils and bells were seized by Vasa. Many monks and nuns were driven out of their moniisteries; a number, induiling all the members of the Francis- can monastery at Raumo, were killed under circum- stances of great cruelty. In order to win over the priests they were permitted to marry, and a great ef-
fort was made to win over the common people to the
new doctrine by translating the Bible into the vernac-
ular. The attempts of the Dalecarlians and SmS,-
landers,who held to the Church, to check the rapid ad-
vance of Protestantism was defeated with bloodshed.
The most prominent leaders of the Catholic party,
Bishop Brask of Linkoping, Bishop Haraldsson of
Skara, "Lagman" Ture Jonsson, and others, were ob-
liged to flee. Nils Dacke, a peasant of Sm&land, who
for some time successfully led his countrynicu again.st
the king, was finally killed in ball le. .\t a .second diet
held at ViisterSs in 1544 nearly all the feast days were
suppressed and all Catholic customs excepting a few
were done away with. The declarat ion was also made
that the country would "never again abandon the
word of God anil the pure Gospel".
The two chief reformers of Sweden were Olaf and his brother Lars (Laurentius). Gustavus Vasa had made the latter Archbishop of I'psala after the flight of the last lawful bishop, John Magni. Three years before the second Diet of Viister&s the two brothers fell into disgrace with the king and were condemned to death ; however, upon the payment of a large fine they were pardoned. They were replaced as coun- cillors of the princely tyrant by two Germans, Kon- rad of Pyhy and Georg Normann, until Konrad was also sent to prison. The skill and success with which Gustavus "iiurificd" the Church is shown by the fact that, although oritfinally tdmost penniless, at his death he ixisscsseil l,:il)6,0U0 thalere in coin (about $6,250,000 at the present value of money), and 5000 large farms. This landed projierty was afterwards called the "Gustavian patrimony". After his death ecclesiastical matters remained for a time as he had left them. However, his son, John III, who had mar- ried a Catholic princess, Katherine Jagellon of Po- land, was striinglv inclined to the Catholic Clmrch. At the diet held in Stockholm in 1577 he forced the Protestant dergj- to consent to a new liturgj- (Roilii Bokcn) and new ecclesitustical regulations. The nego- tiator for the papacy, Antonio Possevino, S.J., was even able to persuade the monarch to enter the Catho- Uc Church and to begin negotiations with the jiope. As, however, the pope could not consent to the Swe- dish demands, no permanent agreement was made. .\fter John's death his brother Charles called a church assembly at LIpsala in 1593 which was largely com- posed of preachers (135) from the Diocese of Upsala, while the other dioceses were only scantily repre- sented. The members of the assembly n]iu(liated John's liturgy and, in order to avoid all di.s.sension, the "unchanged Augsburg Confession" was made the re- ligion of the Stale. .Severe punishment was the pen- alty of a])oslasy from it, while I he exercise of .any other form of worshi]) w.is strictly forbidden. In the Prov- ince of Finland, just as in .Sweden, Protestantism was introduced by force; it w:us not until towards the end of the sixteenth century, however, that there were no longer nuns at Vadstena and N&dendal and that Catholicism came to an end.
In this period the intolerance of Protestantism was so great that Sigisimind, son of John III, who was also King of Poland and a Catholic, was not allowed to hold Catholic services in private, and the expulsion of all non-Lutherans was decreed. After Sigismund's overthrow in 1.59S and deposition in 1.599 a immber of the noblest men of the country were executed on ac- count of their loyalty to their king and their Church. Draconian laws were to put an enfl forever to " pojM'ry ". Conversion to Catholicism was punislied with loss of all civil rights and perpetual banishment. Foreign ecclesiastics who remained in the coimtry to carry on a propaganda were to be pimished with se- vere imprisonment and heavy fines, and even to be ex- Celled. Ojnditions did not become better until two undred years later when, in I7.S0, King Gustavus III at the request of the Estates granted the free exercise
