SWEDEN
350
SWEDEN
of their religion to "Christians of other faiths" who
desired to settle in Sweden for the sake of carrying on
commerce or manufactures. In consequence of this,
Rome in 1783 appointed a vicar ApostoUc for Sweden,
who, however, could effect but little, as up to the year
1860 natives of Sweden were forbidden to enter the
Catholic Church under penalty of expulsion from the
country. Since the year 1873 members of the na-
tional Church who are over eighteen years of age may
join other reUgious societies. All proselytizing by the
dissenters is forbidden. Moreover, there still exist a
series of juggUng enactments, which have lately been
multipUed, so that there is very little actual religious
freedom. According to the literal interpretation of the
Constitution Christians of all faiths may be appointed
to all oiEces, excepting the Council of State, but this is
not carried out in practice, and in this regard no
change will be made within the near future.
Those desiring the history in detail of the develop- ment of the Lutheran State Church of Sweden will find it given very exactly and with copious foot-notea in the excellent work of the Anglican Bishop of Salis- bury, Dr. John Wordsworth, quoted in the bibli- ography. It is only necessary to remark here that gradually new hfe sprang up from the ruins of the Catholic Church organization. The University of Upsala was revived and another university was founded at Lund ; in these schools as well as in a num- ber of sees men excellent in their way carried on fruitful labours; missions to the heathen were begun in Sweden earUer than elsewhere — for example, the missions to the Laplanders and the Indians. How- ever, there was no lack of strife and sectarian move- ments in the Church (Pietism, Moravianism, Sweden- borgianism, etc.); since the middle of the eighteenth century Rationalism and Infidelity have assumed for- midable proportions. Freemasonry is strong in Swe- den, and among its members are many clergymen, church dignitaries, and even bishops. The majority of teachers in the higher schools and many preachers reject beUef in the Trinity and regard Christ simply as a sage and philanthropist. Even the instruction for confirmation is at times made use of to sow the seeds of doubt in youthful hearts; matters have gone so far that a bishop declared, without exciting much opposition, that the Apostles' Creed was unnecessary. The number of the unbaptized is constantly increas- ing. Attendance at church and at the Communion service (8 per cent of the normal attendance) is rapidly declining of late years. Among many intense love of pleasure and unbridled sensuality prevail. Notwith- standing the practice of abortion in many places, every third child is illegitimate. These things lead many of the better classes to join the sects, among which the largest memberships belong to the Methodists and Baptists.
The number of clergy grows continually less, and those who still hold to the Confession of the State Church are hampered in their efforts to maintain religion by the fact that their energies are largely absorbed by matters of secular administration. Conse- quently the men who courageously fight for their con- victions deserve all the more credit, even though they are at the present opponents of Rome. It is due to them that of late far more than formerly efforts have been made to renovate all the churches, and to build new ones, and to improve church music and religious art; as regards tlie liturgy, a desire to revive the old forms has of late become apparent. Much is done for missions both liy tlir State Cluirch and by the fol- lowers of Valdeiistrom, who, notwithstaiidiag their Bcpar.atistic inclinations, work in union with the State Church in tliis matter. Tlie various missionary as.so- ciations labour among the heathen in South Africa, the ('ongo St.-ite, India, China, and Japan. In Pales- tine the effort is made, with but slight success, to bring the "pure Gospel" to Roman Catholics and Or-
thodox Greeks. The same effort in Abyssinia is de-
feated by the conservatism of the Coptic Christians.
Missions are also estabUshed for converting Jews and
Mohammedans although httle has been accomplished.
On the other hand, home missions and work among
the Swedes, especially in America, have made consider-
able progress.
WoRD.swoRTH, The National Church of Sweden in Hale Lec- tures. XIX (London, Oxford, Milwaukee, 1911). 459; Refteh- D.\HL, Svenska Kyrkana hist. (5 vols., Ger. tr., Berlin, lS37),4goes back to 1533; Cornelius, Svenska Kyrkans hist, efter re/otma- tioTien (Upsala, 1886) ; Theiner, Schweden u. seine Slellung zum H. Stuhl unter S. Johann III., Sigismund u. Karl IX. ( 183S) ; Bi \udet, Le St siege et la SuMe. I (Paris, 1906) ; Arndt, Bidrag till biskop Hans Brasks lefnadsteckning (1904); Hedquist, Den Kristna Kdrleksverksamheten i Sverige under medeltiden (1893); Dahl- BERG, Bidrag till Svenska fattiglagsliftningens hist. (1893) ; Hall, Bidrag till kUnnedomen om Cistercienserorden i Sverige (1899); Leinberg, De finska klostrens historia (1890); Bergstrom Arhoga KrOnika (2 vols., 1892-95); Idem, Sancta BirgiUa (1895); Flavignt, Sainle Birgitte de Suede (Paris, 1892); Binder, Die heil. Birgilta von Schweden (Munich, 1891); Sellin, Vadstena, Omberg. Ahastra (1890); ScHtJCK, Olavas Petri (Stockholm, 1900); Ljungquist, Del evangeliskt tutherska Kyrkosamfundet och sektema i Sverige, with the supplement, Den kyrkliga gudotjensten und Kyrkodrct (1890) ; Rundgren, Statistiska studier rdrande Svenska Kyrkan (1897); Norberg, Svenska Kyrkans mission vid Delaware (1893) ; Rodhe, De Svenska Bibels&llskapens upphomst; Katholische Missionen ( 1873 — ) , passim ; Evangeliska Fosterlands-stiftei^ SEN, Missionstidning, for foreign missions; Idem, Budbdraren, for home missions; Annerstedt, Upsala universitets historia (5 vols,, Upsala, 1877-1910); Andersson, Uppsala Universitets matrikel (1900 — ); Geter, Upsala universitet 1872-1897 (1897); Witt- Mann, Wiirzburger Biicher in der k. schwed, Universitdtsbibliothek 3U Upsala (1891); Weibull, Lunds universitets hist. 1668-1868 (Lund, 1868), continued by Tegner (Lund, 1897).
PouTiCAL History. — It will probably never be pos- sible to determine when Sweden was first inhabited. However, the laige number of objects found by exca- vating justify the belief that several thousand years before Christ thc'e were people living along the sea- shore (Baltic, Cattegat) and by the lakes to whom the use of metals was unknown. With constantly in- creasing skill they manufactured we^apons and uten- sils from horn, stone, and clay. Their only food was gained by hunting and fishing. The raising of cattle and agriculture seem to have become customary very slowly. The dead were buried either in a recumbent or sitting position, in curiously formed stone cham- bers over which at times mounds of earth of consider- able size were raised. Scientific men do not agree as to the original home from which the prehistoric in- habitants of Sweden came. It seems hardly probable that they all spread from the south to the north. Still this may be true of the inhabitants of the present Provinces of Sk&ne, Blekinge, and Halland. The Stone Age at last gave way to the Age of Bronze. Some two thousand years before our era men learned how to fuse copper and tin, as is proved by great num- bers of utensils, as knives, daggers, swords, and shields that have been preserved, which were some- times very ingeniously made. Gold also began to be used in this period. Bronze was graduallj' replaced by iron. Roman traders brought into the country not only articles produced by Roman skill in art but also gold coinage. Up to this time the people had tried to preserve the memory of important events by primi- tive marks (hdllristningar) scratched on rocks; they now learned from the Roman traders the use of let- ters, but turned these to suit their own taste into the Runic writing that was long in use. The earliest his- torical knowledge of Scandinavia and its inhabitants is due to Roman authors. Tacitus (Germania, c. xliv) is the first to call the people "Suiones". How closely this tribe living north of Lakes Wetter and Roxen was related to the (Mollis living to the south and west, and how it w.as able to uljsorb the latter and give its own name to the combined body will always remain obscure.
About the fifth century of the Christian era the civ- ilization of the country had greatly advanced; this is proved by numerous remains of gold utensils, orna- ments, runic stones with inscriptions, burial urns, and
