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the King to a meeting near Upsala, in which the latter had in vain attempted to convince the people that there were too many monks in the country, and that they were no better than a race of vermin, devouring the fruits of the earth; and that it was an unreasonable thing to pray in Latin since they did not understand Latin.' The meeting took place in May, 1526, and on their return to Upsala the King complimented the Archbishop by placing a wreath of flowers round his head, addressing him as Mai-Grefve, Count of May, and agreeing to partake of the hospitalities which he provided in that capacity. The offence then given was that the Archbishop during the entertainment occupied a raised seat on a level with that of the King, and said, while pledging his illustrious visitor, "Our grace drinks to your grace.' It is said that the King answered-" For thy grace and our grace there is not room in the same house,' and rose from table amid the smiles of the courtiers. At any rate he was much offended, and his displeasure was increased when the Archbishop gave him no support at a conference with the canons of Upsala, of whom he asked upon what they grounded their right to their large possessions? Peter Gallé answered that they were grants from nobles and others, confirmed by kings and princes. "But," asked Gus

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* Rhyzelii Bishopskrönika, apud Geijer. But the repartee is not noticed by the early writers. Celsius says tavus showed his displeasure only by silence.

(vol. i. p. 296) that Gus

CHAP. VI. ARCHBISHOP MAGNUS BANISHED.

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tavus, “what if they were obtained by fraud, by the preaching of purgatory, or such-like cozenage of priests and friars? Have not kings and princes in that case a right to resume them?" The Archbishop and the rest made no reply; but the Dean, George Tureson, the son of the High Steward, said boldly, "The gifts confirmed by kings and emperors cannot be filched away without God's curse and eternal damnation."

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After being imprisoned, upon suspicion of treasonable practices, in a monastery at Stockholm, the Archbishop was released and allowed to leave the country upon the plea of a mission to Poland. boat containing his chief treasures having (as he alleged) been lost, the clergy of Roslagen contributed liberally to his outfit, and with what he collected from this and other sources, and with the state papers, out of which he compiled his history, he set sail for Dantzic in the month of October, 1526. He proceeded from that place to Rome, where he died in great poverty in the Hospital of Santo Spirito in 1537, and was buried in the Vatican.*

1 Scond. Illust., tom. v. p. 30; Celsius, vol. i. p. 297. Tegel, 1526; Hvitfeldt, 1526; Scond. Illust., tom. v. pp. 31, 32.

CHAPTER VII.

Right of the State to tax the Church

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Bishop Brask's remonstrances
Troops quartered on religious

Surrender of Gripsholm convent houses Arbitrary measures to raise a revenue Rebellion in Dalecarlia The impostor Jöns Treaty between the King and the Dalesmen Great meeting at Vesterås The King's purpose to humble the hierarchy Resolutions of the Bishops The King's address to the States - His offer of abdication bation of the meeting His demands acceded to.

- Pertur

THE attack upon the revenues of the existing Church, its doctrines, and its dignities went on simultaneously. The man whom the King had chosen for his Chancellor, Lars Anderson, was well able to second him in his projects, and entertained views respecting Church property similar to his own. These the Chancellor pithily expressed to the monks of Vadstena, who complained, it appears, that the Church was compelled to contribute her money to the expenses of the Gothland expedition: "When we speak of the Church's money," he said, with a courteous use of the first person, "we mean the people's." 1

Gustavus developed his opinions on the subject more gradually. When, in 1523, he borrowed from the churches and monasteries of the kingdom, he pro

"Quando dicimus Ecclesiæ pecuniam, quid aliud quam pecuniam populi dicimus ?"—Skand. Handling, 17 del., s. 206, apud Geijer.

CHAP. VII. TAXES LEVIED ON THE CHURCH.

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mised, as we have seen, repayment as soon as the exchequer should be in better circumstances. When Johannes Magnus remonstrated with him on the subject of the said loan he replied, "with tears," that no one could be more unwilling than himself to impose such burthens on the Church, but necessity compelled him. After the lapse of two years, however, though he still pleads necessity to excuse the appropriation clauses with which the decrees of every fresh meeting of the States were now accompanied, it is no longer in the melting mood that the plea is urged, there is no longer any talk of repayment, and the right of the State to tax the Church, for the protection afforded it, is pretty strongly insisted upon; while in 1526 and 1527 the proposition that all Church property is public property is laid down as broadly as by the Chancellor himself. At a State meeting, held in Stockholm in January, 1525, the King submitted that, in the actual state of the kingdom-the Dalesmen unsettled, and Christian attempting to recover his dominions by force-it was necessary to keep up the army. On the other hand, with the silver and copper mines unproductive, and the revenues of the Crown generally diminished, he (the King) could not

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"Locutus sum Majestati suæ de gravamine ecclesiarum, &c.; respondit profusis lachrymis," &c.-Letter to Bishop Brask, 1st Aug. 1523, apud Geijer (vol. ii. p. 52), who seems to doubt whether the tears recorded were actually shed, because Gustavus in his letter to Bishop Brask on the same subject expresses himself in a tone so different. He omits, however, to give the date of the last letter, and to make sufficient allowance for the effect of time upon the King's sensibility.

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maintain and pay it; much less could the people be oppressed with new imposts for the purpose. It was decreed, therefore, that the tithes, with the exception of so much as should be necessary for wax-lights and the general service of the altar, should be appropriated to the pay of the troops. The cavalry, also-seeing. that the horses could not in the actual state of affairs be sent to grass for the summer-were to be quartered upon the monasteries.' It was upon this occasion that Bishop Brask wrote to the King counselling him "not to appropriate the Church tithes to secular uses, nor to introduce foreign customs, such as quartering troops upon religious houses, the rather that the monasteries in Sweden were not, as was often the case abroad, endowed from crown lands, but from private property, so that the King had not the smallest right to meddle with them, neither had any previous monarch ventured to do so." Gustavus answered that he saw no better way of supplying the necessities of the State, but should be glad if the Bishop could suggest any; that, he must be aware, foreign customs were not necessarily pernicious, nd that it might well be permitted to borrow such as reason and necessity required." "You know well," he continued, "that necessity has no law; besides, can it be doing God service to feed a parcel of licentious hypocrites? or do I sin against him when, at their expense, I take measures for the peace and

'Tegel, 1525.

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