CHAP. XIII. CAUSES OF THE DACKÉ WAR. ·

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CHAPTER XIII.

Ecclesiastical changes - Gustavus claims absolute supremacy in Church

the army

and State The succession confirmed to his heirs - Increase of Promotion of learning - His care for the prosperity of the people, and improvement of the resources of the kingdom Commercial treaties Establishment of a navy Advice to his sons Letters, &c., illustrative of this chapter.

THE period of the Dacké war was not altogether devoted to mutual plunder and bloodshed. It was an epoch marked by ecclesiastical changes of various character, and by some excellent measures for the protection and social improvement of the country, which were more or less developed during the remainder of Gustavus's reign.

The innovations in religion had, as we have seen, been one of the principal causes of the war. They were a text upon which the religious orders in Eastgothland, especially the monks and nuns of Vadstena, and the church dignitaries who had been deprived of their revenues, continually declaimed, and their discourses contributed to bring the King's government into the greatest odium and discredit. Gustavus

thought that the nobles of that province had not sufficiently discountenanced these papistical movements. "From you who have the crown lands and fiefs in that province," he writes in February, 1539,

"we might well have hoped that you would have taken some pains to maintain the evangelical cause, but this is so far from being the case, that you let it drift before wind and wave, just as it may happen. To strip churches, convents, and chapters of their estates, houses, and other possessions, all of you are mighty willing, and in that fashion every man is a reformer; but Christianity depends upon things very different, and therefore we enjoin and command you not to countenance such controversies and doctrines among us, who should be called Christians, as are now agitated in Eastgothland."1

Instead of extinguishing the flame kindled by their Roman Catholic brethren, the evangelical clergy had, in the King's judgment, fanned it by their sudden and injudicious innovations, and by making common cause with them in decrying the spoliations of the Church.

He complains to the Archbishop, Laurentius Petri, in a letter dated April, 1539, "that innovations, of which he had to bear the blame, were introduced without his knowledge, and before the people by previous instruction had been prepared for them; that young preachers were sent out into the different dioceses, as ignorant and more mischievous than the old ones whom they were to displace; that he was covertly attacked in the pulpit by outcries against tyranny and tyrants, and exhortations to mercy and

Vesterås, 28th February, 1539; R. R., fol. 184; Thys., vol. ii.

p. 110.

CHAP. XIII.

ECCLESIASTICAL CHANGES.

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pity; that the clergy wanted to be lords over Christ's heritage and to get back the sword, in which, however, they would be disappointed; and that, if he had not been more diligent to promote the preaching of God's pure word than they, he doubted whether it would have made the progress it had made. This," he concludes, "is the sum of all: if we hereafter find that God's word is not made known and preached by you and your counsellors in a more solid and Christianlike manner than we have hitherto found to be the case, we do not see what inclination or goodwill we can have towards it, and must deliberate upon some other course with respect to it, according to the grace which God has given us."1

On the arrival of George Norman, who had been recommended by Melanchthon as tutor to Prince Eric, this threat was put into execution. Under the title of Superintendent, he was in December, 1539, placed at the head of a council to control the spiritual affairs of the kingdom, to hold visitations in all the dioceses, to correct what was amiss in doctrine and discipline, and to see that there were competent, pious, and loyal preachers established throughout the realm.2

The superintendent was to have a deputy in each province called conservator, to whom elders, who

Stockholm, 24th April, 1539.-R. R., fɔl. 190; Thys., vol. ii. p. 113.

The appointment to Norman, dated " Upsala, 8th December, 1539.” -Thys., vol. i. p. 122.

were to make a yearly visitation in the province, were to render a report. The conservator had power to dispose summarily of smaller matters, but on weightier points he was to consult the superintendent, to meet him at his visitations, and assist with the other conservators in forming a synod to settle the terms of Church ordinances, points of doctrine, and matters relating to schools, universities, and the support of the poor.' It is doubtful whether this system was ever generally established: if it had taken root, episcopacy in Sweden would have been abolished in fact, as it was, well nigh, in name a few

years after. In the course of a visitation made by Norman in 1540 in East and Westgothland he collected from the convents, &c., some mediæval treasures and a good sum of money on the King's behalf, the object being probably at once to fine those who had fostered the insurrection, and to prevent the money falling iuto the hands of the rebels. The Bishop of Vesterås, the adjunct of Norman, and two colleagues, were empowered to hold a similar visitation with a like object in Småland in July, 1541.2

Instructions for the Conservator and Council of Religion in Westgothland: Nylödöse, 9th April, 1540.

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2 Diarium Vadstenense, vol. i. p. 222. "Receipt to George Norman for sundry gold, silver, plate, &c., collected by him in East and Westgothland on the King's behalf." Nerby. gård, 23rd February, 1541.-R. R., fol. 124; Thys., vol. ii. p. 157. Authority to the Bishop of Vesterås, &c. &c., to hold a visitation in Småland, &c., and to retain for the good of the State all the silver not actually used in Divine Service." Calmar, 20th July, 1541.-R. R., fol. 173; Thys., vol. ii. p. 167.

CHAP. XIII.

RELIGIOUS REFORM.

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Some instances of gross ignorance among the priesthood were detected in one of Norman's visitations. A Westgothland priest, being asked "What is the Gospel?" answered, "Baptism," and said, “We had nothing to do with the Old Testament, as it had been lost in the Flood!"

After the war was over, a finishing hand was put to the Reformation, as far as legislation could accomplish it, by the ordinance of Vesterås in 1544. The King, nobles, bishops, merchants, and commons then solemnly pledged themselves never to forsake the reformed religion. Pilgrimages, saint worship, and the ceremonies especially Romish, were forbidden. Some few saints' days, as set forth in the new calendar, were still retained; and the people (lest amid these changes they should forget their obligations) were exhorted to frequent the Lord's table, to send their children to school, and to pay their tithes, from land or water, with punctuality.2

From this time the King bestowed the episcopal title only on the Archbishop of Upsala; the other bishops were called ordinaries, and were appointed to dioceses the limits of which were considerably diminished, "the old dioceses having been so large that the bishops could not visit and have such oversight over the clergy as necessity required." The dioceses of Upsala and Linköping were thus divided

1 Geijer, vol. ii. p. 111.

" Presteståndets Archiv., Swenska Eccles. Handb., 1500-1599, vol. i. No. 39; Thys., vol. ii. p. 192.