For the reformation of Denmark Danes were required. Soon after the departure of Carlstadt, Tausen requested permission to teach at the university of Copenhagen, and he did actually lecture there on theology.[[236]] But no man could then carry a bright lamp without attempts being made to extinguish it. The teaching of the son of the peasant of Fionia aroused opposition; the professor was recalled by his prior, and remained for two years in his convent. Time was thus given him in his retirement to meditate; and while he was strengthening himself in the faith, great events were about to prepare the way for the Reformation.
Renewed Revolt Of The Swedes.
The concessions which Christian made to the enemies of the evangelical doctrines did not bring him any advantage. A violent storm at once broke out on all sides against the prince and threatened to overthrow him. Sweden revolted against him. Duke Frederick, his uncle, angry that his nephew wanted to make Holstein a fief of Denmark, entered into an alliance with the powerful city of Lübeck to fight against him. The prelates, also, and the nobles of Denmark, seeing that Christian was bent upon ruining them, formed a resolution to get rid of him. The blind docility with which Christian followed the counsels of Sigbrit provoked the grandees of the kingdom. Nothing was done except by the advice of this woman of very low origin. The king conferred benefits only on her favorites; and even political negotiations were discussed in her presence and left in her hands.
The pride, the tyranny, and the passions of this old sorceress—for such was she called—excited the indignation of all classes of society. The people themselves were hostile to her, and many among the middle classes were on her account hostile to the king.
The prelates and the barons resolved to have recourse to extreme measures. They addressed to Christian (January 20, 1523) a letter by which they revoked the powers with which he had been invested on the day of his coronation. At the same time, they offered the crown of Denmark to the duke of Holstein.[[237]] By these measures the monarch was thrown into a state of unparalleled perplexity. All, however, was not lost. He might recall the troops which he had in Sweden; he might then appeal to the Danish people, among whom he still had many partisans, and might maintain himself in Copenhagen until his allies, either the king of England or his brother-in-law the emperor, should come to his aid. But the blow which had fallen upon him was altogether unexpected. He lost his presence of mind; his courage, his pride and his energies were crushed. This terrible despot gave way and humbled himself. Instead of offering resistance to the States of the kingdom, he threw himself at their feet and pledged himself thenceforth to govern according to their advice. He was willing to do any thing to give them satisfaction. He promised to have masses said for the souls of those whom he had unjustly put to death; he undertook even to make a pilgrimage to Rome. But the nobility and the priests were inexorable; and the pope to whom he appealed for help turned a deaf ear to him. Then Christian lost his head; one might have thought that a waterspout had fallen and thrown him to the ground. He caused a score of ships to be fitted out; hastily collected the crown jewels, his gold, his archives, and every thing which he most highly valued, and prepared for flight with the queen, his children, the archbishop of Lund, and a few faithful attendants. His greatest anxiety was to find means of taking Sigbrit along with him. At all cost he was determined not to part with his adviser; and the hatred which the people bore to this woman was so great that if she had been seen she would have been torn to pieces. Christian therefore had one of his chests made ready, and in this the old woman was laid. The chest was carefully closed, and the unhappy creature was thus carried on board like a piece of luggage. On the 14th April, 1523, the king weighed anchor; but no sooner had he put to sea than his fleet was scattered by a storm.[[238]]
Christian nevertheless succeeded in reaching the Netherlands, and he hastened immediately to the emperor to implore his aid. Nor did he confine himself to soliciting this prince, but applied to all the powers and conjured them to come forward to assist him. Charles the Fifth agreed to write to Duke Frederick; but his letters remained without effect. At the same time he refused to furnish the king with the troops which he asked for. The unfortunate monarch now appealed to Henry VIII., who made him magnificent promises, but kept none of them. Christian in his distress betook himself to his brother-in-law, the elector of Brandenburg, and next to his uncle, the elector of Saxony. As their efforts of mediation all came to nothing, Christian assembled a small army and with it advanced into Holstein. But he had no money to pay his men, and consequently the greater part of them deserted him; and the rest demanded their pay with threats. Under cover of night the unhappy prince took flight.[[239]]
Christian, deserted by men, appeared now to turn to the Gospel. He became one of the hearers of Luther,[[240]] and told every one that he had never heard the truth preached in such a fashion; and that thenceforth, with God’s help, he would bear his trial more patiently.[[241]] Must we believe that these declarations were mere hypocrisy? May we not rather suppose that in the soul of Christian there were two natures; the one full of rudeness and violence, the other susceptible of pious feeling; and that he passed easily from one to another? His heart, opened by adversity, appears at this time to have received with joy the truths of the Gospel. When the elector of Brandenburg endeavored to persuade him to return to the Roman doctrine, he replied—‘Rather lose forever my three kingdoms than abandon the faith and the cause of Luther.’ But in speaking thus Christian was deceiving himself. Selfishness was the basis of his character, and he was always ready to do honor to the pope when he saw any hope of the pontiff’s aid in reinstating him on the throne.[[242]]
Death Of Queen Isabella.
There were in his own family more faithful witnesses to the truth. His sister, the wife of the elector of Brandenburg, was devoted to the Gospel, and being persecuted by her husband was compelled to take refuge in Saxony. Christian’s wife, Queen Isabella, herself a sister of Charles the Fifth, having gone to Nürnberg for the purpose of asking in behalf of her husband the assistance of her brother Ferdinand, received in that town the communion at the hands of the evangelical Osiander. When the archduke heard of it, he said to her very angrily that he no longer owned her as his sister. ‘Even if you disown me,’ bravely replied the sister of Charles the Fifth, ‘I will not on that account disown the Word of God.’ This princess died in the following year (1526), in the Netherlands, professing to the last a purely evangelical faith.[[243]] She partook of the body and the blood of Christ, according to the institution of the Saviour, although the grandees who were about her put forth all their efforts to get her to accept the rites of the papacy. This Christian decision of character in a sister of the emperor, in a country in which the papal system in its strictest shape prevailed, greatly troubled her connections and appeared to them a monstrous thing. The imperial family could not possibly allow it to be thought that one of its members had died a heretic. When the queen had lost all consciousness, a priest by order of his superiors approached her and administered to her extreme unction, just as he might have done to a corpse. Every body understood that this proceeding, so grave in appearance, was a mere piece of mimicry. The faith of the dying queen was everywhere known and gladdened the friends of the Gospel. ‘Christ,’ said Luther, ‘wished for once to have a queen in heaven.’[[244]] Isabella was not the last.
Nevertheless, the triumph of the prelatical and aristocratic party in Denmark seemed to ensure the final ruin of the evangelical cause. No one doubted that the abuses of the papacy and of feudalism would be confirmed for the future. But there is a power which watches over the destinies of the Christian religion, and which when this appears to be buried in the depth of the abysses brings it forth again with glory. God lifts up what men cast down.