As soon as the wise Frederick had been taken from his people, the conflict between the two great religious parties again began. The bishops no sooner heard of his death than they lifted up their heads, and held frequent conferences together. Under the late king Roman Catholicism was moving at a slow pace to its fall; now they must save it, they thought; and for this purpose, taking advantage of the election which must be held after the death of the king for the appointment of a successor, they wished at all cost to exclude from the throne his eldest son Christian, whose attachment to the Reformation was well known; to lengthen out the interregnum as much as possible; and meanwhile to put forth all their efforts to place on the throne Prince John, a child ten years old,[[329]] of whom they would make a good Roman Catholic. During his minority it would not be difficult for the bishops to suppress the Reformation. The scheme was clever and bold, but not so easy of execution as some thought. A large number of the towns and the greater part of the nobility professed the evangelical faith. But the bishops were still in the enjoyment of all their privileges; and they flattered themselves that they should rise to power and get the laws repealed which under the late king had given religious liberty to the Protestants.
Prince Christian, in conformity with the rules of succession, had assumed the government of the duchies of Holstein and Schleswig for himself and his brothers under age. He had not been able to do the same in Denmark. But foreseeing the intrigues of the clerical party, he had sent to Copenhagen the Vice-Chancellor, Johan Friis, and two councillors, empowered to demand the assembling of an electoral Diet to name a successor to Frederick, and to support his own interests. It seemed as if he was to be disappointed in his hopes. His deputies were coldly received: there was no hurry to give an answer, and it was agreed that he should not be invited to the Diet. Indeed, the Vice-Chancellor heard that young Duke John, the bishops’ candidate, had a very good chance. He wrote immediately to his master. ‘If God and the Diet,’ was the noble reply of the eldest son, ‘will confer the crown on my young brother, I do not oppose it. All that I ask is that this important matter may be settled without delay.’ Christian saw the clergy leagued against him; but he believed from the bottom of his heart that evangelical truth would triumph over the bishops.
The Electoral Diet.
On St. John’s Day, 1533, the Diet opened. The prelates went to it, determined to do their utmost to crush evangelical religion, and to re-establish everywhere the old pontifical system.[[330]] Hardly had the assembly constituted itself when the bishops began the work. Ove Bilde, the most learned and most highly esteemed of their number, was apparently the first speaker. The clergy demanded that the election of the king should be deferred to another time. In their name the speaker claimed the entire restitution of churches, convents, and estates, in one word, of every thing that Catholicism had lost; and he violently inveighed against those whom he called the ministers of the new religion and against those who supported them.[[331]] At the same time he exalted the mass as being the very essence of the Christian religion; depicted in strong colors the deplorable state to which, he said, the priests and the monks were reduced; pointed to the heretics establishing themselves in the monasteries which the holy men and the consecrated virgins had been compelled to abandon; and described the excesses of the people in casting down the images of the saints and breaking the sacramental vessels. ‘The authority of the bishops is vilified,’[[332]] said he; ‘there are but few of the faithful who care for the services and still fewer who dread the censure of the Church; while the number of those who join the Lutherans is increasing day by day. Permit not, the bishops implore you, this holy religion, which has formed part of your very life from infancy, to be covered with opprobrium. Let the thunderbolts of excommunication strike those who have fallen into heresy, that they may feel the necessity of returning to their mother’s bosom, and let more terrible penalties fall on those who are obstinately impenitent.’[[333]]
The evangelical members of the Diet listened with amazement to this speech; and the gravity of the crisis caused them the greatest perplexity.[[334]] It was not for the Gospel that they feared; but they knew that if they yielded to the bishops, there would be an energetic opposition. The people would rise and the nobles themselves would take up arms if need were. Magnus Gjoë, the leading champion of Reform in the Diet, rose and said—‘Conscript fathers and venerable bishops, let us not draw down fresh calamities on the realm, which is already too sick. Religion is a holy thing, and neither its origin nor its end lies within the power of any man. If we unjustly seize its rights, God himself will be its avenger. Liberty has been given to religion by the will of the king, and this liberty cannot be taken away without the king’s consent.’[[335]]
The bishops, who fully understood the importance of the moment, remained deaf to all appeals. United with the laymen who had continued faithful to them, they would be able to carry the vote. Their clamor increased. The friends of the Reformation, therefore, judged it expedient to grant part of their demands in order to save the vote. They allowed them to draw up the compact. This seems an enormous concession, but constitutional forms were not as yet very fully developed; and the Diet reserved to itself the power either of amending the document or even of rejecting it, if it did not suit it. The bishops made large use of the power accorded to them. They stipulated, amongst other things, that they should fulfil their functions without having to give account to any but God alone; that every priest who should resist them should be prosecuted; that the tithes should be restored to ecclesiastics, and that whosoever refused to pay them should be summoned before the courts; that the cathedrals, convents, churches, and hospitals should be given up to the Roman clergy; and that in the next Diet a decision should be formed respecting the restitution of such of these houses as had been taken away from them. Nothing was stipulated about the rights of the evangelical Church. This might be deprived of every thing, and indeed they were already taking much from it.
The bishops brought this fatal project before the Diet and required the members to set their seals to it. The evangelicals heard it with astonishment, and the faithful Magnus Gjoë with the deepest emotion. He spoke thus: ‘The bishops have inserted in this compact some provisions which are in their favor and contrary to the decisions of the Reichstag; and they have suppressed others which were favorable to the evangelicals.’ Indignant at this fraud, the energetic Gjoë declared that he would not set his seal to the instrument. Eric Baner did the same. But the other Protestant members signed it, some of them from excessive prudence which degenerated into weakness, others under the impression that by granting to the Catholics what the latter regarded as necessary to their Church, they were only pursuing the plan of freedom and balance between the two confessions which the late king had designed. The instrument, which was immediately published, had the force of law in the kingdom.[[336]]
Adjournment Of The Election.
The bishops, proud of this first victory, believed that a second would be easily won, and they unmasked their batteries. ‘Prince Christian,’ they said, ‘was born long before his father was king; he was educated abroad; he is not a Dane. Duke John is the true heir, for he was born in Denmark, and at a time when his father, the king, was already on the throne.’ The lay senators, perceiving the injustice of this proposal, and seeing to what it must come, took courage. They had made ample concession on matters of religion; they were determined to make none on matters of state. ‘The kingdom,’ said they, ‘is in a critical situation; the partisans of Christian II. are threatening another invasion for the purpose of liberating and reinstating on the throne this prince, whose vindictive, violent, and cruel character we have so much reason to dread. It is not wise at this critical moment to take a child for our king. When a storm is gathering the helm is not placed in weak hands. The wisdom, the valor, the experience of the eldest son of the deceased king, and his travels to foreign courts, all mark him out for the choice of the senate.’ The struggle between the two parties was very sharp. The leaders assembled at Copenhagen as many of their respective adherents as they could induce to leave their country homes. The citizens of the capital began to murmur very loudly at the bishops. The latter were intimidated and resorted to stratagem. Knowing that Norway was devoted to Catholicism, they alleged that it was impossible to proceed with the election without the deputies of that kingdom. Now as these deputies could not be ready before the winter, the election was put off for a year. The clergy vowed to make good use of this interval. Gjoë and Baner contended against a resolution which appeared to them to be fraught with danger. But the majority gave their decision in favor of the delay, and a council of regency was appointed. The two energetic champions of the Reformation still refused to affix their seals to the compact, and quitted Copenhagen. Many lay deputies followed them; three only of their number signed the instrument.[[337]]
The bishops, proud of their victory, were eager to profit by it. Tausen was in their view the mainstay of reform; if they could but succeed in getting rid of him, the evangelical work, they thought, would come to nothing.[[338]] The reformer was cited to appear in the assembly hall of the magistrature of Copenhagen. The bishops were present as his accusers; the marshal of the kingdom, and some of the nobles and magistrates who were devoted to them, were to be his judges. Condemnation appeared to be inevitable. Was the blood of the reformers about to be shed in Denmark as it had been in France, in the Netherlands, in England and elsewhere? Tausen made his appearance before his judges with calmness. ‘You are accused,’ they said to him, ‘of having called the bishops tyrants and the priests idle bellies, and this in a book published by you; of having taken possession of most of the churches of Copenhagen; and of having attacked the sacrament of the altar, both by word of mouth and in writing.’ ‘I have done nothing,’ said Tausen, ‘except for the honor of God and the salvation of souls.’ Then he cleared himself of the charges brought against him; but all was useless. Tausen was condemned to death, in conformity with the canon law, and orders were given that the mass should be re-established in all the churches. The thought of Tausen being put to death, and that in the midst of the population of Copenhagen, terrified the senators, the laity, and the magistrates of the town. They conjured the bishops not to set before the people the spectacle of an execution which must inevitably excite indignation and, perhaps, occasion a revolt.[[339]] They succeeded ultimately in getting the capital sentence commuted into banishment, with a prohibition to preach, to write books, or to publish them.