It encountered, however, a formal and powerful opposition. In vain had Olaf brought the torch of the faith; the clergy cared only to put out the light. Some egotistic and senseless old men would rather have perpetuated in Sweden the reign of barbarism than be themselves deprived of the flattering homage which had hitherto been lavished on them as the sole teachers of doctrine.[[384]] The setting forth in the schools of the words of Christ, of Peter, and of Paul, was enough to make the priests immediately cry out ‘heresy!’ Thus spoke Eliæ, a Catholic ecclesiastic. Happily, the people were more open to conviction than the doctors were. In Olaf’s teaching there was something luminous, penetrating, living and holy, which arrested the attention of his hearers. He taught them to open and to search the Scriptures; and in them they found unknown truth, and saw there the condemnation of errors which had hitherto misled them. The labors of Olaf, which formed a striking contrast to the idleness of other ecclesiastics, won for him the esteem of all sensible men. In a short time his name became so renowned that students were attracted to Strengnaes from remote towns and country districts, from the picturesque scenes of Wermeland, from the iron and silver mines of Westmannia, from the elevated plateau of Upland, from the wooded hills and smiling meadows of Dalecarlia, from Orebro, Stockholm, and Westeraas. Matthias, rejoicing to see around him a revival of religious life, conferred on the two brothers Petri a mark of his favor by taking them with him when he went to Stockholm.[[385]] The good bishop was invited to the capital to be present at the coronation of Christian II., and at the magnificent feasts which were to accompany it. Of these we have already spoken. Our readers will remember that this violent and vindictive monarch had invited thither the nobles, prelates, and councillors of the kingdom whom he suspected of having been adverse to him during the |The Massacre Of Stockholm.| troubles of the country; that after entertaining them for three days with all kinds of merrymakings, he had suddenly ordered them to be seized (November 8, 1520) and conducted from the castle in which they were assembled to the great square of the town, and there had them slain. The father of Gustavus Vasa was one of the number. The report of this frightful massacre rapidly spread through the whole town. Fathers, wives, sons, daughters, and friends were inquiring in distress whether those whom they loved had survived the terrible butchery. Olaf and his brother trembled to think that their benefactor Matthias might be in the number of the victims. They hastened to the spot; but what was their horror when they saw the place covered with corpses! They approached, and searching about discovered the body of the pious bishop, bathed in his blood, and with his venerated head lying at his feet. Overpowered with grief at the sight, Olaf burst into tears; and then with the boldness natural to him exclaimed—‘What a tyrannical and monstrous deed! To have treated thus so worthy a bishop!’ He had scarcely uttered these words when his brother and himself were seized by the hair of their heads and dragged by the Danish soldiers to the place where the executioner was at his work. The sword was already drawn, and their heads were just on the point of being struck off, when from the midst of the royal retinue a voice cried—‘Spare those two young men! They are Germans, not Swedes.’ The headsman paused, and the lives of Olaf and Lawrence were saved. Their deliverer was a young man who, while studying at Wittenberg, had lived in close intimacy with them. The two brothers quitted the capital without delay, and returned to Strengnaes, terrified at the frightful slaughter of which they had been eye-witnesses. Their protector had just been assassinated; what was to become of them? Would the work be interrupted? God took care for that.[[386]]
Towards the close of the fifteenth century, a child born of poor parents in this very town had at an early age displayed great intelligence; and his father had applied his small savings to the cost of having the lad educated by the monks. He frequently embarrassed his masters by the unexpected questions which he put to them. Lawrence Anderson (this was his name) devoted himself to the Church; spent, it seems, some time at Rome in his youth, visited other European countries, and, after his return to his native land, became one of the priests of the cathedral of Strengnaes. Olaf, on his arrival at this town, made the acquaintance of Lawrence, talked with him of the faith which inspired him, and had no difficulty in inducing him to receive the evangelical doctrine. Anderson, who had some time before been appointed archdeacon, felt the inadequacy of the Roman system. To have won him over to the side of the Reformation in Sweden was a fact of great importance, for he was distinguished not only for his intelligence, his attainments, and his eloquence, but his prudence and enterprising spirit.
After the bishop’s death, the administration of the diocese devolved on Lawrence as archdeacon until the election of a new prelate. Under his protection Olaf preached in several churches of the town. He proclaimed energetically that ‘no one ought to trust in mortal beings, such as the Virgin and the saints, but in God alone; that the preaching of God’s Word was of far greater importance than the celebration of mass; that evangelical truth had not been preached in Sweden for centuries; and that confession of our sins ought to be made from the heart to God alone, and not at all to the priest.’ These doctrines, which were joyfully welcomed by many, were by others stoutly rejected. Among those who heard them, no one felt more indignation than Doctor Nils, one of the leading members of the chapter, and an enthusiastic partisan of Rome. He resolutely asserted that Olaf was preaching heresies, and he endeavored to confute the Christian doctrines which the reformer proclaimed, but without success. ‘What,’ said he, ‘reject dogmas and abolish practices which have been for so many ages universally adopted in Christendom!’ But Olaf, under Anderson’s protection, continued to proclaim the truth from the pulpit, and maintained it likewise in disputations which were frequently very stormy.[[387]]
The bonds which united the two Petri and Anderson were day by day drawn closer. The three friends studied the Scriptures together; they conversed about all the reforms which were needed in the Church; and Olaf, in order to encourage Anderson, communicated to him the letters which he received from Wittenberg, whether from Luther or from other champions of the Reformation. In this manner they were spending happy and useful days, when a domestic event occurred to disturb their pious intercourse.
Funeral Of Olaf’s Father.
Olaf had not made any long stay at Orebro since his return from Wittenberg. His parents, and particularly his mother, were strongly attached to the Roman Church; and when in her company, while he would talk to her of the Saviour, he had not courage to attack the superstitions of the Church. On a sudden, a message from their mother informed the two brothers of the death of their father, and summoned them to attend the funeral. They set out immediately without hesitation; but at the same time they foresaw the embarrassment which would arise to increase their filial sorrow. Their mother had requested the Carmelite monks to celebrate the funeral ceremony in conformity with the ordinances of the Roman ritual; and the deceased himself had set apart for this purpose a portion of his landed estate. Olaf and Lawrence journeyed to Orebro, and as they went on their way by the shore of Lake Heilmar they were in perplexity and distress of mind. They rejected the doctrine of purgatory and masses offered for the dead; and Olaf, who was no waverer between truth and error, had determined that his father should be buried in a manner accordant with the spirit of evangelical Christianity.[[388]]
When they reached their father’s house, the brothers endeavored to console their mother; but at the same time they explained to her in a tenderly affectionate manner that the only purgatory which cleanses from all sin is the blood of Jesus Christ; and that the man who believes in the efficacy of the expiatory death of the Saviour enters immediately into the fellowship of the blessed. The pious woman shed bitter tears. Vague rumors had, indeed, reached her respecting the doctrines adopted by her sons; but now she was convinced of the fact by indubitable proofs, as if she had seen and touched them. The eternal repose of her husband was at stake; and Olaf alleged that the ceremonies enjoined by the Church were superfluous; that no mass ought to be said for the salvation of his soul. She wept more and more. ‘Ah, my sons,’ she said, ‘when God gave you to me, and when I made great sacrifices for the sake of having you instructed in the sciences, I did not think that you would become propagators of dangerous innovations in your native land.’ ‘Dear mother,’ replied the sons, deeply affected, ‘when you hear one of the Latin masses, of what use is it to you? Can you even understand it?’ ‘True,’ answered the devout Karin, ‘I do not understand it; but while listening to it, I beseech God with so much earnestness to accept it, that I can not doubt that He answers my prayer.’ Olaf thought that the best thing he could do was to set forth the living faith which inspired him; and he proclaimed Jesus Christ to his mother, as the only way that leads to heaven. He spoke with so much love that at length she yielded and bade them do as they intended. Olaf and Lawrence at once dismissed the monks, and they themselves paid the last honors to their father, with the noble simplicity and the living faith which are inspired by the Gospel. The monks were angry, and declared that the soul of the deceased was doomed to eternal condemnation. ‘Have no fear of that,’ said the sons to their mother, ‘these are mere arrogant and impious words. God is the only judge of the living and the dead.’[[389]]
Bishop Brask.
About this time appeared a man who became in Sweden the most formidable champion of the Romish faith. Bishop Brask of Linkoping was a priest endowed with immense energy. The outcries of the monks at Orebro were heard as far as Upsala; and in July, 1523, Brask received from the chapter of this metropolitan town a letter in which he was informed that the Lutheran heresy was boldly preached in the cathedral of Strengnaes by one Olaf Petri. It appears that this information was absolutely new to the vehement bishop. Completely devoted to the Roman Church, not even imagining that there could be any other, he was greatly agitated. He heard shortly after that emissaries of the Lutheran propaganda had made their appearance in his own diocese. He looked on this as the beginning of a great conflagration which would consume the whole Church. Of haughty temper and of indefatigable activity, he put himself at the head of the champions of the papacy and swore that he would extinguish the horrible fire. When he learnt that Lawrence Anderson, himself an archdeacon, had embraced these opinions, he could refrain no longer. He wrote to the pope and implored him to name, as speedily as possible, bishops to take the places of those who had perished at Stockholm; ‘but especially,’ said he, ‘in the dioceses bordering on Russia, for the new doctrine which they want to introduce is that of the Russians.’ He then wrote a dissertation on the Russian Church, supposing that he could thus contend against the Reformation and destroy it. But he was greatly mistaken in fancying a likeness in the Evangelical to the Greek Church. The Reformation went further than the Eastern Church. It was not content with going back to the teaching of the councils of the first six centuries, but it returned to Jesus Christ, and to His apostles, and laid its foundations in the Word of God alone. Meanwhile, the Carmelites of Orebro denounced Olaf and his brother before the dean of the cathedral of Strengnaes, charging them with having spoken contemptuously of the pope and respectfully of Luther. The reformer made so forcible a reply that the dean was silenced, and thought it more prudent to leave the matter to Bishop Brask. This man, indeed, did not stop short at any half measures, but sent to Rome an entreaty that Olaf should be sentenced to death.[[390]] Thus were dangers thickening day by day around the two brothers, and it appeared as if the evangelical seed in Sweden must soon be smothered. Political events of great importance were on the point of changing the face of things and of giving an entirely unforeseen direction to the destinies of the people.