Here was fresh trouble for the archbishop. If he refused to comply with the demand of Brask, the latter would accuse him to the pope of keeping up a secret understanding with the heretics. He resolved therefore to assemble the members of his chapter at Upsala, at the beginning of October, 1524, and cited Olaf and Lawrence to appear before them. When the two reformers entered, the threatening looks of these proud priests were fastened on them, and they vied with each other in making the most hateful imputations, and in assailing them with the grossest insults. Olaf and Lawrence answered quietly, and showed by clear proofs the truth of the evangelical doctrine. Their opponents, unable to reply, contented themselves with calling upon them, in the name of the Roman pontiff, to renounce the doctrines of Luther. ‘Otherwise,’ they added, ‘we shall fulminate the anathema against you. Bethink you, therefore, of the terrible consequences of excommunication, even in the case of the most powerful sovereigns. Reflect on the dangers into which you are hurrying your country; for the pope will urge all the princes of Europe to unite together for the re-establishment of the order which you are endeavoring to break up.’ ‘There is no power in the world,’ replied the two brothers, ‘not even anathemas nor martyrdom, which can compel us to hide the truth. The highest gain which we covet is the loss of all, even of our lives, for the establishment of the Gospel and for the glory of God.’

The chapter, then, had recourse to other weapons, cunningly insinuating that if Olaf and Lawrence re-entered the Church they would fill its highest offices. ‘No honors are high enough,’ replied Olaf, ‘to induce us to conceal the Gospel.’ This was too much for the members of the tribunal; and they demanded the severest measures. The primate declared the two reformers to be cast out of the Catholic Church, as Luther was, and anathematized by Rome. Brask now thought that the time was come for extirpating the Reformation; and he sought from the German prelates all the information they could give, of a kind adapted to render it odious. They forwarded to him a mass of shameful calumnies.

This prelate, in a passion of hatred, now established a printing-press near his own house, and put into general circulation books tending to the prejudice of the reformers, prohibiting at the same time the reading of any of the writings of Luther or of his disciples. It seemed that the evangelical cause must sink under the blows of a powerful hierarchy which conspired together for its destruction.[[413]]

CHAPTER VIII.
STRUGGLES.
(1524-1527.)

Gustavus Vasa, as we have seen, had gone to Malmoe for the purpose of arranging with Frederick, king of Denmark, such measures as were required by the grave circumstances in which they were both placed. Christian II. had been set aside, and these two princes were to divide his dominions between them. The compact between Denmark and Sweden was signed at the same time that Olaf and Lawrence appeared before the chapter of Upsala (October, 1524). Shortly after this formality, Gustavus returned to his capital.

Iconoclasts At Stockholm.

No sooner had the king passed within the gates of Stockholm than he heard of the disorder and disturbances which filled the town. He gave orders to be taken straight to the castle; but a very strange sight met his eyes in the streets through which he had to pass. He saw them thronged with priests, tradesmen, women and children, who were running about in all directions, many of them uttering wild cries. On reaching the square he found there heaps of broken images and fragments of statues, with monks standing beside the débris, weeping and touching with trembling hands those heads and arms and mutilated bodies, crying out in piteous tones—‘Behold, our saints, the blessed patrons of the kingdom, how shamefully they have been treated!’ There were also some of the townsmen standing by, who looked on the destruction of these idols as a pious deed. Some giddy ones among them even bragged of their exploits. One young man beginning to laugh and to mock at the pope,[[414]] the populace had fallen on him and treated him in a horrible manner.

Gustavus could hardly suppress his astonishment and indignation. As soon as he arrived at the castle he sent for Olaf and his colleague Langerben, and asked them in angry tones what all this meant. They answered that they had nothing to do with these violent proceedings, but that they were instigated by certain merchants of the Netherlands who had lately arrived; that two of them especially, Knipperdolling and Melchior Rinck, declaring that the Holy Ghost spake by their lips, had secretly made partisans; and that then, feeling sure of their case, they had taken possession first of St. John’s Church, and afterwards of other churches, had preached in them on the Apocalypse, and had cast down the images and broken the organs to pieces.[[415]] ‘And how is it,’ said the king, ‘that you have tolerated such disorders?’ Olaf replied that the only effect of opposition on their part would have been to excite these enthusiasts still more; that the best course was to wait till the people came to their right mind, which they were sure to do ere long. Gustavus testified his displeasure at the toleration of disturbances calculated to undo all that he had done. He summoned the two iconoclasts to his presence, commanded them to depart the kingdom, and declared at the same time that if they ever entered it again, it would be under pain of death.

While the fanaticism of the ‘Illuminated’ was turning Stockholm upside down, the Roman clergy took advantage of it to bring back to their side those who had appeared friendly to the Reformation.

Gustavus, who possessed in a high degree those gifts of great men which make a look or a word enough to persuade men, saw that his first duty was to pacify the people. According to the custom of newly elected kings, he took what was called Eric’s road, and, making a progress through all the provinces of his kingdom, he appeared everywhere like a father full of love, even for the least of his subjects. He counselled the ecclesiastics to preach the Gospel with meekness, and the flocks to put it in practice. A storm had passed over Sweden, but the presence of Gustavus was like the beneficent sun which lifts up the drooping grass and restores vigor to the blasted trees.