Olaf’s Marriage.
The ministers, on their part, sought to enlighten men’s minds; and while Olaf preached the Gospel with power and boldness, his colleague proclaimed it with prudence and meekness. Discourses and dogmas were not enough. Olaf aimed at morality, at a Christian life; and thought that it was his duty to begin with the heads of the churches, who rejected marriage, and had formed for the most part illicit connections. In his view it was a necessity to substitute for an impure celibacy the holy institution divinely established from the beginning of the world. He knew that such a course would give rise to interminable complaints; but nothing could hinder him when the question was one of obedience to a command of God. He determined to do as Luther did. He made sure of the king’s approval; and on Septuagesima Sunday, in January, 1525, he married a virtuous lady belonging to a Christian family of Stockholm. The ceremony, at which the king was present, was conducted, contrary to the usual practice, in the Swedish language. This marriage afforded the priests an opportunity of raising a great storm.[[416]] Because a reformer had obeyed a command of God, they cried out at his impiety: ‘All rule is abolished,’ they said, ‘public order is at an end, and the most holy things are trodden under foot.’
The bishop of Linkoping, as usual, headed the opposition, or rather constituted it in himself alone, and lamented the timidity of his colleagues. Brask was an eminent character, the best informed and most discreet man among the Swedes. To him Sweden was indebted for the introduction of useful industries. He it was who first conceived the project of uniting the Baltic with the North Sea by means of a canal, a plan which has been carried out in our own days. He procured from abroad not only breviaries, but Italian law-books and poets, some of them even profane. When one of his friends went to Rome he begged him to bring back for him the ‘Orlando Inamorato’ and other books of the same kind.[[417]] He stood forward as the champion of the liberty of the Church, of the kingdom, and of the nobility; and looking upon the marriage of priests as a tremendous attack on the Romish system, he rushed to the breach to defend it. He had welcomed the young king with a certain air of paternal condescension, and called him ‘dear Gustavus.’ He now wrote to him a violent letter. ‘This antichristian measure,’ he said, ‘is causing a great scandal in the kingdom. Never since the age of the Apostles has a priest dared to perpetrate so shocking an offence. What confusion, what bitter dissensions I foresee in the future! And it is on you Sire, that the blame will be laid; on you, who by your presence have sanctioned this marriage which is contrary to the laws of the Church and the State.’ He concluded by pronouncing a sentence of excommunication against Olaf. Gustavus too comprehended, although in a different sense from Brask’s, the importance of the step taken by the Stockholm pastor, and nobly came forward in his defence. He replied to the prelate that Olaf was prepared to prove by the Word of God the lawfulness of his union; and that for his own part he considered it strange that a man who acted in conformity with the law of God should for so doing be laid under an interdict, while every one was aware to what scandalous licentiousness the priests were addicted, and without being rebuked for it.[[418]] ‘I should very much like to know,’ added the king, ‘whether such monstrosities are more in accordance with the divine law than marriage which is ordained of God for all. There is not a single passage in the Bible which prohibits the marriage of priests; and as for papal ordinances, they are everywhere falling into discredit. The antiquity of a custom can not make it justifiable.’ The only effect of this reply was to exasperate Brask. He addressed Archbishop Magnus, who took no notice of his very bitter reproaches. He travelled all over his diocese, and prohibited priests and laymen from touching, were it only with the tips of their fingers, the foolish teachings of Luther, lest the contagion should infect and be the death of them. Brask was at least successful in stirring up the people against Olaf and Lawrence. In every direction were heard the exclamations—‘Cursed heretics! disfrocked monks!’ Olaf published, according to the announcement of Gustavus, a work in which he maintained the doctrine that marriage is honorable in all.[[419]]
Translations Of The Scriptures.
This servant of God was now especially engaged on another task. While men were loading him with insults, he was employing the time which his ministry left at his disposal in translating the Scriptures into Swedish. The Chancellor Anderson, on his part, had done the same. These versions were printed, and ere long the bishops loudly murmured because the books of the New Testament were being read in every house.[[420]] ‘Well, then,’ said the king, ‘translate it yourselves, as has been done in other nations.’ The bishops, finding that their authority was every day diminishing, applied themselves,[[421]] though sorely against their will, to the task which the king proposed to them; and they distributed the books of the New Testament among the various chapters of canons, and the two monastic orders, the Dominican and the Carthusian. The bishops, the canons, and the monks were about to suffer still greater annoyance than the obligation to read the Bible.
The Diet which met at Wadstena, at the beginning of 1526, persuaded the king to have himself crowned, adding that the crown should be hereditary. But Gustavus said that before being crowned king he was bound to provide for the maintenance of the kingdom. On investigating the resources of the State and of the Church, he found that the annual expenditure of the former was more than double its income, while the revenues of the Church were much larger than those of the country. The bloated priesthood were swallowing up the people. The king demanded that the Diet should grant to the State two-thirds of the church tithes, which would enable it to provide for the wants of the nation, and to reduce the taxation which pressed heavily on the third estate. The clergy were terrified;[[422]] bishops and abbots inquired what was to become of them. Brask, indignant at the want of courage of which his colleagues had given so many proofs, told them that they were mere dastards, and got just what they deserved. They had also to endure his sarcasms; they had lost every thing, money and honor too.
Ostentation Of Magnus.
All these distressed clerks turned now to the primate. Magnus, who had hitherto habitually tried to please Gustavus, changed his course entirely when he saw that the purses of the priests were threatened! He resolved to have done with reserve, to burn his ships, and haughtily to oppose clerical to civil authority. ‘Have no fear,’ he said to the bishops assembled about him, ‘I will let the king see my power, and I will compel him to bend before us.’ Without any delay the primate established his court on a very grand scale, and received such of the gentry as were dissatisfied with the king. He clothed himself in purple and gold. He undertook a visitation of his diocese with a following of two hundred persons, partly gentlemen and partly guards. Whenever he entered a church rich carpets were spread under his feet, and when he took his meals he ordered the door to be thrown open to the public as a prince does. Every one was struck with the pomp, the solemnity, and the state with which he was surrounded, with the number of the dishes and the magnificence of his table, for in all these things he surpassed the king himself.[[423]]
But neither the opposition offered to the ministers of the Gospel, nor the pride and ostentation of the prelate, could stop the advance of the Reformation. Gustavus was convinced that God made man for progress, and that if there is progress for the body, there is the same likewise for the heart and the understanding. In his view the Reformation constituted a great advance in the sphere of religion; and he saw already many nations of Europe, awakened by the Gospel, marching ahead of others. Why should Sweden be left behind? In order to advance, courage and resolution were undoubtedly necessary; but Gustavus was not deficient in either of these qualities.
The Primate And The King.