These sayings provoked the friends of the Reformation. What! the laity must receive blindly the teaching of the priests! Did not St. Paul write to all the Christians of Thessalonica—Prove all things; and to those of Corinth—I speak as to wise men, judge ye what I say? But the reformed did not always proceed in a prudent manner. As pastors were sought for in all quarters, many young men left Upsala before they had gained the knowledge and the discretion which were needed. They preached justification by grace; but some of them did not sufficiently insist on the point that faith which does not produce works is dead; and when they spoke of the priests and the pope they made use of unguarded expressions. Gustavus frequently rebuked them, and Olaf published a work for their guidance. Occasionally without being expected he went to the churches, and after sermon affectionately pointed out to these young ministers the faults which had struck him,[[438]] and counselled them to avoid provoking their opponents causelessly.
But nothing could soothe the ruffled temper of the enemies of Reform. The archbishop, who had once more become a real Roman Catholic (un vrai Romain), was continually stirring up his subordinates against the king. Brask did the same, and other prelates went greater lengths. The bishop and the provost of Westeraas, Sunnanwaeder, and Knut, instigated the peasants of Dalecarlia to revolt; and the latter, with threats, demanded of the king the banishment of the Lutheran faith from the kingdom. Gustavus reminded them of the calamities which the Roman clergy had brought on Sweden, adding that it was the duty of a king to shake off a yoke so burdensome. But the Dalecarlians, who were easily excited, were rude mountaineers who feared neither heat nor cold, were skilled in handling arms, and were equally content with sword and plough, peace and war, life and death.[[439]] In 1526 they refused to pay the taxes, and in a short time they did more.
A Pretender.
At the beginning of 1527, there appeared in the remotest parishes of their country a young man calling himself Nils Sture, who stated that he was the eldest son of the deceased administrator, and that he had left Stockholm in order to escape from a heretical prince, who could not endure at his court the presence of the legitimate heir of the kingdom. ‘As soon as Gustavus perceived me,’ he added, ‘he cast a fierce glance at me, drew his sword, and attempted to take away my life. Is this the recompense due to the merits of my father, who lost his life to save Sweden?’ Saying these words he burst into tears, fell on his knees, and begged the good peasants who stood round him to say with him a paternoster to deliver the soul of the prince his father out of purgatory. The young man was handsome in person, and could speak well, so that the Dalecarlians as they listened to him mingled their tears with his. To his pathetic appeals he added terrible accusations. ‘Gustavus,’ said he, ‘has not only laid aside the national dress, but he intends also to compel the Swedes to dress in the new fashion.’ This the Dalecarlians would have esteemed a disgrace. The pretended Nils Sture had soon a large following, for the Romish system was greatly reverenced, and the name of Sture was held in high honor among the Dalecarlians. The archbishop of Drontheim declared in his favor, and the partisans of Rome hailed the young man as a Maccabæus who was going to raise up again the altars of the true God. The pretender surrounded himself with a body guard, formed a court, elected a chancellor, and coined money. This person, the hope of the sinking papacy, was in reality a farm servant from Bjoerksta in Westmanland, an illegitimate son of a female servant. He had served in several families of the gentry, and had thus acquired a certain skilfulness. He was trained for the part he had to play by Peder Grym, a man who was formerly in the service of Sten Sture, and who had become the confidential attendant of Bishop Sunnanwaeder.[[440]] In spite of his cleverness he was soon detected. The Dalecarlians received one day a letter from the princess, the widow of the administrator, in which she put them on their guard against this impostor, and informed them that she had lost her eldest son. The unlucky fellow made his escape into Norway, and was there received as a prince by the archbishop of Drontheim.
Anxious to dispel the calumnies circulated against him by the bishops, of which other impostors might make use, the king published a declaration, in which he laid down the end which he had set before himself. ‘We mean to have,’ he said, ‘the true religion, agreeable to the Word of God. Now there is no other but that which Christ and the apostles taught. On this point all are agreed. Controversy is maintained only about certain practices invented by men, and particularly respecting the immunity of prelates. We demand the abolition of useless rites, and we strive, as all Christians ought to do, to lay hold on eternal life. But the prelates who observe this, and who care only for their own bellies, accuse us of introducing a new religion. We earnestly exhort you to give no credit to this calumny.’[[441]]
Gustavus, aware that the archbishop was one of those who were circulating the reports in question, summoned him to Stockholm. Magnus went, in serious apprehension of what might happen. As soon, indeed, as he perceived the stern look of Gustavus, he was confused, his countenance changed, and he remained silent. The king told him some plain truths, and reminded him of proceedings which filled him with shame. ‘Your calling,’ continued the prince, ‘is to teach the Gospel, and not to talk big and play the grandee.’ The archbishop promised to do what the king wished. It appears that Gustavus ordered him to be confined for some days in a convent at Stockholm, in order to ascertain whether, as some asserted, Magnus had joined in the conspiracy of Sunnanwaeder and Knut. But he soon set him at liberty; and the king, intending to marry a Polish princess, entrusted him with a mission to Poland. The archbishop set out; but instead of going to Poland, he betook himself to Rome, and never returned to Sweden.
Resolution Of Gustavus.
Gustavus believed that the time was now come to complete his work. He wished to deliver the kingdom out of the state of strife in which it was plunged. Many members of the Diet and officers of the army urged him to get himself crowned, but he did not care for a name and a crown without the reality which they symbolize. The substance of kingly power was really in the hands of the clergy. The bishops had made themselves masters of the principal fortresses, had usurped a part of the rights of the monarch, and were in possession of wealth surpassing that of the State. Gustavus now opened his mind to his clever, eloquent, and bold chancellor, Lawrence Anderson. The latter had discerned the numerous evils brought upon the Church and the State by the temporal power and possessions of the clergy. He reminded the prince of the statement that in the primitive Church the faithful distributed their property to one another according as each had need, and that the apostles declared by the mouths of St. Peter and St. John that they had neither silver nor gold. Anderson, holding the same faith as Luther, frequently conversed with Gustavus about the principles advanced in Germany by that admirable doctor, and urged that this wholesome doctrine should be substituted for the horrible maxims of the priests.
Gustavus understood him, and formed the purpose of withdrawing resolutely from the foreign domination of Rome, which had cost Scandinavia so much generous blood. He loved the evangelical doctrine; but we are obliged to confess that policy had a good deal to do with his resolution. The priest had invaded the rights of the crown, and he undertook to reconquer them. This conquest was juster and more legitimate than that of the Alexanders and the Cæsars. For the accomplishment of the great work of religious renovation he relied upon Olaf and Lawrence Petri and Anderson. The Romish party immediately began to spread abroad the most abusive reports respecting these three persons. The chancellor, they said, intends to destroy the churches and the convents, and to introduce a new faith; and the two Petri to whom he entrusts the work are heretics and scoundrels.[[442]]
The king, seeing what a commotion the priests were exciting in the kingdom, determined to call together the assemblies. He convoked the States of the kingdom at Westeraas, for St. John’s Day, June 24, 1527. The clergy on hearing of this measure were filled with fear, and Brask, at an interview which he had with his friend Thure Joensson, marshal of the kingdom, exclaimed, ‘How glad I am that I have but a little while to live!’ The ecclesiastical members of the Diet at first hesitated to go to Westeraas; but many of them, and among others Brask, determined to go in the hope that by their presence they might to some extent prevent the great evils which they foresaw. The king himself arrived, accompanied by a numerous and imposing court. It was a long time since there had been any Diet of so important a character. Besides the ecclesiastics, there were one hundred and twenty-nine nobles; every town sent its burgomaster and a councillor, and every district sent six peasants.