The king had not looked for such haughty words. ‘Gentlemen,’ said he, addressing the members of the Diet, ‘what think you of this answer?’ The marshal of the kingdom, well pleased that he had to say nothing except that he thought as his friend did, replied that the answer was just; and a great number of bishops and of deputies did the same. Gustavus then, overpowered with feeling, said, ‘We expected a different answer; how can we wonder at a revolt of the people when the leading men of the kingdom set them the example? I did not shrink from hazarding my life at the time when the indolent priests were spending their useless lives in idleness. I know your ingratitude. You never knew how to do without kings, nor how to honor them when you had them. If rain fall, it is our fault; if the sun is hidden, we are the cause of it; if there be famine or pestilence, it is we who are blamed. You give more honor to priests and monks and all the creatures of the pope than to us. Every one sets himself up as our master and our judge. It would be a pleasure to you even to see the axe at our neck, even though no one should be bold enough to touch the handle.[[448]] Is there a man in all the world who, under such conditions, would consent to be your king? The very devil in hell would not care to be so. You deceive yourselves if you fancy that I have ascended the throne as a mere stage, and that to play the part of king is enough for me. There is therefore an end of our connection. I lay down the sceptre, and my resolution is immovable. Choose you whom you will to govern you. I renounce the throne, and that is not all; I leave likewise my native land. Farewell, I shall never come back.’ At these words, Gustavus, deeply affected, burst into tears and hurried out of the hall.[[449]]
The assembly, smitten with consternation, remained for some time silent and motionless. At last the chancellor spoke: ‘Right honorable lords, this moment must determine the existence or the destruction of Sweden. There are only two courses open to you; you must either obey the king or choose another.’ But the members were so much agitated by the speech of Gustavus, and many of them exulted so much at his departure, that without troubling themselves about the vote proposed to them, they all rose, left their places in great haste, and went out. Thure Joensson, who in the presence of the king had kept in the background and had put forward his friend Brask, lifted up his head now that he had no longer to face the glance of the king. The bishops, the canons, and many of the lords who regarded the retirement of the king as a victory, pressed round the marshal and reconducted him to his house in triumph. Drums were beaten and trumpets blown; and the head of the nobility, full of the vainglory which feeds on the thinnest vapor, enraptured with the pompous display which concealed from his own eyes his real deficiencies, exclaimed with a childish vanity, ‘I defy any one to make me a pagan, a Lutheran, or a heretic.’ This man and his friends already looked upon Gustavus as having come to the end of his career, and believed themselves to be masters of the country. Imagination could hardly find adequate expression for so great a triumph!
The king had returned to the castle attended by his court and accompanied by his best officers. The latter stationed themselves before the gates of the castle and prevented any one from entering. The king was as calm as in the most peaceful moments of his life; he was even merry and in good humor. He knew that time is a great teacher and gives lessons to the most passionate men. He delayed, he waited; he wished that minds which had been misled should come to themselves again. He admitted his trusty friend to his table, showed himself an agreeable companion, and did to perfection the honors of the table.[[450]] Thus he spent three days, days of pleasantness for the prince and his adherents—a fact certainly strange in the midst of a crisis so grave. Those who were about him were delighted to find themselves living in familiar intimacy with the prince. The latter even devised certain pastimes,
Du loisir d’un héros nobles amusements.
One would have said that, without any strange or grave occurrence, the king was simply at leisure; that a period of recreation had succeeded a period of work. The Diet met again on the following day; but it was undecided and uneasy, and did not adopt any resolution. Peasants thronged the public places and were beginning to show signs of impatience. They said to one another as they formed groups in the streets, ‘The king has done us no harm. The gentlemen of the Diet must make it up with him, and if they do not we shall see to it.’ The merchants spoke to the same effect; and the townsmen of Stockholm, believing that the king was about to take his departure, declared that the gates of the capital would be always open to him. Brask and his party were gradually losing their influence. Magnus Sommer, bishop of Strengnaes, inquired ‘whether the kingdom must be exposed to destruction for the sake of saving the privileges of the clergy.’[[451]] Many of the nobles and townsmen thanked him for the word. They said, ‘Let the Roman ecclesiastics set forth their doctrine and defend it against their adversaries.’ Brask stood out with all his might against this proposal; but to his great annoyance it was carried. The Diet resolved that in its presence should be held a discussion adapted to enlighten the laity and to enable them to pronounce judgment on the doctrines in dispute.
The next day Olaf and Peter Galle appeared in the lists; but they could not agree either as to their weapons or as to the manner of using them. ‘We shall speak Swedish,’ said Olaf, while Galle insisted on Latin, which would be the way to avoid being understood by the great majority of the assembly. Galle being obstinate, the contest began; the one making use of the learned language, the other of the vulgar tongue. At length the assembly, getting tired of this balderdash which it could not comprehend, demanded with loud outcries that Swedish only should be spoken. The Roman champion was obliged to yield, and the discussion continued till the evening. Evangelical principles were joyfully received by the greater part of the assembly. ‘A kingdom,’ said the chancellor to the most influential members of the Reichstag, ‘ought not to be governed by the maxims of priests and monks, whose interests are opposed to those of the State. Is it not a strange thing to hear the bishops proclaim a foreign prince, the pope, as the sovereign to whom we owe obedience?’ Many of the members of the Diet were convinced.
The weak and ridiculously vain Thure Joensson did not perceive this, but believed that the triumph of his own party was secured. He required that every Lutheran should be declared incapable of ascending the throne, and that all the heretics should be burnt. But the townsmen and the peasants, impatient of so many delays, very loudly declared that the nobles were bound, in fulfilment of their oath, to protect the king against his enemies, and that if they did not do this speedily they would go for him themselves, and would come back in company with him and give the lords a sharp lesson. The adversaries of Gustavus began to feel alarmed. A remarkable change was likewise taking place among the bishops and the influential priests. Did they feel the inward power of evangelical truth, or did policy alone dictate to them a return to duty? The probability is that some of them were impelled by the former and others by the latter of these motives. The wind was changed. Brask and his friend, Thure Joensson, had now to listen to very bitter reproaches; and on all sides the demand was insisted on that apologies should be offered to the king, and that evidence of the devotion of his people should be given to him.[[452]]
Deputations To The King.
For this mission were selected the Chancellor Anderson and Olaf, as the men who would be able most powerfully to influence Gustavus. None could be more anxious for a reconciliation, for they felt that if the king should sink under the intrigues and the blows of the prelates, the triumphant papacy would trample the Reformation in the dust. They presented themselves at the gates of the castle, were admitted into the presence of the prince, and entreated him, in the name of the States, to return into the midst of them, to resume the government of the kingdom, and to rely on their hearty obedience. Gustavus, who had listened to them with an air of marked indifference, replied with some scorn, ‘I am sick of being your king,’ and sent them away. He was determined to leave the kingdom unless he were satisfied that he should find in the States and in the people the support which was essential to his laboring for the good of all. Other deputations went on three occasions to present to him the same request. But they received the same answer; he appeared to be inexorable.
It was an imposing scene which now presented itself at Stockholm. A nation was calling to the throne a prince who had saved it, and the prince was refusing the dignity. Townsmen, peasants, and nobles alike were in great agitation, and they were at this moment terrified both at the thoughtlessness with which they had rejected him, and at the abyss which they had opened beneath their own feet. If Gustavus should depart, what would become of Sweden? The land being given over to the prelates, would these churchmen, who had learnt nothing, smother in the darkness of the Middle Ages the dawning lights of the Gospel and of civilization, and bow down the people under the iron sceptre of ultramontane power? Or would the ex-king, Christian II., perhaps reappear to shed, as formerly, rivers of blood in the streets of the capital? Men’s minds were at length impressed by the greatness and nobleness of the character of Gustavus; and they understood that if they should lose him they were lost. They would make a last attempt, and for the fourth time they sent an embassy to him. The deputies, when introduced to the king’s presence, found in him the same coldness. They were conscious that the royal dignity was wounded. They threw themselves at his feet and shed tears abundantly.