Lawrence Petersen.
Archbishop Magnus had vacated his archiepiscopal see; it was therefore necessary to fill it up. The king consequently called together at Stockholm, on St. John’s Day, 1531, a large number of ecclesiastics. The chancellor Anderson requested the assembly to take into its consideration the choice of a new archbishop, imposing at the same time the condition that he should be a man thoroughly established in evangelical doctrine. The assembly pointed out three candidates—Sommer, bishop of Strengnaes; Doctor Johan, dean of Upsala; and Lawrence Petersen. It then proceeded with the definitive election, and on the suggestion, as it seems, of Gustavus, Lawrence obtained one hundred and fifty votes, and was therefore elected. The king testified his complete satisfaction with the result. The question might be asked, how was it that their choice did not fall on Olaf, who was the principal reformer? The assembly, doubtless, was unwilling to remove him from the capital. Lawrence’s long residence at Upsala qualified him for this high dignity; and perhaps the Scripture saying, ‘A bishop must be temperate,’ caused the preference to be given to his brother. The king handed to Lawrence a costly episcopal crosier, saying to him, ‘Be a faithful shepherd of your flock.’ The old proverb, ‘Wooden crosier, golden bishop; golden crosier, wooden bishop,’ was not to be applicable in this case.
The new archbishop was about to exercise, ere long, important functions. The king, desirous of founding a dynasty, had sought the hand of Catherine, daughter of the duke of Saxe-Lauenburg. Lawrence married the royal couple, and placed on the head of the wife the crown of Sweden. He did this with a dignity and a grace befitting the solemnity. At table the archbishop was called to take the place of honor which belonged to him. While at court, he was respectfully treated by the king; but the canons of Upsala, who were also present at the feast, and who, as passionate adherents of the pope, had been bitterly grieved to see an evangelical archbishop elected, were provoked at the honors which were paid him. They called their new head a heretic, treated him as an enemy, and seized every opportunity of showing their contempt for him. The son of an iron-master of Orebro to hold the highest place next to the king in Sweden! They ought to have remembered that many of the popes had been of still lower origin. The king was going to do a deed which would make their annoyance sharper still. In the household of Gustavus was a noble damsel, whose grandmother was a Vasa. When the marriage feast was over, the king and the queen rose, all the company did the same, and Gustavus then, in the presence of his whole court, betrothed the archbishop to his kinswoman. Never could a greater honor be conferred on the primate of Sweden.[[474]]
The canons of Upsala, far from being pacified, were still more inflamed with anger and hatred. They saw that the power of the pope in Sweden was at an end; and fancying that if they ruined the archbishop they should ruin the Reformation, they assailed him with their blows. They accused him of horrible crimes; they stirred up the people against him; and they formed the most frightful conspiracies. Fears were entertained for his life; a fanatic’s dagger might any day make an end of him. The king therefore assigned him a guard of fifty men to protect him from assassins. He did more than this; he removed the canons who had never been any thing but idle clerks, and had displayed a temper so intractable; and he put in their place learned and laborious men who were devoted to the Gospel.[[475]]
The evangelical archbishop was not the only man in Sweden whose life was threatened; the king was threatened also. The Hanse towns, with Lübeck at their head, desirous of regaining the influence which they had so long held in the North, allied themselves for this purpose with Denmark, and opened a correspondence with the Germans who were very numerous at Stockholm. The powerful Hanseatic fleet was thus to find in the very capital of its enemies trusty agents who pledged themselves to deliver up to it the town. But the scheme was detected; and Gustavus, who never hesitated when the business was to strike those who intended to strike himself, ordered the Germans and the Swedes who had taken part in the treacherous designs of the Hanseatics to be put to death. These events created great excitement throughout Sweden, especially at Stockholm. It was given out that the Germans had intended to bring gunpowder into the church and place it under the king’s seat, and then explode it during divine service. It was a Gunpowder Plot; but in this case the king was to be attacked, not while discharging his political functions, but at the moment when he was offering to God the worship in spirit and in truth which the Gospel requires. This story, however, might be nothing more than one of those reports which circulate among the public, without any other foundation than the general blind excitement which gives birth to the wildest rumors. These events occurred in the year 1536.[[476]]
Infringement Of Religious Freedom.
Gustavus, having escaped the dangers with which his enemies threatened him, went forward in his work with a firmer step. Endowed with a peremptory and energetic character, he even took some steps of too bold a kind, and seemed to aim at commanding the Church as he would an army. Olaf and the other reformers began to perceive that the king was assuming an authority in matters of religion which infringed on Christian freedom. After the Diet of Westeraas, he had not only taken their castles from the prelates, which was a quite legitimate measure, but he had further taken the Church with the castles, and had confiscated the ecclesiastical foundations for the benefit of the crown; while the reformers had hoped to see their revenues applied to the establishment of schools and other useful institutions. Evangelical Christians were asking one another whether they had cast off the yoke of the pope in order to take up that of the king. It seemed to be the intention of Gustavus to defer indefinitely the complete reformation of Sweden. After the council of Orebro, Olaf had entered upon the prudential course which the king insisted on; but it appeared to him that he must now courageously advance in the paths of truth and freedom. In his judgment, the work of the Reformation would be undone if it were allowed to crystallize in the midst of branches, images, holy water, and tapers. The young preachers supported him, and earnestly called for the suppression of those rites, the plainest effect of which was to keep up superstition among the people. Some of them even uttered complaints from the pulpit that the royal authority obliged them to do or to tolerate acts contrary to their consciences.
This gave rise to extreme coolness between Olaf and the king; and ere long the confidential and affectionate intercourse which had united them was succeeded by a certain uneasiness, and even actual hostility. Gustavus having been informed of the discourses delivered by young ministers who had only just left the schools, was offended. He saw in the fact a spirit of rebellion, and he sharply rebuked Olaf, who, to his knowledge, sympathized with these desires for a complete reformation. He said to Olaf—‘The young ministers scandalize simple folk by the impudence which leads them to aim at the abolition of the ancient usages of the Church; and I think further that they have cherished the purpose of giving a lesson to me and my government.’[[477]] The prince, far from taking a lesson from another, gave one, and that sharply, to the first preacher of the capital.
These two men were both of a noble nature. In each were greatness, devotedness, activity, and a strong love of good. But each had also a fault which laid them open to the risk of a rude collision with each other; and one shock of this kind might overthrow the weaker. Gustavus would dictate as law whatever seemed to him good and wise, and he did not intend to allow any resistance. He placed great confidence in any man who showed himself worthy of it; and of this he had given striking proofs to the two brothers Petri. He did not easily withdraw his favor; but once withdrawn, it was impossible to regain it.
Olaf’s Grievances.