Foundation of Modern Sweden

Gustav Vasa

Main article: Gustav Vasa

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Gustav Vasa had political and religious difficulties in his kingdom, established in 1523. Shortly after seizing power, he addressed the Pope in Rome with a request for the confirmation of Johannes Magnus as Archbishop of Sweden, in the place of the rebellious archbishop Gustav Trolle, who as a convicted traitor had been formally deposed by the Riksdag of the Estates, and was actually an outlawed exile.

Related Topics:
Gustav Vasa - 1523 - Pope - Johannes Magnus - Archbishop of Sweden - Gustav Trolle - Riksdag of the Estates

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Gustav promised to be an obedient son of the Church, if the pope would confirm the elections of his bishops. However, shortly after sending the letter, the King received a papal bull ordering the immediate reinstatement of Gustav Trolle.

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Gustav could not accept as primate an open and determined traitor like Trolle. He protested that unless Johannes Magni were recognized at Rome as archbishop of Uppsala, he was determined to break with Rome, by his own royal authority. He declared he would order the affairs of the Church in his realm to the glory of God, and to the satisfaction of all Christian men.

Related Topics:
Uppsala - Rome

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He began by protecting and promoting the Swedish reformers Olaus, Laurentius Petri, and Laurentius Andreae. The new teaching was allowed to spread, and the Lutheran schooled Petri brothers were useful teachers. A few months later there was an open rupture between the King and Archbishop Magni, who ultimately was frightened into exile by a sudden accusation of treason. In 1526 all Catholic printing-presses were suppressed, and two-thirds of the Church's tithes were appropriated for the payment of the national debt.

Related Topics:
Olaus - Laurentius Petri - Laurentius Andreae

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On February 18, 1527 two bishops, the first martyrs of Catholicism in Sweden, were gibbeted at Stockholm after a trial which was a parody of justice. This act of violence was effectual, for at the subsequent Riksdag of Västerås in June, 1527, the bishops dared not even present a protest which they had privately prepared, and the assembly itself was bullied into an absolute submission to the royal will. The result was the Recess of Västerås, which transferred all ecclesiastical property to the Crown. By the subsequent Västerås Ordinance, the Church of Sweden was absolutely severed from Rome.

Related Topics:
February 18 - 1527 - Västerås - Recess of Västerås - Västerås Ordinance

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However, the changes so made were mainly administrative. There was no modification of doctrine, for the general resolution that God's Word should be preached plainly and purely was not contrary to the teaching of the ante-Tridentine Church. Even at the Synod of Örebro, summoned in February 1529, "for the better regulation of church ceremonies and discipline according to God?s Word," there was no formal protest against Rome; and the old ritual was retained for two years longer, though it was to be explained as symbolical. Henceforth the work of the Reformation continued uninterruptedly.

Related Topics:
Tridentine - Synod of Örebro - 1529 - Reformation

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In 1531 Laurentius Petri was elected the first Protestant primate of Sweden. Subsequently matters were much complicated by the absolutist tendencies of Gustav Vasa. From 1539 onwards there was a breach between him and his own prelates in consequence of his arbitrary appropriation of the Church?s share of the tithes, in direct violation of the Västerås Recess. Then Gustav so curtailed the power of the bishops, by the ordinances of 1539 and 1540, that they had little of the dignity left but the name, and even that he was disposed to abolish, for after 1543 the prelates appointed by him, without any pretence of previous election by the cathedral chapters, were called ordinaries, or superintendents. Finally, at the Riksdag of Västerås in 1544, though no definite confession of faith was formulated, a final breach was made with the traditions of the old religion.

Related Topics:
1531 - 1539 - 1544

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