Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - III. The Romanized Church under the Sverkers, Erics and Folkungar (1130—1389 A.D.)
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
i2. THE FOLKUNGAR. COUNCIL OF TELJE. 119
Yet the decree states that
"
few or none are exempt from
this plague
"
(ibid., p. 30). There could be little hope of
stamping out a custom so inveterate. For, if all were in
volved in it, it was the interest of all that the law should be
evaded. And inasmuch as the council went on to revoke
the law against clerical inheritances and to allow the law
ful heirs to succeed to all goods acquired by whatever
means, the position of the children of the clergy was better
than it had been before (ibid., p. 32).
8
It is difficult to form a judgment of the moral condition
of any large body of persons, especially in a bygone age
very different from our own. But the clergy in Sweden
were probably a more independent and, if we may use the
word, respectable class of men than in those countries
where the feudal system, with its lay patronage in the
hands of great landlords, prevailed. Sweden, as I have
said, was not a conquered but a settled country, divided
amongst a large number of small landowner or
"
bonder."
A group of these men, acting as a parish, founded and
endowed the churches and chose the clergy, men usually
of their own class.
9
On the other hand, where the feudal
system prevailed, the clergy often were dependents on the
lord of the manor, often his slaves or villeins.
It is probable that the priests families were much on a
par with those of the
"
bonder
"
around them. How far
they were able to continue to intermarry with these families
after the council of 1248 it is not easy to ascertain. It is to
be feared that as time went on they were forced to choose
their partners from a less reputable class ;
and that the men
themselves paid less regard to the tie, which was no longer
respected by the law. Probably the rights of the children
were better protected by the civil law than those of the
mothers, who were denounced by Church law. We find
8
See further on this subject J. A. and Aug. Theiner : Ein-
filhrung der erzwungenen Ehelosigkeit, Vol. ii., pp. 331-7,
Bremen [1892].
9
The different rules of this period are described by Reuter-
dahl : 5. K. H., Vol. ii., pt. 2, p. 633.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
