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224 V. THE REFORMATION (A.D. 15201592).
the same time the old chapters were gradually dissolved,
and the priests yielded up their farms and became stipen
diaries, receiving incomes from the two-thirds of the tithes
now appropriated to the crown. On the other hand, the
parish clergy for the first time became an estate in the
Riksdag.
37
9. LATTER HALF OF GUSTAF S REIGN. THE BIBLE OF
1541. PERSONAL RULE. LAURENTIUS AND THE
KING S THIRD MARRIAGE. HlS DEATH AND CHAR
ACTER.
The latter half of Gustaf s reign, at any rate after 1544,
was, on the whole, quiet and prosperous. It was free to a
very large extent from domestic tumults and foreign wars.
Just half way through the reign, in the year 1541, was
published that great treasure of the National Church, the
Bible, in Swedish. It usually bears the king s name, but
is the work particularly of the archbishop and his brother,
Olaus. It is professedly based on Luther s German trans
lation of 1534; but whether the Hebrew and Septuagint
were also consulted does not seem to have been investi
gated.
38
It is rather characteristic of the country that
certain selected books of the Old Testament were published
five years before the rest (1536), namely,
"
Jesu Sirach s
Book, Solomon s Wisdom, Solomon s Proverbs and
David s Psalter." The Church of Sweden even now pays
great respect to the Apocrypha, and is apt to criticize our
British and Foreign Bible Society for not circulating it.
The New Testament was generally different from that of
1526, at least in the order of the words. It was noticed that
here and there were variations from Luther s rendering,
e.g., that the Greek
"
presbyters," which Luther had ren
dered "eldermen," was translated "priests."
Of the
whole book it is said that the language was the purest and
87
See for further details Anjou :
pp. 322-7.
88
See Schuck: III lit. hist., I., p. 189 foil.
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