Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - VI. From the Upsala-möte to the death of Charles XII. The Great Kings and the Great Bishops (1592—1718 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.
308 VI. GREAT KINGS AND BISHOPS (A.D. 15931718).
better than peasants ; and, even in Spegel s diocese,
Linkoping, which was probably one of the best, priests
were found who were entirely without books, even, for
instance, the Bible.62
Amongst the other books composed at the end of the
seventeenth century an important place must be assigned
to the new hymn-book, published in 1698, which was the
work of a commission in which Jesper Svedberg (after
wards Bishop of Skara) collaborated with Haquin Spegel,
bishop in succession of Skara (1685 1692) and Linkoping
(1692 1711) and then archbishop (1711 1714), and with
the physician, Urban Hjarne, whom I have already named
as taking a wise and reasonable line in the trials for witch
craft. Of these men Svedberg is well known as Bishop of
Skara for thirty-three years (1702 1735), where he did
much literary and educational work, and laboured ener
getically in building and rebuilding after several disastrous
fires. He was father of nine children, of whom one,
Emanuel, best known by the name of Swedenborg, is
deservedly famous.63
Svedberg is particularly interesting
to us from his connection with the colony of New Sweden
and the Swedish Church in London. As vice-president of
the Chapter of Upsala, and its most efficient member in old
Archbishop Svebilius days, he was entrusted by Charles
XI. with the oversight of the American colony, which had
62
See /. S. L. H., I., p. 418:
"
Den, som ville hafva ett
gall, ansags skyldig att . . . konservera (d.v.s. gifta sig
med) foretradarens enka eller dotter," etc.
63
Svedberg s life has been excellently written by Bishop
Henry William Tottie of Kalmar, Jesper Svedberg s Lif och
Verksamhet, in two parts, Upsala, 1885 1886. Svedberg s
autobiography exists in MS., of which a copy is preserved in
the library of the gymnasium at Skara. Extracts from it have
been printed by Bishop Tottie in K. H. A., i., pp. 87-106. A
good deal about this bishop will be found in the early chapters
of Wm. White s Swedenborg: his Life and writings. Lond.,
ed. 2, 1868. Of the 482 hymns in the 1698 collection Svedberg
composed 16 and translated 20. See Tottie :
Lif. t part i&gt;
pp. 97 foil. For Swedenborg see the next lecture.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
