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borne Gustavus also succeeded in consolidating bis power. Tbe
nobility had been much weakened by the cruel proceedings of
Christian, while the Reformation deprived the church both of its
power and its temporal possessions, most of which fell to the
crown. Ry the diet of Vesterås (1527) and the synod of Örebro
(1529) great changes in the tenure of church property and in
ecclesiastical dogmas and ritual were introduced, and in 1531
Laurentius Petri became the first Protestant archbishop of Upsala.
Lastly, at another diet held at Vesterås (1544), the Roman
Catholic Church was declared abolished. At the same diet the
succession to the throne was declared hereditary. Gustavus effected
many other wise reforms, but had to contend against several
insurrections of the peasantry, caused partly by his ecclesiastical
innovations, and partly by the heaviness of the taxation imposed
for the support of his army and fleet. Shortly before his death (in
1560), he nnw’isely bestowed dukedoms on his younger sons, a
step which laid the foundation for future troubles.
His eldest son Erik XIV. (the number being in accordance
with the computation of Johannes Magnus, but without the
slightest historical foundation) soon quarrelled with his younger brother
John, Duke of Finland, -whom he kept imprisoned for four years.
He was ruled by an unworthy favourite, named Göran Persson,
and committed many acts of violence and cruelty. He persuaded
his brother Duke Magnus to sign John’s death-warrant, whereupon
Magnus became insane. After the failure of several matrimonial
schemes, of one of which Queen Elizabeth of England was the
object, and after several outbursts of insanity, Eric married his
mistress Katharine Manndatter (1567). The following year he was
deposed by his brother, who ascended the throne as John III.,
and after a cruel captivity of nine years was poisoned by his order
in 1577 (see p. 363). John ingratiated himself with the nobility
by rich grants of hereditary fiefs, and he concluded the peace at
Stettin which terminated a seven years’ war in the north (1563-70)
and definitively severed Sweden from Denmark and Xorway. Less
successful was his war against Russia for the purpose of securing
to Sweden the province of Esthland. but the province was
afterwards secured to his successor by the Peace of Tensina (1595).
John was married to a Polish princess and betrayed a leaning
towards the Romish church which much displeased his subjects.
After his death (1592) the religious difficulty became more serious,
as his son and successor Sigismund had been brought up as a
Roman Catholic in Poland, where he had been proclaimed king in
1587. Duke Charles of Södermanland, the youngest son of
Gns-tavus Vasa, thereupon assumed the regency on behalf of the
absent Sigismund , caused the Augsburg Confession to be
proclaimed anew by a synod at Upsala (1593), and abolished Romish
practices introduced by John. After confirming theso proceedings,
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