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r94 V. THE REFORMATION (A.&. 15201592).
persuaded to resign it, but this high-handed act aroused
much criticism and suspicion. As Anjou says: "His
enemies saw a judgment from on high in the events which
made this place of Gripsholm a mournful witness of the
fraternal hatred of his sons
"
(Ref. in Sw., 147). The
castle which the king built in 1537 is still preserved in the
present palace, and is a place of pilgrimage for all who are
interested in Swedish history.
5. THE SACK OF ROME (1527). THE RIKSDAG, RECESS
AND ORDINANTIA OF VESTERAS.
It was not, however, until four years after the election at
Strengnas that large measures of change were introduced
in Sweden. During these years the war between Charles
V. and Pope Clement VII. set at liberty the forces of the
Reformation in Germany, and at the diet of Spires it was
resolved, with imperial approval, that all the states of that
country were free to choose their own religion. A similar
freedom was felt in other neighbouring countries, and,
after the sack of Rome by imperial troops in May, 1527,
the power of the papacy was, for the time, brought very
low. I may remark that Tyndale s English version of the
New Testament was published in 1526, and that about the
same time the validity of Henry s marriage with Katharine
began to be publicly discussed. It was at midsummer in
the year 1527 that the Church of Sweden was forced by
a vote of the estates to take a new position towards the
State. This was at the Riksdag of Vesteras, the most im
portant moment of the Reformation of the sixteenth cen
tury, with the exception of the Upsala-mote of 1593. These
two dates then, 1527 and 1593, are the most necessary for
the student to bear in memory, and to group his recollec
tions round them. At Vesteras a large measure of dis
establishment and disendowment was carried after a
struggle, and a general though indefinite liberty of preach
ing was conceded to the reformers, but no mention was
made of Luther or Lutheranism. In this point the course
of events was very different from what it was in Denmark,
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