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i. POSITION OF SWEDEN UNDER CHARLES IX. 253
sovereign. These three conditions, rapidity of action and
freedom and definiteness of choice, were met in the way
which I will now describe.
There could indeed be no reasonable doubt what these
standards would be, and reference \vas made to them early
in the proceedings. All practical considerations includ
ing the probability of an alliance of S\veden with the Pro
testant princes in Germany against Poland and the Empire
pointed to the acceptance of the Confession of Augsburg
as one of these standards. On the other hand, the inde
pendent spirit of the country, and its attachment to the
episcopal polity, and the higher consequent idea of the
duties and position of the ministry, made it natural to fall
back upon the Church Order of 1571. It wr
as the mature
work of the old archbishop, who had done almost as much
for the Church unity of Sweden as King Gustaf had done
for its unity in Government. These standards would
secure that necessary via media between Romanism and
Calvinism, which wr
as secured to us in England by other
means, but which there were no other means of securing in
Sweden. Calvinism had proved a real danger under Eric :
it was likely again to be so under Charles. The eminent
service which the latter did to his country at this critical
juncture was to suppress his own personal inclinations in
the interest of the stability of the religious settlement.4
Duke Charles certainly possessed more of the good quali
ties of his father s character than any of his brothers, and
4
The documents concerning the great Upsala-mote of 1593
are to be found in Svenska Riksdagsakter, III., i., ed. Emil
Hildebrand, Stk., 1894. There is a good short account of it
by Karl Hildebrand fil. Kand. in Heimdal s Folkskrifter, 1893.
and in Magnusson, I.e. Anjou s account of it is very full and
interesting. Geijer s is rather defective. I may remark that
there is a strange blunder on p. 607 of the E.T. of Anjou. He
is made to say, speaking of the Upsala-mote, of 1594 :
"
This
hour, June 24, 1527, was of all others the most important and
conclusive for the Swedish Church Reformation." Obviously
it should be: "This hour, next to the day of Vesterds, June
24, 1527, was,
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