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ii. E. BENZELIUS, SVEDBERG, SPEGEL, ETC. 307
conformity to it was required. Both catechism and prayer-
book owe their form to the new Archbishop Olof Svebilius
(1681 1700). His successor, Eric Benzelius the elder
(1700 1709), was tutor to the Crown Prince, who suc
ceeded as Charles XII. in 1697, and compiled for him a
manual of Church history. He edited the fine Bible
which was published in 1703 and known as Charles XII. s
Bible. Benzelius is even more remarkable as the father of
three sons, who succeeded one another as archbishops (i)
Eric, Bishop of Goteborg (1726 1731) and Linkoping
(1731 1742), and for a few months archbishop, who died
in 1743
60
a literary man of great distinction, editor of
Philo and Ulphilas, the friend and brother-in-law of
Emanuel Swedenborg, and father of Karl Jesper, Bishop
of Strengnas; (2) Jacob, Bishop of Goteborg (1731), and
archbishop (1744 1747); and (3) Henrik, Bishop of Lund
(1740), and archbishop (1747 1757). Two of the elder
Eric s grandsons also became bishops, and five of his
daughters and granddaughters married bishops. This is,
perhaps, the most remarkable example of an episcopal
family in Sweden, but it is only an example of a tendency
towards the formation of a sort of clerical aristocracy which
we meet with in all periods of Swedish history, both in
mediaeval times and more pronouncedly from the time of
Laurentius Petri Nericius onwards.61
A similar tendency is observable amongst the families of
the parish clergy, where it was very common for a new in
cumbent to be expected or even required to marry his pre
decessor s widow or daughter, the term
"
konservera
"
being used for this act of respect for continuity. Svedberg
on one occasion allowed a priest of poor abilities to take a
benefice on the condition that he should marry his pre
decessor s widow. As a rule the country clergy were little
60
There is a rather full life of Eric Benzelius the younger by
H. L. Forssell in Svenska Akademiens Handlingar, part 58,
pp. 113-476, 1883.
61
See more in the Ch. of Sw^ and the Angl. Coram., pp. 62-5.
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