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XL E. BENZELIUS, SVEDBERG, SPEGEL, ETC. 309
been almost wholly neglected, and he continued to exercise
this oversight during the rest of his life. Amongst the
priests sent out and encouraged by him was Andreas
Rudman, whose name I have already mentioned as taking
duty for the absent priest of the Church of England. This,
no doubt, was with the goodwill of Bishop Svedberg, who,
since his visit to England in 1684 had been closely attached
to our Church. He was one of the earliest members of our
great missionary society,
"
the Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," and he much admired the
manner in which Sunday was kept in England. His work
in New Sweden, and the good results which followed it, led
the Swedes in London to turn to him in 1710, when they
felt themselves obliged to separate from the Danish con
gregation, with which they had previously worshipped,
after Frederick IV. had declared war against their country.
The Church in London was treated, under royal authority,
and at its own request, as if it were a parish in the diocese
of Skara, and that not in a perfunctory manner. Its most
important pastor in the eighteenth century was Jacob
Serenius (1724 1733), afterwards Bishop of Strengnas
(1763 1776). A letter has been preserved from Svedberg
to Serenius, in which Svedberg desires him to introduce
that form of confirmation into the London Church, which
he was already using in Sweden, .on the ground that it was
even easier for him to do so, because that was a point of
contact with the English Church. It seems to have con
sisted of public examination and blessing.
64
Serenius
own earnestness in reviving confirmation in the diocese of
Strengnas is well known.
The last of the Caroline bishops whom I shall name are
Haquin Spegel and the two Johannes Gezelius .
Spegel
was one of those who began his career as a court and
army chaplain, under Charles XL, when not yet thirty
years old. He was Bishop of Skara in 1685, and Lin-
64
Letter of i9th November, 1710, quoted by H. W. Tottie :
Lt/., p. 266.
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