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9 . GENERAL IMPRESSIONS. 419
As regards the other great point in which Sweden and
England agree and differ from the generality of the Re
formed Churches, the maintenance of the historic episco
pate, almost every section of my lectures, after the first,
bears witness to its practical value to the country. Even
before the Reformation, when the episcopate was some
times pursuing selfish aims, it was a valuable link with the
culture of other lands, and by its councils and the internal
discipline of its dioceses it made men at least dimly con
scious that the kingdom of God was a reality. It filled
Sweden with beautiful churches, it established a parochial
and ruri-decanal system which still covers the land, and it
secured to every man participation of the sacraments and
other rites of the Church which bring grace, dignity and
consolation to our fallen human nature. Though the stan
dard of discipline was somewhat low, the corruptions of
indulgence-mongering were little known, and the national
spirit was not wounded by the frequent intrusion of
foreign ecclesiastics.
I have already spoken of the unique escape of Sweden
in the sixteenth century from royal tyranny in matters of
faith. This was due, under God, to the Archbishop
Laurentius Petri Nericius, who laid the foundations on
which all his successors have since built. It is true that at
the time of the Upsala-mote of 1593 the lead was for the
time in the hands of the professors of the university and
of Stockholm, but this was exceptional.
Since the Reformation the bishops have again and again
been the centres of revived activity in education and litera
ture, and very rarely the opponents of progress. They
have been hampered obviously in various ways, as by the
multitude of their secular duties, by the excessive area in
many cases of their dioceses, by the difficulties of locomo
tion, and by the disuse of the ministry of confirmation as
an episcopal act. These difficulties have, perhaps, been
particularly evident in the case in the immense diocese of
Upsala, the archbishop of which has had an unusual share
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