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Morals of the people.
State of knowledge.
SWEDEN IN THE MIDDLE AGE.
Introduction of printing.
Domestic manners.
109
corrected thereby, as is proved by scandalous
narratives still preserved 6. Referring to the
Carthusian order, which had been newly introduced, the
councillors of state declared in 1491, their hope
" that by the example of this order, and the grace
of the blessed virgin, the brethren and sisters of
other religious houses would amend their life, and
observe their rules with better faith and constancy
than they had hitherto used."
Of science and art scarcely aught is to be said ;
but of yore there were found minds in the North,
attracted, more than other men, from the night
and fogs of earth into " that other light," as even
heathenism beforetime called the supernal world.
St. Bridget is the seer of Catholicism, as we may
call Swedenborg, in modern days, of Protestantism.
Both distinguished by virtuous lives, and intellect
higher than the ordinary standard, they appeal to
revelations and visions, remarkable in the annals of
the human soul. Of these we will content ourselves
with observing, that contrastedly they show how the
unsubstantial may take the image, garb, and colour
of different ages, and speak to extraordinary men in
the echo of their own breasts, cramped though
they be by the bonds of prejudice. The
revelations of St. Bridget, albeit afterwards brought into
question at the council of Basle, are yet not rejected
by the catholic church, which canonized her in
13917
Whatever learning was to be found in those days
was almost entirely confined to the clergy ; if
laymen are sometimes extolled on this ground, as
Baron Charles Ulfson Sparre’, whom the Rhyme
Chronicle declares to have been skilled " in the
seven bookish arts and in all the laws," or Baron
Eric Trolle, such cases are but rare exceptions.
Archbishop Gustavus, son of the latter, was one of
the few who are said to have known the Greek.
The new University of Upsala has no name of mark
to show save Eric Olaveson, professor of theology,
who composed the first detailed history of his
native country from the earliest times to the year
1464. In the monastic and cathedral schools, a
scanty instruction was doled out to such youths as
devoted themselves to the ministry, as also to the
children of persons of rank, until their military
education commenced in a royal or baronial
household. Typography reached Sweden early; the first
book having been printed in 14838. Ingeborg,
consort of the administrator Steno the elder,
encouraged the new art, causing books to be printed
at her own expense, and collecting a library in the
Carthusian monastery founded by her husband at
Marisefred 9. A printing-house at Vadstena was
destroyed by fire in 1495 l. From scarcity of paper,
splints or rind of the birch tree were sometimes
used for writing, and judicial sentences thus
recorded are still spoken of by the common people.
The two principles, which lie at the foundation
of national morality, reverence for age, and the
sanctity of wedlock, our ancestors cannot be
accused of setting at nought. According to the
temper of their time, they were often turbulent,
especially in the border provinces ; hardnatured, and
strongly attached to their old customs. In the
country nuptial usages are still nearly the same
with those described by Olaus Magnus three
hundred years ago ; only the bride-torches are
disused. The wreath beforetime, as now, was the
ornament of the stainless bride at the altar;
otherwise it was, with the ample veil, and the rich
girdle, an ordinary dress with damsels of condition.
In noble families a spear formed part of the
inor-rowing-gift2 to the bride, which on the day of
marriage was thrown out of the window, whether to
denote the obligation of the mistress of the house to
take part in its defence, we do not pretend to
determine. It is certain that in the middle age a
Swedish wife was sometimes called upon to partake this
duty; and the women of the hundred of Verend in
Smaland, who in the absence of their husbands
once repulsed a hostile attack, still enjoy for that
reason the privilege of inheriting equal portions
with their brothers, and have long preserved at
their marriages various military fashions and
distinctions 3.
As old observances still subsisting may be
mentioned, the race from the church on the day after
Christmas ; for he that first reached home, it was
thought, would first reap the harvest of the year 4 ;
the fires kindled in some provinces on May Day
Even, and the May-poles at Midsummer, both
circled by the dance ; as well as the wrestling
games of the youth on the tops of the barrows,
a custom still not uncommon fifty years ago in
certain districts. The feasts of the chief men were
distinguished by pomp of costume and abundance
of meats, while a multitude of the present
conveniences of life were unknown. Even in houses of the
better class the window was sometimes in the roof3,
and filled with tarred linen or parchment instead of
glass. So highly valued was the latter material,
6 Compare Appendix v. to the Diary quoted, on the morals
of the Bridgetine convent at Dantzic, in 1506, S. R. S. i.
^ Bridget was the daughter of the Lawman of Upland,
Birger Person of Finsta, of the same family which afterwards
assumed the name of Brahe ; she was married to the Lawman
of Nerike, Ulf Gudmarson, by whom she had eight children,
among them one daughter, Catharine, afterwards canonized.
Bridget died at Rome in 1373, aged seventy. There was a
proposal to elect her son Israel Birgerson to the throne after
the deposition of Magnus Ericson. Her conventual rules
were sanctioned by the pope in 1370, and the parent cloister
was founded at Vadstena. Iler revelations were recorded
by her confessor; she herself wrote down her Prayers, per.
haps the only Swedish book, which has been translated into
Arabic. The Orazioni di S. Brigida, in Arabic and Italian,
appeared at Rome in 1G77.
8 Dialogus Creaturarum optime moralizatus. At the end,
Impressus per Johannem Snell, artis impressoriae magistrum
in Stockholm, inceptus et munere Dei finitus est anno
Domini mcccclxxxiii. mensis Decembris in vigilia Thomae.
9 Some of the books, inscribed " Frowe Ingeborg quondam
uxor Sten Sture," are in the Library of Upsala.
1 Conflagraverunt ibidem diversa instrumenta pro
impres-sura librorum, realiter aptata et jam per medium annum in
usum habita, videlicet torcular cum litteris stanneis, &c.
Diar. Vad.
2 Morgongafva, Ger. morgengabe, present made to the
bride on the morning after the marriage day. The term in
the text is still used in some parts of Scotland. T.
3 Tradition places this occurrence in the heathen period,
though it is probably less ancient.
4 Under Catholicism prayers were offered up at this festival
for a good harvest; doubtless a memorial of the Pagan
midwinter sacrifice for a plentiful year, which was held in
February at Candlemas tide. (See note p. 43.)
5 In 1493 Baron Hans Akeson was shot with an arrow
through the window in the roof of his own house, the
murderer having first made an opening. Diar. Vadsten.
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