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110 Expedition to Gottland. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Luther’s doctrine introduced. [1524—
wrote in the winter of 1524, Gustavus Ericson lay
ready to attack Gottland, as soon as the sea should
be open, with the whole power of Sweden ;
wherefore if it were impossible for the king to relieve the
island, and save it from the hands of the Swedes,
he begged permission to make terms in good time,
" in order that the land might not be wrested from
the crown of Denmark V The attack on Gottland,
whose issue we have hereby indicated, was resolved
upon in the baronial diet of Vadstena, at the
beginning of the year. Lubeck, which suffered most from
Norby’s piracy, had pressed that it should be
undertaken, promising through a special envoy its
support, with the remission of the interest on the
debt, and indemnity for the expenses of the war,
if Sweden should not be able to hold the island.
Brask, bishop of Linkoping, of whose diocese it
formed a part, and who afterwards complained
that the enterprise had miscarried through the
Germans who advised it, now united his
representations to theirs, and Gustavus gave, although
unwillingly, his consent. A fleet carrying 8000
men was collected for the expedition, of which the
command was entrusted to Bernard of Melen, a
German knight, who had passed over from the
service of Christian, and had been admitted into
the Swedish council, invested with the government
of Stegeborg, and married to Margaret Yasa.
This lady, a kinswoman of king Gustavus, but
inimical towards him, from a dispute regarding an
inheritance, was not without influence on the
conduct of her husband. Bernard of Melen reduced
the country without difficulty, but was so slack in
conducting the siege of the town and castle of
Wisby, that Norby, with whom he had a secret
understanding, obtained time to place himself and
the island under Danish protection. In the
meantime a personal interview of Gustavus and
Frederic took place at Malmoe, and Lubeck interposed
its mediation between the kings. By the
convention of Malmoe, dated September 1,1524, Gustavus
bound himself to restore Bleking to Denmark, and
to refer the dispute respecting Gottland to future
settlement. Bohusland, however, he retained for
a time, and negatived for ever the Danish claims
of superiority, and the renewal of the Union.
Meanwhile the treachery of Bernard of Melen was
revealed. He induced his troops to take an oath
of fidelity to himself, occupied the castle of Calmar
on his own behalf, and proceeded for
reinforcements to Germany, where he entered into a bond
to reconquer the kingdom of Sweden for Christian
II.6 The castle of Calmar was defended with the
bravery of desperation against Gustavus, who did
not take it without a heavy loss in men, and
subjected seventy of the garrison to the punishment
of traitors. These events already stand in
connexion with the first revolt against Gustavus, which
however, as well as subsequent insurrections, had a
deeper cause.
The principles of the Reformation had now
begun to spread towards the north. It was soon
manifest that the king had placed himself at its
head in Sweden, although he took his measures
with that mixture of pliant subtilty and boldness
which ever distinguished him, more strongly
marked the more his character was tested by
events. Olave and Lawrence Peterson, two
brothers, who had studied in Wittemberg, and were
disciples of Luther, returned in 1519 to their native
country, and preached his doctrines there for the
first time. They attracted the attention of
Gustavus, and received his protection7, although
bishop Brask, who had already procured a brief
from Pope Adrian YI. for the extirpation of
heresy in Sweden, demanded the establishment of
inquisitors in all the bishoprics, and the prohibition
of Luther’s writings8. The king, who was himself
in correspondence with Luther 9, appointed Olave
Peterson, whose bold sermons at the elective diet
of Strengness excited general attention1, to be
minister and town-clerk of Stockholm, and made
his younger brother Lawrence professor in Upsala.
Here the king caused a disputation for and against
the new doctrines to be held, in consequence of
which twelve questions were drawn up, to be
examined thereafter in an assembly of the Swedish
Church2. For his chancellor, he selected Law-
5 Letters of Severin Norby, March 7 and September 14,
1523, and March 14, 1524. Archives of Christian II.
6 The contract, which exists in the Archives of Christian
II., and is dated Brandenburg, May 1.1526, begins " I, Bernard
of Melen, knight, &c. openly acknowledge by this instrument
that I, out of true and dutiful inclination, have undertaken
to conquer, with God’s help, the kingdom of Sweden, once
for all," &c
7 " Know ye for certain that it beseemetl: our power to
protect every one of our subjects against violence;" writes
the king to bishop Brask. Scandinavian Memoirs, xiii. 58.
8 Ut aliqui deputentur in certis diocesibus—inquisitores
heretic p pravitatis. Letter of Brask to Johannes Magnus,
who had arrived as papal legate in 1523 (1. c. xvii. 146), and
obtained from Gustavus a letter against the opinions and
books of Luther (see Litterae Domini Regis contra opinionem
Lutherianam, ibid. 159). It is plain, however, from the king’s
letter to bishop Brask in 1524, that this was not published :
" For what you write to us respecting the books of Luther,
that we should forbid their sale, we know not how this may be
done, seeing that we have heard them censured by impartial
judges as not useless, but especially because books against
this Luther have been brought into the country ; therefore,
according to our poor mind, it might be profitable that both
the one side and the other should be placed before men’s
eyes." Scandinavian Memoirs, xiii. 58. Two years
afterwards the king forbade bishop Brask to translate and pro-
mulgate the letters of the pope, the emperor, and duke
George of Saxony against Luther, as instigating to revolt,
lie also suppressed the printing-house founded by the bishop
in Soderkoping. Scan. Mem. xvi. 43.
a " We have, from the very commencement of our reign,
been adherents to the true and pure word of God, so far as
grace hath been bestowed upon us for the understanding of
it;" says the king in a letter to Luther, August 16, 1540;
printed by Spegel in the documentary proofs to his Chronicle
of the Bishops.
1 They were levelled from the first at the secular power of
the clergy: Periculose pullulare incipit heresis ilia
Lu-therana, per quendam magistrum Olavum in ecclesia
Streng-nesensi, prsesertim contra decreta sanctffi Romanse ecclesiae
ac ecclesiasticam libertatem ad effectum, ut status modern®
ecclesias reducatur ad mendicitatem et statum ecclesias
primitive. Brask to the bishop of Skara, July 12, 1523. Scan.
Mem. xvii. 143.
2 The disputation was held at Christmas, 1524, between
Olave Peterson and Doctor Peter Galle, provost of Upsala,
and each of them by the royal command drew up a particular
answer to the questions proposed, which was printed. These
were, "1. Whether doctrines of holy men, and usages or
customs of the Church, which have not God’s word for them,
should be received as binding. 2. Whether our Lord Jesus
Christ hath granted to the priesthood, the pope, or the
bishops, any other authority or dominion over men, but only
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