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Anabaptist riots in
Stockholm.
HISTORY OF THE SWEDES.
New bishops.
Their intrigues.
[1520—
very fortunate. In Iloslagen, as well as every
where in the islets, numbers of men and cattle
perished with hunger. The king indeed caused
several thousand lasts of grain to be imported from
Livonia, and sold it in the hundreds and parishes at
a mark to the tun 2, with careful precautions that
the price should not be raised to the poor ; but the
people were so badly disposed and unthankful, that
they gave no thanks to the king for this, but called
him the hunger and the bark-king."
The priests represented the dearth as a
punishment from Heaven on account of their heretical
sovereign ; and Gustavus had to curb both their
disaffection, and the exaggerations of the preachers
of the new doctrines. In Stockholm, where the
German burghers took an eager part in the
fluctuating opinions of that time, the king, on his return
from the conference of Malince in the autumn of
1524, found the whole town thrown into commotion
by two anabaptists who had recently arrived ;
Knip-perdolling, afterwards one of the leaders of the
sanguinary fanatics of Munster, where his bones
are still kept in an iron cage in the church-tower,
and Melchior Rink. These men had found
followers, and possessing themselves of the church of
St. John, they preached 011 the book of Revelation,
stormed the churches and monasteries, and threw
their broken images and ornaments upon the streets
and market-places. Even Olave Peterson was put
to silence by this ; the king rebuked him sharply
for his negligence, and banished the authors of the
disturbances from the country. But these scenes
gave general scandal, which was increased by the
behaviour of many of the new preachers ; whence
the king, who was now riding his Ericsgait,
reproachfully upbraided them, " as acting with great
indiscretion, not having the right understanding or
way to lead the people to the knowledge of God’s
word," and " as leading many of them an evil and
vicious life." He sought to appease the people by
every method, assuring them, that he by 110 means
intended the introduction of a new faith 3, but only
the correction of abuses.
More than one of the Union kings had lost his
throne for less. It was not without wonder that
the Swedes of this day learned, that in Gustavus
Yasa, Sweden had found, not merely a liberator,
but a master, for men had been long accustomed to
revolutions. " The humours of the common people
are wont with us lightly to change4," wrote the
wary bishop Brask in confidence, to a colleague at
the elective diet of Strengness in 1523, from which,
to the dissatisfaction of both the king and the
council, he absented himself, sending his chancellor
in his place, with an exhortation to give good heed
to what he set his seal. Gustavus was soon to
experience the truth of the prediction ; and the first
revolt against him was an attempt again to upraise
the house of Sture, which was highly honoured and
beloved throughout the whole kingdom.
Proof of these intrigues Gustavus obtained ere
three months had passed over since his election,
and two of his new bishops stood at their head. It
was doubtless a fortunate circumstance for his
impending blow to the hierarchy, that at the
commencement of his reign all the bishoprics, w ith the
exception of two, were vacant 5. But he deceived
himself if he counted on the devotion of the new
men with whom, through his own influence, the
sees were filled. They all, sooner or later, became
his enemies. Peter Jacobson, commonly called
Sunnanveeder6, who had been chancellor to the
administrator Steno Sture the younger, was chosen
bishop of Westeras. The election had proceeded
" upon deliberation by the Dalesmen7," as he
himself mentions ; and in the first year of his
episcopate, he^vas detected in seditious practices among
them, as Gustavus proved by his own letters,
which were produced before the chapter of
Westeras. He was deprived of his office, and the same
punishment overtook the newly elected archbishop,
master Canute, provost of the chapter, who
appeared as his defender. They fled to Dalecarlia
and stirred up the Dalesmen, who wrote to
Gustavus ; " that they could by 110 means suffer that
he should impose more taxes in money on churches,
convents, priests, monks, the men of the trading
towns, or the commonalty of Sweden;" they
renounced fealty and obedience to him, if he would
not lower prices in the kingdom, expel foreigners
from the council8, and clear himself from the
charges of having thrown Christina Gyllenstierna
2 After 1527 the coinage was so depreciated, that three
marks answered to one silver rix-dollar (thus making the
mark a trifle more than 6$rf). Hallenberg 1. c. 112. (The
tun contains 4J Winchester bushels ; about 20 tuns go to a
last.)
3 As an example of the light in which Gustavus represented
the matter to the people, his letter to the Helsingers in 1526
may be quoted. " Certain monks and priests," he writes,
" have brought us into scandal; chiefly for that we blame their
irregularities." Among these the king reckons, that if a man
owes them anything, they refuse him the sacrament, instead
of pursuing their demand by law; that if a poor man on a
holiday kills a bird, or draws himself a plate of fish from the
stream, he is forthwith obliged to pay a fine to the bishop
and the provost for sabbath-breaking; that the laymen have
not the same rights against the priests as these have against
the former; that the bishops took the inheritance of priests
dying intestate, passing over their heirs ; that the clergy have
fraudulently possessed themselves of much of the crown
property, and embezzle the king’s proportion of judicial fines.
" When they perceive that we look to the interest of the
crown, which is incumbent on us by reason of our kingly
office, they straightway declare that we wish to bring in a
new faith, and Luther’s doctrine ; whereas the matter is 110
otherwise than as ye have now heard, that we will not per-
mit them to give loose to their avarice contrary to law."
Registry of the Archives
4 Sententia vulgi nostri facile solet variari. Ha;c
fiducia-liter vobis scribimus. Letter of Brask to the bishop elect of
Skara. Scan. Mem. xvii 131. It was not till later in the
year that Brask renounced all communion with the fugitive
archbishop Gustavus Trolle, to whom he had recommended
himself before the latter’s departure: rebus regni tunc in eo
statu existentibus, ut difiicillimum videretur regeni
Chris-tianum dejici posse. Brask to Gustave Troll6, October 18,
1523, 1. c. 171.
5 Upsala, Strengness, Westeras, Skara, Abo. Of the old
prelates there remained bishop Ingemar of Wexio, compliant
and enfeebled by age, and Brask of Linkoping, the only one
who was efficient.
6 Lit. Southwind.
7 Maturo Vallensium consilio. Letter to bishop Brask.
Scan. Mem. xvii. 123. This was according to the privileges
then claimed by the Dalesmen, of which more hereafter.
8 " Maelers, trolls (goblins), and devils, who lay their heads
together to prey upon the common people." Letter and
Remonstrance of the Dalesmen, Registry of the Archives, 1524.
By the two first words they mean Bernard of Melen, and
Gustave Trolle, on whose alliance with the king untrue
rumours were spread abroad.
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