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118 Legislation of the diet. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Bishops’ castles sequestrated. [1524—
the council of state, whose seals were appended to
it, with those of the nobility and of certain burghers
and miners appointed on the part of the
commonalty. The bishops, who from this time were no
longer summoned to the council, briefly declared,
in a special instrument, " that they were content,
how rich or poor soever his grace would have
them to be." The act of the council 011 the Recess
of Westeras contains, 1. A mutual engagement to
withstand all attempts at revolt and to punish
them, as also to defend the present government
against all enemies, foreign and domestic ; 2. A
grant of power to the king, to take into his own
hands the castles and strongholds of the bishops,
and to fix their revenues 1 as well as those of the
prebends and canonries, to levy fines hitherto
payable to the bishops, and to regulate the monasteries,
" in which there had for a long time been woeful
misgovernment;’’ 3. Authority for the nobles to
resume that part of their hereditary property which
had been conveyed to churches and convents since
the Inquisition (rafst) of Charles Canuteson in
1454, if the heir-at-law could substantiate his
birthright thereto, at the Ting, by the oaths of
twelve men2 ; 4. Liberty for the preachers to
proclaim the pure word of God, " but not" the
barons add, " uncertain miracles, human
inventions and fables, as hath been much used
heretofore." Respecting the new faith, on the other
hand, the burghers and miners declare that "
inquiry might be made, but that the matter passed
their understanding ;" as do the peasants, since
" it was hard to judge more deeply than
understanding permitted." The answer of the latter
betrays the affection they still, for the most part,
bore to the clergy, with the exception of the
mendicant friars or sack-monks, of whose conduct they
complain. Of the bishops’ castles they say that
the king may take them in keeping, until the
kingdom shall be more firmly settled ; for the article
respecting the revenues of the Church, they believe
they are unable to answer it, but commit this matter
to the king and his council. In that supplement
to the statute, which is entitled the Ordinance of
Westeras, it is enacted, that a register of all the
rents of the bishops, cathedrals, and canons,
should be drawn up, and the king might direct
what proportion of these should be reserved to the
former owners, and how much paid over to him for
the requirements of the crown ; that ecclesiastical
offices, not merely the higher, but the inferior,
should for the future be filled up only with the
king’s consent, so that the bishops might supply
the vacant parishes with preachers, but subject to
reviewal by the king, who might remove those
whom he found to be unfit; that in secular matters
priests should be amenable to the civil jurisdiction,
and on their decease no part of their effects should
devolve to the bishops ; finally, that from that day
the gospels should be read in all schools, " as
beseems those which are truly Christian."
When these arrangements had been concerted,
the king turned towards the prelates, and demanded
from the bishop of Strengness, the castle of
Tyn-nelso, which the latter declared himself I’eady to
surrender. A similar answer was returned by the
bishop of Skara in reference to that of Lecko3,
but when the king came to bishop Brask and
requested his castle of Munkeboda, silence and sighs
were the only reply. Thure Jenson begged for
his old friend, that the castle might be at least
spared to him during his life time, but the king
answered shortly," No !" Eight lords of the
council were obliged on the spot to become sureties
for the bishop’s obedience. Forty men of his
bodyguard were taken from him to be entered among
the royal forces, and they formed a portion of the
troops who were forthwith dispatched to take
possession of the fortress with its artillery and
appurtenances. At the same time, the king sent various
men of note as commissioners to the principal
churches and monasteries throughout Sweden, to
take into their keeping all documents concerning the
estates and revenues of these foundations, and a
declaratory letter of the council on theRecess and
Ordinance of Westeras was issued to all the provinces.
Bishop Brask succeeded by a seeming submission
in freeing himself from the securities he had been
obliged to find ; shortly afterwards, pretending a
visitation to Gottland, he quitted the kingdom for
ever and joined the archbishop, who was likewise
a fugitive in Dantzic.
Gustavus now proceeded to celebrate his
coronation in the beginning of 1528, and chastised the
revolt of the Dalesmen, the negociation with whom
had been carried on during the diet of Westeras,
by agents reciprocally appointed ; but the
pretended Sture’, though his party had greatly
decreased since Christina Gyllenstierna herself had
declared him to be an impostor, continued to find
protection and assistance in Norway, where he had
sought4 refuge, and more covertly, in Dalecarlia.
The Dalesmen, who from the indulgence with
which they had so long been treated, expected not
only impunity, but exemption from the impost of
which they had refused payment, were now
summoned to meet the king at the assize (landsting) of
1 Or " with how many men they should ride," since the
revenues of a baron were at that time reckoned by the
number of his armed followers. The archbishop Joannes Magnus,
in the year of his deposition, rode his visitation into
Norr-land with a train of 300 men, and was attended by the sons
of the most distinguished nobles.
2 This related to land exempt from taxes (fralsejord);
taxable ground (skattejord), which had been transferred to
the Church, was to be restored, " however long it might have
been alienated."
3 The king did not demand the castle of Gronso from the
bishop of Westeras, because he had already, in 1521, taken it
from bishop Otto, who favoured the Danes, without
subsequently restoring it to his successor Peder Sunnanvaeder,
which was one of the motives to his defection. The king
acknowledges—as he writes in 1525 to the provost of the
chapter of Upsala, that he had taken the estate of Griinsb
from the bishop of Westeras at the time when the latter was
his enemy, seeing that it had belonged to the crown, and
that the see of Westeras had so long possessed it, that any
sums laid out upon it must have been more than replaced.
Reg. of the Archives. The bishop’s castle of Kustb, not far
from Abo, was pulled down in 1528 by the royal order.
4 He went from thence to Germany, but was arrested at
the instance of Gustavus, and brought to trial at Rostock,
where he was condemned to death, it is said, not for his
rebellion, but for a robbery which he had committed before his
appearance as king in Dalecarlia. There exists a letter from
one Canute Nilson, secretary to king Christian, dated
Schwerin, November 20, 1528, acquainting the fugitive king
with his fate. In this he is styled son of lord Steno, and it
is stated that when apprehended he was on his way to the
king.
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