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1543.] Conspiracy detected. GUSTAVUS VASA.
of Gustavus ; their fleet was defeated by the
combined Swedish and Danish squadrons. In
Denmark too their good fortune came to an end with
the overthrow in Funen (in which Gustavus Trolle
was mortally wounded), though Copenhagen was
devoted to their interest, and the defence of the
town was protracted throughout a whole year.
Towards the end of the siege the distress was so
extreme that people died of hunger in the streets,
and children were observed sucking blood from
the breasts of their expiring mothers3. Lubeck
saw itself reduced in 1536 to conclude a peace with
Denmark, which brought the war with Sweden
also to an end. But the dissatisfaction of Gustavus
that Denmark should have concluded a separate
peace, and under conditions by which he deemed
his interests to be prejudiced in several points,
the difficulties which arose concerning the payment
of the loan wherewith he had assisted Christian
III., and various other disputes, had afterwards
well-nigh led to a rupture with Denmark. At
length a good understanding was restored, and an
alliance between the two kingdoms for twenty
years contracted, at a personal interview of the
sovereigns in Bromsebro. The Hanse Towns on
the other hand, after this unsuccessful attempt to
restore their ancient influence in the north, never
recovered their former privileges. In Lubeck,
the party which had instigated the war ’was
overturned. Among their plans was included a
conspiracy against Gustavus ; the king was to be
assassinated, and Stockholm delivered to the
Lu-beckers. The plot was detected, and its authors,
who were for the most part German burgesses,
suffered (in 153G) the penalty of their crime. Four
years afterwards, Olave Peterson and Lawrence
Anderson were accused of not having revealed this
treason, which had come to their knowledge through
the confessional. They were brought to trial and
condemned to death ; Lawrence Peterson, who
had been appointed in 1531 the first Lutheran
archbishop, being obliged himself to sit in
judgment on his brother4. The king granted them
their lives, yet not without imposing a heavy fine,
and also consented that Peterson should again
resume his ministry in Stockholm. Both had filled
the office of High Chancellor, and they were the
last Swedish ecclesiastics who held this dignity.
Meanwhile the work of the Reformation was
advancing in the northern kingdoms. Gustavus is
said to have counselled Christian III. to break the
power of the bishops in Denmark. The temporal
lords of the council combined with the sovereign
to deprive the bishops of all power, whether eccle-
THE REFORMATION. Measures of Church discipline. 125
siastical or civil, in the government of the kingdom.
The Danish prelates were all arrested upon the
same day of the year 1536, and a reduction of the
Church property was undertaken. Gustavus also
was at this time displeased with his Protestant
clergy. He reproached his new instructors, that
by incautious alterations of the old usages of the
Church they offended the simple, and displayed
besides a very eager inclination to master his
person and government. The vehement and
free-spirited Olave Peterson first drew upon himself
disfavour on this account. " Hereby come scandal and
sedition," wrote the king to his brother (April 24,
1539), the first Lutheran archbishop," that the
people are not instructed before reformation ensues ;
men should first learn, and then reform ; preachers
shall ye be, but 110 lords ; believe not we shall let it
come to this, that the bishops should get back the
sword." He seemed even disposed to abolish the
episcopal office in Sweden, and to reconstitute the
Swedish Church upon the Presbyterian model.
George Norman, who had been recommended by
Melanctlion to the king’s best confidence5, was
appointed superintendent over the whole clerical
order in his dominions 6. According to an
instruction 7 issued in 1540, office-bearers, called
conservators and councillors of religion, supported by
assistants who were styled elders, were to regulate
the affairs of the Church in the provinces under
his revision, and to hold visitations.
Although this arrangement appears never to have
been generally carried into effect, it is certain that
visitations of the sees were made accordingly, by
which the king appropriated to himself the remnant
of plate still left in the churches, furnishing to each
in return a copy of the Bible, which was completely
translated into Swedish in the year 1541, and that
changes were made affecting the power as well as
the titles of the bishops. From the year 1544, the
king ceased to give the episcopal designation to any
except the primate of Upsala ; the others were
styled ordinaries, and the bishopries were
subdivided according to the royal pleasure among several
of these overseers, " seeing that the bishops have
heretofore had far too large dioceses and
jurisdictions 8." Towards the end of this prince’s reign, the
sees of Upsala and Linkoping were thus parcelled
out each into three portions, those of Westeras and
Strengness into two 9. In all the countries where
the reformation was established, it is observable
that at first vacillation and uncertainty prevailed
respecting the question of supreme authority in
spiritual affairs. Gustavus scrupled not to arrogate
this power to himself.
3 When the famishing inhabitants demanded the surrender
of the place, the town magistrates answered, that " they had
not yet, as in the siege of Jerusalem, devoured their own
children." Hvitfeldt.
4 Messenius, Scondia v. 71, 85. The royal anger had also
been awakened by various expressions employed by Peterson
in his Chronicle of Sweden. In the Registry of the Archives
for 1536 are two letters by the king upon this conspiracy,
dated the 15th and 26th of May (the first addressed to the
common people at the fair in Upsala on St. Eric’s day), in
which it is stated that the master of the mint, Anders
Hanson, with certain Germans and a number of Swedish
burghers, had bound themselves to take off the king, either
" by placing gunpowder under his chair in church, or by
other traitorous devices;" and further, that the conspirators
purposed to seize the castle of Stockholm, to expel all the
magistrates and the whole body of nobles, " as some of the
German towns, with Malmo and Copenhagen, were minded,"
and finally to bring the realm under the dominion of the
Hanse Towns.
5 A copy of Melancthon’s letter to the king, dated
Wittenberg, May 12, 1539, exists a»iong the Palmskold Collections
in the Library of Upsala.
6 Warrant for master George Norman to have inspection
over bishops and clergy, Upsala, December 8, 1539. MS. in
the Palmskold Collections.
7 Instruction by which the conservator and councillor of
religion in West-Gothland shall be guided. Nylodbse, April
9, 1540. MS. ibid.
8 Commission for those who are made Ordinaries.
Westeras, June 19, 1557. MS. ibid.
9 Spegel, Proofs to the Bishops’ Chronicle, p. 114.
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