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138
Condition of the
clergy.
history of the swedes.
Misunderstandings
with Denmark.
[1544—
Lieutenants, and persons in authority, kept each of
them a secretary, to read and answer the king’s
letters, as they were themselves unable to do so.
Of the rudeness and ignorance of the clergy many
proofs remain. Their manner of embracing the
principles of the Reformation often consisted only
in marrying their housekeepers, in order thereby
to legitimate the offspring whom these had borne
them 2. We find, that during the Catholic period,
such housekeepers, on the death of the priest, used
to receive a certain allowance from the parish3.
The Evangelical ministers themselves did not
always set an edifying example. John
Kitchen-master, first a monk, afterwards a Lutheran
minister in Stockholm, and married, was deprived,
and thrown into prison by the king for his
dissolute life *. The abolition of the old Church
discipline before the new order of things was matured,
was generally productive of injurious effects on
domestic morals. The king, whose own life was
pure, and deportment blameless, often denounces
the prevailing corruption of manners. To what
extent this reached, where other circumstances
favoured the lawlessness of the ill-disposed, as upon
the frontiers, is best shown by his letter to the
inhabitants of the prefecture of Kronoberg, April 9,
1554. ’ In this, referring probably to the visitation
of 1550, he reproves those who, living on the
borders, and moving hither and thither, now into
Denmark, and now into Sweden, are regardless of
their marriage-vow, and take to wife one woman
after another, as they would change their horses 5.
He commands the prefects to watch narrowly the
proceedings of these loose companions. At the same
time the severity of the temporal penalties was
increased, till at length adultery was punished by
death 6.
The peace which the kingdom had long enjoyed
was threatened by Denmark and broken by a war
with Russia. The treaty of Brijmsebro, formed with
Denmark in 1541, the letter whereof stipulates an
alliance of both kingdoms for mutual defence, so in-
timate as in many respects to resemble the old
Union, was really produced by the terror still
inspired by the family of Christian II., who were
supported by Charles V. When the treaty of Spires
in 1544 reconciled Christian III. with the emperor,
and the clanger for Denmark ceased upon that side,
the old mistrust revived. At an earlier time the
Danish monarch had been, no less than Gustavus
himself, the enemy of the emperor and confederate
of France, though the alliance of Sweden with
Francis I. was regarded in Germany in a more
odious light, and was styled by the imperial
chancellor Granvella in his letters to the insurgents
of Smaland " an ungodly league 7." In the treaty of
Spires, Gustavus was included at the instance of
Denmark, but in a manner which did not give him
satisfaction, as the pretended right of the daughter
of Christian II. to his crown was left open ; on
which account Gustavus and the Estates in the diet
of 1547 rejected an overture to yield the claim on
the payment of a sum of money. This did not tend
to further the maintenance of a good understanding
with Denmark. The convention of Bromsebro had
settled none of the real matters in dispute; and as
by the 22d article both the claim of Sweden to
Gottland and also the pretensions which Denmark
might feel itself justified in pressing on the Swedish
crown were left over for future adjustment, the
latter clause especially gave occasion to
interpretations which might easily lead to an attempt to
renew all the usurpations of the Union. It was also
observed, that even after the hereditary settlement
in Sweden seemed to cut off all hope in this respect,
Christian III. assumed upon the arms of Denmark
the three crowns of the Swedish escutcheon. The
Danes on their side declared that this was only
intended to maintain in historical recollection the
former union of the three kingdoms, but Gustavus
viewed the matter otherwise. It is not without
ground that the ensuing wars have been considered
as springing from this source 8, although during the
1544 he recalls six of these, because he required their services
at home. Registers.
2 Where the clergyman was of noble birth this sometimes
led to suits with his relatives. When, in 1544, Erland Bat,
pastor of Sorunda in the diocese of Strengness wished to
marry his old housewife (Forsia, for-seer), "as priests now
use to do," his brother protested against his resolution " now
to take in marriage this poor woman, whom he had long
entertained for his mistress, and thereby to bring his spurious
children into their noble lineage and inheritance." The
matter ended by the parties being reconciled. Hallenberg,
Handlingar till konung Gustaf II. Adolfs Historia (Memoirs
for the History of king Gustavus II. Adolphus), Stockholm,
1784, p. 46.
3 There is a letter of Gustavus I. to his bailiff Bengt
West-gote, directing him to leave to the " forsia " of the deceased
master Olave of Munketorp the portion fixed by the parish.
Register for 1525.
4 H allman, Biography of the Brothers Olaus and Laurentius
Petri, 96.
5 Reg. for 1554.
6 Household order of King Eric, 1560; ordinance of king
John, 1577. This crime was cognizable in the Catholic period
by the spiritual tribunals, and by the temporal law was only
capital when the offender was caught in the fact, and the
prosecutor would not grant him his life for a fine.
1 The French ambassador Richers, who had been on a
mission to Constantinople, to incite the Turks to attack the
house of Austria, repaired to Gustavus at Calmar, shortly
after his return from the conference at Bromsebro, to form
an alliance against the enemies of both kingdoms, the latter
having previously despatched to Francis his secretary Trebou,
to propose a commercial treaty. One of alliance was
subsequently concluded by the envoys of Gustavus, his
brother-in-law Steno Ericson Lejonhufvud, the chancellor Pyhy,
Canute Anderson Lilje, and Goran Norman, with the
plenipotentiaries of the French king, the chancellor Poyet and
the admiral Chabot. It stipulates that the kings shall
consider themselves as brothers, and so style one another, each
watching over the interests of the other like his own, and
granting free liberty of traffic to his subjects, and that they
shall assist each other in time of war with 25,000 men and
20 ships, at the expense of the party requiring them. King
James V. of Scotland was received into the alliance on these
terms, that when he required help from France against any
of his enemies, the king of Sweden should transport to
Scotland a force not exceeding 6000 men, at the cost of the latter
power. Du Mont, Corps Diplom. iv. 228. It was probably
in consequence of this convention that Gustavus I. began
those recruitments of Scotsmen for the Swedish service
which were afterwards continued by his successors. In
1556 he was in treaty to obtain 2000 Scots for the war against
the Russians, and in the register for that year is preserved a
paper entitled " Codicillus ad duces et capitaneos Scotorum
de stipendio et disciplina militum, qui sunt in servitio
Reg. Maj. Sueciae."
8 Gustavus himself quotes one expression, " he who
would scratch the three crowns out of the arms of Denmark,
must have sharp teeth and claws."
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