Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XIV. Charles IX. A.D. 1599—1611
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1611.]
Projects of religious union.
Charges against tlie clergy.
CHARLES IX. Correspondence with the
Universiiy of Upsala.
203
Charles spent a great portion of his life in at-
tempts to unite the Lutheran and Reformed Con-
fessions 2, without however approving all the posi-
tions of Calvin, as for example the doctrine of
unconditional election. Public disputations on this
subject were several times held, as in l(i0’2 with his
chaplain Micronius, and 1G08 with John Forbes,
a Scottish literate, both of whom he had called into
the kingdom. To the clergy he administered more
than one blunt reproof. The archbishop had been
among the plenipotentiai’ies vi’ho had discussed with
the people the aids for the war granted at the diet
of 1602, but had received "a downright adverse
answer" in the diocese of Westeras. Charles writes
to him: "that the cause lay in the clergy and other
knaves who roamed about the country ;
that the
clergy would not pray for the realm’s arms in this
war, which yet was undertaken on account of re-
ligion, not to speak of rendering other help; the
archbishop should call upon them to instruct the
people rightly as to the condition of the present
time; for if they would not pray for the army of
the kingdom of Sweden, they should be deprived of
their calling and offices, and receive no sustenance
from the crown." Another letter of the following
year has this passage: "Because we see that your
views are only bent upon this, by the name of
the doctrines of faith to have wives, and keep
Christmas and holidays, we will for our person dis-
miss this religion, reconcile ourselves with the king
of Poland, and set ourselves down at home to the
same repose as you. If then it seem advisable to
you, ye may yourselves march out against the
enemy with your priests."
" We have to thank the
clergy for little," he writes to the council in 1(>04,
" the most part have not long ago fallen off from
the Augsburg confession. Trust not to the sted-
fastness of the clergy, for when need came upon us
they hung the mantle on both shoulders, and re-
turned to their vomit again." In the same year he
issued to the collective body of the people a decla-
ration regarding his whole conduct in matters of
religion since the times of the liturgy, intimating
that he had been at length compelled to publish a
defence against the inculpations of the archbishop,
whence every honourable and intelligent Christian
might judge tliat great wi-ong had been done to
him.
The University of Upsala, wliich held with the
archbishop in questions of belief, now also shared
his disfavoui", and sharp answers followed solicita-
tions addressed to him by more than one teacher.
To a suggestion for the improvement of the schools
and academy the answer was, that " order had been
2 In the Palmsktild Collections is a copy of a German
letter, undated, from the king to a master Joachim, con-
cerning this scheme, in which it is said,
" This might easily
be accomplished, if a Christian council might be held, and
God’s word be judge therein, and not doctor Luther’s con-
troversy-books."
^ The extracts quoted are from the registers for the above-
named years.
• Ordinances concerning the just levy of the tithe, 1602
and 16U7, and in the latter year a renewal of that regarding
the erection of manses. To the former purpose tithe proc-
tors were appointed. Charles also established the year of
grace for ministers’ widows. The king’s proposal to the
clergy, Dec. 15, 1604 (Reg ), to be freed from all public taxes
and imposts and purveyance, for the relinquishment of their
arrears and the cession of their farm-yards, seems to have
had no results.
taken for it ;
it remained to know whether they
could be improved;"
—to a request that their privi-
leges might be conserved to them :
" if
they mean
those which we subscribed with the council we will
not allow it, but they shall rather surrender them;
then we will grant them such liberties as other
evangelical academies, yet after the circumstances
of this country;"
—to a request that a Latin printer
should be sent: "he whom they have to print Swe-
dish and German may print Latin for them too ;"
—
to a representation, whether the professors, for
whom neither lands nor prebends were set apart,
might not expect such :
"
certainly not, but the
teachers shall attend to their office in the town,
letting the priests mind theirs in the country, and
the peasant his plough." Lastly, to a petition that
the number of the professorships might be com-
pleted it was replied,
" If we might get any capable;
but he that has no falcons must go a-hawking with
owls^." In the midst of such rebuffs the profes-
sors were surprised witli an extraordinary mark of
confidence. In the year 1605 Charles despatched
John Goranson Rosenhane and John Skytt^, now
tutors to the young Gustavus Adolphus, to learn
their opinions upon a proposal of reconciliation
with the king of Poland,
" because in all lands and
realms it is the usage, that men should take coun-
sel of highly-learned academies, as well in secular
as spiritual affairs." The professors deemed it im-
possible to give their assent to a proposal so little
suitable, the same with which Charles, in a moment
of ill humour, had lately tempted the comicil of
state. The end of the negotiations was for them
less agreeable. For thereafter followed a query,
in what manner the professors and capitulars, as
they did not assent to the peace, would contribute
to the further prosecution of the war ;
the baron-
age, towns, and commonalty of Upland had granted
a levy of every tenth man, from the age of sixteen
to sixty; if the professors would give their help in
this or any other fashion for the continuance of the
war, they might malce it known to the lords com-
missioiiers.
Notwithstanding this, Charles acted in all these
contestations with real, and if we consider his vehe-
ment temper and the manners of the time, with
wonderful moderation. He exchanged controversial
treatises with the archbishop, but he was no per-
secutor. He chastised the clergy with words ;
occasionally too he deprived a priest for violent
sermons; but he was scinipulous as to their rights,
and to this prince are they indebted for a legal de-
termination of their revenues, as well in Sweden as
Finland *. He interested himself in various ways
in academical concerns. Upsala received from him
John Messenius *
and John Rudbeck, the first
’ The historian. He was, in 1609, the first professor of
law and politics (juris et politices professor). In 1605 we
find this entry,
" As of the several professorships resolved
upon in 1593 four were still to be founded, in politics, the
medical faculty, and the Hebrew and Greek languages, his
majesty is prayed to ordain professors, when any competent
present themselves." Reg. Charles at first regarded Mes-
senius with suspicion :
" Here is come," he writes to duke
John, Nov. 23, 1608,
" one that calls himself doctor Messenius,
and declares he was born in Vadstena, and carried away when
a child by the Papists, and reared in their schools in Germany
and Italy, and solicits permission to go to Vadstena to ask
after his parents and relatives, whom in sixteen years he hath
not seen ;" and bids the duke "be wary of him, since he is
suspect, and seeks perchance to insinuate himself." Reg.
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