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III. CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION.
church province in itself in 1164, when Stephen, a monk of Alvastra, was
made the first Archbishop of Uppsala (the present "Old Uppsala" remained for
another hundred years the Archbishop’s see). The Synod of Skänninge (1248)
marks the definite establishment of the Catholic ecclesiastical organization
(celibacy; election of bishops by the cathedral chapter).
Statue of Olaus Petri, Stockholm.
The century next succeeding — Period of the Folkungar dynasty — was the
most glorious period of the mediæval Swedish Church. Her wealth increased
rapidly. The great cathedrals (Skara, Linköping, Uppsala) were then reared.
Ecclesiastical ideals made then way into legislation though modified by Swedish
common law. In the middle of the 14th century, St. Bridget, the most notable
figure in the Scandinavian religious world during the Middle Ages, stepped
forward with prophetic zeal to denounce the corruption that was insinuating itself
into the court, the nobility, and the hierarchy. Her later work at Rome (where
she died in 1373) on behalf of reforms within the Church and the return of
the popes from Avignon, was Sweden’s most noteworthy contribution in
mediæval times towards the general development. Her order, the "Birgittines",
established itself at Vadstena as its centre, and extended over Scandinavia and to
Germany, England, and Italy. In the intestine strife of the Union Period the
hierarchy participated eagerly, chiefly on the side of the Unionist party, a fact
which contributed to the decline of the power of the Church at the beginning
of the new period.
The first and greatest protagonist of the Reformation in Sweden was
Luther’s disciple, Olaus Petri, a preacher in Stockholm (1493—1552), who, in a
series of pregnant writings (from 1526 onwards), partly polemical, partly
constructive, spread the reform doctrines. He translated the New Testament in
1526; the whole Bible was published in 1541. Gustavus Fasa (1523—60) made
use of the Reformation movement as the most powerful instrument in his work
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