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AUGUSTUS NORDENSRÖLD. 641
Church according to his own notions. So, in the year 1790, he
published in Copenhagen an " Organization of the Church in the New
Jerusalem,” which was a plan how the New Church ought to be consti
tuted. From this " Plan ," which was published in quarto, and dedicated
to the King of Sweden, it appears that he had some singular notions
on the subject of marriage. He looked upon marriage as the basis
of the Church, and the strongest bond of union within it, yet his
ideas on this subject, which he maintained he had derived from
Swedenborg, are opposed to the doctrines taught by Swedenborg from
beginning to end. It is important to define clearly A. Nordensköld’s
ideas on the subject of marriage and concubinage, as on his testimony
rests the assertion that " Swedenborg in his youth had a mistress in
Italy" (see Note 27). In his article on "Marriage" in the above work,
$ 47, he says as follows: “No marriage is acknowledged by us [i. e.
by the New Church ] as lawful and genuine, except one which is
entered into within our Church ; consequently no other except where
both husband and wife have accepted the doctrines of the New
Jerusalem in conformity with SS 7 and 8 [i. e. except those who
acknowledge and are baptized into the two fundamental doctrines of
the New Church). All other marriages are looked upon by us as
mere concubinages, although in accordance with the civil laws they
must not be dissolved before death. Whenever, therefore, a man
who has been baptized and who has been received into our Church,
goes and marries a woman out of our Church, we exclude him at
once ..... For this is merely a bodily connection, which with us
is called concubinage or maitress -ship; which is suffered under some
conditions .... but is looked upon as a merely external union, which
has no interior conjunction with our Church.” In $ 54, he describes
the conditions under which such a concubinage or maitress -ship may
be entered into by a member of the Church ; he says: “ As it will
naturally happen for a long time to come, that in our Church there
will be unmarried men who are unable to marry, and married men
who have been received among us, but who have un-Christian wives
despising the doctrines of the New Church, and who are consequently
compelled to live in an inharmonious marriage: it follows therefore,
that if such men are so strongly imbued with the love of the sex,
into which every one of us is born, that they cannot refrain from
the sex, it is indispensable for the sake of order that leave should
be granted them , to the former to have a mistress, and to the latter
to have a concubine.” He then says that if the bishop or the priest
who consecrates marriages, after examining their cases, give their
written consent, the former may live with his mistress, and the latter
with his concubine, and concludes, " If this is observed by him , he is
41
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