Warrior Kings of Sweden

by Gary Dean Peterson

  Though the Reformation reached Sweden in Gustav’s time, in the form of Lutheranism, this tumult in the Protestant movement was sure to have some effect on Sweden. Under Gustav the Swedish church was closely controlled and religious thought constrained. He created government offices to oversee the church. Erik subordinated these offices and allowed the church to develop its structure, educational system and theology. This development was pushed to completion in response to outside influences.

  To further trade relations with East Friesland, particularly Emden, Gustav had encouraged immigration by promising religious tolerance to the persecuted Calvinists of that area. Erik continued this practice, but found the new Protestant communities were attracting large numbers of Calvinists from all over Germany, the Netherlands and France. Soon they were spreading their propaganda and preaching in areas outside their communities. The Swedish church, led by Archbishop Laurentius Petri, became alarmed. He issued a pamphlet in 1562 laying out arguments against their theology. In 1663 Erik XIV curtailed immigration of these reformers and two years later he issued a mandate restricting their proselytizing activities. The Calvinists never gained a strong presence in Sweden. Rather, the religious conflicts in Sweden would be within the Lutheran framework, Melanchthonism versus Lutheranism and what parts of Catholic practices, liturgy and theology to retain and what to change.

  By 1561 Laurentius Petri had a draft of church ordinances drawn up. However, he and Erik disagreed on many points. The church generally accepted both the elevation (of the host and chalice), and adoration of the host (bread) during the sacrament. Petri was ambivalent about elevation, but felt adoration was essential. Erik rejected both. These fine theological points would have been lost on Gustav altogether, nor would he have cared. Erik and Johan, on the other hand, not only understood them, but took a deep interest in these matters.

  At the Riksdag of 1561, Petri tried to obtain official recognition of his ordinances, but Erik would not let them pass. Recognition by the government would wait another ten years, until Johan had firm control.

  Johan III was better educated and more deeply interested in church matters than even Erik and seemed to have a real appreciation for service music, rich furnishings, even some of the old saints’ days to provide holidays for the people. Indeed, Johan sponsored a revival of church and cathedral rebuilding, improvement and beautification. Petri thought he finally had a kindred spirit to work with on the throne. But Johan saw himself as a reformer, the king who would reconstruct the church in his country in the form he envisioned. It must be remembered he was married to a Pole, a devout Catholic who kept her own chapel and priests. During his visit to England he had been exposed to the Anglican reforms and during his long imprisonment at Gripsholm, he had read extensively on the early Christian Fathers, particularly the first centuries of Christianity. He observed the fractious nature of the Protestant movement in Germany and seems to have longed for what he saw as the unity and accord of the ancient church.

  Johan III began to bring about his vision as quickly as he took office. He handed Petri a list of thirteen articles he considered matters the church needed to address. Several of these Petri incorporated into his Church Ordinance, which was approved by the council in 1571 and presented to the clergy and bishops at Uppsala in 1572. Here all church representatives took an oath to follow its precepts.

  This Church Ordinance of 1571 allowed for a state church independent from the crown although the king retained the right to confirm the bishops who were to be chosen by a diocese electorate composed of clergy and laymen. The ordinance accepted exorcism, vestments, the chalice and paten, the sign of the cross, adoration and elevation, canonical hours and singing of parts of the Mass in Latin. It provided for a system of church discipline and called for improvements of the church education system. In the final paragraph the ordinance allowed for additional provisions to be made as would become necessary. As far as Johan was concerned this clause meant that since the clergy had vowed to uphold the ordinance they were bound to support any additional provisions, an assumption that would soon be put to the test.

  The adoption of the Church Ordinance of 1571 was Archbishop Laurentius Petri’s great and final achievement. He died in 1573 having served patiently yet resolutely in directing the church he held so dear. A year later Johan presented to the new archbishop, Laurentieus Petri Gothus, and the clergy, an additional ten articles. The king presided over the debate of these reform measures which included such things as: the clergy were to abstain from drunkenness and immoral acts just before Mass day; the Elements were not to be handled with unclean hands, and the vestments were to be clean for Mass. Church officials were hard put to argue against these new restrictions and the king carried the day. His next set of changes would be much more controversial, however.

  In 1575, Johan brought to the clergy his New Ordinance which he presented as merely an explanation of the original Church Ordinance. It was much more than that. It, first of all, attempted to reconcile the difference between the Lutheran salvation by grace alone and the Catholic necessity for works. The argument was that our salvation depends on our love of God which stems from our faith in him; the greater our faith, the greater our love. But our love is demonstrated by our works. If this rational was not disturbing enough to the Lutheran Purists, there was the call for the retention of at least one monastery or nunnery in each diocese and the extension of the authority of the king to veto church appointments. Further, at Laurentius Petri Gothus’ archbishop consecration ceremony, he was forced, by Johan, to carry a crook (bishop’s staff) and miter (bishop’s pointed hat), and submit to unction (anointing with oil), symbols generally condemned previously by the Swedish Lutheran Church.

  Next Johan presented what he considered his ecclesiastic masterpiece, a new liturgy prescribed in his book which came to be known as the Red Book. In his work, Johan combined the Roman and Swedish masses describing a rich celebration with the use of some eight vestments for one ceremony. The work created much consternation among the strongly Lutheran clergy when it was presented to the Riksdag in 1577. It was accepted by the Church Estate only after considerable arm twisting, threats and promises.

  At this same time Pope Gregory XIII was making a move to try to recover Sweden for the Roman church. Through contacts with the Swedish queen’s personal Catholic staff by way of Polish cardinal Hosins, Gregory was encouraged that there existed this possibility. In 1576, he sent to the Swedish court one Father Laurentious Nicolai, a Norwegian Jesuit priest. He arrived in Stockholm disguised and did not reveal his true position. His mission was to begin the recovery of the country for Rome.

  Johan quickly found an official position for him. The king had been looking for a place of education that he could use to train and indoctrinate the next generation of clergy. Since the closing of the University of Uppsala in Gustav’s time, both Erik and Johan had worked to restore the institution, but the faculty now proved to be hostile to his religious ideas. So Johan opened a school in Stockholm in the facilities once used by the Greyfriars. Laurentius was placed as rector of the college and thus picked up the nickname Klosterlasse.

  As Klosterlasse schemed in secret to turn the country, Johan worked to gain acceptance for his Red Book by Rome. In 1576 Johan sent an embassy to Rome to explore the possibility of a reunion of the churches and in the process Johan hoped his Red Book would be recognized by the Holy See. Gregory XIII saw hope in this reopening and returned a mission headed by Antonio Possevino, former secretary-general of the Jesuits. He and his embassy members arrived in Stockholm in layman’s dress and contacted Klosterlasse, still disguised as a Lutheran at Greyfriars. This group then set to work proselytizing peasants, gentry and working hard at developing allies among the nobility, particularly members of the Råd. They felt they were making good progress until the Henriksson scandal blew open the whole clandestine operation.

  This affair was one of those personal misadventures that, under ordinary circumstances, would be of no consequ
ence to anyone except the immediate participants. But in this case events would take on international implications. Johan Henriksson was one of the king’s secretaries who had been living with the wife of another man. This situation came to the attention of Archbishop Gothus who took the secretary to task for his unseemly adulterous activity. Henriksson’s solution was to have a servant murder the husband, then apply to Klosterlasse for dispensation to marry the widow. The college regent turned to Possevino, who appealed to Rome, but in the meantime authorized Klosterlasse to give an oral dispensation to the disreputable civil servant. Henriksson, however, was able to extract the dispensation in writing from Klosterlasse. He then showed his exoneration to the archbishop exposing Klosterlasse for who he was. The connection was quickly made to Possevino and the role of the whole delegation as agents of Rome was clear. The Swedish church hierarchy was stunned to find that their associates and in some cases close friends had been working to undermine Swedish church independence. The nobility, especially the Råd members who had been so carefully cultivated, recoiled in indignation and in some instances genuine horror at the degree of infiltration accomplished by the Catholics.

  Even after this setback Johan and Possevino seemed to think reconciliation was still a possibility. Johan composed a letter which he sent with Possevino to Pope Gregory outlining his demands for reunion, sacrament for laity, priest marriage, the Mass in Swedish, clergy subject to Swedish law and abolition of Holy Water. Worship of saints and prayers for the dead would not be obligatory. Possevino left for Rome on March 1578 and five months later Gregory XIII’s answer came back rejecting all points.

  When Possevino returned to Sweden, it was in clerical dress and he ordered all the Catholic priests in the country to make themselves known. He then made a grand visit to the nunnery of Vadstena that Katarina was having rebuilt.

  This demonstration was the last straw. Johan could no longer assist or even condone Catholic activity in the country if he hoped to retain his crown. There were anti–Catholic riots in Stockholm. The Råd told the king to make clear his support of the state church. The Riksdag in March 1580 condemned Klosterlasse and the Jesuits. Klosterlasse openly denounced the Red Book and was deprived of his rectorship. In August Klosterlasse, Possevino and a few converts left the country. Greyfriars was closed once more and in 1583 Queen Katarina died, ending the last connection between the crown and Rome.

  At her passing Katarina was mourned throughout the country for her kindness, virtue and her devotion to her religion. Even detractors who, during her life, had blamed her for much of the Catholic activity in their country, now honored her. Katarina, at least, came out of the incident with her dignity and loyalties intact. She had made no pretense of being anything other than a devoted Roman Catholic, unwavering in her faith and for this she was respected. Johan, on the other hand, emerged broken, with his dream of a Swedish church united with Rome shattered. He had succeeded only in creating fear and suspicion of the Catholic Church and now he had to worry about his son’s succession to the throne.

  He had tried to persuade Sigismund to at least consider or even show tolerance toward Swedish Lutheranism, but the heir to the throne would have none of it. He steadfastly refused to attend Lutheran services and by 1579 made clear his intention to remain a devoted Catholic putting him at odds with the Råd. Though both the Råd and the Riksdag had proclaimed his right to succession in 1569, Johan knew Sigismund’s throne was now in jeopardy. As early as 1572 Johan had pressured the clergy to formally endorse the succession and in 1574 he got the Estates to do the same. In 1582, after the Klosterlasse-Possevino affair had settled out, Johan persuaded the clergy to renew their pledge of support. As late as 1587 Johan had the Riksdag of Vadstena once more promise fidelity to Johan’s line of succession. Johan’s concerns were not misplaced for always hovering in the background was his brother Karl.

  During the upheaval in church affairs, Duke Karl had maintained a core of resistance to any encroachment by the Church of Rome in his duchy. Where Johan’s Lutheranism leaned toward the traditional and even the Catholic fringe of the church, Karl’s inclinations were nearer a Puritanism form of the church, closer to a Calvinist type of Protestantism. Johan’s vision was a reunion of the Swedish church and the Church of Rome. Karl’s vision was for a united Protestant movement. He was disgusted with the division and bickering going on among the Reformers in Germany.

  Karl operated his duchy as a semi-autonomous state within a state. This extended to religious matters as well as political. After Johan’s failure at any kind of a rapprochement with Rome, the king turned even more resolutely to gaining acceptance of his liturgy in Sweden, as described in the Red Book. Dissenting clergy were persecuted, harassed, even imprisoned or escaped to Karl’s domain where they found refuge and support. Meanwhile, Johan pressed his agenda in the church.

  When Laurentius Petri Gothus died (1579) Johan left the position of archbishop vacant for three years, demonstrating the office was subservient to the crown. When he finally did appoint a successor, it was a man of his ecclesiastic philosophy, one Anders Lars Björnram. At his consecration in 1583, the bishops affirmed their support for both the New Ordinance and the Red Book. Johan also carried out a program of church building, repair and beautification. Church government was reorganized and made more efficient. Clergymen were better educated and better trained albeit according to Johan’s vision of the church.

  Karl fought just as hard on the other side. In 1587 his duchy’s clergy issued the Confessio Strengneusis which denounced the liturgy of the Red Book and accepted the Augustana invariata for the first time in any Swedish church publication. Johan retorted with the Hard Patent of 1588 calling his enemies liars, scatterers of the faith, bunglers, and traitors and outlawed the entire clergy of the duchy. But his position began to weaken. In 1590 Johan and Karl reached an agreement that the duchy was free to practice religion as it saw fit. By then defamers of the Red Book were rising in power and in 1591 Johan’s real champion, Archbishop Björnram, died. Once again Johan’s religious vision was crumbling before his eyes and he was powerless to stop it.

  The differences between the royal brothers extended to more than religion, of course. Karl, with his nearly independent duchy, refrained only from conducting independent foreign affairs. He ruled from Nyköpping, had his own chancellor, Råd, bailiffs, secretaries and called his own meetings of the Estates within his realm. His taxes and tariffs differed from those in the rest of Sweden and at times he coined his own money. Indeed, when Karl went to Germany to court the daughter of the elector of Palatine, he assured the ruler that within the duchy he was an independent sovereign using Gustav’s testament and Johan’s letter of confirmation as evidence. In 1578, Maria of Palatinate became his first wife.

  In consolidating his control, the duke took care to ingratiate himself with the nobility of his realm. However, his efforts were not universal. He favored the nobles who had lands within the duchy in every way, while ostracizing those with lands elsewhere. Nobles with holdings solely within the duchy tended to be lesser nobility while those with lands within and without were some of the great magnates of Sweden. So, very early, Karl began to make enemies among the great families of the kingdom, families who were the members of the king’s Råd. A three way power struggle developed between the king, the aristocracy represented by the Råd, and the duke. Each suspicious of the other, each trying to carve out as much political power as possible.

  Karl seems to have been more like his father than either of his brothers. He had his father’s love of business and commerce, his suspicious and untrusting nature and attention to detail. His duchy flourished under his rule.

  Johan on the other hand was preoccupied with religion, and with his other passion, architecture. Not only were churches and cathedrals repaired and beautified during his reign, but castles, government buildings, and even cities were built or rebuilt. All this, along with his continuing war in Livonia and the ransom of Älvsborg, had emptied the royal coff
ers already drained by Erik’s Seven Years Northern War. The country’s financial peril was of constant concern to the Råd, which tried to keep some kind of account if not control. In 1574 and again in 1583 careful accounting was made of government revenues and expenses. These figures show income in 1574 was 650,000 dalers with expenditures of 1,008,000 dalers; for 1582 these numbers were 772,000 dalers and 1,120,000 dalers. The deficits Johan managed to handle by debasing the currency, not paying bills for imported luxuries, and requisitioning commodities from his subjects and then not paying for them. He increased compulsory labor service, sold warships, and neglected to pay foreign troops and even Swedish soldiers. He imposed a royal monopoly on the lucrative copper production and sale, and had new taxes on farm products and the booming fur trade. In spite of everything, the crown debt, by 1583, was over a million dalers.

  Even more disturbing to the aristocracy was Johan’s raising of the sons of lower nobility and even gentry in high government offices. He had increased the number of secretaries to eighteen and filled the positions with men from decidedly lower castes. No longer was it necessary to import civil servants from outside the country as merchants and lesser nobles could send their sons to universities in Germany and elsewhere, then get them into government office. The high aristocracy was finding itself excluded from these high paying and influential positions. The nobility began to demand more representation in the crown’s administration.

  And so the three-way struggle teetered back and forth with each side playing off one against another. The Riksdag was called upon to referee when one of the opponents felt it had an advantage with the Estates. Finally, the factions coalesced. The Råd became so worried about the country’s financial straits it developed and proposed to the king a comprehensive plan for economic reform. An accounting system was instituted for the crown and standard wages for royal attendants and government workers established. Royal servants and outlays for banquets would be reduced. The royal mint would be supervised by two nobles.