(1515-1525.)
THE Scandinavians, men of the North or Northmen, who inhabited the three countries, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, embraced the
Reformation at the same time. In each of these lands it had its own roots, but it came to them essentially from Germany, the only European nation with which their inhabitants frequent intercourse.
A chief named Odin, whose history is confused with fables, appeared in Europe about the time of the Christian era. Mounted on an eight-footed horse, carrying a lance in his hand, and having on his shoulders two ravens who served him as messengers, he advanced at the head of a people whom he led out of the interior of Asia. His descendants were kings of the Goths and the Cimbri. For himself, he became the god of these nations, the father of gods, and the object of a senseless and sanguinary worship.
A Christian man named Anschar, as much given to kindness as Odin had been to carnage, as capable of inspiring love as the father of Thor had been of exciting terror, was, in the ninth century, the apostle of Scandinavia.
Towards the close of the fourteenth century the three kingdoms were united by the treaty known as the Union of Calmar.
The Scandinavians endowed, like the Germans, with deep affections have an intellect perhaps not so rich as theirs, but they possess greater energy.
There seemed to be little probability that these countries would receive the
Reformation. The clergy were powerful, and the nobility most commonly followed the leading of the priests; but the people, without any violent action, without any abrupt movements or passionate speeches, were to pronounce finally and decisively for the truth and for freedom. It was in the hearts of the sons of the soil and the dwellers on the sea coasts, that the love of the Gospel began to spring up in the sixteenth century.
The island of Fionia, situated in the center of the Danish States, between the continent of Jutland and the island of Zealand, is a green and wooded country, full of freshness, radiant with beauty, generally bordered with picturesque rocks cut out by the sea, the fiords of which run up far into the land. On one of these inlets, to the north-east of the Great Belt, stands the village of Kiertminde. At the end of the fifteenth century there was living in this village a poor farmer named Tausen, and to him was born, in 1494, a son who was named John. The child used to play on the shores of the Great Belt, where the first objects that attracted his notice were the sea and its vast expanse, the waves running in to break upon the shore, the boats of the fishermen, the distant ships, the abysses and the storms. His father was poor, and John, from an early age, assisted him in his labors; he accompanied him to the hop plantations, or leaped with him into the fishing-boat, braving the waves. As it was customary for every one to make his own garments, his furniture and his tools, the boy learnt a little of everything. But there was an intelligence in him which seemed to mark him out for a higher calling than that of laborer or fisherman. His father and mother often talked of this; but they were grieved to think that they were unable, on account of their poverty, to give their son a liberal education.
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However, the spirit which God gives a child often overcomes the greatest obstacles. The men who are self-made without assistance from others are usually those who exert the most powerful influence on their
contemporaries. In John Tausen there was a strong bent for study; f208 and God never wills the end without providing the means. At the distance of five or six miles from the village was Odensee, an ancient town of which Odin was the reputed founder, and which at least bore his name; and in this town was a school attached to the cathedral. John was placed here by his parents; and being poor, like Luther, he gained his living like him, by singing with other boys from door to door before the houses of the rich
folk of the town. He soon became distinguished among the scholars; and some years later, one Knud Rud, a holder of a fief of the crown, being in want of a tutor, took him into his family. f209
The office of a teacher did not satisfy the lofty aspirations of Tausen.
Theology, which concerns itself with God and with the destination of man, appeared to him to be above all the other sciences. He had also another reason for paying attention to it. The love for heavenly good was not yet kindled in his soul, but he was already anxious to hold a good position in the world. The clergy and the nobility were the only influential classes in Denmark; and, as Tausen was not of the noble class, he would fain be at least a priest. There was, in his neighborhood, at Autwerskov, a monastery of the Johannites, one of the richest in the kingdom. The prior Eskill, was not only a powerful prelate, but also perpetual counselor of the crown. Tausen, impelled by ambition, begged for admission into this monastery, and he took his vows there in 1515. He was at this time twenty-one years of age, the same age as Luther when he entered the cloister. The Johannites and the Augustines followed the same rule.
Tausen at once displayed intense eagerness to increase his knowledge, and especially to fit himself for preaching. He was a born preacher; he felt himself destined for public discourse. Aware of its importance in the church, he often exercised himself in preaching. There was pith in his discourses, and the prior, who was delighted to hear him, liked to think that this young orator would one day make his monastery illustrious. But a future of an altogether different character was in store for Tausen. He had a gift, but this gift was to be of service in raising up the church outside the pale of Roman Catholicism.
The studies to which the young man applied himself with a good
conscience and without hypocrisy led him involuntarily to the recognition of various errors in the Romish doctrine; and his moral sense was at the same time offended by the empty babble and the corruption of the monks.
In a little while other lights in addition to those of reading and reflection began to shine upon him. A new world, and one which diffused a
brightness far and wide, was at this time created in Germany. Ships were frequently arriving from Lubeck in the ports of Fionia and Zealand, bringing strange tidings. The merchants who brought in these vessels told of a monk belonging to the same rule as Tausen, a man of rare moral
purity, who was proclaiming with power a living and regenerative faith. A quickening breath proceeding from Saxony in this way touched the islands of Scandinavia. It imparted a new impulse to the susceptible, generous, and ambitious soul of Tausen. Conscious that he was surrounded by darkness he began to long after those regions of Germany which appeared to him to be illuminated with a living and divine light. He made known his wish to the prior; and the latter, believing that a residence in a foreign land would make his young friend more capable of adding reputation to his order, gave him the permission which he asked for, and added that he would himself pay the expenses of the journey out of the revenues of the monastery. ‘You may,’ said he, ‘attend a university, one only being excepted, that of Wittenberg.’ f210 Louvain was recommended to him, a university distinguished for its attachment to the Roman doctrine.
Tausen set out in 1517, a year memorable for the beginning of the Reformation, and betook himself to Louvain, cherishing the hope that some sparks from Wittenberg might have fallen there: but he found nothing but darkness. He pined for air, he could not breathe, and, anxious to be nearer to the town from which the light proceeded, he went to Cologne.
But there too, as at Louvain, he found nothing but idle questionings of a barren scholasticism. Sick of these trifles, these inanities, f211 he felt a need more and more pressing of a pure doctrine and of solid studies. The works of Luther which found their way to Cologne were read there with as much eagerness as are the bulletins from a great army during a war. Tausen devoured them with the utmost eagerness. One day it was the ‘Asterisks,’
another it was the ‘Resolutions,’ a third, the discourse on
‘Excommunication,’ and then others besides. When he had done reading he would close the book with reverence, and think within himself, ‘Oh, what would it be to hear him myself!’ He was drawn by two opposing forces.
The strict prohibition of his prior held him back; the living word of Luther was calling him. Should he go or not? His soul was agitated by a violent struggle. Should he choose night or day? Is it not written in the Scriptures that a man must be ready to sell all that he has that he may buy the truth?
He no longer hesitated; and, disregarding the rash promise which he had made, he left the banks of the Rhine, in 1519, and betook himself to Wittenberg. He heard Luther, he heard Melanchthon; he was at Wittenberg at the time of the appearance of the ‘Appeal to the German Nobility;’ he
was there when Luther burnt the pope’s bulls, and when the reformer set out for Worms to make his appearance before Charles V. The young Scandinavian, finding in the Gospel the truth and the peace which he had been so earnestly seeking, embraced with all his heart the cause of the Reformation. In October 1521 he quitted Saxony and returned to his monastery, determined to diffuse in his native land the light which he had found at Wittenberg. f212
Four years had elapsed since his departure, and there was a new state of things in Denmark. Luther’s writings had reached Copenhagen, and had been read there with avidity. Above all, Tausen found in his own country two men who seemed to be called to prepare the work of the Reformation.
One of these men was Paul Eliae, a native of Holland, f213 prior of a Carmelite monastery recently founded, the members of which were in general enlightened men who had some degree of sympathy with Luther.
The other was a young nobleman, not intended for theology, named Peter Petit of Rosefontaine. He had already seen and heard Luther and
Melanchthon before Tausen; and on his return to Copenhagen in 1519 he had determined to avail himself of all his family and social relations to influence other minds and gain them to the side of reform. The most important of the persons whom he persuaded to favor the Gospel was the King of Denmark himself. f214
This prince, Christian II., who succeeded to the throne in 1513, at the age of thirty-two, as sovereign of the three Scandinavian kingdoms, was a man of extraordinary character. Endowed with a penetrating glance, he
distinctly recognized the defects of the constitution of his realm, and the errors of his age; and he was capable of applying a remedy to them with a firm and bold hand. To lessen the oppressive power of the nobility and the clergy, to raise the condition of the townsmen and the peasantry, were the objects of his reign. But it must be confessed that self-interest was the main-spring of this enterprise. A friend to knowledge, to the sciences, to agriculture, commerce, and industry, he nevertheless took after his barbarian ancestors. He was cruel, and would go headlong to extremities.
While still a youth, the extraordinary bodily exercises to which he devoted himself alarmed his masters; and his nightly practices, his excesses of every kind, were the talk among all classes. At a later time his swiftness of procedure and his faculty of command in war were admirable; and no less
so in peace his power to secure obedience. When the health of his father began to fail, he gave proof of a power of attention to affairs of
government of which no one had thought him capable. But this man of the North always retained the fierce temper of a savage, nor did he ever learn to subdue the evil dispositions which actuated him. In his fits of violence he had no regard for age, for virtue, or for greatness; and at the very time that he was contending against the despotism of castes, he was himself the greatest despot of all. f215
Christian II., perceiving that in order to increase the power of the
Scandinavian kingdom it was necessary to form great alliances, sought and obtained the hand of Isabella, sister of the Emperor Charles V. The
princess, then fifteen years of age, arrived at Copenhagen in August 1518, bringing with her a dower of 300,000 florins. The honors which she received on her entry into the capital were too much for her strength.
While a bishop was delivering before her an interminable discourse, she turned pale, tottered, and fainted away, the first of her ladies in waiting catching her in her arms. The king showed great respect for her; but in the midst of royal fetes and pomp, a sharp thorn of sorrow pierced the soul of the daughter of the Caesars.
During a residence at Bergen, in Norway, of which kingdom he had been viceroy, Christian had made the acquaintance of a young and beautiful Dutchwoman, named Dyveke, whose mother Sigbrit kept a hostelry. The prince conceived a violent passion for the girl, and thenceforth lived with her. She died in 1517; but her mother, a proud, tyrannical, and angry woman, who had a great mastery over other minds and who was competent even to give prudent counsel in affairs of state, retained the favor of the prince after her daughter’s death. He had more consideration for her than for anyone else; and when the king was at her house the greatest lords and most esteemed ministers were compelled to wait before her door, exposed to rain or snow, till the time came for them to be
admitted. The cold policy of which she made avowal, led this fierce prince into grave errors and terrible deeds. f216
A Commissioner of the pope, named Arcimbold, having, in 1517, obtained from the king by dint of much flattery, a license for the sale of indulgences to the peoples of the North, had set out his wares in front of the principal
churches. ‘By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ,’ said he, ‘and of our holy father the pope, I absolve you from all the sins which you have committed, however enormous they may be; and I restore you to the purity and the innocence which you possessed at the time of your
baptism, in order that at your death the gates of heaven may be opened to you.’ f217 The papal commissioner, not satisfied with laying hold of the money of the king’s subjects, was anxious also to gain the favor of the king. He managed the matter so craftily that he succeeded. Christian disclosed to him his projects and the most hidden secrets of his
government, in the hope that either the legate or the pope himself would favor his designs.
The king, indeed, soon found himself in grave difficulties. Sweden violated the union of Calmar and declared itself independent of Denmark; and Troll, the archbishop of Upsala, for endeavoring to uphold the Danish
suzerainty, was imprisoned by the Swedes. The pope was angry and came to the help of Christian by laying the country under an interdict. At the same time the king defeated the Swedes. It is not our business to enter into the details of this struggle; we must limit ourselves to the narration of the frightful crime by which this prince sealed his triumph.
In November 1520 Christian II., the conqueror of his subjects, was to be crowned at Stockholm. The insurrection in Sweden had greatly irritated him; his pride had been exasperated by it, and the violent excitement of his temper had not been allayed. He was bent on a signal and cruel act of vengeance, but he dissembled his wrath and let no one know his scheme.
The prelates, nobles, councilors, and other notables of Sweden, on being invited to the ceremony, perceived that the coronation would be
performed with very remarkable solemnity. The creatures of the king said that it was to be terrible.
Christian had for his adviser and confessor a kinsman of Sigbrit, a fellow who had been a barber; and this man, knowing his master well, was always suggesting to him that if he meant to be really king of Sweden he must get rid of all the Swedish leading men. The prince, leaning on the pope’s bull which had thundered the interdict over the whole kingdom mid all its inhabitants, undertook to be the arm of the Roman pontiff, and resolved to indulge without restraint his barbarous passions. He invited to the castle
about a hundred nobles, prelates, and councilors, received them with gracious smiles, embraced them, deluded them with vain promises and false hopes, and desired that three days should be dedicated to all kinds of amusement. Brooding all the time on frightful schemes, he chatted,
laughed, and jested with his guests; and these were charmed with the amiability of a prince whose malice they had been taught to dread.
Suddenly, on November 7, all was changed. The fetes ceased, the musicians and the buffoons disappeared, and their places were taken by archers. A tribunal was set up. Archbishop Troll, as had been arranged with the king, came forward boldly, as accuser of the lords and other Swedes who had driven him from his archiepiscopal see. The king
immediately constituted a court of justice, of which he took care that none should be members but enemies of the accused. The judges, wire hardly knew what crime they had to punish, got over the business by declaring heretics the sacrilegious men who had dared to imprison a bishop. Now heresy was a capital crime. The next day, November 8, in the morning, the gates of the town and the doors of all the houses were closed. The streets were filled with soldiers and cannon; and, at noon, the prisoners,
surrounded with guards, slowly and sadly descended from the castle. The report rapidly ran through the whole town that the bishops, the nobles, and the councilors who had been guests of the king and had been so magnificently entertained, were being taken to the great square and were going to be put to death there. In a little while the square was strewn with the dead bodies of the most distinguished nobles and prelates of Sweden.
f218
There seemed to be little chance of such a king ever being a favorer of the Reformation. Nevertheless, the enterprise undertaken by Luther, and the changes in states which resulted from it, struck him and excited his
interest. He thought that a religious reform would restrict the power of the bishops, that the senate would be weakened by their exclusion from it, and that the crown demesnes would be the richer. At the same time his
powerful understanding was impressed with the errors of Rome and the imposing truth of the Gospel.
Nephew by the mother’s side of the elector Frederick of Saxony, the king took an interest in a religious movement which had the sanction of that illustrious prince. This strange man imagined that without separating from