CHAPTER VI.

THE REFORMATION IN THE SCANDINAVIAN KINGDOMS, IN THE SLAVONIC NATIONS, AND IN HUNGARY.

WHEN we inquire into the means by which the German Reformation extended itself into the adjacent countries, the agency of the Germans who were settled in these lands constantly appears. One is reminded of the diffusion of the ancient Hebrews, and of the part taken by them in opening a way for Christianity beyond the bounds of Palestine. Another very conspicuous instrument in the spread of the Lutheran doctrine was Wittenberg, the renowned school to which young men were attracted out of all the neighboring lands. The use of Latin as a vehicle of teaching and as the common language of educated persons of whatever nationality, rendered this practicable. But the Scandinavians were themselves a branch of the great Teutonic family, near kinsmen of the Germans, and connected with them, besides, by the bonds of commercial intercourse.

In 1397, the three Scandinavian kingdoms, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, were united by the Union of Calmar, in which it was provided that each nation should preserve its laws and institutions, and share in the election of the common sovereign. The result, however, was a long struggle for Danish supremacy over Sweden. When the Reformation in Germany began, Christian II. of Denmark was engaged in a contest for the Swedish throne. In all these countries the prelates were possessed of great

THE REFORMATION IN DENMARK.

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wealth, and very much restricted the authority of the sovereign as well as the power of the secular nobles.1

Christian II. was surrounded, in Denmark, by a body of advisers who sympathized with the Lutheran movement in Saxony, He was himself disposed to depress the power of the ecclesiastical and lay aristocracy, and, for this end, though not without the admixture of other and better motives, set to work to enlighten and elevate the lower classes. The encouragement of Protestantism accorded with his general policy. In 1520, he sent for a Saxon preacher to serve as chaplain at his court and as a religious instructor of the people, and subsequently invited Luther himself into his kingdom. At the same time that Christian availed himself of the papal ban as a warrant for his tyranny and cruelty in Sweden, he continued in Denmark to promote the establishment of Protestantism. In 1521 he put forth a book of laws, which contained enactments of a Protestant tendency; among them one to encourage the marriage of all prelates and priests, and another for dispensing with all appeals to Rome.2 After his sanguinary proceedings against Sweden, finding that his crown was in danger, he retracted his reformatory measures, at the instigation of a papal legate. But he was deposed by the prelates and nobles of Denmark, and his uncle, Frederic I., Duke of Schleswig and Holstein, was made king, in 1523.

Frederic at his accession, though personally inclined to Protestantism, was obliged to pledge himself to the Danish magnates to resist its introduction, and to grant it no toleration. The exiled Christian identified himself with the Protestant cause, though not with constancy; for if the charge lacks proof that, at Augsburg, in 1530, in

1 Münter, Kirchengeschichte v. Dänemark u. Norwegen, Th. iii. ; Gieseler, iv. i. c. 2, § 17; Geijer, History of the Swedes; Herzog, Real-Encycl., articles "Schweden," "Dänemark."

2 Münter, p. 56 seq.

order to get the help of the Emperor, he formally abjured the evangelical faith, it is true that in 1531 he promised to uphold the Catholic Church in Norway. He rendered a good service by causing the New Testament to be translated into Danish, which was done by two of his nobles. The immediate occasion of the successful introduction of Lutheranism into Denmark was the active propagation of it in the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, where, in 1524, Frederic imposed mutual toleration on both parties. In Denmark itself the study of the Bible was encouraged, a Biblical theology was inculcated, and ecclesiastical abuses censured by a number of earnest preachers, among whom was Paul Eliä, of Helsingör, Provincial of the Carmelites, who worked with much effect in this direction, although at last, like Erasmus, he chose to abide in the old Church, and even turned his weapons, with a bitter antipathy, against the Reformers. In 1526, the King declared himself in favor of the Reformation, the doctrine of which was disseminated rapidly in the cities. The most zealous advocate of the new doctrine was John Taussen, sometimes called the Danish Luther, who studied at Wittenberg, and after 1524, in defiance of the opposition of the bishops, preached Lutheranism with marked effect. The Danish nobility were favorable to the King's side, from jealousy of the power of the prelates, and the desire to possess themselves of ecclesiastical property. At the Diet of Odense, in 1527, it was ordained that marriage should be allowed to the clergy, that Lutheranism should be tolerated, and that bishops should thenceforward abstain from getting the pallium from Rome, but, when chosen by the chapter, should look to the King alone for the ratification of their election. Converts to Lutheranism were made in great numbers. Wiborg in Jutland, and Malmö in Schonen, were the principal centres, whence the reformed faith was dif1 Pontoppidan, Annales Eccl. Dan., ii. 774.

CHRISTIAN III. AND BUGENHAGEN.

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fused over the kingdom. Books and tracts in exposition and defense of it, as well as the Bible in the vernacular tongue, were everywhere circulated. The Lutherans who, in 1530, presented their Confession of Faith in forty-three Articles, acquired the preponderance in the land; but in consequence of the pledges of Frederic at his accession, the bishops were not deprived of their power. His death, in 1533, led to a combined effort on their part to abrogate the recent ecclesiastical changes and restore the exclusive domination of the old religion. They accordingly refused to sanction the election of Christian III., Frederic's eldest son, who had been active in establishing Protestantism in the Duchies; until their consent was compelled by the attempt of the Count of Oldenburg, a Protestant, to restore the deposed Christian II., whom they still more feared and hated. By Christian III., whose admiration for Luther had been first kindled at the Diet of Worms, where this prince was present, the authority of the prelates was abolished, at a Diet at Copenhagen, in 1536, and the Reformation universally legalized. The bishops were forced to renounce their dignities. A constitution for the Danish Church was framed, and submitted to Luther for his sanction. Bugenhagen, a prominent friend of the Saxon Reformer, came into the kingdom, on the King's invitation, and, in 1537, crowned him and his Queen, and perfected the new ecclesiastical arrangements. Bishops, or superintendents, were appointed for the dioceses, and formally consecrated to their offices by Bugenhagen himself, "ut verus episcopus," as Luther expressed it. The University of Copenhagen was reorganized, and other schools of learning established in the various cities.

This final triumph of Protestantism in Denmark was connected with events of peculiar interest in the history of the Reformation. The Lutheran doctrine had quickly 1 See Ranke, Deutsch. Gsch., iii. 270 seq., 406 seq.

penetrated into every place where the German tongue was spoken. The cities of Northern Germany, the members of the old Hanseatic league, gave it a hospitable reception. The strong burgher class in these towns lent a willing ear to the preachers from Wittenberg. The Hansa, at the period of its greatest prosperity, in the fourteenth century, comprised in its confederacy all the maritime towns of Germany, together with Magdeburg, Brunswick, and other intermediate places; and exerted a controlling influence in the Scandinavian kingdoms. It was weakened by the separation of the Netherlands, after 1427. The great value of the trade of the northern kingdoms, of the products of their mines and fisheries, made it of the highest importance to Lübeck, the leading city of the Hansa, to keep its commercial and political supremacy. Christian II., the brother-in-law of Charles V., was withstood in his attempt to subdue the northern nations by the Lübeckers, by whom Gustavus Vasa was assisted in gaining the throne of Sweden. The cities which, like Hamburg and Magdeburg, had a magistracy that was favorable to the Protestant doctrine, received the new system without any serious political disturbance. But in some other towns, as Bremen and Lübeck, the acceptance of Lutheranism was attended by changes in the government, which were effected by the burghers, and were democratic in their character. The new Burgomaster, at Lübeck, Wullenweber, whom the revolution had raised to power, negotiated a treaty of alliance with the English King, Henry VIII. The great object of Lübeck was to keep the trade between the Baltic and the North Sea in its own hands. But the situation in Denmark, after the death of Frederic I., was such that Lübeck reversed its attitude and espoused the cause of the exiled King, Christian I. The Lübeckers found that they could not longer count upon the coöperation of Denmark in their commercial policy, and that