Reformation in Sweden: Difference between revisions

In 1523, King Gustav I of Sweden met the reformer [[Laurentius Andreae]] and was influenced by Protestantism, and the following year, the king broke official contacts with Rome. Laurentius Andreae introduced the king to the reformer priest [[Olaus Petri]], who was made preacher in ''[[Storkyrkan]]'' in Stockholm. In 1525, the royal priest Olaus Petri married, effectively demonstrating the king's consent to the abolition of the celibacy of the priesthood, and providing a breach with the Catholic churchChurch's ban of marriage of priests.<ref>Carlquist, Gunnar, red (1937). Svensk uppslagsbok. Bd 20. Malmö: Svensk Uppslagsbok AB. sid. 669</ref> In 1526, the New Testament was published in the Swedish language.

At the Riksdag of Västerås in 1527, referred to as the "Reformation Riksdag", the Estates agreed to a number of demands toward reformation: 1) to give the king mandate to confiscate clerical assets: 2) that all church offices were henceforth to be illegal without royal consent, in effect placing the church under royal control: 3) that the clergy were to be subjected to secular law, and finally: 4) that only the words of the Bible were to be taught in sermons in churches and schools (in effect removing all Catholic church doctrines).

The Riksdag of Västerås was followed by the [[Reduction of Gustav I of Sweden]], in which the economic demanddemands of the monarch waswere met: the assets of the Catholic church waswere confiscated, eradicating church economic independence of the crown, thus making the clergy economically dependent of the crown.<ref>Reduktion, hist., 6. Gustaf Vasas reduktion från kyrkan i Nordisk familjebok (andra upplagan, 1915)</ref> In parallel with a ban from accepting new novices, and a ban for the convents to prevent their existing members from leaving,; this act indirectly resulted in the [[Suppressionsuppression of Monasteriesmonasteries]], which lost their economic foundations.<ref>Reduktion, hist., 6. Gustaf Vasas reduktion från kyrkan i Nordisk familjebok (andra upplagan, 1915)</ref>

The economic reform was followed by the fulfilling of the theological demands through the [[Örebro Synod]] of 1529, in which Catholic rituals such as the veneration of saints and pilgrimages waswere discouraged (though not outright banned) and described as no longer a part of religious practice by the church, and the sermons of priests and monks where subjected to control of the crown (rather than the Papal church) to ensure that they were founded only on the words of the Bible (rather than doctrines of the Catholic churchChurch), and a process toward reform in religious practice was thereby initiated.<ref>Carl Alfred Cornelius: Svenska kyrkans historia efter reformationen, förra delen (1520-1693), 1886-87</ref> The same year, a handbook in the Swedish language was published describing the correct way of performing baptism, weddings, funerals and other religious rituals.

The religiousReligious tensions resulted in the unsuccessful [[Westrogothian rebellion]] of the nobility and [[Dalecarlian rebellions]] of the peasantry during the 1520s and 1530s, the latter attempting to depose the king in favor of the purported son of [[Christina Gyllenstierna]].