Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - V. The Swedish Reformation under Gustaf Vasa and his sons Eric and John (1520—1592 A.D.)
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
228 V. THE REFORMATION (A.D. 15201592).
temper of the Swedes was less strenuous and downright
than that of our countrymen. Gustaf was fortunate in
the peaceable retirement of his principal opponents one
after the other, and in the comparative absence of Roman
intrigues against him. But the people of Sweden were
obstinate and dogged. They required to be treated with
patience and discretion, and they hated persecution in the
name of religion. On the whole he gave the people what
they needed. Gustaf was obviously a better man than
Henry. I will not say that he was more admirable than
Elizabeth. But he did more for his country considering
the state of chaos which existed before his reign and even
for the religion of his country, than either of those power
ful sovereigns did for England.
10. THE REIGN OF ERIC (1560 1568). His CAPRI
CIOUS CHARACTER. CALVINIST AGGRESSION FORCES
THE CHURCH TO DEFINE ITS POSITION AS
LUTHERAN. THE LIQUORIST CONTROVERSY.
The death of Gustaf brought a two-fold change in the
position of the Church. He knew that his son Eric was
not strong enough for undivided rule, and he loved his
second wife and her children more than the first and his
eldest son. He, therefore, followed Birger Jarl in making
his younger sons, John, Magnus and Charles, dukes with
hereditary rights, and a certain independence a policy
which led to the same results of fratricidal war. Eric was
just about to start on his voyage to England to court our
Queen Elizabeth, when his father s death delayed him.
He was twenty-seven years of age,
"
handsome, graceful,
eloquent, accomplished in manly exercises, a good
linguist, able to write well in Latin as well as in Swedish,
a poet, musician and painter, and skilled in astrology and
the mathematical sciences of his times. But all these
advantages were marred by a strangely capricious dis
position and by sudden and violent outbursts of temper,
which at times amounted to insanity
"
(Ottd :
p. 238). He
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
