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110

(1911) [MARC] Author: John Wordsworth
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no III. THE ROMANIZED CHURCH (A.D. 11301389).
form seems to have been used without alteration up to the
middle of the sixteenth century. It was prescribed in the
civil laws of Gustavus Adolphus in 1618, but with the
omission of the references to Upper Sweden and St. Eric
(Suecice leges civiles, lit. 2, c. 5, de jure conjugii, ed.
Loccenius, Lund, 1675). We possess a church that St.
Eric built or finished at Old Upsala, on the site and with
the materials of the famous heathen temple. It is possible
also that the Church of the Holy Trinity at the present
Upsala in his work.
His missionary crusade in Finland was carried on in
company with his bishop, St. Henry, an Englishman, who
had come with Nicolas to the North. It is called a crusade,
but it was conducted, it
may be, with more humanity and
piety than many such expeditions. It was necessary to
cause the Finns to live at peace with their neighbours, and
peace and baptism were offered to them before war was
declared. The king was evidently really in earnest in his
prayers and efforts for the eternal salvation of his enemies,
and he wept for those who fell in battle without having
received baptism. Henry was left behind as bishop in
Finland, and some years later fell as a martyr. It is re
corded that his thumb, which was cut off in the struggle,
fell on the snow, and was found some time afterwards. It
long appeared as a charge on the seal of the chapter of Abo.
Eric returned to New Upsala, then called Ostra-aros,
and was murdered by a Danish prince, who made a sud
den and for a time successful raid in order to claim the
crown. Eric, who would not interrupt the mass which he
was attending in Holy Trinity Church, Upsala, was killed
outside it, about the year 1160, and on i8th May. This
historic church, I am glad to remember, was put at the dis
posal of my colleague, the Bishop of Winchester, for a
celebration of Holy Communion, at the time of our recent
visit to Upsala, in September, 1909. Eric was elevated by
the love of the Swedish people to the glory of saintship,
and became the patron saint of the nation, though he was
denied the dignity of official canonization. The rival

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