Semper ita sensi nullum esse maius decus quam in vera religione veroque cultu Dei constantiam. Quae sententia sic est infixa in animo meo ut non simulatis aut fucosis officiis sed vere colendam esse Christianam pietatem semper statuerim. Quare non raro deploro Ecclesiae morbos cum veteres tum novos et ardentissimis votis emendationem optavi.

Neque enim negari potest quosdam etiam veteres morbos in Ecclesia haerere. Disciplina vetus laxata est, multae superstitiones in tanta Pontificum negligentia et Pastorum inscitia receptae sunt. Nonnihil etiam praesentes discordiae concusserunt Ecclesiam. Ego igitur hactenus eam gravitatem praestiti ut nec abusus probarem aut crudeliter defenderem, ut faciunt alii, nec fanaticis opinionibus in mea ditione locum praeberem. Habeo utriusque rei honestam gravem et piam causam, nec muto hoc iudicium. Cumque videam opus esse ut sanciatur disciplina et praeficiantur Ecclesiis boni doctores, suscepi eam curam ut sciat populus in tantis discordiis, quid amplecti, quid fugere debeat. Qua in re quaedam in utraque parte ita moderor ut a Catholica Ecclesia Christi non discedam, nec de auctoritate Episcoporum quidquam detraham. Nam nisi aliquid moderari velim, manifesta flagitia probanda essent, et iniusta saevitia exercenda: quorum utrumque ab iis alienissimum esse debet qui vere, non simulatis aut fucosis officiis, religionem colunt. Haec cum ita sint, spero me constantiam praestare dignam bonis viris, et vere amantibus religionem. Nusquam enim discedam a scopo, videlicet a sententia Catholicae Ecclesiae Christi.

Quod vero mihi exempla quorundam vicinorum Principum proponit R. V. D. qui nullam mutationem admiserunt saepe cum illis ipsis de tota religione collocutus sum. Idemque uterque optabat ut aequitate pontificia restitueretur ecclesiarum concordia, emendatis quibusdam abusibus. Socer meus etiam paulo ante mortem gravissimas de ea re deliberationes habuit. Videbat enim solitudinem fieri in ecclesiis suis, nisi vellet iniustam saevitiam exercere: a qua abhorrere eum, ut erat iustitiae amans, animadverti. Nec moderationem illam iudicabat esse aut secessionem ab ecclesia aut seiunctionem ab iis qui praesunt aut a reliquo nomine Christiano. Quare existimet R. V. D. me non ita in hanc causam ingressum esse ut aliorum bonorum Principum iudicia aut exempla non attenderim. Si qui autem fortasse asperiores sunt, ut esse non multos videmus qui sine discrimine omnes abusus, omnia errata immanitate suppliciorum stabiliunt: horum exempla

nec ante secutus sum, nec unquam imitanda esse duxi. Nec profecto consensum ecclesiae conspirationem esse ad iniustam saevitiam exercendam unquam existimavi. Quare etiamsi levior alicubi videor, non propterea vel ab ecclesia vel a reliquo nomine Christiano disiunctus sum. Nam et verum consensum Catholicae Ecclesiae Christi amplector qui extat in scripturis Apostolicis, in veteribus canonibus et probatae fidei scriptoribus; et pollicitus sum me Synodo, si quando rite conveniret, non defuturum esse.

Quod vero hortatur R. V. D. ut expectem Synodum, fateor me haec consilia aliquamdiu Synodi expectatione distulisse. Quid enim communi concordia optatius esset? Sed hanc moram Ecclesiae expectare non possunt, quae interea dissiparentur et in solitudinem ac vastitatem redigerentur si eas non constitueremus. Explorata mihi est voluntas Caroli Imperatoris, D. N. clementissimi, quem scio magna contentione a Clemente et Paulo III petiisse ut quamprimum Synodus haberetur et rite cognitis rebus concordia constitueretur. Sed Pontifices non valde appetunt Synodos, et fortasse regum iudicia non sine causa metuunt; sed tamen si qua erit alicubi Synodus, non deerit ei meum officium. Habet R. V. D. meam purgationem et perpetuae voluntatis testimonium. . . (c) To a friend in Nürnberg, 26 Oct., 1539. Fui his diebus in Marchia accersitus a Ioachimo Electore. ... Deliberatur de tollendis abusibus ecclesiarum, sed nollem adhiberi in consilium Mustelam. Ego quaedam ipsius deliberata reprehendi, sed quid futurum sit, exitus ostendet. Kal. Nov. inchoabitur res. Abolentur privatae liturgiae, conceditur sacerdotibus coniugium, tollitur invocatio sanctorum, iubetur pura doctrina tradi, et proponitur vestra κarxnois. Conceditur integri sacramenti usus. Tantum una in re haerebat ỏ apxwv, cupiebat adhuc retinere quotidianarum liturgiarum usum, a qua sententia deduci posset, si abesset Mustela..

XXXVIII

THE LUTHERANIZING OF DENMARK, NORWAY, AND ICELAND, 1537-40

In Denmark (cf. Münter, Kirchengeschichte von Dänemark, iii. 448 sqq.) the Lutheran King Christian III, 1533-†59, planned, 11 Aug. 1536 [No. 131], the seizure of the bishops (Letter of George Witzel.

1 Since Oct. 12.

2

Johann Pein, a Prussian admiral in Christian's service, to Albert Duke of Prussia, ap. C. Paludan-Müller, De første Konger af den Oldenborgske Slægt, p. 620), and abolished episcopacy next day by vote of the Rigsraad. Its abolition was confirmed at the Rigsdag of Copenhagen, 15-30 Oct., whose decisions were embodied in a Royal Manifesto, and in a [No. 132] General Recess (N. Cragii Annales Daniae, Addit. I, 3 sqq., Hafniae, 1737), setting up other Christianlike bishops or superintendents that can teach and preach the Holy Gospel'. The King then sent for Bugenhagen to re-arrange ecclesiastical affairs. He arrived July 1537, and, writes Luther (de Wette, v. 88), 'quasi verus episcopus,' crowned the King and Queen, 12 Aug. On 2 Sept., though a mere presbyter, he consecrated' seven men, most of them already presbyters like himself, to be superintendents or bishops' (cf. Dr. A. J. Mason, 'The loss of the succession in Denmark' in The Church Quarterly Review, April, 1891); and published a new, but characteristically conservative [No. 132 a], Church Ordinance (Cragii Annales, Addit. II, 29 sqq. Münter, iii. 484 sqq.), afterwards legalized by the Diet of Odense, 1539 (ibid. iii. 508). On 9 Sept. he reconstituted the University of Copenhagen, appointing three professors to lecture on the Old Testament, the New Testament, St. Augustine De Spiritu et littera, Luther's Commentary on Galatians and Melanchthon's Loci (Cragii Annales, Addit. iii. 101 sq.; Münter, iii. 476 sq.). Meanwhile, the King was received into the Schmalkaldic League, 1538 (ibid. iii. 512) as Duke of Holstein and in 1542 the Danish order of things was adopted in Schleswig-Holstein, save that consistories took the place of 'bishops' (Richter, Kirchenordnungen, i. 353 sqq.: Münter, iii. 599 sqq.).

In Norway, whose independence was now to disappear by the [No. 133] Manifesto of 30 Oct. 1536 (ap. Willson, Church and State in Norway, 343), Christian III was at first recognized only in the south the north held out for the imprisoned Christian II and the old faith under Olaf, Archbishop of Trondhjem 1523-37, who had, at this time, four suffragans in Norway, the Bishops of Bergen, Hamar, Opslo (Christiania), and Stavanger, and two in Iceland, Holum, and Skalholt. But on 1 April, 1537, Archbishop Olaf fled to Lierre (where he died 7 March 1538); and, I May, the King's forces landed at Bergen. Their leader, Truid Ulfstand, following up the Recess of 30 Oct. 1536, effected, 23 June [No. 134], the arrest of the Bishop of Hamar (from a contemporary source ap. Willson, op. cit. 347), and of the other prelates. Then followed confiscation and the substitution of 'superintendents' as in Denmark.

In Iceland (Münter, iii. 530) Gisser Einarssen became 'bishop' of Skalholt, 1540, and laboured to reform the Church, after the Danish model, till his death in 1548. There was a reaction, headed by John Aresen, Bishop of Holum, 1520-+50. But he was executed as a traitor at Skalholt, 7 Nov. 1550: and the last representatives of Catholicism disappeared from Iceland in 1552' (Ranke, Popes, i. 396).

No. 131. The Seizure of the Bishops of Denmark, 12 Aug. 1536.

After I had written yesterday the enclosed letter to Your Grace and had sent Your Grace's four ships home, I was not able to come to an agreement with my sailors as to their pay, as they did not wish to accept Danish coin on leaving. And whilst I was in treaty with them about it, His Royal Majesty sent a summons for me to appear at his Council, where Colonels of the Landsknechts, Generals, and Cavalry Officers, with Herr Johann Rantzau and Melchior Rantzau, were present, and had consulted how His Royal Majesty should proceed with his cause, because the bishops would do nothing at all as to the payment of the cavalry and infantry. It was therefore, in God's name, determined immediately to take the bishops by the head, which was to be done, in all secrecy, at night, so that to-day quite early at 4 a.m. the three Bishops of Själland', Skaane, and Ribe were arrested by the Provost and the Landsknechts, and forthwith lodged in the castle at Copenhagen, each under a guard of Archers and Yeomen of the Guard, in separate rooms. At the same moment that they were taken, Copenhagen was put under guard by land and sea, so that no one could go out or come in without special permission.

This went on until the third day at 8 a.m. when His Royal Majesty summoned to himself at the Castle the other members of the Council, Herr Magnus Goye, Herr Ove Lunge, Herr Magnus Gyldenstjerne, Erik Krummedige, Mester Johann Friis, &c., and also the Bishop of Aarhus, for the consideration of this affair. Those who now agreed with the King and the aforenamed Councillors were in no danger, and those who did not were to be at once arrested; but I think they will all give in.

In the meantime, the King will not decide finally on the alterations in the government before the appointed Rigsdag, of which I have spoken in my first letter. Meanwhile, His Majesty will summon his nobles and friends, including Your Grace, to the Council about this matter. The other old Councillors, like Herr Anders Bilde, Herr Johann Urne, &c., who have been imprisoned at Mecklenburg, will, according to the

Joakim Rönnov, Bishop of Roskilde, 1512-36. He appears not to have been seized till next day. [See below.]

2 Torbern Bilde, Archbishop of Lund, 1532-6.

* Olaf Munk, Coadjutor of Iwar Munk, Bishop of Ribe, 1513-†39. 4 Ove Bilde, Bishop of Aarhus, 1520-36.

treaty of peace, be given into the King's hands and keeping at Holstein, so that they will not be able to give any trouble.

Most of the young nobility, the citizens of Copenhagen and other places and the Bønder are well satisfied, and greatly rejoice at these doings; and the military also are very well pleased. May God grant to His Royal Highness success in this as in all his undertakings!

The imprisoned bishops here are to be sent to Holstein. under strict guard; and also to-day the ships and soldiers are gone to Fyen1 and Jylland to seize the other bishops. The King has also sent some cavalry to-day to seize the bishop at Dragsholm Castle, and to Skaane to take the bishop's palaces. Herr Johann Rantzau will do the same at Jylland. If Dragsholm will not submit to the King, artillery and Landsknechts will be sent to take it by force.

3

4

No. 132. The Recess of the Diet of Copenhagen, 30 Oct. 1536.

Nos Christianus Dei gratia electus Rex Daniae et Norvegiae, Dux Slesvici, Holsatiae, Stormariae et Ditmarsiae, Comes in Oldenburg et Delmenhorst: et nos . . . Daniae Regni Consiliarii: et nos infra scripti: . . universa Nobilitas et Equestris Ordo... per totum Daniae regnum : atque itidem nos infra memorati cives urbani omnium Civitatum per totum Daniae regnum. . . cum delegatis, plena auctoritate instructis ex omnibus civitatibus et pagis (vulgo Herredis) per totum Daniae regnum, ad haec praesentia comitia Hafniae congregatis. . .

Primo, volumus Nos Christianus &c., nosque Danici regni Consiliarii et Nobiles, omne illud odii . . . quod . . . erga civitates, cives urbanos, rusticos et plebem habuerimus; et nos pariter Civitates, cives urbani, rustici et universa plebs, omne illud quod . . . in Regiam Maiestatem . . . vel in regni Danici Senatores et Nobilitatem gesserimus sopitum . . . fore: et nos posthac utpote quibus regnum hoc . . . conservare summum studium erit . . . amice . . . invicem acturos, alteramque partem alterius . . . saluti consulturos esse: atque, si forte periculum ingruat. . . singulos et unumquemque nostrum 1 Fünen, where was the bishop of Odense (Knud Gyldenstjerne, Bishop 1530-+68).

2 Jutland, where were the bishoprics of Aarhus, Viborg (Georg Fries, Bp. 1524-36); Borglum (Krumpen Stygge, Bp. 1519–36), and Ribe.

sc. the Archbishop of Lund.