_Institution Chrétienne_, book ii. ch. 3, 4. Footnote 211: We set forth several of these examples in a discourse delivered September 6, 1861, in the church of St. Peter, Geneva, at the general conferences of the Evangelical Alliance. Footnote 212: Dedication of the Commentary on the Epistle of Titus. Footnote 213: ‘Ne decem quidem maria ad eam rem trajicere pigeat.’—Calv. _Epp._ to Cranmer; edit. 1575, p. 100. BOOK XII. THE REFORMATION AMONG THE SCANDINAVIAN NATIONS: DENMARK, SWEDEN, AND NORWAY. CHAPTER I. THE AWAKING OF DENMARK. (1515-1525.) The Scandinavians, men of the North or Northmen, who inhabited the three countries, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, embraced the Reformation at the same time. In each of these lands it had its own roots, but it came to them essentially from Germany, the only European nation with which their inhabitants had frequent intercourse. A chief named Odin, whose history is confused with fables, appeared in Europe about the time of the Christian era. Mounted on an eight-footed horse, carrying a lance in his hand, and having on his shoulders two ravens who served him as messengers, he advanced at the head of a people whom he led out of the interior of Asia. His descendants were kings of the Goths and the Cimbri. For himself, he became the god of these nations, the father of gods, and the object of a senseless and sanguinary worship. A Christian man named Anschar, as much given to kindness as Odin had been to carnage, as capable of inspiring love as the father of Thor had been of exciting terror, was, in the ninth century, the apostle of Scandinavia. Towards the close of the fourteenth century the three kingdoms were united by the treaty known as the Union of Calmar. The Scandinavians endowed, like the Germans, with deep affections have an intellect perhaps not so rich as theirs, but they possess greater energy. There seemed to be little probability that these countries would receive the Reformation. The clergy were powerful, and the nobility most commonly followed the leading of the priests; but the people, without any violent action, without any abrupt movements or passionate speeches, were to pronounce finally and decisively for the truth and for freedom. It was in the hearts of the sons of the soil and the dwellers on the sea coasts, that the love of the Gospel began to spring up in the sixteenth century. [Sidenote: John Tausen.]