The king, seeing what a commotion the priests were exciting in the kingdom, determined to call together the assemblies. He convoked the States of the kingdom at Westeraas, for St. John’s Day, June 24, 1527. The clergy on hearing of this measure were filled with fear, and Brask, at an interview which he had with his friend Thure Joensson, marshal of the kingdom, exclaimed, ‘How glad I am that I have but a little while to live!’ The ecclesiastical members of the Diet at first hesitated to go to Westeraas; but many of them, and among others Brask, determined to go in the hope that by their presence they might to some extent prevent the great evils which they foresaw. The king himself arrived, accompanied by a numerous and imposing court. It was a long time since there had been any Diet of so important a character. Besides the ecclesiastics, there were one hundred and twenty-nine nobles; every town sent its burgomaster and a councillor, and every district sent six peasants. Gustavus had resolved in his own mind that this Diet should emancipate Sweden from the yoke of the priests, which had weighed on the people for centuries, and restore the laity to their own place. For effecting so salutary a revolution a resolute heart and a strong will were needed. Now, he possessed both. It was his intention to open the Diet with a grand banquet on the 23d of June, and to this the members of the States had been invited. They all vied with each other in praising the courtesy of the king, who at the outset thus received them at his table. Gustavus entered the banquet-hall, and went toward the place where his cover was laid. Then the bishops came forward according to custom; for they used to take the highest places after the king, and in his absence they even took precedence of his representative. But now Gustavus, turning to his ministers of state, his councillors, and the grandees of the kingdom, invited them to sit near him, and next to them the bishops, afterwards the nobles, then the canons and other ecclesiastics who usually preceded the nobility, and last the burgesses and the peasants. This precedence assigned to the laity caused a lively sensation in the whole assembly. The bishops thus held back, overpowered with surprise, turned pale, and revealed in the expression of their countenances the bitterness of their souls.[443] Nevertheless, they were speechless; and through fear of Gustavus they drank this cup. Many of them would fain have withdrawn, but the imposing presence of the king detained them, and they silently took their seats in those lower places which they looked upon as the greatest disgrace they had ever suffered. The king, observing the expression of their faces, addressed them. Hitherto their lips had remained closed, but by the king’s words they were opened; they showed that their usual place was on each side of him, and claimed to take it. Gustavus explained the reasons which had induced him to give the highest rank to his ministers.