The chancellor spoke. ‘The king requires,’ he said, ‘that the three estates should pledge themselves to suppress any seditious movement; that the bishops should relinquish the government of the state and deliver up to him their fortresses; that they should furnish a statement of their revenues for the purpose of deciding what part of them is to be left to the ecclesiastics and what part is to be payable to the state, with a view to provide for the wants of the nation; and that the estates which, under King Charles Knutson (1454), were taken from the nobles and assigned to churches and convents, should be judicially restored to their lawful owners.’ The chancellor next came to the concerns of religion. ‘The king demands that the pure Word of God should be preached, and that every one should prize it, and that no one should say that the king wished to introduce a false religion.’ This did not satisfy some of the nobles, who, decided in their own faith, desired to stigmatize the Roman system. ‘Yes,’ they said, ‘we want the pure Word of God, and not pretended miracles, human inventions, and silly fables, such as have hitherto been dealt out to us.’ But the townsmen were of a different opinion, and thought that the king required too much. ‘The new faith must be examined,’ they said, ‘but for our part it goes beyond our understanding.’ ‘Certainly,’ added some of the peasants, ‘it is difficult to judge of these things; they are too deep for our minds to fathom.’ The chancellor, unchecked by these contradictory remarks, proceeded, ‘The king requires that the bishops should appoint competent pastors in the churches, and if they fail to do so, he will be authorized to do it himself. He insists that pastors should not abuse their office, nor excommunicate their parishioners for trivial causes; that those persons who do necessary work on festival days should not be liable to a penalty; that churchmen should not have power to claim for baptisms, marriages, or burials any larger payments than are fixed by the regulations; that in all schools the Gospel, with other lessons taken from the Bible, should be read; and that in all secular matters the priests should be amenable to the secular courts.’[454]