Archbishop Magnus had vacated his archiepiscopal see; it was therefore necessary to fill it up. The king consequently called together at Stockholm, on St. John’s Day, 1531, a large number of ecclesiastics. The chancellor Anderson requested the assembly to take into its consideration the choice of a new archbishop, imposing at the same time the condition that he should be a man thoroughly established in evangelical doctrine. The assembly pointed out three candidates—Sommer, bishop of Strengnaes; Doctor Johan, dean of Upsala; and Lawrence Petersen. It then proceeded with the definitive election, and on the suggestion, as it seems, of Gustavus, Lawrence obtained one hundred and fifty votes, and was therefore elected. The king testified his complete satisfaction with the result. The question might be asked, how was it that their choice did not fall on Olaf, who was the principal reformer? The assembly, doubtless, was unwilling to remove him from the capital. Lawrence’s long residence at Upsala qualified him for this high dignity; and perhaps the Scripture saying, ‘A bishop must be temperate,’ caused the preference to be given to his brother. The king handed to Lawrence a costly episcopal crosier, saying to him, ‘Be a faithful shepherd of your flock.’ The old proverb, ‘Wooden crosier, golden bishop; golden crosier, wooden bishop,’ was not to be applicable in this case. The new archbishop was about to exercise, ere long, important functions. The king, desirous of founding a dynasty, had sought the hand of Catherine, daughter of the duke of Saxe-Lauenburg. Lawrence married the royal couple, and placed on the head of the wife the crown of Sweden. He did this with a dignity and a grace befitting the solemnity. At table the archbishop was called to take the place of honor which belonged to him. While at court, he was respectfully treated by the king; but the canons of Upsala, who were also present at the feast, and who, as passionate adherents of the pope, had been bitterly grieved to see an evangelical archbishop elected, were provoked at the honors which were paid him. They called their new head a heretic, treated him as an enemy, and seized every opportunity of showing their contempt for him. The son of an iron-master of Orebro to hold the highest place next to the king in Sweden! They ought to have remembered that many of the popes had been of still lower origin. The king was going to do a deed which would make their annoyance sharper still. In the household of Gustavus was a noble damsel, whose grandmother was a Vasa. When the marriage feast was over, the king and the queen rose, all the company did the same, and Gustavus then, in the presence of his whole court, betrothed the archbishop to his kinswoman. Never could a greater honor be conferred on the primate of Sweden.[474]