Gustavus, having escaped the dangers with which his enemies threatened him, went forward in his work with a firmer step. Endowed with a peremptory and energetic character, he even took some steps of too bold a kind, and seemed to aim at commanding the Church as he would an army. Olaf and the other reformers began to perceive that the king was assuming an authority in matters of religion which infringed on Christian freedom. After the Diet of Westeraas, he had not only taken their castles from the prelates, which was a quite legitimate measure, but he had further taken the Church with the castles, and had confiscated the ecclesiastical foundations for the benefit of the crown; while the reformers had hoped to see their revenues applied to the establishment of schools and other useful institutions. Evangelical Christians were asking one another whether they had cast off the yoke of the pope in order to take up that of the king. It seemed to be the intention of Gustavus to defer indefinitely the complete reformation of Sweden. After the council of Orebro, Olaf had entered upon the prudential course which the king insisted on; but it appeared to him that he must now courageously advance in the paths of truth and freedom. In his judgment, the work of the Reformation would be undone if it were allowed to crystallize in the midst of branches, images, holy water, and tapers. The young preachers supported him, and earnestly called for the suppression of those rites, the plainest effect of which was to keep up superstition among the people. Some of them even uttered complaints from the pulpit that the royal authority obliged them to do or to tolerate acts contrary to their consciences. This gave rise to extreme coolness between Olaf and the king; and ere long the confidential and affectionate intercourse which had united them was succeeded by a certain uneasiness, and even actual hostility. Gustavus having been informed of the discourses delivered by young ministers who had only just left the schools, was offended. He saw in the fact a spirit of rebellion, and he sharply rebuked Olaf, who, to his knowledge, sympathized with these desires for a complete reformation. He said to Olaf—‘The young ministers scandalize simple folk by the impudence which leads them to aim at the abolition of the ancient usages of the Church; and I think further that they have cherished the purpose of giving a lesson to me and my government.’[477] The prince, far from taking a lesson from another, gave one, and that sharply, to the first preacher of the capital.