This zeal for good did not prevent him from hitting hard when he thought he saw any thing amiss. He could be calm, gentle, and tolerant, but also earnest, terrible, and swift as a thunderbolt. If he perceived any opposition he struck energetically. ‘It is not right,’ he said one day, ‘that the bishop of Strengnaes should dwell in a stone house. It appears to me that a wooden house might suffice for a servant of him who made himself poor.’ The bishop boldly answered—‘It is doubtless in the same chapter of Holy Scripture that it is said that to the king tithe ought to be paid.’ The bishop’s reply having offended the king, he was not slow to show his displeasure. The marriage of the bishop was at this time being celebrated. It was his wedding-day, and there was a large company and a grand feast in the stone house. Gustavus unhesitatingly sent his sergeants in the very midst of the rejoicings, with orders to carry off the bishop from the marriage table, paying no regard to the general alarm, and he cast him into prison. His benefice was given to another. The contemporaries of Gustavus might reproach him, and with good reason, for his severity; and yet this seems moderation in comparison with the ways of Henry VIII., Mary Tudor, Francis I., Henry II., Charles IX., and with those of his predecessor Christian II. ‘I am called,’ he said, ‘a harsh monarch; but the days will come when I shall be regretted.’[487] He had indeed other qualities which made people forget his severity. The beauty of his person predisposed men in his favor, and the eloquence of his speech carried away all with whom he had to do. But there are other considerations which although they do not justify his rigorous measures, explain them. The kingdom of Christ not being of this world ought not to be governed by kings and by their secretaries of state. This principle once admitted, there are three remarks to make: The development of Christian civilization was not sufficiently advanced in the sixteenth century for a recognition of the independence of the two powers. Catholicism was still so powerful in Sweden that nothing short of the authority of such a king as Gustavus could secure to the Gospel and to its disciples the liberty which they needed. Lastly, if Gustavus was wrong in assuming, as so many other princes did, the episcopal office in the Church, he did at least discharge its duties conscientiously. In 1537 the king had received deputies from the elector of Saxony, the landgrave of Hesse, and the Protestant towns, who entreated him to unite with the evangelical churches of Germany.[488] Gustavus had promised to do all that might be in his power for the good of their confederation. In 1546 he was formally asked to enter into the league of Smalcalde; but this he declined to do. The Confession of Augsburg was not accepted in his lifetime. It was only after many vicissitudes that Sweden was induced to place itself under this flag. Footnote 459: