The Protestants, fearing the worst from their new Catholic king,
decided to take firm and early action. The duke ordered a Riksdag at
Upsala in February, 1593, the deliberations being held by the clergy
alone. The Liturgia was abolished with the majority of Catholic church
ceremonies, Luther’s catechisms, L. Petri’s ritual, church visitations,
etc., being reintroduced. Abraham Angermannus was elected archbishop,
and decision made for the re-establishment of the Upsala University.
The duke had not been present at the deliberations, and appeared
displeased because not consulted. He, who was secretly accused of being
a Calvinist, pointed out more Catholic ceremonies to be abolished,
whereupon the decisions won the sanction of the duke, the state council
and the bishops. By this act the Lutheran Church was re-established,
the Augsburgian Confession being laid down by the meeting as its
corner-stone. When this action had been taken, the chairman, Nicolaus
Bothniensis, a young Upsala professor, exclaimed: “Now Sweden has
become _one_ man, and we all have _one_ God.”
In August, 1593, King Sigismund arrived in Sweden, surrounded by
Jesuits and Polish nobles, and with a sum of money wherewith to pay
the expenses of a Catholic revival. To the demands made to sign the
decisions of the Upsala meeting he gave a flat refusal. The conditions
in Stockholm grew perilous, Jesuits and Lutheran ministers preaching
denouncements upon each other in the churches and conflicts between
the Polish troops and the populace taking place. In January, 1594,
Sigismund, accompanied by the state councillors and the members of
the Riksdag, came to Upsala for his father’s funeral and his own
coronation. Duke Charles arrived with 3,000 men, whom he quartered
in the neighborhood. He dismissed the papal legate, Malaspina, and
his Jesuits from the funeral procession, before it entered the
cathedral, and told the king, in behalf of all, that no coronation
would take place before the confessional liberty of the Lutheran Church
was confirmed. The Estates declared themselves ready to sacrifice
their lives for the pure faith. The king still refused his sanction,
whereupon the duke replied that the Riksdag would be dismissed within
twenty-four hours if he insisted. Sigismund gave in, upon the advice of
the Jesuits, who told him that pledges to Lutherans were not binding.
Sigismund was crowned and returned suddenly to Poland.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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