Hot words ensued between them, and finally the archbishop was arrested and conveyed to Stockholm. There he was charged with conspiracy against the king. Certain letters that had passed between him and the Roman Catholics of Germany were produced; and though they showed no evidence of fraud, the archbishop was remanded to his prison to await the further disposition of his case. Never was greater injustice done a worthy man. There was not a scintilla of evidence against him. He was a generous, kindly, single-minded prelate, and the only reason for this cruelty was that he had no sympathy with the methods of the king. After some months in prison he was released upon the pretext of an embassy to Poland. Nobody could be ignorant what this pretext meant. He was to be an exile from his native land. He sailed from Sweden in the autumn of 1526, never to return. By such ignoble practices the monarch cleared his path.[151] After the banishment of Archbishop Magni, Gustavus gave free rein to his ambition. The principal object of his greed was still the monasteries and convents. The practice of quartering his soldiers in them was by this time accepted as a necessary evil. But in August, 1526, he raised a new pretension. The provost of the Åbo Chapter having died, its members had chosen another in his stead, and had begun to distribute his property in accordance with a will that he had left, when a letter came from Sweden ordering them to stop. After expressing surprise that they should have chosen a provost without consulting him, Gustavus added: "We learn that your last provost left a large amount of property by his testament to those persons to whom he wished to have it go. It is clear, however, that it would do more good if given to the public, since the kingdom is in a state of distress brought on by the long-protracted war against King Christiern. We therefore command you, after distributing the legacies given to his family and friends as well as the poor, to hand the balance over to us to pay the nation's debt." Against this high-handed measure there was no redress. It was but part of a policy by this time well established in the monarch's mind. Some six months later, the burgomaster and Council of Arboga wrote Gustavus that affairs in their monastery were managed in a very slipshod way; that when a brother died, the prior took possession of his estate, and the monastery itself got nothing for it. To prevent this state of things, Gustavus sent an officer to take up quarters in the monastery and send him a list of all the property he could find. "You will discover also," he declared, "some chests belonging to foreign monks. Take a look at them, and see what they contain." This letter, it should be remembered, was not intended for the public eye. Gustavus was careful to keep his actions dark, and, the monks of Arboga being accused of secreting certain treasures, the royal officer was instructed to make a diligent