Before the day appointed for the diet, a long list of their grievances was drawn up by the Dalesmen and sent to Stockholm to the king. To these complaints Gustavus issued a reply, in which he strove to pacify the malcontents and thus obtain their presence at the diet. The complaints themselves are somewhat trivial, but the monarch's answer is important as an instance of his peculiar power in avoiding discord without directly compromising his affairs. To their murmur at the abolition of the mint in Vesterås, and the scarcity of coins of small denominations, he answered that the mint was closed because the mines adjacent were no longer worked; so soon as the mines in question should be opened he would reinstate the mint, and moreover he would please them by issuing small coins. As to the complaint of heavy taxes, the Cabinet were responsible for that. He would say, however, that he did not contemplate any further tax. The practice of billeting in the towns and monasteries was made necessary by the paucity of land about the royal castles, but this necessity he hoped would not exist much longer. The charge of reducing the number of monasteries and churches he denied. He had not closed a single monastery except Gripsholm, which was the property of his father and had been made a monastery against his father's will. To the ludicrous charge that he was planning to restore Archbishop Trolle, he made a flat denial. One thing, he said, was certain,--those who favored Trolle favored Christiern; he could scarce be charged with that. Finally, the Dalesmen complained of Luther's teachings, particularly the doctrines that were taught in Stockholm and the practice of allowing Swedish chants and hymns. To this he could say only that he had ordered nothing to be preached except the Word of God; and as to Swedish chants, he could see no reason for punishing in Stockholm what was permitted in all other portions of the kingdom; it was certainly better to praise God in a language that everybody understood than in Latin, which no one understood. "I wonder much," he said in closing, "that the Dalesmen trouble themselves concerning matters of which they have no knowledge. It would be wiser to leave the discussion of these things to priests and scholars.... I do not believe, however, that these complaints are made of your own free will, but rather at the instigation of certain priests and monks, whose desire is to keep the truth unknown." This sentence with which he closed contains the pith of the entire letter. The monarch felt that in the coming contest the opposing parties were to be the Church and State. He endeavored, therefore, by every means to win the Dalesmen to his side. Letters were despatched to Dalarne from various portions of the realm, to instruct the peasants that if they persisted in their opposition to Gustavus, they would have to fight alone. The Dalesmen, however, were no more influenced by threats than by persuasion.