They stood firm in their determination; and when the diet assembled on the 24th of June, no delegates from Dalarne appeared.[154] The Diet of Vesterås is the bulwark of the Swedish Reformation. It is the first embodiment in the Swedish law of the reforms of Martin Luther. Gustavus had been making ready for this diet ever since the day of his election, and at last the opportunity was ripe. One by one the prelates that were hostile to his views had been removed; and Brask, the only man of strength that still held out against him, was tottering to the grave. His enemies abroad had been by this time silenced, and except in the little province of Dalarne, Sweden was at peace. It was this revolt among the Dalesmen that served as a pretext for the diet. Gustavus was too shrewd a politician to make an open avowal of his aim. He announced that the purpose of the diet was to quell the constant riots in the realm, and hinted with mock innocence that he wished also to end the dissension that had arisen in matters of the Church. Among the persons who answered to the summons we find the names of four bishops, including Brask, together with representatives from Upsala and all the other Chapters excepting Åbo. Beside these, there were present one hundred and forty-four of the nobility (of whom sixteen were Cabinet members), thirty-two burghers, one hundred and five peasants, and fourteen delegates from the mining districts. The king's design had been made manifest before the diet met; for on the previous Sunday, at a banquet given by him to the delegates already arrived in Vesterås, he had taken especial pains to show the bishops that their temporal supremacy was at an end. Despising every venerated custom, he had ranged about himself the higher members of the nobility, and had consigned the bishops to an inferior position. The affront thus put upon them galled them to the quick, and on the following day they held a secret meeting to discuss their wrongs. All of the bishops present excepting Brask discerned the hopelessness of their cause, and advocated a humble submission to the monarch's will. But Brask was boiling over with indignation. He sprang to his feet and shouted that they must be mad. If the king wanted to deprive them of their rights by force, he might do so. But they ought never to consent to such a course, lest they might thereby offend the Holy See. In times gone by, princes had frequently attempted the same thing that Gustavus was attempting now, but the thunders of the Vatican had always overwhelmed them. If the bishops now should fall away from their allegiance to the pope, their only refuge would be gone. They would become mere puppets of the king, afraid to speak a word in favor of their old prerogatives. These sentiments of Brask's were listened to with favor. The warmth with which he spoke produced its natural effect, and before the prelates parted they drew up a set of "protests," as they