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264 VI. GREAT KINGS AND BISHOPS (A.D. 1593-^1718).
thing he should think fit to do for the maintenance of the
Confession of Augsburg. Sigismund came over with
twenty thousand crowns in his pocket from the pope to
wards the cost of the restoration of Catholicism in Sweden.
After some negotiation he accepted the
"
decrees of
Upsala
"
as a condition of his coronation, which took place
in 1594, at the hands of Swedish bishops, though his
enemy, Archbishop Abraham, was not permitted to set the
crown himself upon the king s head; and in his corona
tion oath he promised to preserve the Swedish Church.
He began, however, at once to break his promise, and to
try and rule Sweden through Polish ministers, and to treat
it as a dependency of Poland.11
The result may be easily
imagined ;
and step by step his hopes of success were
blighted by the resistance of three out of the four estates,
the clergy, burghers and peasants, although he had many
adherents amongst the nobles, who knew that their interests
lay in the weakness of the crown. It was the transference
of the bishops and clergy as a body to the national side in
politics which made all the difference in the new struggle
against a Union sovereignty. All Sweden owes a debt of
gratitude to them for their steadfastness, with few
exceptions, in this crisis.
The birth of Gustavus Adolphus in 1594 synchronized
with another most important event for Sweden, the restora
tion of the University of Upsala. This was part of the
movement for the defence and propagation of the prin
ciples of the Reformation, and with it was joined the over
sight of all the schools in the kingdom. The charter,
dated I5th March, 1595, provided for the stipends of three
professors of theology and four of philosophy, for their
residence partly in old prebendal houses, and for a common
table for forty students.12
11
Cp. C. R. L. Fletcher s Gustavus Adolphus, p. 12, G. P.
Putnam and Sons, London and New York, 1907.
12
Cp. the Postulata Clericorum addressed to Charles and the
Council of State in 1595, Baaz, pp. 564 foil.
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