Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - First part - III. Constitution and Administration - 4. Church and Religion. By G. Fr. Lundin, Ph. D., Uppsala
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Uppsala Cathedral.
"From 830 A. D. — the date when Christianity was preached for the first time
ill Sweden by St. Ansgarius — more than 300 years elapsed before Sweden could
be said to be a Christian country, and yet another full century passed before the
Swedish Church was completely incorporated in the Roman Catholic Church at
the Synod of Skeninge in 1248. From 1164 Sweden had been a separate
ecclesiastical province, inasmuch as in that year Stefan, a monk attached to the
earliest Swedish monastery (that of Alvastra, founded 1144) became the first
Archbishop of Uppsala. The Ecclesiastical Privileges, issued in the year 1200,
laid the basis of the political power of the Swedish Church; this power, however,
never became so great as in Norway and in Denmark. Yet in regard to its
religious influence the Church was stronger in Sweden than in the neighbouring
countries. St. Bridget (St. Birgitta), who died in 1373, is the most notable
figure in the Scandinavian religious world during the Middle Ages; though
genuinely Swedish she has quite ecumenical views. Moreover, the literature
connected with the name of St. Bridget forms the most important intellectual
product in the whole of Scandinavia during that epoch, while the Nunnery of
Vadstena, founded by St. Bridget, was the parent of as many as 70 similar
institutions, some of them to be found as far south as Spain and Italy, and
some, again, being still in existence at the present day.
The Reformation reached Sweden as early as 1519, through the
instrumentality of Olaus Petri (1493/1552), a disciple of Luther and a man of
kindred spirit with him; it was not, however, until two generations later that
the new doctrine established itself. Gustavus Vasa (reigned 1523/60) adopted
it, making use of it as the most powerful agent in his scheme of national
reorganization. Subsequent to a resolution of the Riksdag of 1527, he
transferred the property, political power, and supreme administration of the Church
church and religion. 283
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