Protestantism in Sweden and Denmark - James Aitken Wylie

around, and fixed on two champions who, they
thought, would be able to combat the hydra which
had invaded their land. These were Doctors Eck
and Cochlaeus. The four bishops, Ivarus Munck,
Stiggo Krumpen, Avo Bilde, and Georgius Friis,
addressed a joint letter, which they sent by an
honorable messenger, Henry Geerkens, to Dr. Eck,
entreating him to come and take up his abode for
one or more years in Jutland, in order that by
preaching, by public disputations, or by writing, he
might silence the propagators of heresy, and rescue
the ancient faith from the destruction that
impended over it. Should this application be
declined by Eck, Geerkens was empowered next to
present it to Cochlaeus.[17] Neither flatteries nor
promises were lacking which might induce these
mighty men of war to renew, on Danish soil, the
battles which they boasted having so often and so
gloriously fought for Rome in other countries.
The letter of the four bishops, dated 14th of
June, 1527, has been preserved; but the terms in
which they give vent to their immense detestation
of Lutheranism, and their equally immense
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