Protestantism in Sweden and Denmark - James Aitken Wylie

ut who now was more eager to extirpate than ever
he had been to plant them. The unhappy man
craved permission to deliver his sentiments on
Lutheranism in public. The permission was at once
granted, with an assurance that no one should be
permitted to molest or injure him. The master of
the horse took him to the citadel, where at great
length, and with considerable freedom, he told
what he thought of the faith which he had once
preached. His address fell upon attentive but not
assenting ears. When he descended from his
rostrum he was met with a tempest of scoffs and
threats. he would have fallen a sacrifice to the
incensed soldiery, had not a lieutenant, unsheathing
his sword, led him safely through the crowd, and
dismissed him at the gates of the fortress. The
soldiers followed him with their cries, so long as he
was in sight, saying that "the monks were wolves
and destroyers of souls."
This and similar scenes compelled Frederick I.
to take a step forward. A regard for the tranquillity
of his kingdom would suffer him no longer to be
neutral. Summoning (1527) the Estates of Denmark
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