Protestantism in Sweden and Denmark - James Aitken Wylie

Left without instruction by their spiritual
guides, with no access to the Word of God -- for
the Scriptures had not as yet been rendered into the
Swedish tongue - with no worship save one of
mere signs and ceremonies, which could convey no
truth into the mind, the Christian light that had
shone upon them in the previous centuries was fast
fading, and a night thick as that which had
enwrapped their forefathers, who worshipped as
gods the bloodthirsty heroes of the Eddas and the
Sagas, was closing them in. The superstitious
beliefs and pagan practices of old times were
returning. The country, moreover, was torn with
incessant strifes. The great families battled with
one another for dominion, their vassals were
dragged into the fray, and thus the kingdom was
little better than a chaos in which all ranks, from
the monarch downwards, struggled together, each
helping to consummate the misery of the other.
Such was the condition in which the Reformation
found the nation of Sweden.[2]
Rome, though far from intending it, lent her aid
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