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Protestantism in Sweden and Denmark - James Aitken Wylie

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it was provided that each k<strong>in</strong>gdom should be<br />

governed accord<strong>in</strong>g to its peculiar laws <strong>and</strong><br />

customs. When Christian II. ascended the throne of<br />

<strong>Denmark</strong> (1513), so odious was his character that<br />

the Swedes refused to acknowledge him as their<br />

k<strong>in</strong>g, <strong>and</strong> appo<strong>in</strong>ted an adm<strong>in</strong>istrator, Steno<br />

Sturius, to hold the re<strong>in</strong>s of government.[6]<br />

Christian waited a few years to strengthen himself<br />

<strong>in</strong> <strong>Denmark</strong> before attempt<strong>in</strong>g the reduction of the<br />

Swedes. At length he raised an army for the<br />

<strong>in</strong>vasion of <strong>Sweden</strong>; his cause was espoused with<strong>in</strong><br />

the k<strong>in</strong>gdom by Trollius, Archbishop of Upsala,<br />

<strong>and</strong> Arcimboldus, the Pope's legate <strong>and</strong><br />

<strong>in</strong>dulgence-monger, who largely subsidized<br />

Christian out of the vast sums he had collected by<br />

the sale of pardons, <strong>and</strong> who moreover had<br />

<strong>in</strong>fluence enough to procure from the Pope a bull<br />

plac<strong>in</strong>g the whole of <strong>Sweden</strong> under <strong>in</strong>terdict, <strong>and</strong><br />

excommunicat<strong>in</strong>g Steno <strong>and</strong> all the members of his<br />

government.[7] The fact that this conquest was<br />

ga<strong>in</strong>ed ma<strong>in</strong>ly by the aid of the priests, shows<br />

clearly the estimate formed of K<strong>in</strong>g Christian's<br />

<strong>Protestantism</strong> by his contemporaries.<br />

45

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