Protestantism in Sweden and Denmark - James Aitken Wylie

and part to those nobles from whose ancestors they
had been wrested; and if, in the interval, any of
these donations had been sold, restitution must be
made in money. It is computed that from 13,000 to
20,000 estates, farms, and dwellings passed into
the hands of lay possessors. The bishops intimated
their submission to this decree, which so
effectually broke their power, by subscribing their
names to it.[10]
Other articles were added bearing more directly
upon the Reformation of religion. Those districts
that adopted the Reformation were permitted to
retain their ecclesiastical property; districts
remaining Popish were provided by the king with
Protestant ministers, who were paid out of the
goods still left in possession of the Popish Church.
No one was to be ordained who was unwilling, or
who knew not how, to preach the pure Gospel. In
all schools the Bible must be read, and the lessons
of the Gospel taught. The monks were allowed to
reside in their monasteries, but forbidden to beg;
and safeguards were enacted against the
accumulation of property in a dead hand -- a
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