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The Nonconformist. No. XXVIIL State of Religion in Sweden. (1821.)
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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f 1 1 HE Reformation iii Sweden was JL introtfticed by Gustavus Wasa » He expelled the Catholic creed , and caused the Lutheran t * x be adopted , as contained in the Migskmrg Confession . The new system \ vas ^ established in spite of ' many discoufagements and Hdiffieulttesw i The
undissembled attachment of John the Illrd , ( the second son of Gustavus , ) to the Church of Rome , and the scarcely concealed fondness of Charles the IXth for the tenets of Calvin , led to violent discussion , the result of which
was , that whoever may have had the best * of the arguments , the Lutheran clergy retained the trophies of victory * In Sweden , as in every part of Catholic Europe , the exactions , the intolerance , and the licentiousness of
the Romish hierarchy , had J&id the foundation for momentous changes , which neither secret intrigue nor open violence could long resist . The discontent and indignation scattered over the surface of society , and existing
to an extent little imagined by those who looked no deeper than that surface , became a mighty and irresistible weapon in the hands of those monarchs whose plans of policy or of personal ambition wished to throw off
the intolerable burthens of Papal domination ; and here , as in every case where political power can league itself with the moral sense of mankind , it becomes the most formidable of all energies . The influence of good , even when directed by those who care nothing for food in the abstract , has been always mightier in the end than
any resisting power , and nations have been found but too ready to co-operate in shaking off the fetters of priestly despotism , that they might rivet on tliemselves ' those ) olf xtespotu ; sovereignty , which are neither less heavy nor k $$ galling .
Gu 8 tavtt& waa a mail who ; had more rapacity than religious tfeaL The wealth of the Catholic clergy was
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immensely great : in fact , various regal grants had thrown into their hands two-thirds of the lands of the \\ % ole kingdom . Their- aggrandizements had diminished the possessions of the
nobles , and the latter were exceedingly glad to co-operate in any measures which would serve to restore to them the property Which the false devotion of their forefathers had conferred upon the Church . The time fixed on by Gustavus for introducing the change
he contemplated ^ was peculiarly atispicious . A great number of the Episcopal sees were vacant , so that he had to attack , in most cases , rights which , not being vested In individuals , were shadowy and unrepresented . He fillfed the bishoprics with friends of his own , and felt that the lower orders 6 f the
clergy , more ignorant and less influential than in most other countries , were not likely to oppose his schemes with eagerness or with success . Many commotions and insurrections , however , took place at this period , and some originated in , and all were
strengthened by , the discontent and alarm which the imagined attacks on religion tended to excite . These feelings were not a little administered to by the decrees which applied the church plate , and even some of the church bells , to the payment o £ the war debts of the
state-But there were the tithes — that system of oppression which would seem , by its harassing and short-sighted injustice , sufficient to overturn , by its own action , arty power or influence depending on it for its Support . They were exacted to the uttermost farthing , often clairlned before the harvest ; and
the exaction was the more sevete , as pnjv one-thir 4 of the whole went ta the , prjt ^ st \ j the rest was divided be- * tvyeen the ctiurch and the poor . Gus- * tavus did not relieve his people from this onerous hiivden ; hut directed that ? the latter two-thirds should be applied to the purposes of the state ; -- ' and ihey form at this moment a considerable
The Nonconformist. No. Xxviil State Of Religion In Sweden. (1821.)
The Nonconformist . No . XXVIIL State of Religion in Sweden . ( 1821 . )
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. No . CCXX . ] APRIL , 1824 . [ Vol . XIX . 1- ~ . 9 ~ r—i— -i —« ^« . ¦ i . ¦ . v ' ¦¦ ' > r ¦ t : -r ¦ —— ¦ - ¦ ; ^ — ¦¦ . * ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦¦ '
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VOL . XIX . 2 C
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1824, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2523/page/1/
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