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in Abo and Viborg, three of the Franciscans in Abo, Raunao and K6ker, and one of the Brigittines in Nadindal. The brotherhoods of the Middle Ages also found admission into F5n-

land; fifteen guilds are known to have existed. I There was no higher institution of learning.

For centuries there were continual battles between

the different tribes in the interior. The spiritual

culture of the people was neglected in these tur

bulent times, especially since the Roman Church

was never interested in the real education of the

people. At the Synod of Soderkoping in Sweden

(1441) it was decided that the Lord's Prayer, the

Ave Maria, and the Creed should be translated into

the mother tongue. Bishop Tavast participated,

and it may be assumed that these decisions applied

also to Finland. Before 1500 there were 120

churches in Finland. In 1504 the Swedish gov

ernment ordered the building of new churches since

the congregations were so large that some people

lived ninety miles from a church. No books for the

use of the people have been preserved from the

Middle Ages, but a Missals Aboense, published in

1483 at the instance of Bishop Bitze, for the use

of the cathedral of Abo, is known, and also a Manu

als Aboenae (1522) for the use of the Finnish Church.

In consequence of the connection of Finland with

Sweden, the Reformation took the same course in

both countries. The first herald of the Reforma

tion in Finland was Peter S#rkilahti, who had

studied under Luther and Melanchthon. In 1524

he returned to his native country and began to

preach the new doctrine. Owing to

s. The Ref- the isolated position of Finland, the

ormation. people were not prepared for it and

the Roman Church had a larger field

of usefulness than in Germany. The first Evan

gelical bishop of Finland was Martin Skytte, a quiet

and humble man. His activity was not revolu

tionary. The real Reformer of Finland was Michael

Agricola, son of a poor fisher of Perna, who received

his rudimentary education in the school of Abo and

studied in Wittenberg. There he adopted the

cause of the Reformation. Like the other Reform

ers, he immediately undertook a translation of

the Bible in order to gain a firm basis for his work.

In 1543 he published a primer and soon afterward

a catechism, in 1544 a book of prayer. The trans

lation of the New Testament, which he had begun

in Wittenberg, appeared in 1548. In the following

year he published a manual on baptism and in

1551 the continuation of his translation of the Bible,

the Psalms and part of the Prophets. Haggai,

Zechariah, and Malachi followed in 1552. Agricola

died in 1554. He is gratefully remembered and

highly esteemed by the Finnish people as the Re

former of Finland and the father of Finnish litera

ture. The Reformation was completed by Jacob

Finno. Agricola gave the Finns the New Testa

ment, Finno taught them to sing the Psalms. His

psalm-book was published in 1583 at Stockholm.

The only copy in existence is defective and is

in the library of Upsala. On the whole the Reform

atory movement took a quiet course, without

great frictions. But a sect originated, tracing its origin to a certain Zechariah, a Jew of Novgorod, which. advocated the celebration of the seventh day as Sabbath and obedience to the law of Moses.

country was constituted a separate g. Bishops diocese with Viborg as cathed.-sl town.

Juusten The first bishop there was Paul Juusten dad Erica. who also had studied at Wittenberg.

The church forms in Finland were modeled in general after the mother country Sweden. A church order was issued in 1571. Until that time there were no general church regulations. Some of the ecclesiastical positions were filled immediately by the king, others by the bishop and chapter. The men who influenced most deeply the culture of Finland after the introduction of the Reformation were Bishop Paul Juusten and Bishop Ericus Erici. Juusten became bishop in Viborg in 1554, and in Abo in 1563. He wrote the Capita remm synodicarum which formed the basis of discussions at a convention of priests in Abo in 1573 and which gives an insight into the ecclesiastical conditions of the time. He emphasized especially that the priests in their conduct should be models for the members of the congregation. For the guidance of priests he compiled a collection of sermons which, however, was never printed. The manuscript was burned m the great conflagration in Abo in 1827 when many other treasures perished. In 1574 he published a Finnish catechism in Stockholm and in the following year a manual. He also collected everything that was known of church conditions in Finland in the Middle Ages, under the title Chronicon episcoporum Finlandenaium (ed. H. G. Porthan, Abo, 1784-1800; also, ed. C. Annerstedt, in Faut, Scriptores rerum Swcicarum, iii., section 2, Upsala, 1871, pp. 132135), and has been justly called the father of the church history of Finland. Not less important and influential was his younger contemporary, Ericus Erici. He was born in the middle of the sixteenth century, studied abroad, and after his return became rector of Gefie in Sweden (1578). In 1583 he was appointed bishop of both Finnish dioceses. He wrote an extensive catechism for the clergy and the first book of homilies in the Finnish language which was still read and loved in the beginning of the nineteenth century.

. spiritual life of Finland was the foundation of the academy in Abo (1640). A gymna-

4. The sium, founded ten years before, had Seventeenth shown itself insufficient for the in-

. Century. creased demands of education; the population at that time had increased to about 400,000 persons. The number of professors in the academy was eleven, of whom three were in the theological faculty. While this concerned chiefly the higher circles of society, another event occurred a few years later, the effect of which was felt in the most distant parts of the land-in 1642 the people received the whole Bible in a Finnish translation (see BIBLz Vefmorrs, B,V.). School