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bound themselves to stand by the " pure word of God, the three symbols, and the unaltered Augsburg Confession." Calvinism was discarded, in spite of the protests of Duke Charles. At this synod the independence of the Church with reference to internal matters of faith and doctrine come to recognition; and at the same time its character as a national church, with claims on the State for the protection of its belief and dogmas, received expression. Sigismund, the son of John Ill., the heir-inlaw to the throne, was also king of the Poles, and the great champion of the Counter-Reformation in the northeast of Europe. His endeavor was to restore Roman Catholicism in Sweden. Duke Charles, at the diet in SSderk6ping (1595), took the same revolutionary national stand that his father had taken; summoned the estates to their mutual responsibility to oppose the Roman Catholic plans of the legal king; and finally, by the defeat of Sigismund at the battle of Stangebro (1598), put an end to Sigismund's attempt. After 1600 he became king and reigned as Charles IX. The results of this period of the new birth of Sweden was the organic union of the independent Evangelical church with the State, concentrating its power in the crown, and the beginning of its political greatness. The external quarrels had as a consequence inner chaos. Organization was deficient, morals coarse; the monasteries as the repositories of culture had gradually become impoverished and disappeared; education was neglected. The University of Upsala was closed, but in 1595 King Charles and the Church sought to reestablish it. The Lapland mission needed workers. The Roman Catholics continued their plotting; Charles, with his political ambitions and Calvinistic tendencies, had no sympathy with the, to him, oppressive and exclusive Lutheranism. The Church had to combat, single-handed, Calvinism that was now making headway over all Europe. The cause of Lutheranism was led by Archbishop Olaus Martini (d. 1611). With the accession of Gustavus Adolphus, the Swedish Church for the first time gained an assured position in the kingdom.

A new era (1611-1718) of organization and orthodoxy now began. A younger generation took matters in hand in Church and State. Gustavus Adolphus was only eighteen when he ascended the throne, and his great coadjutor,

2. Ecclesi- Axel Oxenstierna, governed European astical Or- politics at the age of twenty-eight; ganization

faith within and its combination under Gustavus Adolphus with popular freedom explain Sweden's influence abroad. During the great wars ecclesiastical organization was left principally to the great bishops. Gustavus contemplated a universal selfgovernment, and proposed a general consistory (1623) of representatives of the laity and the higher and lower clergy. The bishops, however, thwarted this plan. The cathedral chapter, which had languished since the time of Gustavus Vasa, now became under episcopal guidance a central organ of the administration and gained a unique and beneficent standing. The composition of the chapter was also changed, especially under Rudbeckius, from being largely prelatical to consisting of professors, while the laity gained an important part in the administration, which .they still possess. The Church was somewhat represented by the spiritual estate assembled at the diets, but this was under the control of the bishops. However, under their control, led by Rudbeckius and Laurentius Paulinus Gothus at Strengnas (1609-46) the Church made tremendous advances in administration, literature, missions, and schools. But after 1648 the great bishops disappeared, and leadership was transferred to the diet. The result of the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) was to turn interest to internal affairs. The effort was no longer toward a consistory but a unitary organization. From the political side after 1648 new territories continued to come under the crown of Sweden. Their absorption was best promoted by church activity. The erection or conquest of new dioceses necessitated closer organization in the life of the Church. Examples of these dioceses are Wiborg (1618), Karlstad.(1647), Hern&sand (1647), Wisby (1645), Lund (1658); in 1665 Gothenburg, and in 1678 Kalmar became bishoprics. Thus the provincial organization was complete as it has continued to the present time. A university was founded in Lund (1666), which became a theological center of great importance to the Swedish Church. The question of orthodoxy was now at its height; but the proposal of the bishop of Wester5s, Olof Laurelius, that the Formula of Concord be made a part of the church law, was not pleasing to all; Matthia was its most distinguished opponent, and he was supported by Queen Christina, and later by Charles X. Matthia and John Terserus, bishop of Abo, the former a disciple of Comenius, the latter of Calixtus, were also " Syncretists "; the latter fought for popular and spiritual freedom against the growing power of the nobles and the bishops. On the death of Charles X. (1660), the regency being in the hands of a powerful orthodox nobility, they were deprived of their bishoprics on the charge of syncretistic heresy.

Charles XI. introduced the one-man rule in Sweden, and he did not intend to allow the Church to exist as an independent factor. The church itself had no organized central government that could protect its interests. Owing partly to orthodoxy and partly to the ceaseless wars, a spirit of superstition and a decline in morals prevailed among the people and the lower clergy. The king procured the adoption of the Book of Concord as a symbol of the Church in the great church law of 1686. This confirmed