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181 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Sweden

a famous preacher; Bishop Jacob Serenius (d. 1776), who introduced the rite of confirmation according to English and Danish form; and Anders Nohrborg (d. 1767), court preacher, and author of Die Seligkeitsordnung des gefallenen Menschen, a devotional work ranking next to the Bible for the people of Sweden. A peculiar product of the time was Emanuel Swedenborg (q.v.).

This previous period formed the transition from Sweden of the Reformation and the politics of war to the modern state; it was prolific of ideals minus fixed purposes. It prepared the way for the speculative Enlightenment, or the period of neology (1772-1817). The great religious per-

(. The sonalities were gone by 1770; the prince Weoeogidal of the Enlightenment, Gustavus III.,

Period

and the nephew of Frederick the Great Win teenth mounted the throne in 1772; and his Century. French school of poets, particularly J. H. Kellgren, satirized Swedenborgianism and Pietism. German rationalism began to show its head and to influence more and more the leaders of the Swedish Church; but it never reached extremes, and in southern Sweden and other portions of the country it never gained the mastery. Almost all earnest men in the Church at this time were of the Unity of the Brethren or Swedenborgians, and these two beliefs were the salvation of the religious life of the country. The religious awakening of the middle of the century was protracted among the people, and Wurttemberg Pietism was spread abroad in Sweden by many revivalists, preparing the way for the epoch-making work of Henrik Schartau (q.v.). The independence of the Church in the national life did not suffer; although for a time the rationalistic royalty which had again become supreme worked some injury to the ecclesiastic conditions by its appointments. The king found, however, his match in the intellectual and powerful bishop, Olof Wallquist of Wexid (d. 1800), as celebrated in statesmanship and finance as in church organization. He organized a new ecclesiastical office, called the " ecclesiastical expedition," by which all church business was to be prepared. It was not of long duration but paved the way for the present ministry of worship. The period lacked the power to afford the Church new impulse. The neological revision of the church-books was a failure; and the Church was too weak to aid the people in political caises. The cession of Finland to Russia in 1809 was rather a religious than a political loss. The first half of the nineteenth century was a time of restoration for the Church, when internal and foreign missions prospered, with some persistent sectarian dispersion of a subjectivistic character. Then came the non-conformist movements from England, George Scott preaching Methodism in 1840, and Anders Wiberg the Baptist doctrine from 1851, followed by the Irvingites (Catholic Apostolic Church, q.v.). The conventicle edict was recalled in 1858, and Swedish subjects were granted religious freedom in 1860. This gave impetus to the Reformed tendency even within the national Church. The most important fact in religious life was the revival after 1840 under the preaching of Dean Peter Wieselgren (noted temperance

advocate, d. 1877), the layman K. O. Rosenius (d. 1868), and the missionary Peter Fjellstedt (d. 1881). In 1863 the Church obtained its own representation at the church assembly through the change which converted the old diet into one of two chambers, whereby the position within the national state life intended by the Reformation and attempted by Gustavus Adolphus was achieved.

II. Statistics: Ninety-nine per cent. of the population belongs, formally at least, to the Evangelical Lutheran State Church. By the church law of 1686, which, with some changes and amplifications, is still in force, the confession of faith embraces, beside the three ancient symbols, the resolution of the Upsala mote of 1593, and the entire Book of Concord. In the constitution of 1809 the Upsala mote and the Confessio Augustana alone were mentioned, and the uncertainty whether the entire Book of Concord is symbolically in effect has not been finally decided. Any one may leave the State Church, but moat join some other denomination recognized by the State. In 1900 there were 2,378 Roman Catholics; 3,912 orthodox Jews; 7,041 Methodists; 3,309 Baptists; and smaller scattered bodies. The actual number of Baptists was 40,000 and of Methodists 15,231, most of them remaining in the State Church. The most considerable sect within the State Church is the Pietistic " Swedish Missionary Union," deviating somewhat from the normal doctrine of the atonement and practising separate communion, and carrying on an extensive internal and foreign mission. This union was founded by the well-known Paul Potter Waldenstrom (q.v.). They numbered (1903) 84,602, with more than 1,100 churches. The State Church of Sweden embraces 13 bishoprics, to which are added the municipal conaistory of Stockholm and the court consistory. The latest diocese, LuleS (1904), was established by the diet only on condition that Wexio and Kalmar were to be combined on the death of either of the incumbent bishops. The diocese of Upsala bears the title of archbishopric, although its incumbent bears only the relationship of a pri.mus inter pares. The dioceses are now Upsala (including Stockholm), Linkoping, Skara, Strengnas, Wester$s, Wexio, Lund, GSteborg, Kalmar, Karlstad, Wisby, HernSsand, and LuleS.. The dioceses are divided into district, each of which contains seven to eight parishes. There are now 1,380 parishes. Each parish has its kyrkoherde (pastor); one of them is provost over the district. The parishes are frequently divided into sub-parishes, each with its own church, and often also with its own ordinary minister. The number of churches in 1909 was 2,576, and of ministers 2,767, and there is one minister to every 1,700 inhabitants. The king of Sweden is the highest earthly ruler of the Swedish Church, and must be an adherent of the " pure Evangelical doctrine, as adopted and explained in the unaltered Augsburg Confession and in the resolutions of the Synod of Upsala of 1593." He moat, however, in the exercise of his ecclesiastical authority, " obtain information and advice " from the ecclesiastical minister, and from the rest of the council of state, the members of which must all be adherents of the pure Evangelical doctrine. In ecclesiastical legislation, the king and