VII.-SUPERINTENDENTS IN THE SWEDISH CHURCH.

T will be remembered that when Henry VIII. was engaged

in the dissolution and plunder of English monasteries, his chief agent was a layman named Thomas Cromwell, whom he appointed Vicar General, and who undertook, as such, a general visitation. In Sweden, at about the same date, Gustavus Vasa appointed George Norman, also a layman, to be Superintendent, with functions like Cromwell's, and he was actively engaged for the king in both visitation and wholesale plunder.

The new Bishops were by no means all favorable to the more drastic measures of Gustavus, who had come to look upon himself not only as a divine agent, but an indispensable divine agent, and one after another they fell into disfavor. Of the older Bishops who survived the möte at Westerås, Ingemar of Wexiö sat quiet in his distant and not easily accessible see, and never appeared except by a substitute. He died 1530. Brask of Lincöping fled on the first opportunity. Only Petrus Magni was outwardly subservient. Of the three consecrated in 1528, one, the Bishop of Skara, soon filed, Magnus Sommar of Strengnäs was deposed and imprisoned for faithfulness to the old order in 1536, and the Bishop of Åbo resigned in 1545.

There were three Bishops consecrated in 1531 before the Archbishop; Johannes Haquini to Lincöping in Brask's room, Sveno Jacobi Scheningensis to Skara, and Jonas Boetii to Wexiö. Both Bishop Johannes and Bishop Sveno resigned,

the first very soon, the latter after 13 years. lived on plagued by war and feud until 1553.

Jonas of Wexiö

The Archbishop was temporarily out of favor with the King on account of his resistance to the King's proposed marriage with his deceased queen's niece.

Bothvid Suneson, a favorite of the king, was consecrated to Strengnäs in 1536, but even he was deposed, and only recovered his see after the king's death.

Meanwhile the king not only was using Norman in a highhanded way, but was dividing the old dioceses into two or three and appointing Ordinarii to the new places. He was very much afraid of the power of the regularly elected Bishops, and no forms of election appear to have been observed in the case of these ordinarii. It is not known whether they were consecrated or not. Anjou conjectures that they were. One settled in Gefle is reported to have made a visitation of Norrland, and is styled Bishop, but the king does not seem to have called them so. However, his death put an end to this indiscriminate division, and four validly consecrated Bishops at least overlived him. The one superintendency which seems to have survived him with a show of continuity was Calmar.

At the time when Gustavus came to the throne, Sweden proper had six dioceses and Finland one; in order, Upsala, Lincöping, Skara, Strengnäs, Westerås, and Wexiö, with Åbo in Finland. Gustavus erected another diocese in Finland, Wiborg, and a superintendency, which was short lived. There was a Bishop for a while in Reval. But, since then, Sweden has acquired other territory. The Island of Gothland was Danish and was for a long time a battle ground. Skåne, Hålland, and Blekinge belonged to Denmark and formed the diocese of Lund. Bohuslän to the west, or Viken, was then out of Sweden, and afterwards contributed to forming the diocese of

Gotenburg. Wermland belonged nominally to Skara, but was close to Norway and had not had an episcopal visitation for a hundred years. The diocese of Upsala stretched up to the north almost indefinitely, but the Swedes lost Jemtland and Härjsdal from 1570 to 1647, when, on getting them back, they added some territory and made Hernösand a superintendency. The superintendents of Calmar were first far from independent and were little more than deans under the Bishops of Lincöping and Wexiö. The first to have full charge and episcopal right was Johannes Petri Ungius, from April 30, 1607. From descriptions of his rights he was very likely consecrated. The fifth to succeeed him is a regular Bishop, from 1678, and there have been Bishops ever since. There is nothing in the Church law to show why superintendents should not have been consecrated, but there is evidence that some of them were not, as they were afterwards explicitly said to have been consecrated to an older see. If Peter Schomerus, the last superintendent, was not regularly consecrated, then there is a flaw in the Priest's orders of Olavus Svebilius, who was afterward Archbishop. But there is none in his episcopal orders.

Carlstad, formerly Mariestad, represents Wermland, the outlying border part of Skara diocese, described above as so long neglected. It owes its foundation to Duke Charles, afterward Charles IX. Its superintendent did not probably at first have power to ordain. It was raised to full diocesan dignity with a Bishop in 1772.

Gotenburg or Göteborg was only a superintendency for 45 years, from 1620 to 1665. It was largely conquered territory. It has had a Bishop ever since.

Hernösand was a superintendency from 1647 to 1772. It was largely territory recovered from Norway. One of the superintendents, at least, may have been consecrated, as he had

been named Bishop of Gotenburg, and is called Bishop Wallin in the Life of Nils Grubbe. He is not to be confounded with two other Bishops named Wallin.

Gotland was essentially Danish and debatable ground for years, now with a Danish, now a Swedish superintendent. It took a long time to make it Swedish. Its superintendent became a Bishop in 1772.

Lund was a Danish diocese until 1658. Its last Danish superintendent, called a Bishop, received a seat in the Swedish riksdag, and remained in undisturbed possession of his see. The rest of the clergy were protected by treaty rights, but nevertheless strong efforts, affecting the personnel, were made to make the diocese Swedish as fast as possible. The next Bishop was in Swedish Orders.

There is no precise parallel for all this in English Church history. It is true that the Bishops sent to Scotland in 1610 had not the right and perhaps no inclination to extrude Presbyterian incumbents who did not desire episcopal ordination, and that therefore universally valid orders could only have come about after a long period, had this episcopate met with success. It is also true that the English government protects an established Presbyterianism in Scotland as much as an established Episcopacy in England, but the ministers of one do not pass freely into the other. In Sweden, on the contrary, there was but one national Church. But there is no necessary theological implication as far as I can observe. The law identified the superintendents with Bishops in more than one place. It was the practice that was defective. The inconsistency worked itself out, and ceased in 1772. There were economic reasons in the way of an earlier change; there was some politics. I do not attempt to defend it. If there were now superintendencies, presided over by men not consecrated Bishops, it would render

our present task more difficult; but Sweden has now been free from the major results of such an anomaly for 137 years.

The one question which can arise now is about the effect upon the succession in former days. If Svebilius was ordained in Calmar in 1658 as reported, and if his ordainer was not consecrated himself, which I suppose no one knows, then Svebilius was not in orders at all, according to the majority of Anglicans, until he was made Bishop. And if Matthias Steuchius was ordained by his father in Hernösand, which is possible, but not necessarily true, then he was in the same case until he became Bishop of Lund. These things would not invalidate the succession, however; and it is not at all believable that either of these Archbishops, any way, consecrated other Bishops without assistance. Custom and law would prevent, and there was no need.

I may conclude with a correction of a previous article. In that I gave the line of Swedish consecrations. I am obliged to amend it in three points. The consecrator of Olaus Martini in 1607 was not Petrus Benedicti, although he was the senior in standing. The Upsala clergy know the consecrator to have been Peter Kenicius. As others had been summoned for a prior date, there were probably assistants.

I have now what I lacked: documentary evidence that Jonas Magni Wexionis was the consecrator of Archbishop Lennaeus. As this happened in Stockholm at a Riksdag, three other Bishops were probably present and assisting.

I must also amend the statement, and am glad to be able to do so, that Matthias Steuchius consecrated his son and successor Jöns to Lincöping. Matthias had already died when the consecration took place, though the nomination was of long standing, and it was performed by Jesper Svedberg, Bishop of Skara.