Union of Kalmar, 1397-1523






Reformation



Soon after MARTIN LUTHER had nailed his 95 THESES on the church door at Wittenberg, it became evident that the Catholic church was not intent to engage in a debate about church reform, but labelled him a heretic. In this situation, Luther's life depended on his protector, Duke Frederic of Saxony. The reformation became a movement, with Luther as it's unelected, yet generally accepted leader. Luther taught obedience to the state. He also declared the institutions of the old church decadent and suggested that the large monasteries, mostly open to noblemen and noblewomen only, should be dissolved, that their huge estates should be returned to their former owners, that bishops should focus on their office as head of the church administration and give up their role as territorial lords.
Sweden had just overcome a period of foreign domination and was in the process of finding a new constitution. The Reformation, in addition to dealing with grievances within the church, opened the opportunity to strengthen the economic position of state and nobility at the expense of the church. In 1527, Sweden adopted the reformation, the monasteries, such as Skara, Sigtuna, Vadstena were dissolved, their estates appropriated by the royal household respectively by noble families.
Schleswig-Holstein followed in 1528, Denmark and Norway in 1536. However, the introduction of the reformation did not happen without resistance. Hans Brask, bishop of Linkoeping, as well as the archbishop of Trondhjem refused to accept reformation; both fled the country. In remote regions, such as Iceland, the reformation was not introduced before 1541 (Diocese of Skalholt) respectively 1551 (Diocese of Holar). The reformation was an ongoing process; the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish churches regarded Wittenberg as the center of reformation and followed Luther and the church of Saxony. The Lutheran Church had become state church in Scandinavia. The celibacy was abolished (it had never taken hold in some areas, such as Iceland and Gotland, anyway), elementary schooling was made obligatory. The New Testament was translated into Danish in 1524, into Swedish in 1527, into Finnish in 1551, the Bible into Swedish in 1541, Icelandic in 1584. The reformation was the key incentive to turn Danish and Swedish into written languages, languages of education and administration (hitherto Latin and Lower German were used for these purposes). However, Swedish continued to be used in Finland, and Danish was used in Norway. Modern Norwegian was strongly influenced by Danish and differes considerably from old Norwegian.






EXTERNAL
FILES 		The Vasa Period, in : History of Sweden, from the Swedish Institute, encyclopedic, scroll down
Reformation and Absolutism, from History of Denmark, from Den. Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Reformation and Absolutism, from the Danish National Encyclopedia
The Introduction of Protestantism into Sweden, from The History of Protestantism by James A. Wylie (1808-1890), detailed, written by a devoted Lutheran
The Introduction of Protestantism in Denmark, from The History of Protestantism by James A. Wylie (1808-1890), detailed, written by a devoted Lutheran
History of the Icelandic Church, from Kristni


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on November 8th 2004

Click here to go Home
Click here to go to Information about KMLA, WHKMLA, the author and webmaster
Click here to go to Statistics