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6 - Nordic Reformations Compared

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2024

Henry A. Jefferies
Affiliation:
Ulster University
Richard Rex
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

The kingdom of Denmark, which then included Norway and Iceland, and the kingdom of Sweden, which encompassed Finland, were influenced early on by the Evangelical movement. It first gained a foothold in maritime towns, particularly in Denmark. The traditionally close ties with Germany played an important role. The Evangelical movement developed into distinct princely Reformations in Denmark and Sweden and resulted in the establishment of two strong Lutheran confessional states. When Christian III emerged victorious from the Danish Civil War in 1536 he enjoyed a uniquely powerful position and quickly implemented a Reformation settlement according to his own Lutheran beliefs. None of the Swedish kings secured as strong a position in the sixteenth century and religious change was effected more slowly in Sweden. Differences in social structure also greatly influenced the impact of the Reformation. The Reformation progressed more quickly in Denmark, which was more urbanised, commercialised and feudal, than in the less developed regions north of the Skagerrak. In Sweden and Finland a larger proportion of the peasants were freeholders compared with Denmark and they showed themselves willing and able to resist the crown’s assaults on their traditional religiosity. In Norway and Iceland too the predominance of freeholder peasants was associated with a slower pace of Reformation than that in Denmark.

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Chapter
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Reformations Compared
Religious Transformations across Early Modern Europe
, pp. 124 - 145
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Further Reading

Berntson, Martin, Kättarland: En bok om reformationen i Sverige, Skellefteå: Artos, 2017Google Scholar
Brilkman, Kajsa, Fink-Jensen, Morten and Sanders, Hanne (eds.), Reformation i två riken. Reformationens historia och historiografi i Sverige och Danmark, Göteborg: Makadam, 2019Google Scholar
Gregerson, Nils Henrik and Bach-Nielsen, Carsten (eds.), Reformationen i dansk kirke og kultur, Bind 1, 1517–1700, Odense: Syddansk Universitetsforlag, 2017Google Scholar
Grell, Ole Peter (ed.), The Scandinavian Reformation: From Evangelical Movement to Institutionalisation of Reform, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995Google Scholar
Imsen, Steinar, Da reformasjonen kom til Norge, Oslo: Cappelen Damm akademisk, 2016Google Scholar
Kouri, Erkki I., ‘The Reformation in Sweden and Finland’, in Kouri, Erkki I. and Jens E. Olesen (eds.), The Cambridge History of Scandinavia. Volume II 1520–1870, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016, 6088Google Scholar
Larson, James L., Reforming the North: The Kingdoms and Churches of Scandinavia, 1520–1545, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lavery, Jason, Reforming Finland: The Diocese of Turku in the Age of Gustav Vasa, 1523–1560, Leiden: Brill, 2018CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malmstedt, Göran, Bondetro och kyrkoro. Religiös mentalitet i stormaktstidens Sverige, Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2002Google Scholar
Schwarz Lausten, Martin, ‘The Early Reformation in Denmark and Norway, 1520–1559’, in Peter Grell, Ole (ed.), The Scandinavian Reformation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, 1241Google Scholar

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