For the Baltic Sea region, the period from the late fifteenth to the seventeenth century, or the so-called ‘Reformation era’, was a time of major transitions. Not only were political entities and religious institutions reformed but also the religious, learned, and popular cultures went through profound changes. The process was as complicated as it was in most parts of Europe. The long Reformation was as long and winding as elsewhere and all the variations of princely reformation from above to urban revolt against ecclesiastical and feudal structures, from various forms of popular resistance to the new interpretation of Christianity were present. Yet the local peculiarities both in politics and culture and the intense political, commercial, and cultural contacts across the Baltic Sea lent a special tone to the developments.

The present volume sets out from the belief that a closer analysis of the cultural transmission in the early modern Baltic Sea region promises still further, unexplored perspectives, which are stimulating in both the regional and the broader, pan-European context. However, rather than placing itself clearly in the context of Reformation studies, the book addresses the broader issues of cultural transfer. It focuses on the cultural change and continuity between the Catholic Middle Ages and the Protestant early modern period in Sweden and the northeast Baltic Sea region, while at the same time also disentangling the relations between the oral popular and learned literary culture. Even though most of the chapters address the broader Baltic Sea context, the book's main focus is on Sweden, which at that time included Finland, and from the late sixteenth century onwards also Livonia, comprising the territories of today's Latvia and Estonia.

The Reformation in Sweden and the rest of the Baltic Sea region was a long, slow, and winding process. In Sweden, King Gustav Vasa (r. 1523-1560) introduced the Lutheran Reformation, but his son Eric XIV (r. 1560-1568) leaned towards a sort of Reformed Calvinism. The next son on the throne, John III (r. 1568-1592), was inspired by ecumenical ideas and moved close to Catholicism through his marriage to the Polish Catherine Jagiello. The youngest of Gustav Vasa's sons, Carl IX (r. 1604-1611), rebelled against the reign of John III's Catholic son Sigismund Vasa (Swedish king 1593-1599).