In 1527 King Gustav I of Sweden took control of the Church in his kingdom. Over the next thirty years its castles, lands, silver and bells passed to the Crown, and the Latin Mass slowly gave way to services in the people’s own languages.
A king who needed money
- A new king, deep in debt. Gustav Vasa became king of Sweden in 1523, after the war that ended the Kalmar Union. He owed large sums, above all to Lübeck, which had helped him win Well documented.
- A rich Church. The Church owned large estates, castles and a rich store of silver Well documented.
- Luther’s ideas arrive. Swedish reformers such as Olaus Petri preached Luther’s teaching from the early 1520s. In Turku the archdeacon Petrus Särkilahti spread the new ideas. He was the first Finnish priest to marry and the teacher of the young Mikael Agricola. He died in 1529 Well documented.
Västerås, 1527
- The king’s demands. At a meeting of the Estates in Västerås in 1527, Gustav won the right to take over church property. No one could be given a church office without his consent, priests came under the ordinary law, and sermons had to keep to the words of the Bible Well documented.
- Castles and estates. The bishops’ castles, estates and strongholds became Crown property Well documented.
- Two-thirds of the income. The Crown took about two-thirds of the Church’s income Likely.
- No new monks. From 1527 monasteries could no longer take in novices, so they slowly died out. Each convent was placed under a nobleman Well documented.
In Turku
- Kuusisto pulled down. The bishops’ castle at Kuusisto was ordered to be dismantled in 1528, and its stones were used to enlarge Turku Castle Well documented.
- A bishop Rome never accepted. The Dominican friar Martin Skytte was consecrated bishop of Turku at Strängnäs in January 1528. Rome never confirmed him. He died in 1550 Well documented.
- Swedish in the Cathedral. In 1536 the first service in Swedish was held in Turku Cathedral. The same year the Dominican friary in Turku was closed, and the next year a fire destroyed its buildings Well documented.
- Silver and bells. Golden altar vessels were melted down, and every church had to hand over its second-largest bell, to be melted down to pay the king’s debts Well documented.
- Naantali. The Bridgettine convent at Naantali was closed during the 1500s. Its church still stands Well documented.
- Agricola, bishop. In 1554 Mikael Agricola became bishop of Turku without the Pope’s approval. The same year Finland was split into two dioceses, Turku and Viipuri Well documented.
The Västerås decisions of 1527 were mostly about property and power. Holy water and the adoration of saints were abolished only in 1544, and the Lutheran faith was settled for the whole kingdom at the Uppsala Synod of 1593. In Turku the change took nearly seventy years Well documented.
The decisions of the Västerås meetings survive, and so do many of the king’s letters. Bishop Paulus Juusten’s chronicle of the bishops of Finland, written in the 1570s, tells the story as seen from Turku. What ordinary people in Finland thought about the changes is much harder to know.