The country of Sweden, as in other European countries had been under the rule of the Papal Roman Church. The people were steeped in poverty and ground down by oppression. They were destitute of the Holy Scriptures, and having a religion of mere signs and ceremonies, which conveyed no light to the mind. They were returning to the superstitious beliefs and pagan practices of their heathen ancestors.
Yet this country was not left to languish in darkness. The Lord raised up two faithful reformers who brought the light of the scriptures to Sweden. Orebro [Sweden] was the home of these two leaders, Olaf and Laurentius Petri. Their father was a blacksmith. They were born respectively in 1497 and 1499.
The two boys received their early education at a Carmelite cloister school, from which Olaf, at the age of nineteen, went to Wittenberg to study. Olaf is said to have been in the crowd around the door of the Castle-church of Wittenberg when Luther nailed his Theses to it. Laurentius joined him later and both studied under Luther and Melancthon where they received the doctrines of the reformed faith.
Olaf and Laurentius were eminent for their piety, for their theological attainments, and the zeal and unflinching courage with which they advocated their faith. They are said to have resembled the great reformers of Germany. Like Melanchton, Laurentius, the younger, was learned, thoughtful, and calm, while Olaf, by his powerful eloquence, aroused the people like Luther. For this reason Olaf was often violently assailed by the mob. The Catholic priests stirred up the prejudices of the ignorant and superstitious people, so that upon several occasions he barely escaped with his life.
Having had drunk from the well of Wittenberg the two young men returned to Sweden to carry the water of life to their countrymen. On their return journey to Stockholm in 1519 they got stranded and nearly lost their lives as the boat ran aground on Gotland island during a storm. Having survived the storm, they settled on the island, and Laurentius became headmaster at a school while Olaf became assistant to a priest. Not long after, Olaf travelled with the priest to Stockholm at the crowning of King Gustav. Subsequently, he managed to get on friendly terms with the King, and soon moved to Stockholm where he worked in the vicinity of the King. His brother joined him later.
The brothers continued to faithfully teach the Reformation truths which they had learned. As the Reformation progressed, enemies arose. Bishop Brask, of Linkoping, in 1523, received information from Upsala of the dangerous spread of Lutheran heresy in the Cathedral-church at Strengnas. Brask, an active and fiery man, a politician rather than a priest, was filled with indignation against the Lutheran teachers. He ordered a ban against all who should buy, or read, or circulate their writings, and denounced them as men who had impiously trampled under foot ecclesiastical order for the purpose of gaining a liberty which they called Christian, but which he would term “Lutheran,” nay, “Luciferian.” The opposition of the bishop but helped to fan the flame; and the public disputations to which the Protestant preachers were challenged, only helped to kindle it the more and spread it over the kingdom. The doctrine of Luther passed from the school into the private dwelling.
At one of the disputations, in the presence of the king and leading men of Sweden, Olaf Petri with great ability, courageously preached the doctrines of the reformed faith against the Romish champions. He declared the Fathers [of Rome] to be below and not above Scripture, and that their interpretations were to be received only when in accordance with Scriptures. He denied that the word of God is obscure when laying down the fundamental doctrines of the faith, and he presented the Bible’s own testimony to its simplicity and clearness; that the essential doctrines of the faith are presented in the Bible in a clear and simple manner, so that all men may understand them. Christ said, “My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent Me,” and Paul declared that should he preach any other gospel than that which he had received, he would be accursed (Galatians 1:8). “How, then,” said the Reformer, “shall others presume to enact dogmas at their pleasure, and impose them as things necessary to salvation?” He showed that the decrees of the church are of no authority when in opposition to the commands of God. And maintaining the great Protestant principle, “The Bible, and the Bible only as the rule of faith and practice.”
This contest was more obscure in comparison to those that Luther attended in Worms and Augsburg, but it served to show us the sort of men that formed the rank and file of the army of the Reformers. They were not illiterate, sectarian, noisy controversialists—far from it; They were men who had studied the word of God, and knew well how to wield the weapons with which the armory of the Bible supplied them.
As the result of this disputation the king of Sweden accepted the Protestant faith. These Reformers were, thus now, much more favored and protected by the king.n October 1524, the Uppsala Cathedral’s chapter excommunicated both brothers on grounds of heresy. They remained, however, confident in the new Swedish King’s strong support.
Leaving the teachings and practices of the Papal Roman church, both priests go married in 1525. Later that year Laurentius married Elisabeth Didriksdotter, a daughter of the King’s cousin.
King Gustav was so determined upon a reformation in the State and the Church that he welcomed these able and powerful assistants in the battle against Rome. In 1531 at the Uppsala Council he confirmed the kingdom’s Lutheran alignment taking the final step of breaking with the Roman Catholic Church. These reformers were favoured and powerfully assisted by the king. Their zeal and prudence had been so well tested, the king employed them in the instruction of his subjects in the doctrines of Protestantism. Olaf Petri he made preacher in the great Cathedral of Stockholm, and Laurentius Petri he appointed to the chair of theology at Uppsala.
After these light-bearers came the Light itself—the Word of God. Olaf began to translate the New Testament into the Swedish language. Taking Luther’s version, which had been recently published in Germany, as his model, he labored diligently at his task, and in a short time, he placed, amid the murmurs of the bishops, the New Testament in Swedish in the hands of the people, who now looked with open face on what they had formerly contemplated through a veil.
After the New Testament had been issued, the two brothers, at the request of the king, undertook the translation of the whole Bible. The work was completed in due time, and published in Stockholm. “New controversies,” said the king, “arise every day; we have now an infallible judge to which we can appeal.
The two brothers had given the people of that country, for the first time, the word of God in their native tongue. “It was ordered by the Diet that throughout the kingdom, ministers should explain the Scriptures and that the children in the schools should be taught to read the Bible.” –The Great Controversy, p. 244
Laurentius held the position of archbishop for 42 years. However, Olaf’s relationship with King Gustav deteriorated sharply. Olaf was arrested and put on trial for treason, supposedly because he had learned about a conspiracy against the King during confession, and not revealed it. One historian suggests that Olaf’s writings criticizing the King’s harsh punishments, as well as taxation policies also contributed to the criminal trial. King Gustav also wanted to control the church, while Olaf wanted to keep church and state separate. On January 2, 1540, he received his death sentence, and even his brother Laurentius signed the death sentence. It has been disputed whether Laurentius was doing this because of a weak character or if he thought it better to formally obey so that he could continue to spread the reformation ideas.
Due to his influential friends, Olaf eventually received a royal pardon in 1542 as a reward for completing the massive biblical translation project, and in that year was appointed inspector over Stockholm’s schools. The following year, he was promoted to dean of St. Nicholas’ Church (Storkyrkan) in Stockholm, and fulfilled that priestly position during the final nine years of his life.
Olaf Petri died on April 19, 1552 and was buried at Storkyrkan, which became the national cathedral (supplanting Uppsala Cathedral) two centuries later. Laurentius lived another 21 years, completing the Swedish church’s alignment with Lutheran reformed practices. He passed into the grave on October 27, 1573.
There now stands in Orebro, in a little park in front of the college, a monument erected over fifty years ago to the memory of these remarkable men, and bearing the inscription, “In memory of Olaf and Laurentius Petri,
the first preachers of the Lutheran doctrine in Sweden, born in Orebro. Daniel 12:3.”
“When we confine our attention to such brilliant centers as Wittenberg and Zurich, and to such illustrious names as those of Luther and Melanchthon, of Zwingli and Oecolampadius, we are apt to be told, these were the leaders of the movement, and we should naturally expect in them prodigious power and vast acquisitions; but the subordinates were not like these. Well, we turn to the obscure theater of Sweden, and the humble names of Olaf and Laurentius Petri –from the masters to the disciples–what do we find? . . . Scholars and theologians; men who have thoroughly mastered the whole system of gospel truth, and who win an easy victory over the sophists of the schools and the dignitaries of Rome.” –The Great Controversy, p. 243
“Steadily and surely the darkness of ignorance and superstition was dispelled by the blessed light of the gospel. Freed from Romish oppression, the nation attained to a strength and greatness it had never before reached. Sweden became one of the bulwarks of Protestantism. A century later, at a time of sorest peril, this small and hitherto feeble nation–the only one in Europe that dared lend a helping hand–came to the deliverance of Germany in the terrible struggle of the Thirty Years’ War. All Northern Europe seemed about to be brought again under the tyranny of Rome. It was the armies of Sweden that enabled Germany to turn the tide of popish success, to win toleration for the Protestants,–Calvinists as well as Lutherans,–and to restore liberty of conscience to those countries that had accepted the Reformation.” –Ibid, p. 244
Information taken from:
Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions of the Seventh-day Adventists (1886), Notes of Travel. By Mrs. E.G. White, pp. 201–202
The History of Protestantism. By James Wylie
Great Controversy, by Ellen G. White
Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurentius_Petri
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olaus_Petri