his opponents, but
he still looked for the restoration of Danish power and a return of his
own prerogatives in the Swedish Church. The king's desire, as reflected
in the letter of his Cabinet, was to secure from the pope a recognition
that the archbishopric was vacant, and then to use this recognition to
force the unwilling Chapter of Upsala to nominate as archbishop one who
was in the interests of the king. The scheme, however, failed; for Pope
Adrian died before he had had time to act, and was succeeded by a
pontiff who hated everything which savored of reform.

During the first months of his reign Gustavus was made wretched by the
importunate demands of Lubeck. Her ambassadors continually dogged his
steps, and declared they would not leave him till every cent that Sweden
owed was paid. After the fall of Kalmar the monarch needed his foreign
mercenaries no longer, and would gladly have cashiered them and sent
them off. But the "klippings" struck the year before had so far lost the
confidence of his subjects that the soldiers refused to take them at any
price at all, and Gustavus was compelled to keep his men on foot till he
could obtain the silver requisite to issue better coins. The diet just
dissolved had passed an act providing for the levy of new taxes to be
paid in silver, and the king apparently had been given power to fix the
mode in which the levy should be made. This was a matter which required
skilful handling; and it is fair to say that the policy which the king
pursued, if not perfectly straightforward, showed, at any rate, rare
skill. Fearing lest another direct call upon the peasantry would raise
an outcry, he resolved to make his application to the Church, and give
her the option of surrendering a portion of her riches or of losing her
prestige by laying new burdens on her devotees. With this in view he
wrote first of all to Brask, and after demanding some five thousand
guilders which he understood that prelate had stored away in Lubeck, he
called upon him to collect four hundred marks in silver from the clergy
of his diocese. He then issued a proclamation to the churches and
monasteries throughout the land to send him all the chalices, patens,
and ornaments that could be spared from the altars, as well as all the
silver coin that could be found; and along with this he published a
statement of the total amount which each diocese and monastery must
provide. Two things are noticeable in this proclamation: