or confirmation. "Some assert, too," he adds, "that there is no
authority in Scripture for all the dues that belong by custom to the
pope.... So soon as we find that our patience and moderation are of no
avail, we shall proceed to rigorous measures. We shall not suffer our
people to bend beneath a cruel foreign yoke, for we are confident that
Christ, who is our High Priest, will not let his people die to suit the
pope's caprice."[86]

These were bold words to use of the potentate whose command all
Christendom obeyed. The youthful monarch, it was already clear, intended
to rule his country with an iron hand. When only three months on the
throne, he chanced upon some letters in which the bishop of Vesteras
alluded to him in arrogant and contumelious terms. This bishop, who
gloried in the name of Peder Sunnanvaeder, had been at one time
chancellor of the young Sten Sture, and though elected in 1522 to the
bishopric of Vesteras, had suffered the same fate as the other bishops
and never been confirmed. Gustavus did not hesitate a moment. As soon as
the abusive letters reached him, he proceeded with the entire Cabinet to
Vesteras, and summoned the bishop with all his canons to the
chapter-house. There he laid before them the evidences of the bishop's
guilt. Unable to furnish satisfactory explanation, the bishop was
removed; and the Chapter, at the instance of Gustavus, elected Petrus
Magni in his stead. Even with this, however, the monarch's vengeance did
not end. Knut, the dean of Vesteras and a former chancellor of
Gustavus,--the man, indeed, who had been talked of for the archbishopric
of Upsala,--was indiscreet enough to come forward at the trial with an
apology for his bishop. The monarch wanted no other proof of his
complicity, and discharged him along with Sunnanvaeder from his post.[87]

Gustavus was spurred on in his campaign against the Church by a
continued need of money to keep his army in the field. Even after the
subjection of Sweden he had to carry on the war in Finland; and it was
not till nearly Christmas, and after he had sent a strong force of
mercenaries across the Baltic, that Finland was subdued.[88] After this
the great bone of contention was the isle of Gotland. This island, or
rather its capital, the town of Visby, had been in ages past the leader
of the Hanseatic League. Its situation in the Baltic, not far from the
east coast of southern Sweden, made it still of great value to
merchant-vessels pass