illing pupil of the young reformer. There can be no
question that even at this period Petri was regarded as a man of
strength. A portrait of him painted when still a youth shows in a marked
degree the traits by which he was distinguished later. The face is full
and round, with large, warm eyes twinkling with merriment, and a high,
clear forehead, from which is thrown back a heavy mass of waving hair.
The mouth is firm as adamant, and the sharp-cut lips and chin are
eloquent of strength. Altogether, it is the picture of just the man that
Petri afterward became,--a brilliant orator, daring, good-natured, and
gifted with a generous supply of common-sense. Precisely how much Petri
owed to Martin Luther we cannot know. It is not, however, likely that at
first his teaching in Strengnaes differed materially from that inculcated
by the Romish Church. At any rate, he taught four years before any
serious complaint was made. The first to charge him with heresy was
Bishop Brask. On the 7th of May, 1523, that much-enduring prelate wrote
to a member of the Upsala Chapter that a certain person in Strengnaes had
inflamed the people by preaching heresies; "and God knows," he added,
"we are grieved enough to learn that he is not silenced." What these
heresies preached by Petri were, appears from a polemic hurled at the
young reformer by Brask's deacon. They include, among other things, a
denial of the priest's authority to solicit alms, with assertions that
men should place no faith in the Virgin or in other saints, but in God
alone; that the priest's first duty is to preach, not pray, and that
confession should be made to none but God. Surely we have here the very
essence of the Reformation. Brask was already trembling with
apprehension, and despatched a letter to a brother bishop to say that
the heresies of Petri had begun to break out in Upsala. "We must use our
utmost vehemence," he gasped, "to persuade Johannes Magni to apply the
inquisition to this Petri; otherwise the flame will spread throughout
the land." Magni, it is clear, was deemed a little lukewarm by such
ardent men as Brask, and on the 12th of July we find Brask pouring out a
flood of Latin eloquence to excite the tranquil legate. In nothing is
Brask's sagacity more manifest than in the enthusiasm which he here
displayed. He discerned with perfect clearness that the battle must be
fought at once. If Petri should once gain the people's ear, all hope was
lost. Romanism was no