So I've heard. Nothing but youthful spirits. We'll train him.
Olof. I fear it is too late!
Brask. A sapling can be bent.
Sommar. It is not wise to raise vipers, Your Grace. Our canonicus here
has strong leanings toward heresy, and to-day he has dared to defy our
orders.
Brask. Is that so?
Sommar. On fully legal grounds we have proclaimed an interdict, and this
man has ventured to say mass--worse than that, he has said a Lutheran
mass, and thus stirred up the people.
Brask. Take care, young man! Don't you know that the ban will fall on
anybody who proclaims Luther?
Olof. I know it, but I fear no other god than God.
Brask. Consider your words. I mean well by you, and you repel me.
Olof. You want to purchase my ability for the doctoring of your sick
cause, and I am shameless enough not to sell myself.
Brask. By Saint George, I think you are out of your senses!
Olof. If so, don't give me the same treatment as Gert the Printer. You
put him in a madhouse, and it made him too wise, I fear.
Brask (to Bishop Sommar). Do you know Gert?
Sommar. No, Your Grace.
Brask. He's a lunatic who used my press to print Lutheran writings in
place of the anti-Lutheran stuff I put into his hands. Moreover, he was
dreaming of the Apocalypse and the Millennium. (To Olof.) Have you seen
him?
Olof. He was here awhile ago, and you can expect but little good of him.
Brask. Is he at large?
Olof. He'll be in Stockholm soon, and from there you'll hear of him, I
think. Take care, my Lord Bishop!
Brask. Ho, there is nothing to fear yet.
Olof. The Anabaptists are in Stockholm.
Brask. What do you say?
Olof. The Anabaptists are in Stockholm!
Brask. The Anabaptists?
[Enter Gustaf Vasa suddenly.]
Gustaf. What's up? The city is in a tumult, the people are marching
through the streets crying for the mass. What's the meaning of all this?
Brask. Mischief, Your Highness.
Gustaf. Bishop Mans!
Sommar. The city has failed to pay its tithes.
Gustaf. And for that reason you refuse to hold divine service? 'Sdeath!
Brask. Your Highness ought to remember--
Gustaf. Answer me, Bishop Malls!
Sommar. Your Highness ought to remember that matters like these, which
fall within the jurisdiction of the Church--
Gustaf. I command you to attend to your duties!
Brask. The Bishops of Sweden take no orders except from their superiors,
the Pope and the Canon Law.
Gustaf (checked). I know, but if the Pope cann
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