Netherlands and Scandinavia
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As the result of this disputation the king of Sweden accepted the
Protestant faith, and not long afterward the national assembly declared
in its favor. The New Testament had been translated by Olaf Petri into
the Swedish language, and at the desire of the king the two brothers
undertook the translation of the whole Bible. Thus for the first time the
people of Sweden received 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.
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.
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