The Baptists in Sweden. By Mrs. M.F. Anderson ...

14 THE BAPTISTS IN SWEDEN.
the hearts of the people had not yet been reached,
and they were ill prepared for such an open and
violent assault upon their ancient faith and worship. They rose in a popular tumult, and murdered the proselyting king in the year 1001, a fate
which was shared by King Inge half a century later.
Olave Sk6tkonung, who next secured the throne, was
not deterred by the sad fate of his predecessor, from
following the same harsh policy. He sent messengers to England to King Ethelbert, entreating him
to furnish him missionaries for the prosecution
of his work. The Papacy had already gained the
mastery in the British Isles, and the missionaries
who entered Sweden in answer to his appeal were,
like all those that had preceded them, bigoted
priests of Rome. On their arrival they proceeded
to'Upsala, where they gave instructions to the
king, who listened with eager attention to their
words, and was shortly after baptized by Sigfrid, in
a spring that bears his name to the present day.
But, though much effort was made in the following centuries by the emissaries of the Papacy, the
Era of the Reformation found the real religious
condition of the people but little improved. A
corrupt form of Christianity had come to supplant
Paganism, and had nominally succeeded. But the
real planting of the gospel was yet to be accomplished. The priests had striven mainly to gather
wealth and power, and to bind the kingdom to the
support of the Church of Rome. The history of