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

SWEDEN SINCE THE REFORMATION. 29
young man cannot set up in trade, the citizen
cannot become a member of any secular society as
a trade, corporation, or city guild, a maid-servant
even cannot change her domestic service without
the permission of the clergy. Under heavy civil
penalties, every infant must be baptized at the
Lutheran font. Every child at the prescribed age
must be confirmed, and every confirmed person
must at least once in the year take the sacrament.
A parishioner may not change his residence into
another parish without the clergyman's permit;
two parishioners of different parishes may not
intermarry, if either of the two clergymen refuses
a certificate; in short, there is literally almost
nothing in secalar life or domestic, as well as religious, which a Swede is free to perform without
an interference of some sort from his Church. A
crime is committed if any other person than a
clergyman ventures to expound the Scriptures, or
if a number of persons meet among themselves for
reading and prayer; and if this should be done on
the Sunday, the law convicts them of a double
offense. Not that such meetings do not take
place, or that laymen, in some instances, at least,
do not make known the way of life; but these
things are done at the peril of the parties, who, in
many cases, have been severely punished."
A Lutheran pastor in the province of Smiiland
unfolded to Mr. Brace the Swedish theory of
Church and State, and the subsequent conversation
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