Lojaliteten, prostarna, språket : studier i den kyrkliga "försvenskningen" i Lunds stift under 1680-talet

After the Peace of Roskilde in 1658, the territory that Sweden had acquired was to be incorporated into the rest of the country. A 'Swedification' of the church and the services did not begin until 1680, when a new bishop took up his duties in the Lund diocese. Previous research has been concentrated around the events on the national and diocese levels. The aim of this study is to use more local material to elucidate what the rural church deans did. Swedish books were disseminated to the parishes in the beginning of the 1680's. In 1683 half of the deaneries had acquired Swedish service books. Danish books could still be found a bit into the 18th century. In the Swedish liturgy, it was not permitted to use wax candles on church altars and the bishop ordered the removal of wax candles. The use of wax candles did not disappear immediately. On the contrary, they continued in use in some parishes during the 1680's. The rural deans allowed the continued use of these candles. Study meetings were held in the churches after the services . Young people were gathered to learn the Swedish catechism. Since the majority of the people refused to go the teaching, the authorities created a system of fines for the miscreants. The fine lists are preserved and these lists show that many ministers and half of the parish clerks were negligent in teaching Swedish. Some of the deans also refused to fine the people for missing study meetings. Catechism training was done by the parish clerks, whose duties were to teach children to read Swedish. There are preserved records from the 1680's, listing the number of children and their levels of knowledge. In general the lists reflect the great increase of the number of children who were instructed in the beginning of the decade as well as the stagnation at its end. In 1683 it was decided that the ministers were to preach in Swedish. The ministers who spoke Danish had difficulties with this. Many deans changed their written language in 1681 or 1683, when they were threatened with dismissal from their positions if they were not loyal to the authorities. Swedification was accepted in varying degrees in the rural deaneries. In the middle of the 1680's, half of the parishes had acquired Swedish ser vice books, but half of the parish clerks were still disloyal. The deans were key figures in the Swedification process. They were overtly loyal to the bishop and the authorities, but covertly evidenced a disloyalty which bordered on obstruction