page_title: Reformation in Sweden
section_title: 1568–1592
hierarchical_section_title: Reformation in Sweden / History / 1568–1592
caption_attribution_description: Svenska: Minnespenning över kung Johan III och drottning Katarina.
context_page_description: The Protestant Reformation in Sweden is generally regarded as having begun in 1527 during the reign of King Gustav I of Sweden, but the process was slow and not definitely ended until the Uppsala Synod of 1593 and the following War against Sigismund, with an attempt of counter-reformation during the reign of John III.
  The Swedish Reformation meant the break with the Roman Catholic Church, and the foundation of the Swedish Church. It is considered to be the ending point of the Swedish Middle Ages. The Reformation made Sweden a Protestant country. The Swedish Reformation also included Finland, which formed an integral part of Sweden at the time.
context_section_description: The reign of John III of Sweden in 1568–1592 signified certain leanings toward a counter-reformation in Sweden inspired by the king's Catholic wife, queen Catherine Jagiellon, who acted as a mediator in the king's negotiations with the Pope in Rome for the conditions in which Sweden would be willing to return to Catholicism.
  John III leaned toward Reform Catholicism, and suggested to Rome that Sweden, in the event of a counter-reformation, should be allowed to keep marriage for clergy, use the Swedish language during church service, Sub utraque, and a theology based upon the church fathers rather than upon the doctrines of the Council of Trent.
  In parallel, the Swedish church introduced the Swedish Church Ordinance 1571 (accepted the following year), establishing a Swedish church doctrine. 
  The new Protestant church ordinance was, however, given Catholic-inclined additions by the king: the Nova Ordinantia of 1575, and his own church doctrine, the Röda boken ('Red Book') of 1576, two additions which introduced a middle stance between Catholicism and Protestantism, and reintroduced many Catholic customs. The king's additions to the church ordinance was not followed in all Sweden, particularly not in the Duchy belonging to his Calvinistic brother Charles, and there where opposition toward it among the clergy. These conflicting doctrines resulted in the long going Liturgical Struggle between Catholic and Protestant sympathizers, and a split between the king and the church.
  John III and his queen also performed several other controversial Catholic-leaning acts which demonstrated their intention: in 1575, the king returned the unrestricted right to receive novices to Vadstena Abbey, which was reformed in accordance of the Council of Trent by the Jesuit Papal Legate Antonio Possevino, during which its abbess Katarina Gylta swore the Tridentine Oath, and the first Catholic Solemn Mass since the Reformation was held in the abbey. In the capital, a Catholic seminary Collegium regium Stockholmense was established by Laurentius Nicolai.
  The Counter-reformatory efforts contributed to tension in connection to the imprisoned Erik XIV, who came to be a symbol of protestantism in prison. During the imprisonment of Eric, three major conspiraces were made to depose John III: the 1569 Plot, the Mornay Plot and the 1576 Plot, among whom at least the last one was heavily influenced by religious considerations. 
  The negotiations between the royal couple and Rome where ultimately not successful. Rome was not willing to accept the Reformed Catholicism in exchange for counter-reformation, and the counter-reformation in Sweden diminished after death of queen Catherine, and the king's remarriage to the Protestant Gunilla Bielke.
caption: Memorial coins. King John III of Sweden and queen Catherine Jagiellon attempted to introduce a counter-reformation.
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