Two Sword Theory

It is without hesitation that one may say that every nation in the modern world has been revolutionized through the introduction of religion. The instillation of various religions has shaped the world of today by both destroying and creating peoples and their traditions. Holy lands have been desecrated and entire populations decimated; ideas and philosophies have been generated and revolutions galvanized, all in the name of religion and holy orders. Devotional doctrine has been used as a source of power and authority by anyone from kings to popes to local chieftains for countless generations. The Protestant Reformation in the realm of Sweden was no different than the myriad of religious upheavals throughout history, in regard to the amount

Martin believed that the long tradition of papal and ecclesiastical authority was unfounded in the Christian Scripture, and was thus immoral to exercise over the laity. It was the long standing belief in the Catholic Church that the Christian population was led by the pope, who was the direct connection between God the earthly world; this philosophy was known as the Gregorian “Two Sword Theory.” According this theory, spirituality and secular life were two edges of the same sword, a sword wielded by the pope; in this sense, the pope was not only the final say in matters of salvation, but also in matters of society and legality. Luther’s true goal was to replace this shameless and dishonest hierarchy within the Church with his “Two Kingdom Theory.” According to the turbulent monk, the Kingdom of Heaven was distinct from the secular world of earth. He believed that all men and women were called upon my God to share in the Faith and come to live in eternal glory based on his or her own personal belief. Luther aimed to separate the papacy from its former self-entitled power to grant salvation to believers based on the collective sum of their humanly deeds over the course of their lifetime. This distinction, this possibility that it may in fact be achievable to have this separation of a life in which one is

Thus, it is easy to understand the sort of economic stresses that the archaic Church may have been able to implement on its laity. As Gustav began to realize, claiming to have Protestant views granted him the wherewithal to claim more abundant power over the Church. Feeling constantly increasing pressure from the merchants of the Hanse town, Lübeck, who, unexpectedly, funded the war against Christian II, the king demanded, on June 29th 1523, a loan from the Church. The king promised that this loan would be paid back in excess; however, in February of the following year, Chancellor Laurentius Andrea addressed the displeased monks of Vadstena, explaining that, because a church is a community of believers and not under the authority of any one person except the king, the possessions of said church actually belong to the people. In this way, the tithe, or compulsory donation to the Church, became a de facto tax to the