Olof Persson (sometimes Petersson; born January 6, 1493 in Örebro
, died April 19, 1552 in Stockholm
), better known under the Latin form of his name, Olaus Petri (or less commonly, Olavus Petri), was a clergyman, writer, and a major contibutor to the Protestant Reformation in Sweden. His brother, Laurentius Petri, became the first Evangelical Lutheran Archbishop of Sweden. He and Laurentius are commemorated by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on April 19.
Olaus
Petri first studied at the University of Uppsala
, then in Leipzig
, and then finished his education with his M.A. at the University of
Wittenberg
in 1518. During his time in Germany he got
acquainted with the main characters of the German reformation,
Philipp Melanchthon and
Martin Luther.
He returned to Sweden with his brother in 1519.
It is reported how
they both nearly died as the boat ran ashore on the island Gotland
during a
storm. They stayed on Gotland for a while and the bishop
there,
Mattias Gregersson,
appointed Olaus as his secretary and as dean in 1520.
Olaus accompanied the bishop to
Stockholm in 1520, to the tumultuous crowning of the Danish
King
Christian II of Denmark
who had taken over Stockholm and held it for a year until he
returned to Denmark. At the notorious
Stockholm Bloodbath in November several
Church men and politicians were executed. Olaus expressed his
outrage and was as a result almost executed himself, but a German
who had seen him in Wittenberg saved him by explaining he was a
German.
When the Swedish King
Gustav Vasa was
crowned in 1523, Olaus got to make his acquaintance. A year later
he moved to Stockholm as town secretary. He spoke out sharply in
favour of Lutheranism and against the prevailing
Roman Catholicism.
In October
1524 he and his brother were excommunicated by the cathedral
chapter in Uppsala
, on the
grounds of heresy. It appears as
though this did not trouble him, partly because he still had a
strong supporter in the Swedish King. In 1525 he married, and had
the
mass sung in Swedish for the
first time; one of Luther's ideas.
In 1531 the King declared Sweden to be Lutheran. This was mainly a
result of the Petri brothers' efforts to teach the King and the
population about Luther's tenets.
In 1539 Petri was ordained priest. But shortly thereafter he and
the king Gustav Vasa had a falling out. Officially, the charge was
for treason: Olaus had gotten knowledge of a conspiracy against the
King during
confession but had not
revealed it. Another suggested reason is that neither wanted to
give in to their convictions—Gustav wanted to control the church,
while Olaus wanted it to have a degree of self-government. During
trial on January 2, 1540, a court sentenced him and
Laurentius Andreae to death.
After much bargaining and many requests, Olaus' friends managed to
get him released on bail.
He became inspector over the schools in
Stockholm 1542 and dean of Storkyrkan
in Stockholm in 1543, wherein he also was buried at
his death. Since 1898, there is statue of him outside
Storkyrkan.
He was described as energetic and pushy and serious about matters
in which he believed. He also wrote much, in fact he is responsible
for a main part of the early
printed
literature in Sweden. Among others he wrote a Chronicle of Sweden,
which despite not being altogether correct contains many
interesting facts. He was also responsible for the first Swedish
translation of the New Testament (1526), and had an important part
in the translation of the whole Bible (
Gustav Vasa Bible, 1543).
Olaus Petri is the main character of
August Strindberg's play
Master Olof (Swedish title:
Mäster
Olof).
See also
Notes and references
- p.581, Nordisk familjebok
- p.583 in Nordisk familjebok
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