at their pleasure , and impose them as things necessary to salvation ?" --Wylie , b . 10 , ch . 4 . He showed that the decrees of the church are of no authority when in opposition to the commands of God , and maintained the great Protestant principle that " the Bible and the Bible only " is the rule of faith and practice .
This contest , though conducted upon a stage comparatively obscure , serves to show us " the sort of men that formed the rank and file of the army of the Reformers . They were not illiterate , sectarian , noisy controversialists--far from it ; they were men who had studied the word of God , and knew well how to wield the weapons with which the armoury of the Bible supplied them . In respect of erudition they were ahead of their age . When we confine our attention to such brilliant centres as Wittenberg and Zurich , and to such illustrious names as those of Luther and Melanchthon , of Zwingli and Oecolampadius , we are apt to be told , these were the leaders of the movement , and we should naturally expect in them prodigious power and vast acquisitions ; but the subordinates were not like these . Well , we turn to the obscure theatre of Sweden , and the humble names of Olaf and Laurentius Petri --from the masters to the disciples-what do we find ? . . . Scholars and theologians ; men who have thoroughly mastered the whole system of gospel truth , and who win an easy victory over the sophists of the schools and the dignitaries of Rome ." -- Ibid ., b . 10 , ch . 4 .
As the result of this disputation the king of Sweden accepted the Protestant faith , and not long afterward the national assembly declared in its favour . The New Testament had been translated by Olaf Petri into the Swedish language , and at the desire of the king the two brothers undertook the translation of the whole Bible . Thus for the first time the people of Sweden received the word of God in their native tongue . It was ordered by the Diet that throughout the kingdom , ministers should explain the Scriptures and that the children in the schools should be taught to read the Bible .
Steadily and surely the darkness of ignorance and superstition was dispelled by the blessed light of the gospel . Freed from Romish oppression , the nation attained to a strength and greatness it had never before reached . Sweden became one of the bulwarks of Protestantism . A century later , at a time of sorest peril , this small and hitherto feeble nation--the only one in Europe that dared lend a helping hand--came to the deliverance of Germany in the terrible struggle of the Thirty Years ' War . All Northern Europe seemed about to be brought again under the tyranny of Rome . It was the armies of Sweden that enabled Germany to turn the tide of popish success , to win toleration for the Protestants , --Calvinists as well as Lutherans , --and to restore liberty of conscience to those countries that had accepted the Reformation .
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