ey cherished any
preferences they dared not speak them. The letter was intrusted to
Johannes Magni with orders to obtain confirmation from the pope and then
return to Sweden. But just as he was making ready to depart, the
long-awaited letter came from Adrian, though it differed much in tenor
from what had been expected. Instead of urging the Upsala Chapter to
choose a new archbishop, it commanded Gustavus to restore Archbishop
Trolle to his post, threatening him with punishment if he refused.[84]

This change of colors on the part of Adrian has been accounted for in
many ways. Johannes Magni himself suggested that it was the work of
evil-minded counsellors in Rome. The more probable supposition is that
Adrian had been influenced by Brask. If Church property was being
confiscated, as Brask declared, Archbishop Trolle could be relied on to
offer much more strenuous resistance than the prelate talked of as his
successor. But the very reason which induced the pope to favor Trolle
seemed to the king sufficient ground for supporting his opponent. It was
precisely because of Johannes Magni's pliable and compromising temper
that Gustavus would have rejoiced to see the mitre on his head. He was
determined that Trolle, at any rate, should not wear it. So he sat down,
as soon as Adrian's letter came, and wrote a warm reply to the College
of Cardinals in Rome. "If our Most Holy Father," he said, "has any care
for the peace of our country, we shall be pleased to have him confirm
the election of his legate Johannes to the archbishopric, and we shall
comply with the pope's wishes as to a reformation of the Christian
Church and religion. But if his Holiness, against our honor and the
peace of our subjects, sides with the crime-stained partisans of
Archbishop Trolle, we shall allow his legate to return to Rome, and
shall govern the Church in this country with the authority which we have
as king, and in a manner which we believe will please God as well as all
the princes of Christendom. We beg you, however, to use your authority
in the Apostolic See in such way as not to harm our state, nor give the
appearance of championing the crimes of Trolle against the tranquillity
of a Christian people." Three days after writing this vehement despatch,
the monarch sent off another, couched in language even more determined,
to the pope. "We shall never," he declared, "allow that man to return as
our archbishop. He not only is unworthy of the priestho