ithes. Should you touch them, we
shall be forced to take further steps. We have, indeed, been told that
in the times of our fathers the crown received from the canons
throughout the realm one fourth of their tithes under the name of 'the
poor man's portion,' with the understanding that the money should be
used to found hospitals, and over these hospitals the crown has ever
since held _jus patronatus_." To this demand Brask answered that he
would send the documents desired, but that the crown had never taken the
tithes from the canons except by force. A few weeks later, on the 18th
of February, the king wrote Brask that the expedition would start as
soon as the harbors opened, and that, as Brask had been one of the
promoters of the scheme, he must expect to contribute generously toward
it, especially since he and his diocese, being nearest to the isle of
Gotland, would be the ones most benefited by the overthrow of Norby.
Brask, in his answer of March 8, repudiated the idea that the expedition
was the fruit of his brain, and expressed the hope that the matter might
be settled without bloodshed. "'T is never wise," he said, "to break
down doors already open." Brask asserted, further, that he had never
received a penny of rent from Gotland, but promised to do all he could
to obtain aid from the churches of his diocese.[91]

By this time it had become rumored that the king was about to levy a new
tax upon the people, and a murmur of discontent had risen through the
land. To allay this, Gustavus issued several letters, declaring that
the contribution was to be wholly voluntary. One of the convents he
begged to send him all the silver collected for a certain shrine, and
offered to give the crown's note for the amount, secured, if the convent
wished it, by a mortgage of certain crown fiefs. In writing to the
people of Oestergoetland he pointed out that the expedition was
necessitated by the piracies of Norby, who had caused a dreadful
scarcity of food by checking imports; and he called upon the people to
have a detachment of armed men ready by the first week after Easter at
the latest, promising at the same time that as soon as the fleet should
put to sea the men would be provided for at the crown's expense. To the
people of Brask's diocese he wrote that he had heard a rumor to the
effect that he was imposing a new tax upon the people. This rumor the
king characterized as "a palpable lie." He declared further that he had
appli