m this time forth he was felt on every hand
to be an enemy to the Romish Church. The striking fact in all this
history is the utter absence of conscientious motives in the king.
Though the whole of Christendom was ablaze with theological dispute, he
went on steadily reducing the bishops' power with never a word of
invective against their teaching or their faith. His conduct was guided
solely by a desire to aggrandize the crown, and he seized without a
scruple the tools best fitted to his hand. Had Brask been more
compliant, or the Church less rich, the king would not unlikely have
continued in the faith. The moral of all this is to hide your riches
from those that may become your foes.

The part that Brask played in this drama calls forth a feeling of
respect. Artful and man[oe]uvring though he was, there were certain deep
principles within his breast that only great adversity could touch. Of
these the most exalted was his affection for the Church. Apart from all
her splendor and the temporal advantages to which her service led, Brask
loved her for herself. She was the mother at whose breast he had been
reared, and the feelings that had warmed his soul in childhood could not
easily be extinguished now that he was old. Every dart that struck her
pierced deep into his own flesh, and a premonition of the coming ruin
overwhelmed him with bitter grief. It was this very grief, however, that
raised him to rebel. The old vacillating temper that he had shown in
days gone by was his no longer. Drear and dismal though the prospect
was, he did not hesitate, but threw himself into the encounter heart and
soul. From this time forth, with all his cunning and sagacity, he was
the steadfast leader of the papal cause.

FOOTNOTES:

[74] July 13, 1523, a payment of about 17,000 marks having been already
made, Gustavus wrote to Brask that Lubeck still demanded 200,000
guilders, which was equivalent to about 300,000 Swedish marks. This
probably was an exaggeration for the purpose of getting a generous
contribution from Brask. Another source states it as more than 120,000
Swedish marks. Svart, _Gust. I.'s kroen._, p. 72. This clearly was too
low an estimate; for we know that Gustavus paid at least 42,945 Lubeck
marks (or 83,000 Swedish marks) in the course of 1523, and that in the
following spring the amount claimed by Lubeck was about 240,000 Swedish
marks. See _Kon. Gust. den Foerstes registrat._, vol. i. pp. 109-110, and
the documents