ne scene needed now to bring the drama of the Swedish
Revolution to its close. During a period of over four eventful years
Gustavus Vasa had been seated on the throne, but the final act deemed
necessary in the election of a king had not yet taken place. Again and
again the people had urged Gustavus to be crowned, but on one pretext or
another he had put them off, and the ancient rite of coronation was not
yet performed. The mystery of this strange delay can easily be explained
by looking for a moment into the condition of the Swedish Church.

It was a time-honored theory all over Christendom that no person could
be legally installed in any royal post without first having the sanction
of the Church of Rome; and such sanction, it was held, could only be
conferred through the consecrated archbishop of the land. When Gustavus
was elected king, the Swedish archbishop was in voluntary exile, and
nobody expected that he ever would return. Indeed, he was so far an
object of suspicion at the papal court that, shortly after the election
of Gustavus, the pope appointed another prelate to perform the duties
of archbishop till the charges brought against Gustaf Trolle should be
set at rest. It is matter of common knowledge that Trolle never
succeeded in vindicating his position; and Magni, though not confirmed,
continued to perform the duties of archbishop.

In January, 1526, the Cabinet urged Gustavus to be crowned, and he
declared that he would do so in the coming summer, trusting presumably
that Magni would receive his confirmation ere that time. A tax was even
levied to defray the expenses of the ceremony. But some opposition was
encountered when the royal officers endeavored to collect the tax, and,
the kingdom being then in need of revenue, the project had to be
postponed. There is evidence, moreover, that Gustavus was not eager for
the confirmation of the prelates. On one occasion he expressed a fear
that they were seeking to obtain their consecration with a view to
transfer their allegiance from himself to Rome. Apparently his object
was, by continual postponement of the coronation, to have a standing
argument whenever he desired to obtain new funds.[172]

Matters therefore dragged on in the same way till Archbishop Magni had
been banished and the diet of Vesteras had voted an addition to the
income of the king. As the Cabinet had been beyond all others urgent in
their solicitations, the announcement of the monarch's resolu