Västerås Diet (1527)
The name Reichstag of Västerås ( Swedish Västerås riksdag ) is commonly used for the Reichstag of 1527, which is also known as the Reformation Reichstag . In Swedish historiography, the term Västerås recess is also common (actually only the Reichstag resolution ).
The Diet was held at Västerås Castle and in the convent hall of the Dominican monastery on Munkholmen . King Gustav Vasa convened it because it is in the region of Dalarna to unrest and riots had come. Another reason was the difficult economic position of the crown, which the king wanted to eliminate by expropriating the bishops, whose position was weak because they were allied with the recently removed Danish foreign rule. He had the Reichstag resolution drawn up by his advisor - the Reformation-minded Laurentius Andreae - who argued that the property of the church belonged to the general public. So it was decided to confiscate property not directly required for church purposes in favor of the crown. In addition, the bishops lost their seat on the Imperial Council, their castles had to be razed and their occupations dissolved. The enormous decrease in the economic and military power of the Church increased the power of the Swedish crown.
The classic Reformation historiography saw in this Reichstag the introduction of the Reformation in Sweden . However, there was not yet a break with the Holy See and neither a comprehensive reorganization of church customs nor the introduction of Reformation teaching. The sentence in the Reichstag resolution that the word of God should be preached “purely” everywhere was an authorization for reformatory action, but the king made hardly any decisive use of it.
The town house of Västerås is located on the site of the Dominican monastery . To the south of this one can still find remains of the old foundation walls of the monastery. You can still see marks in the ground of other walls. Inside the town house, too, the floor is made of stones and slabs, which are believed to have come from the monastery. The signs of history can be seen most clearly in the convent hall.
A total of four diets were held in Västerås. The best known are those of 1527 and 1544. At the Diet of 1544 it was decided to make Lutheran teaching binding and to abolish the electoral monarchy in Sweden . The resolution was confirmed again at the Diet of 1547 in Strängnäs .
The Diet of 1544 is the first of which written records still exist. The term Reichstag was coined in Sweden in the 1540s.
literature
- Lauritz Weibull: Vesterås riksdag 1527 . In: Scandia - Tidskrift för historisk forskning . 1937, p. 76–128 (Swedish, lu.se [accessed December 25, 2011]).
- Werner Buchholz : Sweden with Finland . In: Matthias Asche, Anton Schindling (ed.): Denmark, Norway and Sweden in the age of the Reformation and confessionalization . Münster 2003, pp. 107–243.