ANDERSSON, LARS. — Initiator of Protestantism in Sweden, known in Latinized form as Laurentius Andreae, born ca. 1482, died at Strengnäs on 14 April 1552.
He studied at Skara, Uppsala, Rostock, and Leipzig; he was in Rome three times. A Catholic priest, in 1520 he became archdeacon of Strengnäs. Returning from a journey to Rome, he embraced Luther’s ideas at Wittenberg and actively disseminated them from 1520 onward through Olaf Peterson (Olaus Petri, 1497–1552). From 1523 to 1531, as secretary and chancellor of King Gustavo I Wasa (1523–60), he immediately won him over to the «reform», induced him to confiscate the Church’s property and to extend the heresy throughout Sweden; it was officially imposed by the Diet of Westersas (1527) and organized at the «council» of Örebro (1529), directed by A. He later became an opponent of the king, however, and on 2 January 1540 was condemned to death for high treason together with O. Peterson; he saved himself by paying an enormous fine and withdrew, utterly impoverished, to Strengnäs.
A. promoted the Swedish translation of the New Testament (Stockholm 1526), a work chiefly by O. Peterson. The translation of the entire Bible (Uppsala 1541), known as the «Gustava», based on the Vulgate and Luther’s 1534 translation, is due to the «archbishop» of Uppsala Laurentius Petri (1499–1573), assisted by his brother Olaus and by A.