SVEZIA CIVILE ED ECCLESIASTICA

SWEDEN: CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. — The Roman historian Tacitus, after dealing with the peoples of northern Germany, speaks of the Suiones, a people very skilled in the handling of weapons and experienced sailors. The term Suiones gives rise to svear and the modern Sverige (Sweden). According to Tacitus, moreover, these Suiones constituted various *civitates* under a single leader.

Southern Sweden (Skåne, Blekinge, Halland, and the island of Gotland, which until 1645 belonged to Denmark) was subject to the archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen, who were vassals and feudatories of the Empire. Around 1120, there are records of six episcopal sees in Sweden dependent on the metropolitan see of Lund: Skara, Linköping, Eskilstuna, Strängnäs, Sigtuna, and Västerås. Eskilstuna was soon united with Strängnäs, while Sigtuna around 1140 was transformed into the diocese of Uppsala. Meanwhile, after struggles among claimants, King Sverker ascended the throne, and around 1130 Sweden was united under a single sovereign. During his reign, the Cistercian Order spread throughout the country. His successor, Eric the Saint (1157–60), is associated with the so-called First Crusade in Finland, whose historicity remains highly controversial. Charles VII (1161–67), Sverker’s son, took advantage of the conflict between Alexander III and Frederick Barbarossa, and of the fact that the King of Denmark, Valdemar the Great, had recognized the antipope Victor IV, to turn to the Pope for the establishment of a Swedish metropolitan see. The request was granted by Alexander III in 1164 with the establishment of the archbishopric of Uppsala and the dependent dioceses of Skara (with jurisdiction over Västergötland and Värmland), Linköping (Östergötland, Öland), Strängnäs (Södermanland, Närke), and Västerås (Västmanland, Dalarna). Later, the sees of Växjö (Trobörad) and Åbo (Finland) were added. The first archbishop was Stephen, an English monk who in 1164 had led the embassy sent by Charles VII and governed the archdiocese of Uppsala until his death (1185). He found himself embroiled in serious conflicts with Charles’s successor, Canute Eriksson, who sought to subject the clergy to the judgment of secular courts.

At the beginning of the 13th century, faced with the active expansionist policy of Danish King Valdemar II and his able advisor Anders Sunesen, archbishop of Lund, the kings of Sweden strove to prevent both excessive influence of that archbishop over ecclesiastical affairs in the metropolitan see of Uppsala and an extension of Danish rule over Finland, which would gravely compromise the freedom of their kingdom. In 1216, Innocent III addressed a letter to King Eric Knutsson, in which he recognized Swedish sovereignty over Finland and authorized the archbishop of Uppsala to establish one or two bishops in that region. The fear of Danish hegemony over the Baltic thus favored the conquest of Finland and its Christianization by Sweden. The lands beyond the Gulf of Bothnia were conquered through the expeditions of Birger Jarl in 1240–1250 and of Torgils Knutsson, who founded the castle of Vyborg (Viipuri) in the last decade of the same century.

From the 13th century onward, Sweden’s social conditions underwent profound transformation. The strengthening of royal authority under Magnus Ladulås (1275–90) contributed to the formation of a new aristocracy, which soon became the arbiter of the country, especially in the following century, when the royal dignity began to be disposed of freely, conferring it on those who guaranteed the greatest privileges. The political position of the Church also strengthened significantly. Moreover, the preaching of the Orders of St. Francis and St. Dominic, which spread particularly rapidly in the country in the 14th century, gave rise to an intense spiritual and mystical flowering, of which St. Bridget (v.) was a luminous example.

The nobles, dissatisfied with King Albert of Mecklenburg, whom they themselves had invited into the country to rid themselves of Magnus Eriksson, who had proved too autocratic, turned in 1388 for help to Margaret, queen of Denmark and Norway. She drove Albert from the country by force of arms. In 1397, representatives of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden established the union of the three kingdoms (Union of Kalmar).

This union, whose true juridical and political character is still a matter of varied interpretation and subject to controversy among scholars, lasted until 1523, when Gustav Vasa was proclaimed king of Sweden. Sweden’s participation in the Union was, however, uncertain, and the kings of Denmark did not always have their sovereignty over Sweden recognized; indeed, there were also native sovereigns, such as, for example, Charles VIII Knutsson around the mid-15th century, or regents like Sten Sture the Elder and the Younger. The latter especially contributed decisively to the spread of a strong anti-Danish sentiment and fought against the archbishop of Uppsala, G. Trolle. Christian II of Denmark took advantage of this internal strife to occupy Stockholm and in 1520 forced Sweden to recognize his sovereignty over the country.

| Regions (and Counties) | Area in sq. km | Principal City (pop. in thousands) |
|------------------------|----------------|------------------------------------|
| Norrland (Norrbotten, Västerbotten, Jämtland, Gävleborg) | 261,815 | 1,180 | 5 | Gävle (46), Luleå (21) |
| Svealand (Kopparberg, Uppsala, Västmanland, Örebro, Stockholm, Värmland, Södermanland) | 85,404 | 2,437 | 29 | Stockholm (715), Örebro (66) |
| Götaland (Skaraborg, Östergötland, Göteborg and Bohus, Älvsborg, Jönköping, Kalmar, Gotland, Halland, Kronoberg, Kristianstad, Blekinge, Malmöhus) | 92,869 | 3,369 | 36 | Gothenburg (349), Malmö (190) |
| Area of the Great Lakes | 9,078 | — | — | — |
| Sweden | 449,166 | 6,986 | 16 | Stockholm (715) |

The Kalmar Union. The tyrannical policy of Christian soon provoked, within a few months, a general uprising led by Gustav Vasa, who with arms freed Sweden from the bonds of the Union. He also introduced the Lutheran Reformation into the country, driven by motives that were not so much religious as political. Ecclesiastical goods were confiscated for the benefit of the crown and the nobility. In 1544 the royal dignity was declared hereditary in the Vasa family. The second successor of Gustav, John III, who was married to Catherine Jagellonica, was inclined to restore Catholicism in Sweden, but this attempt was limited to the publication of a uniform liturgy in 1577. His successor Sigismund III, who was also king of Poland, sought decisively to bring Sweden back into the fold of Catholicism, but encountered the determined hostility of the Swedes, led by his uncle Charles, who at the Uppsala Synod of 1593 abolished John III’s liturgical reform and instead adopted the Augsburg Confession in its entirety. But Sigismund persisted in his religious program, even resorting to arms, until, defeated in battle, he was forced to leave Sweden precipitously. Charles, having deposed his nephew in 1598, had himself crowned king under the name of Charles IX.
Charles’s son, Gustavus Adolphus, who succeeded him on the throne in 1611, not only greatly enhanced the prestige and political power of Sweden, making it the leading Baltic power, but extended its dominion into Germany through his intervention in the Thirty Years’ War on the side of the Protestants. He also worked to reorganize the Lutheran Church in the country, maintaining a kind of ecclesiastical hierarchy and several elements of Catholic liturgy, while rigorously preventing any Catholic influence or contamination from other choices. Only foreigners were permitted to attend Mass within the precincts of the chapels of diplomatic missions. The sudden death of Gustavus Adolphus in battle at Lützen (5 Nov. 1632) did not slow Sweden’s political ascent, thanks to the diplomatic skill of Axel Oxenstierna, who held the reins of government during the minority of Christina, the sole daughter and heir of the great monarch.

In the Peace of Westphalia (1648), Sweden obtained territorial advantages so substantial that, together with what it had gained from Denmark in the Peace of Brömsebro (1645), it secured hegemony over the Baltic. It thus acquired sovereignty over the islands of Gotland and Ösel and over regions of central and southern Sweden (Jämtland, Härjedalen, Halland) previously under Danish-Norwegian rule; it gained most of Pomerania (including the islands of Rügen, Usedom, Wollin and the cities of Stettin and Wismar), the Duchy of Bremen (excluding the city itself) and Verden, together with exemption from Sound dues. The abdication of Christina in 1654 and her conversion to the Catholic faith had no influence whatever on the religious conditions of the country, nor did they hinder, under the reign of her successor Charles X Gustavus, the strengthening of Swedish power. By crossing the Little and Great Belts in mid-winter with his army, Charles X forced Denmark, which harbored designs of revenge, to recognize Swedish hegemony. In the Peace of Roskilde (1658), the sovereignty of the Vasas was extended to the regions of present-day southern Sweden still under Danish rule: Scania, Blekinge, and Bohuslän.

When Charles X died in 1660 at the still young age of 38, his son and successor Charles XI was still a minor, but upon reaching his majority in 1672 he systematically reformed the Lutheran Church. In 1686 he issued a new ecclesiastical law that removed any independence from the bishops and made the Church strictly dependent on the sovereign, who thereby became practically “summus episcopus.” He also introduced a common catechism for the entire kingdom (1689) and a new psalter (1695). Charles XII (1697–1718), in a long war against Peter the Great’s Russia, gravely exhausted the country’s military and economic capacity, with the consequence that Sweden’s decline in the Baltic and in European politics began, and Russia’s ascendancy was established. Charles’s death marked the beginning of what historians call the Age of Freedom (Frihets-tid), in which political affairs became the prerogative of the four estates (Nobility, Clergy, Burghers, Peasants) at the mercy of the two parties, the Hats (Hattar) and the Caps (Mössor), which, for their particular domestic political ends, did not hesitate to seek the benevolent support of France, England, Russia, and Prussia—all of which gladly granted it in order to diminish Swedish power.

In 1772, however, the new sovereign Gustavus III, through a coup d’état, restored royal authority. A son of the Enlightenment, Gustavus III abandoned in religious matters the policy of his predecessors and in 1781 issued a Toleration Edict, which also granted Catholics the freedom to practice their religion. In consequence of this, Pius VI established an apostolic vicariate for Swedish Catholics in 1783. In the autumn of the same year the king of Sweden came to Rome, where he was warmly received by the Pope, and remained there until Easter 1784. During that same Holy Week, Swedish Catholics were able, for the first time in nearly two centuries of persecution, to attend a public celebration of divine service in Stockholm.

The upheavals of the revolutionary and Napoleonic age subsequently had serious political repercussions in Sweden. Gustavus IV Adolphus’s attempts to maintain neutrality between Russia and Great Britain in an anti-Napoleonic stance proved futile in the face of the Franco-Russian alliance: in 1808 Tsar Alexander I invaded Finland, which, by the Peace of Fredrikshamn (1809), became part of the Russian Empire as an autonomous grand duchy. Gustavus IV was forced to abdicate, giving way to a regime based on the separation of powers, as laid down in the Constitution of 1809, which, though subsequently amended, remains in force to this day. The election of the French marshal Bernadotte as heir to the throne in 1810 (he later reigned as Charles XIV John from 1819 to 1844) brought a new dynasty to the throne, one that endures to this day. When the new prince saw Napoleon’s star waning, he joined the alliance against France and induced Sweden to declare war on Denmark, which, defeated, was compelled to renounce its sovereignty over Norway, which then remained united with Sweden until 1905.

The spread of nationalist ideas gave rise to a Scandinavian movement for a single Nordic monarchy, a design not displeasing to King Oscar I (1844–59), who hoped thereby to unite Denmark under his scepter as well. The advent of liberalism, however, led in 1865 to a reform of the Diet of the Four Estates and the adoption of a representative system with a parliament of two chambers. Sweden, which at the Congress of Vienna had renounced all territories south of the Baltic, pursued a policy guided purely by defensive considerations and, especially after 1864, showed increasing indifference to European affairs. This neutralism spared it involvement in the two world wars of the first half of the 20th century and favored an orderly economic and social development, with the gradual integration of the working class (represented by the Social Democratic Party) into the country’s political life.

III. PRESENT SITUATION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN SWEDEN
On 24 January 1781 the King Gustav had granted Catholics in Sweden (which since 4 May 1688 had been under the jurisdiction of the Apostolic Vicar of the Nordic Missions) certain freedoms, and by a rescript of 15 September 1783 he permitted the Apostolic Vicar, Nicola Oster, sent by the Pope, to exercise governance and oversight over Catholics. The first Apostolic Vicars achieved only modest success. Only under Monsignor Lorenzo Stabach (1833) did the situation improve, and churches were erected in Stockholm (1837), Gothenburg (1865), and Malmö (1872). In 1860 the law prohibiting native Swedes from embracing the Catholic faith under penalty of confiscation of goods and exile was repealed. Decrees in 1870 and 1873 brought further concessions. On 19 May 1951 the Riksdag passed a law on religious freedom for the first time in the country’s history. Thus the prohibition on building convents was also lifted. The new law, which came into force on 1 January 1952, permits such constructions, subject to the consent of the King or the State government. Even after the new law, Catholics are compelled to contribute to the maintenance of the Protestant state church, since Protestant pastors are charged with civil registration of the population. The Catholic Church, by contrast, receives no support from the government.

The Apostolic Vicariate of Sweden currently has 46 priests and 2 seminarians. There are 149 sisters, and approximately 18,700 Catholics, of whom 6,000 are Swedish; 27 of the priests and 140 of the sisters are foreigners, which clearly demonstrates that the Church in Sweden still depends on the assistance of the universal Church.

IV. LITERATURE

Written literature in Sweden only arises after the introduction of the Latin alphabet with Christianity. Of the earliest epic poetry, flourishing in the Viking Age and transmitted orally, no direct testimonies remain, but traces of it are found not only in the *Edda* and in Icelandic and Norwegian sagas, but also in Saxo Grammaticus’s *Gesta Danorum*, in the *Kalevala*, and even in some Russian folk songs. From the pagan era only numerous runic inscriptions survive, but on account of their brevity and often difficult interpretation they cannot be considered true literary testimonies. Also dating from the pagan period, though formulated in the 13th and 14th centuries, are the various provincial laws, set down in brief mnemonic verses.

Of the Christian culture that developed after the year 1000 around churches and monasteries, numerous testimonies survive in the form of saints’ lives, legends, chronicles, and religious poems, generally composed in Latin. Worthy of mention are the four Offices and the sequence *De spinea corona* by Brynolphus, Bishop of Skara (d. 1317), the hymn *Rosa rorans bonitatem* by Nicolaus Hermanni in honour of St. Bridget, and the Offices by Birgerus Gregori. Among prose works, notable is the biography of the mystic Kristina of Stommeln, written by the Dominican Petrus de Dacia (d. 1298). The only major poetic work of medieval Swedish literature, however, is the *Revelationes* of St. Bridget (1303–73), a collection in eight books of the saint’s visions. The effective and imaginative style of these *Revelationes*, grounded in reality yet open to the boldest mystical flights, makes them still engaging reading today, quite apart from their historical and religious value. St. Bridget also rendered great service to Swedish culture by having religious Latin works translated, by founding the convent of Vadstena, where monks and nuns of her Order, until the advent of the Reformation, were occupied with transcribing Latin texts and translating them into Swedish. While the works of Petrus de Dacia and St. Bridget follow the Neoplatonic currents then prevalent throughout Europe, the author of the *Konungastyrsele* (*Mirror of Kings*), a reworking of Giles of Rome’s *De regimine principum*, drew instead on Thomistic doctrines, dominant in medieval Europe.

Throughout the Middle Ages, every cultural initiative in Sweden was the work of the Church or arose in its shadow: the first Swedish university, that of Uppsala, was founded by papal bull in 1477, and the first book was printed in 1483 in a Franciscan convent in Stockholm. A Franciscan is also responsible for the first attempt—albeit not a very successful one—at a history of Sweden (*Prosaiska krönikan* [“Prose Chronicle”]), and members of religious orders include Enricus Olai, author of the *Chronica Gothorum*, the first important historical work in Swedish. In the mid-13th century, chivalry with its religious-profane ideals and its shared heritage of tales and legends also spread to Sweden. The only direct testimony to the dissemination of chivalric romances, however, consists of the three so-called Eufemia Songs (*Eufemiavisor*). At the beginning of the 15th century, translations were made of the legends of Alexander the Great, Charlemagne, and Theodoric. Typical of the Nordic world, even if born elsewhere and often inspired by non-indigenous legendary motifs, are the anonymous ballad songs. Spread with minor variations throughout Scandinavia and transcribed in later centuries according to decidedly unscientific criteria, they offer no elements today by which to judge whether there was any particular Swedish contribution in this field.

While throughout the Middle Ages Sweden participated in the common European culture, with the advent of the Protestant Reformation it found itself severed not only from Rome but also from the culture of the Latin countries, even before the humanistic currents, which advocated greater freedom and independence of thought, had reached II. A modest humanist figure was Conrad Rugge, a law graduate from Perugia in the second half of the 15th century and later bishop of Strängnäs. Undoubtedly greater were the figures of Olaus Magnus (d. 1544), the last Catholic archbishop of Sweden, and his brother Johannes. Both exiled in Rome, they sought an outlet for their nostalgia for their homeland and their humanistic dreams of a greater past in the composition of fanciful historical works. Both Olaus’s *Historia de omnibus Gothorum Suenumque regibus*, published posthumously in Rome in 1560, and Johannes’s *Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus*, published in Rome in 1554, were known throughout Europe (the former even inspired Tasso’s *Torrismondo*). A greater sense of criticism, though not greater scientific objectivity, is found in the *Svenska Krönika* (“Swedish Chronicle”) by Olaus Petri (d. 1552). Already a disciple of Luther in Wittenberg, he was among the first to spread Protestantism in Sweden and, together with his brother Laurentius Petri, worked on the Swedish translation of the Bible commissioned by Gustav Vasa. Following Luther’s example, he also translated and composed numerous psalms, and to him has been attributed the *Tobiae comedia*, the first notable Swedish dramatic attempt.

If the Protestant Reformation indirectly favored the consolidation of a national language (the problems addressed and resolved by Olaus Petri in his biblical translation are at the foundation of modern Swedish) and promoted the spread of culture among the laity, it also marked, on the whole, a setback in the cultural and scientific fields, occupying minds— for decades— exclusively in religious polemics and theological disputes. Besides the already mentioned Archbishop Laurentius Petri, it will suffice to cite the names of Abraham Angermannus, Petrus Ioannis Gothus, and Laurentius Paolinus Gothus. The biography of Gustav Vasa written in 1533 by Petrus Swart and the Latin poems in his honor composed by the court poet Henricus Mollerus serve to indicate the tastes of the time, while the uncertainties left in minds by religious and political upheavals are clearly reflected in *Scandia illustrata* by Johannes Messenius (1579–1639).

During the reign of Gustavus Adolphus (1611–32), there was a greater interest in the sciences and literature, now freed from theology: the State Archive, new universities, and libraries were established. Sweden, now assuming the rank of a great European power, no longer wished to be second to anyone, not even in the scientific and literary fields. A typical exponent of the multiplicity of interests, the ardor of research, and the nationalist enthusiasms of the era is Olaus Rudbeck (1630–1702), professor of anatomy, student of botany and philology, and author of the imaginative *Atlantica* (1679), in which, surpassing the fantasies of Johannes Magnus, he identifies Sweden with Plato’s legendary Atlantis. Greater scientific value is found in the first history of Swedish law (*De jure Sveonum et Gothorum vetusto*) by Johan Stiernhöök.

By initiating the first dictionary of the Swedish language (*Gambla Svea och Götha males fätebur*) and publishing the *Codex argenteus* of Ulfilas, Georg Stiernhielm (1598–1672) pursued a nationalistic aim, and it was love of country that led him to have the Muses sing for the first time in Swedish in his epic poem *Hercules* (1658), a work not lyrically inspired but fundamental for the subsequent development of literature. Now forgotten are the works of Stiernhielm’s numerous imitators, as well as Samuel Columbus (1642–79), but still alive are the poems of Lars Wivallius (1605–69) and Lars Johansson (1638–74), known by the name of Lucidor the Unfortunate. A kind of northern Villon, rebellious and vagabond, Lars Wivallius composed his best songs in prison. Like Wivallius, Lucidor earned his living by singing at weddings and funerals; the joy of intoxication is felt by him with a heavy Nordic sensualism, which would later be found in many Swedish poets.

Toward the end of the century, the classicizing spirit of Trissino and Opitz, admired and imitated by Stiernhielm and his followers, was stifled by the influence of Italian Marinism and the Second Silesian School. More than Johan Lillienstedt (1655–1732), translator of Guarini, and Christofer Leyoncrona (1662–1710), it is worth recalling Gunnar Eurelius Dahlstierna, imitator of Marino. Instead, Israel Holmström, imitator of Scarron, and Johan Runius (1679–1713) looked to France. But the defeat at Poltava (1709) stifled any nationalist dreams, turning poets back toward reality or toward a more complex religious attitude. If the religious ferment of the era found an outlet in the hallucinated mysticism of Swedenborg (1707–78), author of many scientific and philosophical works, no less representative of 18th-century Sweden is the clear simplicity of Linnaeus’s prose (1707–78), especially compelling in his descriptions of travels in Lapland and Holland.

More than under the sign of religious speculation, the century in Sweden was also under that of science and the court, and in honor of the former and under the protection of the latter, numerous academies and literary and scientific societies arose in Stockholm: last in time but not in importance is the Swedish Academy, founded in 1786 by Gustavus III and still active in the cultural life of the country.

In the same year as Linnaeus’s journey to Lapland (1732), Stockholm saw the publication of the first important Swedish weekly, *Then swänska Argus* (“The Swedish Argus”), modeled on Addison’s *Spectator*, edited by Olof Dalin. Court poet, official historian of the nation, and tutor to the crown prince, Olof Dalin (1708–63) is the most notable figure of the Gustavian era. More than an inspired poet or original thinker, he was an animator and popularizer; one may recall his *History of Sweden* (*Svea rikes Historia*), *History of the Horse* (*Saga om hästen*), and some songs in honor of nature. Now forgotten are his comedy *Den afwandsjuke* (“The Jealous Man”) and his tragedy *Brynilde*.

After the mid-century, the rationalism of Voltaire, which Dalin had helped spread, began to be opposed by a Rousseauian sentimentalism, and the changing tastes favored the success of the poets of the “Order of Thought Builders” (*Tankebyggarorden*), open to both the demands of feeling and those of reason. At the center of the group was the poetess H. C. Nordenflycht (1718–63), author of the sentimental collection *Den sorgande Turturdufwan* (“The Sorrowing Turtle-Dove”), still valid for the author’s sincere search for truth, eternally at war with herself in her attempt to reconcile rationalism and sentimentalism, traditional religion and Enlightenment philosophy. Greater as poets were G. F. Gyllenborg (1731–1808) and G. P. Creutz, author of the elegant pastoral poem *Atis och Camilla* (“Atis and Camilla”).

With the death of Dalin and Nordenflycht, the departure of Creutz abroad, and the retirement of Gyllenborg from militant literature, a void opened in

SWEDEN – Crypt of Lund Cathedral (12th century).

The official world of Swedish letters was not filled by the foundation (1766) of the literary society *Utile dulci*, to which the name of the poet Oxenstierna (1750–1818) is nonetheless linked. Yet beyond every academy and literary movement, voices of true poetry now made themselves heard: Jacob Wallenberg (1746–78) composed *Min son på galéian* (*My Son on the Galley*) in the same years that C. M. Bellman (1740–95) became the idol of the merry companies of the capital. Melody and text are indissolubly bound in his work, which revives the gala Stockholm of the Gustavian era. Idol of the taverns, yet at the same time welcome in so-called good society, Bellman was soon admitted to the court of Gustav III and was able to publish his collections of poems (*Fredmans Epistlar* [*The Epistles of Fredman*] and *Fredmans Sånger* [*The Songs of Fredman*]) through the direct interest of Kellgren, universally recognized as the literary arbiter.

Translator of Young and Ossian in his youth, librarian to Gustav III and his collaborator in the drafting of historical dramas, J. Kellgren (1751–95) insensibly passed in his poetry from a refined sensualism of French and eighteenth-century taste to a deeper cosmic pantheism (*Den nya skapelse* [*The New Creation*]) of preromantic flavor. Against his Enlightenment convictions Thorild especially directed his polemic. A kind of knight errant without a princess—as he himself defined himself—Thorild had made himself in those years the champion of the rights of nature and feeling in the spirit of Goethe’s *Werther*, though in truth he was far less distant from the Enlightenment than he believed, despite his praise of the passions (*Passionerna*, 1780) and his cult of genius.

An excellent epigone of Swedish Enlightenment was K. G. af Leopold (1750–1829), author of elegant poems and irreconcilable adversary of Thorild. More lyrically inspired was B. Lidner (1757–93), akin to Thorild in temperament and fired by the same enthusiasms. Great expressive power is achieved in his tragic poem *Spataras död* (*The Death of Spatara*), and truly profound the religious sentiment in the poem *Yttersta domen* (*The Last Judgment*), where echoes of Milton and Young are joined by Dantean reminiscences. Less depth but greater balance is found in the works of Anna Maria Lenngren (1755–1817), immensely popular among contemporaries; among her admirers must be counted the poet F. M. Franzén (1772–1847), whose religious mysticism and philosophical interests already foreshadow Romanticism: famous is his poem *Människans anlete* (*The Face of Man*); more obscure and mystical *Det nya Eden* (*The New Eden*).

In Sweden, too, at the end of the century there arose a renewed interest in the classical world; its representatives in the respective fields of aesthetic philosophy and poetry were C. A. Ehrensvärd (1745–1800) and G. G. Adlerbeth (1751–1818). Of the former one recalls *Resa till Italien* (*Journey to Italy*); of the latter, various reworkings of classical tragedies and translations of Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Racine. Sweden, long dominated by French classicist culture, now turned demonstratively toward German philosophy and poetry, while the accession to the throne of the Frenchman Bernadotte closed the tragic and agitated Napoleonic period, and the loss of Finland—politically and emotionally uncompensated by the annexation of Norway—gave rise to a new form of nationalistic fervor.

While French classicism had reigned supreme especially in the capital, German thought found its first adherents in the provinces, especially among the students of Uppsala University. They were the founders of the first Romantic society, *Musis amici*, soon (1807) transformed into the *Auroraförbundet* (*Aurora League*). The guiding spirit of the group of “phosphorists,” as these young men were called from their journal *Phosphorus*, was the young P. D. A. Atterbom (1790–1855), and it was he who wrote the prologue prefixed to the first issue of the journal to unveil the philosophical-aesthetic program of the movement, inspired by Romantic metaphysics and Schelling’s doctrine of the unity of nature and spirit. Less obscure is the Romantic symbolism of his poetic cycle *Blommorna* (*The Flowers*). To escape the dissatisfaction of the present, distant and fabulous lands were dreamed of—such as the biblical East, or simply those favored by climate, like Italy—but only a few of these young men, among them Atterbom, were able to realize their dream. The Italian experience, preceded by direct contact with the leading representatives of German Romanticism, brought Atterbom to greater conceptual clarity, or at least to greater formal plasticity and richness. Directly linked to this experience are the two allegorical-lyric poems *Lycksaligheten* (*The Island of Bliss*) and *Fågel Blå* (*The Blue Bird*), in which the nostalgic desire for beauty characteristic of all Swedish Romanticism is transcended in the name of a higher ethical stance.

Appointed professor of aesthetics at Uppsala University, Atterbom devoted himself with enthusiasm to literary criticism; his work *Svenska siare och skalder* (*Swedish Seers and Poets*) is considered the first attempt at a history of Swedish literature.

In the same years there also lived in Uppsala, outside every literary group and controversy, E. J. Stagnelius (1791–1823). Tragically aware of the dualism between matter and spirit, he composed poems of hallucinatory sensuality and intense mysticism that rank among the highest lyrical expressions of Swedish literature. Besides the vast poetic cycle *Liljor i Saron* (*Lilies in Sharon*), one should recall his poem *Vladimir den store* (*Vladimir the Great*) and the tragedy *Bacchanterna* (*The Bacchantes*). To a Platonic mysticism is also inspired the severe lyric of Eric Sjöberg (1794–1828), better known under the pseudonym Vitalis, who also lived in Uppsala in open polemic with the phosphorists.

The late eighteenth-century struggles between the champions of classicism and the preromantics seemed to rekindle now between the two Romantic currents of the phosphorists and the Gothicists. The members of the Gothic League (*Götiska Förbundet*), founded in Stockholm in 1811, opposed their ethical-historical ideals to the purely aesthetic ones of the phosphorists, and to the spatial escapism dreamed of by the latter they preferred an escape into time, in the direction already indicated centuries earlier by Olaus Magnus. The official head of the League was P. H. Ling (1776–1839), better known for having created Swedish gymnastics than for his mediocre poems; but the most notable figure of the group was without doubt E. G. Geijer (1783–1847), poet and historian, philosopher and musician. In the first issue of the journal *Iduna* (1812) were published his poems *Odalbonden* (*The Freeholder*) and *Vikingen* (*The Viking*), which immediately made him famous throughout Scandinavia. The freeholder who rebuilds kingdoms and lands brought to ruin by

The wars of the powerful and the Viking driven by an eternal restlessness to wars of conquest in foreign lands are, for Geijer, the symbol of ancient Nordic freedoms and the eternal characteristics of the nation. The same nationalist ideals also inspired his historical works *Svea rikes häfder* ("Annals of the Kingdom of Sweden") and *Svenska folkets historia* ("History of the Swedish People"), both masterpieces of Swedish Romantic historicism. Another great poet associated with the Gothic movement was E. Tegnér (1782–1846). Conservative in politics like Atterbom (Geijer would dramatically and demonstratively switch to the liberal camp in 1838), and a great admirer of Napoleon, whom he saw as the genius of the age, Tegnér was immediately recognized throughout Sweden for his patriotic poem *Svea* (1811), inspired by the painful loss of Finland. Distant from both Geijer’s historicism and the murky metaphysics of the Phosphorists, Tegnér was, in a Romantic climate, the heir to the finest tradition of the Gustavian era; his fine odes reveal him seeking clarity and humanity in the spirit of Weimar classicism. His brief narrative poem *Fritjofs Saga* ("The Saga of Frithiof") enjoyed immense success across the North, in which neoclassical taste and Romantic enthusiasm for Nordic antiquity are fused with great elegance. But shortly after the publication of *Fritjofs Saga*, the poet’s spirit darkened, and from then on Tegnér rarely achieved in poetry that equilibrium which life no longer sustained.

Among the epigones of Romanticism, K. A. Nicander (1799–1839) deserves mention as a melodious singer of Italy in works that aroused the enthusiasm of contemporaries. Italy would also be the principal source of inspiration for C. V. Böttiger (1807–78) and C. J. G. Snolsky (1841–1903), who continued in this Romantic tradition. Though the epigones would echo its themes for many years, the golden age of Swedish Romanticism may be considered to have ended around 1830, when a more realistic conception of life and literature led to the predominance of prose over poetry, of exact description over evocative and fantastic transfiguration, and interests gradually became focused—even in literature—on social problems. A typical representative of this transitional period is Jonas Love Almquist (1793–1866), inclined to Swedenborgian mysticism and in conflict—not only in theory (he was perhaps a murderer and certainly a bigamist)—with traditional Christian morality, Romantically drawn to distant times and lands, yet realistically intent on solving contemporary social problems. Among his vast and uneven output are some of the most interesting works of Swedish literature: the fantastic and brilliant tale *Tintomara*, *Araminta May*, and the story *Lady Moon*, all included in the enormous collection of dramas, novels, and tales *Törnrosens bok* ("The Briar-Rose Book"). His fine tale *Det går an* ("It Can Be Done") caused a great scandal, for it raises the issue of the working woman and her right to love outside the bonds of marriage.

While Almquist thus posed the problem of women’s rights, Fredrika Bremer (1801–65) fought for equal rights for women in education and the administration of family property; she achieved great success both with her novels set in bourgeois society (*Presidentens döttrar* ["The President’s Daughters"], *Gramarna* ["The Neighbors"]) and with her travel writings on America (*Hemmen i den nya verlden* ["At Home in the New World"]) and Europe (*Livet i gamla verlden* ["Life in the Old World"]).

While Almquist and Fredrika Bremer seem to herald the literature of the future, Gunnar Wennerberg (1817–1901) drew instead on the Bellmanian tradition of sung poetry in his *Gluntarna* ("The Lads"), cheerful and sentimental dialogues of student life. In the same years, both C. W. Strandberg (pseud. Talis Qualis; 1818–77) and O. P. Sturzen-Becker (pseud. Orvar Odd; 1811–69) drew on traditional Swedish nationalism as passionate advocates of Scandinavianism.

The national patriotic note predominates in Swedish-language literature in Finland, now under Russian rule, where a Romantic interest in the people is joined to nostalgia for Nordic antiquity felt as national heritage. The leading representative of this Romanticism is J. L. Runeberg (1804–77), who sang of the wretched life of the peasants of his land in the poem *Elgskyttarne* ("The Elk Hunters"), evoked a mythic Nordic world in *Kung Fjalar* ("King Fjalar"), and created the poetic national epic *Fänrik Ståls sägner* ("Tales of Ensign Stål"), inspired by the Russo-Swedish War of 1808–1809. Also in Finland, national history is evoked in legendary tones by Z. Topelius (1818–98), best known for his fairy tales.

Meanwhile, in Sweden, A. V. Rydberg (1828–95) drew on Almquist and French Naturalism: notable are the Romantic novella *Singoalla* and the two historical novels *Den siste atenaren* ("The Last Athenian") and *Vapensmeden* ("The Armorer"), the first inspired by the clash between the classical world and Christianity in the Hellenistic period, the second by the clash between Catholicism and Protestantism during the Reformation. Similar aspirations toward a Christian religious freedom beyond dogma appear in his work *Bibelns lära om Kristus* ("The Bible’s Teaching on Christ"). Less conceptual effort and greater artistic balance are found in *Romerska sägner om apostlarne Paulus och Petrus* ("Roman Legends of the Apostles Peter and Paul") and *Romerske kejsare i marmor* ("Roman Emperors in Marble").

An equal idealism, but with greater attention to social problems, is found in the works of Carl Snolsky (1841–1903), whose Italian-themed poems have already been mentioned and who may be considered a disciple of the Parnassians. He is the leading representative of the *Signaturer* ("Signatories"), all members of the "Society of the Nameless" founded in Uppsala in 1860.

By now the age of Romantic idealism had definitively passed in Sweden as well, where, as in Denmark with Brandes and in Norway with Ibsen and Bjørnson, literature confronted the social and political issues of the day. The most prominent and controversial figure of this period is August Strindberg.

From Levertin, who soon joined forces with Heidenstam in the struggle against naturalism, one should recall the fine lyrics of *Legender och visor* (“Legends and Songs”), *Nya Dikter* (“New Poems”), and *Dikter* (“Poems”), the refined *Rococonoveller* (“Rococo Tales”), the incisive essays *Diktare och drömmare* (“Poets and Dreamers”) and *Svenska gestalter* (“Swedish Figures”). His masterpiece, however, is undoubtedly the poem *Kung Salomo och Morolf* (“King Solomon and Morolf”).

Strindberg (1849–1912). Extremely sensitive and ruthless, a free-thinker and mystic, liberal and socialist, anarchist and Nietzschean, he was always fanatically attached to whatever conviction happened to be uppermost in his mind at the time; egocentric to a paroxysmal and pathological degree, he was in any case endowed with genuine genius and powerful creative force. Great was the scandal he aroused in 1879 with *Röda rummet* (“The Red Room”), which may be considered the first modern Swedish novel; more balanced and artistically lively, though less original, is *Hemsöborna* (“The People of Hemsö”). A very different tone is found in *I Hafsbandet* (“By the Sea”), where Nietzschean morality of the Superman is announced. Autobiographical in character are *Tjänstekvinnans son* (“The Son of a Servant Girl”), *Fenro*, and the horrifying *Plaidoyer d’un fou*, directed against his wife in particular and against women in general. The same misogynistic fury inspires the dramas *Fadren* (“The Father”) and *Dödsdansen* (“The Dance of Death”), while more detached and objective, in its ruthless naturalism, is the one-act play *Fröken Julie* (“Miss Julie”). The dramas *Till Damaskus* (“To Damascus”) and *Advent* (“Advent”) bear witness to a mystical crisis, tending toward Catholicism more in form than in substance, while the religious symbolism of the expressionist drama *Drömspel* (“A Dream Play”) has little that is Christian left in II. Of his stylistic and formal achievements in the field of narrative, the writers of the “Young Sweden” movement, directly influenced by Danish naturalism and contemporary Norwegian literature, were quick to take advantage. Among them may be mentioned G. af Gejerstam (1858–1909), Anne Charlotte Edgren (1849–1922), Ola Hanson (1860–1925)—who later became a follower of Nietzsche and finally converted to Catholicism—and Victoria Benedictsson (1850–1888; pseudonym of Ernst Ahlren). By now naturalism, which had fought and in part won its battle, had nothing new to say, and against the “cobbler realism” of the “Young Sweden” writers there arose about 1890 the voice of V. von Heidenstam (1859–1940), O. Levertin (1862–1906), and the other Neo-Romantics. Just as naturalism had opposed the Romantic cult of ideals, so now it was opposed in the name of an aristocratic ideal of beauty. If the silent demonstration of grief by the proletarian masses at Strindberg’s death bears witness to the social scope of his success, in the literary field the Aristotelian aestheticism of Heidenstam triumphs instead. After a youth largely spent in Italy and the Orient, Heidenstam achieved success with the collection of poems *Vallfart och vandringsår* (“Pilgrimages and Wander Years”) and with the novel *Endymion*. These were followed by the essay *Renässans* (“Renaissance”) and *Pepitas bröllop* (“Pepita’s Wedding”), a fierce satire of naturalism.

While the landscape evoked by Heidenstam is often generic, the nature of the Swedish countryside, and especially of Värmland and Dalarna, is sung with great immediacy and without any suspicion of rhetoric by G. Fröding (1860–1911) and E. A. Karlfeldt (1864–1931). Both share an exclusive love for their native land and a great ability to evoke provincial and rural life with humor. Fröding, a complex and tormented temperament, after the success of his first two collections of verse, *Guitarr och dragharmonika* (“Guitar and Accordion”) and *Nya dikter* (“New Poems”), vainly sought to calm his ever-growing anguish through song, until the scandal inadvertently aroused by some poems in the collection *Stänk och flikar* (“Splashes and Rags”) finally pushed him over the threshold of madness. Karlfeldt’s muse is more serene, untroubled by philosophical or religious problems, content to abandon itself to the intoxication of song and verbal virtuosity. Among his collections of poetry (often set to music, in the Swedish tradition) are *Fridolins visor* (“Fridolin’s Songs”), *Fridolins lustgård* (“Fridolin’s Pleasure Garden”), *Flora och Pomona*, *Flora och Bellona*, and *Hösthorn* (“Autumn Horn”). Around 1890 Värmland is also evoked in an atmosphere of legend and poetry in Selma Lagerlöf’s famous novel *Gösta Berlings saga* (“The Story of Gösta Berling”) (v.). The subsequent production of this writer was very successful, sustained more by enthusiasm and faith in ideal values than by great stylistic or formal ability. Fröding, Karlfeldt, and Selma Lagerlöf sang the Swedish countryside just as it was about to be definitively overtaken by the advance of industrial civilization: from now on the everyday reality of provincial life would be examined with impassive eyes, often described in the service of social polemic, made the object of satire or humor, but no longer poetically transfigured. Already undermined by realistic concerns is the Neo-Romanticism of Pär Hallström. Stockholm, on the other hand, finds its poetic singers, of almost crepuscular tone, in H. Söderberg (1869–1947), author of the well-known novel *Martin Bircks ungdom* (“The Youth of Martin Birk”), and in Bo Bergman. Interest shifts from the city to its inhabitants in S. Siwertz (1882), an attentive observer of the newly enriched bourgeoisie of the postwar period, in his novels and especially in *Selambs*. The image of the Swedish capital will have nothing poetic left in the stark novel *Kungsgatan* by Ivar Lo-Johansson, one of the many modern Swedish proletarian writers.

From various European intellectual movements and American fiction, and shaped by the fusion and cohesion of often irreconcilable tendencies in their countries of origin. Among proletarian writers, several came from Norrland. As early as the late 19th century, the protest voice of Pelle Molin (1864–96) was heard from this region; among his successors were Olof Högborg (1885–1932), remembered for his novel *Stora vrede* [“Great Wrath”], Gustav Hedendin Eriksson, and Eyvind Johnson. The only voice of approval for the industrialization process sweeping the country came from L. Nordström (1882–1942).

A work of social polemic, always set in Norrland, is the novel *Timmerdalen* by Martin Koch, the earliest of the Swedish proletarian writers, while the sadness of the landscape, the poverty, and the isolation of its inhabitants are poetically re-experienced in the work of Dan Andersson (1880–1920), who could free himself from that sorrow and misery only through artistic transfiguration, creating intensely musical and demonically beautiful poems (notable is the collection *Svarta ballader* [“Black Ballads”]) and stories marked by stark realism.

The outbreak of the First World War had made a deep impression on Swedish literature, which seemed to be turning, under the influence of Bergsonian philosophy, toward a greater faith in life; but the consequences of the chaotic postwar period were even more powerful and decisive. Characteristic are the titles of the novel *Eldens døtersken* (“The Reflection of the Fire”) by Sivertz and of the early poetry collections by Pär Lagerkvist: *Ångest* (“Anguish”) and *Kaos*.

The experience of German Expressionism was decisive for Harriet Löwenhjelm (1887–1918), who moved from subtle, intellectual lyric play to a cry of anguish before pain and death, and for Edith Södergran (1892–1923), the inspired Finnish-Swedish poet.

That disorientation in thought foreshadowed a crisis in the social and economic sphere became especially clear after the suicide of Kreuger (1932) ended a period of false prosperity. A good witness to this moment of crisis is the essay collection *Två generationer* (“Two Generations”) by Sven Stolpe, already agitated by that religious crisis which, after drawing him to the Oxford Movement, would make him a convinced advocate of the Catholic faith.

Contemporary (1929) was the debut of “five young proletarian writers” (A. Lundkvist, Harry Martinson, J. Kiellgren, G. Sandgren, and E. Asklund), who exalted instinctual life and the modern machine civilization in a nearly Futurist style, drawing on both American fiction and automatic surrealist writing. The political reality of Europe after 1930, which could leave these young writers with few illusions about real progress in the world, soon pushed them toward an increasingly overt left-wing stance, at least until the outbreak of the Second World War. A. Lundkvist, leader and theorist of the movement, is today an authoritative literary critic of Marxist inspiration (representatives of traditional positivist criticism include H. Schück, M. Lamm, G. Castrén, O. Sylvan, and F. Böök).

A growing tendency toward the left is also found in the successful works of Harry Martinson, sailor and wanderer (*Kap Farväl*; *Resor utan mål* [“Journeys without a Goal”], *Nåslorna blomma* [“Nettles in Bloom”], and *Vägen ut* [“The Way Out”]). While self-taught writers of proletarian origin (among them R. Värnlund and Moa Martinson) generally disregard formal problems or are stylistically avant-garde, writers from the bourgeois and academic classes mostly remain within the bounds of tradition: thus the poets W. E. Ekelund and A. Österling, lyrical cultivators of beauty in an atmosphere of classical serenity (similar in inspiration to the Finn E. Zilliacus), the art historian K. Asplund, the novelist G. Hellström, and Hjalmar Bergman (1883–1931), expansive and ironic evoker of Swedish provincial life in his novels and plays. Birger Sjöberg (1885–1929) offers a more sentimentally banal, somewhat decadent irony in his provincial idylls; A. Engström (1869–1940) instead displays piquant humor and a taste for caricature in his stories. From the world of the nobility come two writers strikingly different in temperament and fate: Marika Stiernstedt, elegant author of pleasant novels, and Agnes von Krusenstjerna (1894–1940), merciless yet tender observer of a pathologically abnormal world to which she herself belonged and which she transfigured artistically, deluding herself into believing that she thereby found a moral justification as well. An equally sickly sensibility but with less artistic balance—compensated, however, by a stronger engagement with life’s problems and more intense lyrical inspiration—is found in the work of Karin Boye (1900–41), who died tragically in the early years of the war after having, in her novel *Kallocain*, warned against the suffocation of human freedom by totalitarian states. Undoubtedly healthier throughout her output is Elin Wägner, continuator of Ellen Key’s struggle for women’s rights, confident in the positive values of Christianity and in the victory of good over evil. A greater social commitment is evident in the works of Anna Lenah Elgström, already known for her leftist leanings and recently converted to Catholicism. Erik Blomberg, on the other hand, remains a denier of all transcendence; tragically aware of human limitation, he sought to overcome it through total adherence to socialism. The existence of a divine being is also denied by Stellan Arvidson and Johannes Edfelt, though the latter remains confident in the ultimate victory of spiritual forces. A bizarre grotesque note is sometimes struck by the desperate anguish of Nils Ferlin, who in vain, as he himself says, has read “Freud, Adler, and even the Bible,” yet manages to enthuse his compatriots—and especially the young—with chants (music and text are often inseparable) in which humor and sarcasm fail fully to conceal emotion before the wretchedness of the world. Greater commitment and a deeper religious sense of life—albeit outside any dogmatic clarity or confessional faith—are found in the works of H. Gullberg and Pär Lagerkvist, without doubt the two greatest contemporary Swedish writers. Already shaken by the First World War and by the postwar era in which “life was honored and man despised,” they were driven by wartime events and the ideological debates of recent years to probe ever more deeply, by different paths and in different ways, the ultimate questions of life. Inclined by nature to mysticism and faithful to the traditional values of poetry (though his final collection of poems, *Dödsmask och lustgård* [“Death Mask and Pleasure Garden”], published in 1932, astonished for its modernism), Gullberg often sings of his disappointment with life and his hope for the hereafter; among his poetry collections are *Kärlek i tjugonde seklet* (“Love in the Twentieth Century”), *Att övervinna världen* (“To Overcome the World”), and *Fem bröd och två fiskar* (“Five Loaves and Two Fishes”). Pär Lagerkvist, Nobel laureate in 1951, presents a more complex nature. Poet and essayist, novelist and dramatist, Lagerkvist moved from the anguish and pessimism of his early works (already noted) to a vague love of humanity (*cf.* the novel *Det eviga leendet* [“The Eternal Smile”]), then to an open defense of spiritual values against brute force (*Bödeln* [“The Hangman”]), and is now concerned solely—beyond any formal experimentation—with the problems of existence and the search for its positive values (*cf.* the drama *De vises sten* [“The Philosophers’ Stone”] and the novels *Dvärgen* [“The Dwarf”] and *Barabbas*).

Among the literary works inspired by the wave of nationalism that swept through Sweden during the war are the novels *Sommarmattan* (“Summer Night”) by Sten Selander, *Hemland* (“Homeland”) by Gunnar Mascoll Silfverstolpe, and the gripping historical novel *Rid i natt* (“Ride Tonight”) by W. Moberg. Quite different in character is the humorous historical novel *Röde orm* (“Red Serpent”) by V. B. Bengtsson, a true escape on the wings of fantasy and good humor from everyday reality. In general terms, it may be said that with the Second World War interest in the so-called proletarian literature with autobiographical overtones came to an end, and problems of broader ideological scope—including economic ones—were preferred instead. Notable in this regard is Folke Fridell’s 1947 essay, which calls for a new social literature no longer of class but capable of addressing the problems of the human personality stifled and crushed by modern industrial civilization. Characteristic in this connection is the latest novel of Eyvind Johnson (*Strändernas svall*), once a writer of proletarian inspiration.

If the immediate postwar period was largely under the sign of German expressionism, a clear influence of French (Sartre, Camus, Malraux) and American literature is now evident in prose, and of Eliot in poetry. While narrative problems are generally concerned with content (from a formal standpoint it suffices to note the increasingly frequent use of interior monologue), poetry is felt in terms of the lyrical value of the word, whether as symbol or as musical entity. Much debated is a new type of hermeticism, scornful of whatever appears too facile, whose principal representatives are Stig Dagerman, Karl Vennberg, and Erik Lindegren. Among modern writers to be remembered are also Olle Hedberg, Olov Hartman, Olof Lagercrantz, Iria Browallius, Lars Ahlin, and Sven Alfons.

Art

The Swedish territory entered relatively late into the sphere of European artistic civilization. The evidence of the archaic cultures of the prehistoric age shows no particular distinguishing features. The Bronze Age rock paintings (Bohus) conform to the scarcely evolving formal process of peripheral cultures. Thus, even later, the fleeting contact with Roman figurative civilization, as often happens at the margins of productive zones, led to an involution of borrowed forms and their progressive resolution into heraldic and allegorical symbolism, from which it is difficult to trace back to the original cultural data. The Swedish peoples, like the other Scandinavian and, in general, the barbarian populations, achieved original results only in domestic utensils and goldsmithing. In this field, starting from the 6th century and up to the 11th, it is possible to find objects denoting advanced technique and formal skill that sometimes reaches the level of true art.

In the early Middle Ages, the most evident exchanges, until the Viking conquests, involved Irish art. The stones with anthropomorphic figures from the island of Gotland and the densely interwoven vegetal decorations on plaques from Uppland betray hands accustomed to wood carving, which translate, in simplified form, the compositional rhythms of Irish high crosses and miniatures (9th–10th centuries). Unless the process was the reverse, as has recently been proposed. The Viking conquests expanded the field of influences, establishing contacts with the Byzantine and Arab East. Then, through Russia (875–975), the importation of goldsmithing objects began, of which notable sepulchral remains survive (Island of Björkö, Polom necropolis in the Viatka province). This was the critical period of Viking civilization, poised between East and West, as Dawson keenly observed, before decisively turning westward with the conversion to Catholicism. Up to this pivotal date, it is not possible to speak of architecture: the few surviving wooden structures, which are also quite late (11th century), have nothing remarkable about them, apart from some fine carved decorations.

The use of stone as a building material began after the conversion. This was the moment of Romanesque architecture, in the forms of Lombard architecture. This connection is historically explained by King Erik Ejedog’s pilgrimage to St. Nicholas in Bari in 1098. On his return journey, he obtained from the Pope the establishment of the archiepiscopal see of Lund (1104), and very likely, during this occasion, he employed Italian craftsmen (among whom was the master Donatus mentioned in the Necrologium Lundense) to whom he entrusted the task of erecting the buildings necessary for the growing Swedish religious community. The stylistic affinity of the decorative elements of Lund Cathedral (see 12th century) with those of the churches of Lombardy, particularly with Sant’Ambrogio in Milan, San Michele in Pavia, and the Modena Cathedral, has been thoroughly demonstrated by Anderson. However, the forms of Italian Romanesque failed to determine a general stylistic orientation and, repeated mechanically here and there, soon ended without regret, submerged by the bolder forms of French and Spanish Romanesque and Gothic. To this influence, which accounts for the most important architectural monuments of the 13th century, there soon overlapped that of German Gothic forms, present even in the reconstructions of Lund Cathedral and also in Linköping in Östergötland and in Uppsala Cathedral (c. 1290), historically the most important temple of the region, now disfigured externally by an unfortunate 19th-century restoration. These buildings are characterized by the constant presence of an ambulatory. Radiating chapels and a double-bulb dome, however, indicate the Cistercian matrix of the church of Varnhem in Västergötland.

While it is still not possible to speak of a local art or school, it must be recognized that by the end of the 14th century the stylistic orientation was definitively established: Swedish figurative culture was increasingly aligning itself with the German. Sculpture, painting, and illumination clearly indicate this process. German artists intervened in Sweden in ever greater numbers: the most notable among them was perhaps Bert Nolte, to whom is attributed the statue of St. George in Stockholm Cathedral (1471). To this period also belongs an interesting group of frescoes in rural churches around Lake Mälaren, which finally attest to the emergence of a local style with broad popular appeal within the tradition of linear Gothic, destined to endure throughout the following century and beyond (e.g., at Kalknälningar, Mälningar, etc.). When the forms of Italian Renaissance, mediated by the Mannerism disseminated through treatises published during the 16th century (Vitruvius, Serlio, Vignola, etc.), spread across Europe, Sweden—which had already adhered to the Protestant Reformation—found in its principles—the very ones that ushered in the country’s period of greatest splendor—the most effective catalysts for artistic activity. From this point onward, civil architecture gained prominence. The royal castles of Vadstena and Kalmar indeed bear witness, in the complexity of their structures and decoration, to the presence of artists oriented toward a Nordic interpretation of late Renaissance Italian motifs. The gaze was turned toward Italy especially during the reign of Johan III (1569–92), who, according to the author of the Stockholm Chronicle, “would have gladly made of his city a Rome and a Venice.” The leading architect of this period, the marble worker Dionisius de Wale, author of the first design for Jakob’s Church (1580), seems to have been of Italian origin; Italians by birth were also the Parr family, who for three generations worked in the service of the royal house (Giovanni Battista at Borgholm and Kalmar, Francesco at Güstrow; their work was continued by Cristoforo and Domenico until 1602).

The 17th century, however, marked the definitive triumph of French influence, with the ascendancy of the La Vallée (Simon, author of the Ritterhaus in Stockholm, 1637–39; Jean, 1620–96, architect of Queen Christina’s church—not unmindful of the lessons of Vignola and Palladio) and Tessin families (Nicodemus the Elder, 1615–81, active in the castles of Borgholm, Ericsberg, Mälsåker, and in Kalmar Cathedral; Nicodemus the Younger, 1654–1728, who left his unmistakable imprint, steeped in vast and elaborate humanistic culture, especially in the Royal Castle of Stockholm). Around these architects gravitated a host of pupils and imitators, among whom were some Swedes worthy of note, such as H. Blume (1638–1666), Göran Josua Törnqvist, known as Aldencrantz (1668–1739), and the members of the Carlberg family, military architects. The renown of the Tessins attracted French sculptors and painters to Sweden, who were employed in the decoration of the Royal Castle of Stockholm and received abundant commissions from the Swedish nobility. Suffice it to mention Simon Vouet. Other foreigners also settled easily: indeed, it was a German, David Klöcker of Hamburg, who was even ennobled as von Ehrenstrahl, who deserves the honor of being considered the founder of the local painting school.

After the severe crisis that threatened Sweden following the collapse of Charles XII and which dispersed the court artists, construction activity resumed during the reign of Frederick I (1720–50). He entrusted the direction of the work on Stockholm Castle to Karl Härleman and favored other French artists, such as the sculptor Bouchardon and the painter G. Taraval. However, the most fruitful and characteristic period for Swedish figurative culture was the reign of Gustav III, who recalled to Stockholm the best Swedish artists educated abroad (e.g., the painters L. Pasch, P. Krafft, von Breda, C. G. Pilo, E. Martin). In Rome, from 1768 to 1778, the sculptor Johan Tobias Sergel resided—rightly considered the most representative of those produced by Sweden, an early exponent of Neoclassicism.

Throughout the 19th century, exchanges with Western Europe continued. Swedish artists, growing in number, founded national circles and associations aimed at spreading culture in their homeland.

---

**b**

1914; A. Lindblom, *Frank Barok och Rokoko skulptur i Sverige*, Uppsala 1923; E. Lundmark, *Kyrkor i Endre Ting. Konsthistoriskt inventarium*, Stockholm 1931; S. Lindqvist, *L'epoca romana dell'età del ferro in S.*, in *Gli studi romani nel mondo*, III, Bologna 1934, pp. 309–30; M. Rydbeck, *Kalkmålningar i Adrarum och Gustaf Adolfs kyrkor*, in *Bull. de la Soc. Royale des lettres de Lund*, 1939–40; H. Arbman, *Verroterie cloisonnée et filigrane*, ibid., 1949–50, pp. 136–72; P. M. Lugli, *Aspetti dell'urbanistica sved.*, in *Rass. crit. di arch.*, 2 (1949, v.), pp. 3–40; W. Holmqvist, *Viking art in the eleventh century*, in *Acta Archaeol.*, 22 (1951), pp. 1–56.

VI. EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

In its educational system, Sweden is strongly influenced by the country’s geographical conditions: a large surface area and a relatively small population, with scattered and widely separated dwellings, resulting in a marked disparity in the distribution of schools. There is a high density of schools in major urban centers, while rural areas—especially Lapland—become increasingly sparse. This leads to a high degree of decentralization in the management, oversight, and administration of educational institutions, with municipalities playing a decisive role.

The educational system comprises four main stages:

1. *Preschool Education.* — From ages 2 to 7, primarily conducted within the family or in privately initiated institutions, such as those established by large industrial firms. Thus, day nurseries and kindergartens are not numerous.

2. *Primary or *Folkekola* Education.* — From ages 7 to 14, compulsory and free, managed by individual municipalities. It is divided into two sections:
- *Lower*, ages 7 to 9, with a curriculum focused mainly on reading and writing, taught exclusively by female teachers;
- *Upper*, ages 9 to 14, with both male and female teachers, expanding the subjects to include religion, the national language, history, manual labor, physical education, and sports.

3. *Secondary Education.* — Predominantly state-run, spanning 7–8 years, and divided into four types:
a) *Theoretical secondary education*, which prepares students for university and is structured in two consecutive phases:
- *Real school* (4 or 5 years), concluding with the *realexamen*;
- *Gymnasium* (3 years), ending with the *studentexamen*, and divided into *Latin Gymnasium* (classical track) and *Real Gymnasium* (scientific track).
For girls, there is also a dedicated 7-year school called *Flickskola*.
b) *Practical secondary education* with a theoretical-practical approach, aimed at training technical experts for careers in commerce, industry, administration, agriculture, and navigation. This includes specialized schools such as industrial, commercial, technological, agricultural, and naval schools. The *Folkskoleseminarium* for training future primary school teachers is also part of this category; admission requires the *realexamen*.
c) *Vocational secondary education*, with exclusively practical aims, organized with the collaboration of the state, employers, and labor unions. These are typically evening schools, allowing students to work during the day.
d) *Special secondary education*, serving adults and organized in various forms.

4. *Higher Education.* — University and higher education institutions are accessed through the *studentexamen*. The universities are as follows:
- University of Uppsala, founded in 1477 (faculties of theology, law, medicine, and philosophy, which also includes the natural sciences);
- University of Lund, founded in 1668 (with the same faculties);
- Stockholm University, founded in 1871 (faculties of arts, law, and natural sciences);
- University of Gothenburg, founded in 1889 (faculties of philosophy, arts, and natural sciences).
In Stockholm, there are also three academies: the Academy of Music, the Academy of Fine Arts, and the Academy of Graphic Arts; the Central Institute of Gymnastics; and two social institutes for training social workers. Sweden also has various colleges for medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, veterinary science, engineering, economics, agriculture, forestry, and commerce.

As the number of applicants for higher education continues to grow, efforts to bridge educational disparities between urban and rural areas and to create a more unified organizational structure led, in 1946, to proposals by the educational commission for a second unified school of 9 years, divided into three 3-year cycles: elementary, intermediate, and upper. The establishment of such schools was intended for all municipalities. Other reforms concerned the lyceum and the training of primary school teachers skilled in active teaching methods and experimental techniques, as indicated by psychology. These proposals were implemented in 1949: a unified 9-year school (*Enhetsskola*), a 4-year lyceum, and a new *general section* added to the classical (Latin and French) and modern (mathematics and English) tracks, emphasizing history, psychology, and sociology to train future state officials.

In 1945, the Swedish Institute was also established in Stockholm to coordinate and support cultural relations with foreign countries, fostering intellectual exchanges. Sweden’s objectives include sending delegates to assist Swedes seeking contact abroad, organizing study trips and lecture series for Swedes abroad and foreigners in Sweden, distributing books, articles, films, and records about Sweden, establishing courses, congresses, and exhibitions to showcase Swedish literary and scientific works abroad, and above all, assisting foreigners in obtaining documentation on various aspects of Swedish life (social organization, public hygiene, labor, sports, agriculture). — See pls. CX–CXIII.

Celestino Testore

SWITZERLAND. — The smallest (41,295 sq km) of the states bordering Italy, situated in that central European region enclosed between the Jura Mountains and the Alpine arc.

I. GEOGRAPHY

It is a mountainous country, where the high peaks of the Alpine arc (Punta Dufour, 4,623 m.), which forms more than half of its territory, give way, through a sort of inclined plain (*Mittelland*) dotted with lakes, to the strip of the Jura stretched along the French border. Of the territorial surface, slightly less than one quarter is unproductive, being occupied by rocks, glaciers, and lakes; barely one eighth is arable land, while pastures and artificial meadows cover more than two-fifths of the total. Mineral resources are almost entirely lacking (salt in considerable quantities, iron in minimal amounts), while hydroelectric resources abound; on the other hand, the country's isolation from the sea is aggravated by the barrier of the mountain ranges that encircle its territory on all sides, even though the great valleys that traverse it (Rhine, Rhône, Aar) allow for more or less easy passage from one sector to another, thus accentuating the role that Switzerland plays due to its intermediate position between Western Europe and Central Europe, and between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic regions.

This explains why the Swiss economy, while not neglecting the modest agricultural possibilities available in the country (enhanced especially under the pressure of supply difficulties that accompanied recent international crises), is essentially based on increasingly rational and intensive livestock farming (cattle and pigs) and a highly specialized industry producing high-value and precision goods (mechanical, chemical, and textile), which are less affected by the high transport costs imposed by the importation of almost all raw materials.

Switzerland is a confederation of 22 cantons (two of which are double), governed by a federal assembly with legislative functions, which appoints from its midst a council of seven members invested with executive power. The Assembly, in turn, consists of a National Council and a Council of States, both elective. The president is renewed every year. The Swiss population (4.6 million inhabitants) is composed of 72% Germans, 20.4% French, 6% Italians (Canton Ticino and adjacent valleys of the Grisons), and 1% Ladins; the distinction, based on the use of their respective languages, is recognized by the state.

Besides the capital, Bern (130,000 inhabitants), cities with over 100,000 inhabitants are Zurich (336,000), the largest center in the country, Basel (170,000), and Geneva (124,000).

II. CIVIL HISTORY

The history of Switzerland begins with the subjugation of the country by Rome. The Celtic population of the Helvetii who inhabited it was forced by Julius Caesar to remain in their settlements to prevent Germanic tribes from establishing themselves there. The country was completely conquered under Augustus: the last to surrender were the Rhaetians of the upper Rhine and the Lepontii of the upper Ticino.

The region's importance lay in the routes that, from the Alps and the Rhône Valley, reached the Rhine line through II. During the imperial age, the land of the Helvetii was thoroughly Romanized: the main centers were *Augusta Rauricorum* (Augst), *Aventicum* (Avenches), *Geneva* (Geneva), *Noviodunum* (Nyon), and *Lausanna* (Lausanne). However, the region did not form a single administrative unit: it was divided among Gallia Narbonensis, Gallia Cisalpina, Gallia Belgica, and Raetia. This division did not facilitate defense against Germanic attacks: the most dangerous point for a breach was the Rhine crossing at Koblenz, so the great fortress of Vindonissa had been built on the plain between Königsfelden and Windisch. The *limes* later received, in the 4th century, a second line of resistance supported by numerous castles. Germanic tribal attacks began around the mid-3rd century; in 260, the Alemanni succeeded in destroying Aventicum. Further raids are recorded under Diocletian and later under Gratian. Then, at the beginning of the 5th century, when Rome withdrew its garrisons from the Rhine to defend Italy, invaded by the Visigoths, the Burgundian and Alemannic tribes easily penetrated the Rhine and Rhône valleys and settled there with the consent of the imperial government. In the second half of the 5th century, the Burgundians advanced from Sabaudia (Savoy) into Valais, occupying Sion; to the north of Lake Geneva, they reached Avenches and Basel. Meanwhile, the Alemanni of northern Helvetia advanced southward, occupying Raetia. The Burgundians became Romanized, adopting the language and customs of the local Roman population; the Alemanni, on the other hand, overwhelmed the sparse Roman population, perhaps respecting only the main centers; the dominant language became Germanic. After a brief Ostrogothic occupation, the Franks succeeded in occupying the entire Helvetian region, which then definitively followed the fate of the Merovingian state.

During the Carolingian age, a distinction began to emerge among the Helvetian lands. The lands west of the Aar, of Burgundian culture, became part of Neustria; the lands east of the Aar, predominantly Alemannic in culture, became part of Austrasia or Germany. This division, which appeared in the Treaty of Verdun (843), became firmer in the Treaty of Mersen (870). In the Burgundian lands between the Rhine and the Rhône, at the end of the 9th century, the two kingdoms of Lower Burgundy, to the southwest of Lake Geneva (879), and Upper Burgundy, from Geneva to Valais and the Bernese Oberland (888), were formed. In the Alemannic region, the old political organization continued under the two kingdoms of Alamannia or Swabia; the kings of Germany did not always succeed in keeping them subdued. During the 10th century, the Helvetian region suffered serious damage from the raids of the Hungarians from the east and the Saracens from the west, and many cities were destroyed. In 1033, Emperor Conrad II inherited the last king of Burgundy, Rudolph III, and united the Burgundian lands with the Kingdom of Germany, while respecting their particular legal tradition; through his wife Gisela, he also inherited the duchy of Swabia and assigned Burgundy and Swabia to his son Henry. During his reign, Henry III made the Burgundian-Swabian region the center of his power. After his death, the Empress regent for Henry IV gave this complex of territories to her son-in-law Rudolph of Rheinfelden; however, he rebelled, and the Helvetian lands were embroiled in struggles between the two factions. Henry IV stripped Rudolph of Alamannia-Swabia and gave it to Frederick, Count of Staufen; Rudolph gave the duchy to his son Berthold, from whom the rights passed in 1092 to the related Counts of Zähringen. After reaching an agreement, they stipulated that the duchy would remain with the Staufens, while the Zähringens would have the territories south of the Danube, namely the Helvetian lands around Zurich. The Zähringens claimed to still be called dukes, though not of Swabia, but of their castle Zähringen.

A profound feudalization between the 10th and 11th centuries furthered the political disintegration of the country. Numerous dynasties of counts appeared with almost absolute authority within their jurisdictions. Churches and abbeys became counts of vast estates, and a new ecclesiastical feudalism formed with its own viscounts, visdomini, and advocates. The great barons contended for the lordship over churches and minor vassals. The Staufen retained the Duchy of Swabia until their extinction (1268). The Zähringen, having received in 1127 from Conrad IV the office of rectors of Burgundy, sought to create a large territorial state between the Alps, the Jura, and the Rhine. In 1172, they inherited the succession of the powerful counts of Lenzburg; Frederick Barbarossa granted them the advocacy of the three bishoprics of Geneva, Lausanne, and Sion. The dynasty had already died out by 1218. Three feudal dynasties benefited from this. In the western region around Lake Geneva, the counts of Savoy rose to power; their influence extended into Valais and Vaud. In the northwestern part of the country, the counts of Kyburg emerged with domains in the cantons of Zurich and Aargau; they held the county of Thurgau and, through the inheritance of the Zähringen, Freiburg, Burgdorf, and Thun. However, they too died out after the mid-13th century. The Habsburgs seized their inheritance.

The alpine valleys had long since, often in fact only de facto, achieved judicial and financial autonomy. Resistance was particularly strong in the valleys of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden. These regions emerged from their silence in the 13th century when international trade highlighted the route from the Gotthard to the Rhine Valley.

Rudolf was determined to support his local feudal claims with the much greater weight of royal authority. The conflict with the populations was already open during the period 1273–91. When Rudolf died on July 15, 1291, his son Albert had not yet been recognized by the princes as King of the Romans, while his younger son, Rudolf, Duke of Swabia, had died shortly before. In early August 1291, the three alpine valleys decided to secure themselves against any future eventuality by uniting and committing to coordinated action. The famous League Letter, which still survives, established mutual aid against all, the refusal to accept foreign judges in the valleys, the resolution of disputes through arbitration, and unity against acts of violence, killings, arson, and the like. The act of 1291 is linked to another similar alliance agreement, a few years earlier, which has not come down to us. As the imperial conflict between Albert of Habsburg and Adolph of Nassau took shape, an anti-Habsburg league formed in southern Germany in 1291, to which the three forest cantons adhered. The Duke of Austria, disappointed by the triumph of his rival, hastened to intervene in the Helvetic region, subduing Lucerne and besieging Zurich, but the three cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden remained steadfast in their devotion to King Adolph. However, when he fell at Gollheim and Albert of Habsburg triumphed, the cantons found themselves in the same situation as in Rudolf’s time: their lord was the king, and they could not appeal to the king against their lord. These are the beginnings of the Swiss Confederation, stripped of the legends of the tyrant Gessler and the hero Tell, which arose from late 15th-century chronicles to explain a seemingly miraculous achievement of independence.

Albert of Austria, preoccupied with the struggles in Germany, left matters unresolved, as did the issue of the reconstruction of the Duchy of Savoy, claimed by his nephew John, and this was the cause of his assassination in 1308. From the new king, Henry VII of Luxembourg, as early as 1309, the cantons obtained confirmation of King Adolph’s decree placing the three valleys under royal protection and the privilege that their inhabitants could only be summoned to court within their own borders and only before the royal court. The three valleys, however, committed themselves to remain within their borders before a royal judge. This was a step toward complete separation from Habsburg jurisdiction. The sons of Albert of Austria, through loyal feudal service to the Emperor in Italy, sought to obtain from Henry the withdrawal of the harsh document. The Emperor, from Brescia in 1311, promised them that he would verify the Habsburg rights in the valleys and, if necessary, restore them to legitimate possession. After Henry VII’s death, in the succession struggle between Louis the Bavarian and Frederick of Habsburg, the Swiss cantons took a stand against the Habsburgs. In their war of 1314 against the Abbey of Einsiedeln, Leopold of Habsburg intervened energetically; the conflict ended with Leopold’s defeat at Morgarten (November 15, 1315). After the victory, the three cantons solemnized their alliance at Brunnen on December 9, 1315, with more binding agreements: none of the allies would recognize a lord without common consent. Louis the Bavarian, in hatred of the Habsburgs, on March 29, 1316, confirmed privileges and claimed for the Empire all the possessions and fiscal rights of the Habsburgs in the valleys themselves, where royal authority was to be represented by a bailiff (Reichsvogt). Later, it seemed that Louis and Frederick reconciled: fearing for their safety, the allies formed a perpetual league with the Habsburg city of Lucerne (November 13, 1332). The danger reappeared in 1347 when Charles IV of Luxembourg, Louis the Bavarian’s successor, to secure Habsburg support, reconfirmed all their old rights and fiefs, declaring the acts of the Bavarian null and void.

The lords of Upper Alsace, they had become in the 11th century the lords of Habichtsburg (Castle of the Hawk), built by them between the Reuss and Aar on a spur of the Jura, dominating the trade routes from Basel and western Switzerland to eastern Switzerland. The Habsburgs held feudal possessions and rights of various kinds in central Switzerland; the advocacy of the Murbach monastery in its courts in Aargau and the Zürichgau around Lucerne, seigneurial rights between the Reuss and Limmat, the advocacy over the Sackingen monastery, properties at Villisau and Sempach, and the bailiwick authority (Vogtei) over Lake Lucerne in the districts of Schwyz and Unterwalden. From the inheritance of the Zähringen, they obtained the bailiwick authority in the land of Uri. Diverse possessions and rights scattered across a vast region, but by the age of Frederick II, the Habsburgs appeared as the most powerful feudal lords between the Rhine and Danube. The division of the family into two lines did not hinder development, which was especially fostered by the senior branch. By the mid-13th century, this was represented by Rudolf, son of Albert IV (1239–91). Through his efforts, Habsburg policy gained greater clarity: the goal was now to create a unified territorial state by connecting the various elements. Rudolf of Habsburg remained consistently loyal to Frederick II, obtaining various concessions. At one point, he faced opposition from Peter II of Savoy, who also claimed a share in the Kyburg inheritance, but when Rudolf became King of Germany in 1279 and asserted his prestige by crushing the power of the King of Bohemia, he saw more than ever the need to unite all the family’s possessions, from the ancestral lands in Alsace to the newly acquired lands in Austria. This he assigned to his eldest son Albert, while to the younger Rudolf he gave the Duchy of Alamannia-Swabia. The program of uniting the domains in the Helvetic region, however, clashed with the populations of the valleys.

The Confederates then succeeded in securing the perpetual alliance of the powerful Habsburg city of Zurich (10 May 1351); shortly afterward they concluded a perpetual league also with Glarus, a territory belonging to the Abbey of Säckingen (4 June 1352), and soon after with Zug (27 July 1352). The Confederates now numbered seven. The Duke of Austria, after having in vain besieged Zurich and sought to break the league, entered into negotiations with the mediation of the Margrave of Brandenburg. In the Treaty of 1352 the Habsburg sovereignty over Schwyz and Unterwalden was passed over in silence, while their patrimonial and protective rights over churches and monasteries were recognized; Zurich retained its alliance with the Cantons, but with the commitment not to make agreements with other Habsburg subjects without the consent of the latter; Lucerne, Glarus, and Zug, while retaining their treaties, acknowledged Habsburg sovereignty. Peace was not maintained; Charles IV intervened; in 1346 an agreement was reached between Zurich and the dukes, and now the Cantons, weary, finally adhered. During this phase of negotiations the Cantons managed to secure the perpetual alliance of Bern, which, however, regarded the alliance only as a guarantee of peace and not as a constraint on its political activity (6 March 1353).

Peace lasted on Lake Lucerne for about three decades. In 1385 a dispute between Lucerne and the Habsburgs reopened the struggle: Duke Leopold was defeated at Sempach (19 July 1385) and then at Nafels (9 April 1388); peace was restored in 1394 for twenty years; the rights of the Habsburgs over the Cantons were no longer mentioned; Lucerne, Glarus, and Zug had their independence recognized; the conquests of the Confederates were confirmed. The Confederation (Eidgenossenschaft) now comprised five cantons and three cities: Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Glarus, Zug, Lucerne, Zurich, and Bern. They were autonomous states bound by special treaties that, within the framework of imperial law, agreed to defend their traditional autonomies. Since there was no single treaty but various ones, and since there was no equality among the contracting parties (Glarus was in fact a protector of the three Cantons), disputes were not lacking: these were resolved with the so-called "Letter of the Priests" (Pfaffenbrief) of 7 October 1370, concerning ecclesiastical jurisdictions, and then with the "Letter of Sempach" in 1375 (Sempacherbrief), for the discipline of militias in military expeditions.

The Confederation claimed immediate dependence on the Reich (Reichsfreiheit) without feudal mediation. When the emperors were in agreement with the Habsburgs, they fought the League; when they were in accord with them, they protected II. Rupert in 1401 sided with the Habsburgs; Sigismund, however, in 1415 recognized the privileges of the Confederates, granting them the right to elect the royal bailiff (Reichsvogt) who hitherto had represented the Reich among them and to administer high justice directly. In the 15th century, the Confederation acted as predominant in the central Alps. In 1411 Appenzell and St. Gall were received as protected members of the League. Basel, by forming an alliance with Bern in 1400, in some way became linked to the Confederation. After the death of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, the disintegration of the Milanese state gave pretext to Uri and Unterwalden to intervene south of the Gotthard: in 1419 they occupied Bellinzona, but in 1422 they were defeated at Arbedo and pushed back north. In the upper Rhine valley, the struggles between the bishops and the barons and the burghers led in those decades to the creation of the "Grey League," which allied itself with Glarus. In 1474 a definitive, perpetual peace was reached between the Confederation and the Habsburgs with the Treaty of Senlis, concluded under the auspices of Louis XI (11 June 1474). The reconciliation was due to the expansionist program of Charles the Bold. Louis XI prevented the Swiss from retaining their conquests in the Burgundian Franche-Comté, the Savoyard Vaud, and the Milanese Ticino, although at Giornico they defeated the army of Sforza (28 December 1478). Military victories brought about serious internal conflicts between the old urban aristocracies and popular elements. The crisis ended when the great wars of hegemony between France, Spain, and Austria broke out. The powers vied with one another in enlisting Swiss mercenaries: the Cantons, in turn, divided according to political sympathies. Basel joined the Confederation on 9 June 1501, Schaffhausen on 10 August, and later, on 17 December 1513, Appenzell. The Confederation thus remained intact until the French Revolution.

In the Lombard wars for the Duchy of Milan, Swiss mercenary militias fought on both sides. Ludovico il Moro, driven out by the French, recovered the Duchy with the help of the Swiss, who then betrayed him to the Swiss in the French army (1500). Taking advantage of the French triumph, the cantons of Uri and Unterwalden occupied Bellinzona and the Ticino, which Louis XII ceded to them by the Treaty of Arona (1503). In the following years the Swiss sided with Julius II; in 1512 they restored the Sforzas to Milan and established a true protectorate over Milan. The defeat they suffered at Marignano in 1515 forced them to withdraw. A serious crisis arose with the spread of the Lutheran Reformation and the national religious preaching of Ulrich Zwingli. The war between Catholic and Protestant cantons (Kappel War) ended with the Treaty of 20 November 1531, which recognized religious freedom for both sides and enabled the Confederation to survive. The religious question drew the city of Geneva, which had rebelled against the Duke of Savoy and become a center of Calvinism, closer to the Confederates; in 1558 Geneva allied itself with Bern. During the 16th century, the Confederation secured alliances with cities and princes, distinguishing them according to proximity and importance into first-order allies (Zugewandte) and second-order allies (Verwandte), with the aim of securing a barrier against the threats of the great powers. Faced with European wars, the Confederation began to assert the principle of neutrality. The union treaty with Austria (1511) and the perpetual peace with France (1516) now appeared insufficient guarantees. Neutrality, however, was threatened by the consent given to the cantons for enlistments abroad. During the Thirty Years' War, the Confederation managed to prevent the outbreak of conflict between the parties and created a military system for the defense of its borders (Defensional).

In the Peace of 1648, the representatives of the Confederation, with the support of France, obtained recognition of their sovereignty and the abolition of all feudal dependence on the German Empire. Thus, after 1648, the Confederation (known as the "Helvetic Body") became a public law entity with full independence. In the following age, it underwent a long economic crisis.

The old merchant aristocracies of the cities and the patriciates of the Cantons provoked, through their oppression, the rebellion of the working and rural classes. New struggles arose between Catholic and Protestant Cantons: the latter were defeated in 1656 but victorious in 1712 (Peace of Aarau). The Catholics placed themselves under the protection of Louis XIV.

In the 18th century, Switzerland came to occupy a prominent place in the European cultural movement: Zurich, Basel, and Geneva were important centers of literary and scientific studies. The influence of European political and economic theories exacerbated the persistent internal imbalance of the Confederation, due to its antiquated organization. The subject territories aspired to equality with the dominant cantons, and the populations sought to free themselves from the dominance of the urban patriciates. In the second half of the 18th century, insistent movements of rebellion preceded the outbreak of the French Revolution.

After 1789, democratic unrest met with aristocratic repression. Switzerland became a field of observation between French revolutionary agents and French and European monarchical ones. In Paris, Swiss democrats appealed for the liberation of the oligarchic cantonal governments. After Bonaparte’s expedition to Italy, possession of Switzerland acquired great importance as a communication route between Italy and France, and in 1798 French divisions entered Switzerland: in April, at Aarau, under French auspices, an assembly proclaimed the unitary and democratic Helvetic Republic in place of the old Confederation of sovereign aristocratic states. The rural cantons responded to the decisions of Aarau by rebelling, but were subdued by force. They then suffered forced contributions and exactions. The director at Aarau concluded a defensive and offensive alliance with the government in Paris; France secured free passage for its armies (19 and 1798). Traditionalists filled the country with disputes and strife. To end this, the First Consul imposed a new Constitution (the Act of Malmaison), which established a Confederation of 17 cantons with autonomy and a census-based constitution (29 April 1801). The Diet rejected this constitution and established another, which the French in turn rejected. This led to a new military occupation of the country. At the Helvetic Consulta in Paris in 1803, the First Consul gave Switzerland a new Constitution (the Act of Mediation). There were then 19 cantons with broad autonomy; only the equality of the cantons forming the Diet remained as a unifying principle. Napoleon declared himself Protector of the Helvetic Republic and imposed his alliance upon II. With Napoleon’s fall in 1814, partisans of the old regime rose up and organized a government in Lucerne. The European powers, however, withheld their consent and decided that to the 19 Napoleonic cantons three new ones should be added: Neuchâtel, Valais, and Geneva; then on 20 November 1815 they signed the “Declaration of the Perpetual Neutrality of Switzerland and the Inviolability of its Territory.” The Federal Pact of 7 August 1815 established that Switzerland should be a perpetual Confederation of 22 sovereign states. Each canton regulated its own constitution as sovereign; common institutions were only those of diplomacy and war. The Federal Diet was to sit alternately in the three cities of Bern, Zurich, and Lucerne, under the direction of the local Central Council.

After a period of tranquillity, the period known to the Swiss as the “period of regeneration” began around 1830. The triumph of the oligarchic system of 1815 had indeed given rise to new unrest, revolutions, and civil wars.

A party called the “Radicals” formed, seeking constitutional revision to establish popular sovereignty, universal suffrage, equality, and freedoms of the press, association, and belief. Seven reforming cantons created a “League for the Defence of Reforms”; at Sarmen the “League of Traditionalist Cantons” was formed. After 1840, discussions turned into a struggle between Catholic and Protestant cantons. In 1845, seven Catholic cantons—Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug, Lucerne, Fribourg, and Valais—formed a “separate league” (the Sonderbund) to defend their traditional rights against Protestant radicalism, which sought the expulsion of the Jesuits. The Constitution of 1848 reorganized the Confederation according to the Radical programme. The federation of states (Staatenbund) of 1815 was replaced by a federal state (Bundesstaat) with federal public law superior to cantonal law. Bern became the federal capital, with a presidency and assembly composed of the National Council and the Council of States. The Confederation acquired full competence in diplomacy, the military, customs, currency, finance, posts, and railways. Citizens then became citizens of Switzerland, not of the cantons, and the conception of the Swiss nation truly arose (12 September 1848). Internal strife thus ceased: the Catholic cantons gradually adapted, taking advantage of the freedoms assured by the moderate Radical programme. Later, constitutional revisions occurred, as in 1874, to strengthen central power. New democratic reforms were introduced, such as the popular initiative for certain laws and the popular sanction for certain government measures. After 1891, it was established that constitutional reforms could be proposed by 500,000 citizens and submitted to a popular vote (referendum). Switzerland’s neutrality successfully weathered the two great crises of the wars of 1914–18 and 1939–45: the European powers have regarded the Swiss Confederation as a happy oasis of peace suitable for international negotiations and discussions. The Swiss, however, little trusting in the powers, created a small but well-trained army to defend their civilization.

III. THE SONDERBUND WAR

Fought in 1847 in Switzerland between the liberal and Protestant cantons and the conservative and Catholic ones.

The conflict arose from both political and religious reasons. The radical-liberals, who found an obstacle to the triumph of their ideas in the federal state system established in 1814—which granted broad autonomy to the individual Cantons—sought a revision of the Federal Pact. They were successfully opposed by conservatives and Catholics from other Cantons in the years following 1830. The conflict soon took on a religious aspect when the liberals of Aargau secularized seven convents (four male and three female) on the pretext that the monks and nuns had incited the population against the constituted authorities. The federal authorities, to which both parties had appealed, declared the act illegal, but the government of Aargau did not comply with this decision. The Catholic and conservative Cantons, faced with such infractions, began to establish closer contacts among themselves; their adversaries adopted extreme positions. In response to the suppression of the convents in Aargau, the Jesuits were invited to the Canton of Lucerne.

A liberal attempt to seize Lucerne with volunteer forces and the assassination of Joseph Leu, the leader of the Catholic conservative faction in that Canton, prompted the conservative Cantons to defend their rights against radicals and liberals through a separate alliance (Sonderbund), deemed necessary due to the ineffectiveness of the federal authorities. The alliance was secretly concluded on December 11, 1845, between Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Lucerne, Zug, Fribourg, and Valais, with the commitment to repel any attack by all means at their disposal. To secure adequate armaments, the seven Cantons turned to Austria and France. After the mediation by some Protestant conservatives, led by Bluntschli, failed, the Sonderbund was ordered to dissolve by the majority of the Federal Diet, and war broke out.

General Dufour, appointed supreme commander of the federal forces on October 24, 1847, had under his command approximately 100,000 men with 172 artillery pieces, while the Sonderbund could field about 80,000 troops with 88 cannons. Moreover, the strategic situation was unfavorable to the Sonderbund, surrounded as it was by hostile Cantons and further divided into two parts. Dufour first turned against Fribourg, separated from the Sonderbund by the Canton of Vaud, and captured it on November 14. He then directed his forces toward Lucerne, entering the city ten days later. The Sonderbund’s army, in full retreat, ceased to exist. Zug had already surrendered without resistance on November 21. On the 25th, Unterwalden capitulated; on the 26th, Schwyz; on the 27th, Uri; and on the 28th, Valais. In all the conquered Cantons, radical governments came to power, hastening to enact laws against the Jesuits and to secularize monasteries. The defeat of the Sonderbund was due to its reliance on military intervention by Austria and France, which led General Salis-Soglio, commander-in-chief of the Sonderbund forces, to abandon any offensive plans.

Silvio Furlani

IV. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

I. Origins

The earliest Christian origins of Switzerland date back to the 3rd–4th centuries, and Christianity penetrated the region through obscure missionaries, merchants, or soldiers, via the two great communication routes between northern Italy and the regions beyond the Alps: the first crossed the Pennine Alps, leading into Valais and southern Switzerland, from where it branched toward Gaul and Germany; the second crossed the Rhaetian Alps, emerging at Chur and thence following the Rhine northward.

A company of Christian soldiers (the *Tebei* [v.])—probably sent to suppress the Bagaudae revolt—was martyred under Diocletian and Maximian (285–292) at Agaunum (v.) in Valais, which became one of the most popular shrines of the early Middle Ages. The ruins of a chapel on the Brissago Islands (Ticino); two clay lamps found at Geneva, one bearing the fish and the other the palm; and a glass vessel discovered at Avenches inscribed *Vivas in Deo* may all date to the 4th century or even the late 3rd.

Later and unfounded traditions claim that St. Barnabas evangelized parts of Valais and Ticino, that St. Peter himself crossed the Alps and passed through Lower Valais and Geneva, and that a hermit already venerated on the shores of Lake Thun, St. Beatus, was a disciple of St. Peter. It has also been asserted that Geneva had bishops from the end of the 1st century. From the early Middle Ages, Chur venerated St. Lucius, who, toward the end of the 2nd century, is said to have come from Britain (where he was king) to Raetia and preached the Christian faith there.

###

2. The First Bishoprics

a) The part of present-day Swiss territory lying between the Alps and the Jura formed the *Civitas Helvetiorum*. Its capital, Avenches, enjoyed a flourishing prosperity until it was sacked by the Alemanni around 265; a second invasion seems to have struck it again in the mid-4th century. Nevertheless, in the Middle Ages, Avenches preserved the memory of having been an episcopal see and even claimed to have had a very long series of bishops (seven, according to a 1447 petition to the Pope, or twenty-two, according to a tradition recorded in 1228). In any case, no names are known before the 6th century. Indeed, at the beginning of that century, it appears that the see was transferred from Avenches to the city of Windisch, an ancient castrum located at a strategically important point where the Aar, Reuss, and Limmat rivers converge. However, when in 561 the ancient *Civitas Helvetiorum* was divided between Austrasia (under King Sigebert) and Burgundy (under King Guntram), with the border between the two kingdoms drawn along the Aar River, the episcopal see was again moved back to Avenches. The most famous bishop of this see in the 6th century was St. Marius (574–94), originally from Autun and buried at Lausanne, suggesting that he transferred his see to that city.

b) On the periphery of the *Civitas Helvetiorum*, four other cities had their capitals within the territory of present-day Switzerland: the *Civitas Vallensium* (Valais) in the south, the *Civitas Genavensium* (Geneva) in the west, the *Civitas Rauricorum* (Augusta Raurica) in the northwest, and the *Civitas Raetorum* (Chur) in the east. The territories of the last three corresponded roughly to today’s Swiss borders; only the *Civitas Vallensium*, encompassing Valais, lay entirely within modern Switzerland.

St. Theodore is the first certain bishop of Valais; he appears at the Council of Aquileia in 381 with the title of Octodurus (modern Martigny), then the capital of this *civitas*. His signature’s position among those of long-serving bishops suggests he had held office for some time.

Written in the 11th century, it begins with Bishop Walaus, a contemporary of Pope Gregory III (731-41). However, the name of Justinian, Bishop of the Raurici, appears in a list of bishops said to have attended a Council of Cologne in 346; the reality of this Council is controversial, but the list of bishops would have been compiled with real names. By the 7th century, the monk Jonas, in his biography of St Eustace, mentions Ragnaric, Bishop of Augusta and Basel, *Augustanae et Basiliae*. Thus, between 600 and 650, the episcopal see appears to have been established at Basel. It is not known when the transfer took place, but it undoubtedly occurred following the expansion of the Alemanni in the 5th and 6th centuries.

e) Chur (v.), had a certain bishop by the mid-5th century; Asinius, who was represented in 451 at a Synod of Milan by Abbondantius, Bishop of Como. The bishopric of Chur still exists, and the city of the same name is the oldest episcopal residence still found in the territory of Switzerland.

f) Moreover, the bishoprics of Milan and Como, already established in the 4th century, in the Middle Ages encompassed the Italian valleys of present-day Switzerland, but it is unknown when this division dates back to. Hider believes that the diocese of Novara originally, and for several centuries, extended its jurisdiction over the entire present-day Canton of Ticino.

g) Little is known about the foundation of the bishopric of Constance. It was once thought that it was a continuation of the ancient bishopric of Windisch, whose bishop Grammazius had taken part in the Council of Orléans in 549. Now, Monsignor Besson has shown that Grammazius was at the head of the bishopric of the Helvetii, and his see was transferred to Avenches after the division of 561 among the Merovingian kings and later fixed at Lausanne. A 12th-century manuscript, preserved in Stuttgart, places at the head of the episcopal list of Constance a Bishop Maximus, who is placed in the second half of the 6th century; nothing is known of him, observes M. Besson, and L. Duchesne notes that there is no mention of a bishopric at Constance before the 7th century at the earliest. It should be noted, however, that the *Vita Sancti Galli*, written towards the end of the 8th century, recalls a Synod held in 615 at Constance, which elected John as bishop of that city.

3. Bishoprics of the Middle Ages

From the mid-8th century onwards, the ecclesiastical map of Switzerland remained fixed and did not change until the 16th century. Five cities in present-day Switzerland are centres of dioceses: Geneva, Chur, Sion, Lausanne, Basel. All eastern Switzerland belongs to the diocese of Constance, which the Aar separates, to the west, from the dioceses of Basel (below the Sigger, a tributary on the left bank of the Aar) and Lausanne (above the Sigger). It should be noted that Porrentruy and its region, to the northwest of the Jura, belonged to the diocese of Besançon, and the southern Alpine valleys, of Italian language, were linked to the bishoprics of Novara, Milan and Como. Novara retained until the 19th century the valley of Gondo (Valais); Milan possessed, from at least the 10th century, all of the Leventina above Bellinzona, including the Blenio valley, as well as the territories of Bissago, Capriasca and Campione. The diocese of Como included Mendrisiotto, Lugano, Locarno, Bellinzona, as well as Poschiavo and Brusio (Grigioni).

4. Metropolitan Sees

The participation of the first bishops of Octodurus (381) and Chur (451) in Italian councils led to the supposition that these bishops originally depended on the metropolitan see of Milan. In the 6th century, however, the bishops of Valais, of the Helvetii and of Geneva went instead to councils of the Frankish Empire. It is risky to establish at this time secure ties of dependence; nevertheless, Valais and Geneva appear within the orbit of Vienne on the Rhône, and it is possible that the bishopric of the Helvetii originally depended on Lyon. When Besançon separated from the province of Lyon to become the centre of a new province at the beginning of the 7th century, the bishoprics of Lausanne and Basel became suffragans of the new metropolitan see. At the end of the 8th century, Tarentaise likewise freed itself from dependence on Vienne and formed an Alpine province with Sion and Aosta as suffragans. Finally, Chur was united, after 843, to the metropolitan see of Mainz. These relationships lasted until the end of the Middle Ages.

From 1492, the Bishop of Sion, Jost of Silenen, sought to free himself from dependence on the Archbishop of Tarentaise, but without success; his second successor, Matthaeus Schiner, obtained from Pope Julius II, in 1510, a dispensation for the duration of his episcopate; shortly afterwards, in 1513, Leo X abolished it definitively. Sion was thus the first Swiss bishopric to be immediately subject to the Holy See. The other bishoprics remained subject to their metropolitans until the beginning of the 19th century.

5. Monasticism

Around 450, St Romanus, the founder of the ‘monks of the Jura’, established on the western slope the monastery of Condat (now St-Claude) and on the eastern slope that of Romainmôtier. In Valais, Bishop Theodorus of Octodurus built in the 4th century a small basilica in honour of St Maurice (v.) and his companions martyred at Agaunum (v.); as early as the 5th century this basilica attracted pilgrims, even from Gaul, as attested by St Eucherius, Bishop of Lyon (d. c. 450). Soon after, the Burgundians settled in the Rhône basin; St Sigismund, son of their king Gundobad, founded in 515 near the basilica of Agaunum a monastery, which must therefore be considered a ‘monasterium basilicae’. These are the oldest monasteries erected in the present territory of Switzerland and they predate St Benedict.

The Alemannic domination in northern Switzerland delayed the expansion of Christianity and civilization in this region, where it was necessary to wait until around the year 600 to find the bishoprics of Constance and Basel established and to see the first monasteries appear. These monasteries were linked to the group of Irish monks, of whom St. Columban was the leader and legislator. After founding the monastery of Luxeuil in the Vosges, he went to Bregenz, on the shores of Lake Constance, and then to Bobbio, where he died in 615. He was the apostle of the Alemanni. His principal disciple, St. Gall, retired to a forest south of Lake Constance; tradition likewise connects to the Columbanian group two other hermits, St. Ursanne, who settled on the banks of the Doubs in the Jura, and St. Sigibert, who withdrew to the banks of the Rhine in Upper Rhaetia. Over the centuries VII–XVII, abbeys of St. Gall, St. Ursanne, and Disentis arose on the tombs of these saints.

The monks of Luxeuil were also called upon by Duke Cramnelenus to restore the abbey of Romainmôtier and to found the priory of Baulmes (Vaud) during the seventh century. St. Wandregisel made prolonged stays at St. Ursanne and Romainmôtier before founding Fontenelle in Normandy (v. ROUEN). The monks of Luxeuil also founded Moutier-Grandval, where St. Germanus was the first abbot around 666. In the eighth and ninth centuries, the Rule of St. Benedict supplanted Columban’s prescriptions everywhere. It was introduced in 748 at St. Gall, then at Moutier-Grandval, which, in the Carolingian period, was in close relation with St. Gall. In the ninth century, a monastery that arose on the tomb of the hermit St. Imerius in the Suze valley (Jura) was dependent on Moutier-Grandval. Perhaps the Benedictine Rule was introduced in the eighth century at St-Maurice, where a chapel of St. Benedict is later noted. Other Benedictine abbeys owed their origin to St. Pirmin, who founded in 724, on an island in Lake Constance, the abbey of Reichenau; this later established the monastery of Pfäfers (Rheintal). St. Meinrad passed from Reichenau to Einsiedeln, where he was murdered in 861; at the same time, the Irish monk St. Fintan lived at Rheinau, on an island in the Rhine, and died in 878. Moreover, in the ninth century, the abbey of Murbach in Alsace founded the priory of St. Leodegar at Lucerne.

Shortly after the year 1000, the abbey of St. George was established at Stein am Rhein, founded around 966 at Hohentwiel, and the monks of Einsiedeln went to populate the convent of Muri in Aargau, founded by the Habsburgs. In 1052, the abbey of Allerheiligen appeared at Schaffhausen, to which the new abbey of Wagenhausen was joined in 1083; until 1417, however, the abbey of Petershausen near Constance also claimed to direct the monastery of Wagenhausen, and it was the monks of Wagenhausen and Petershausen who founded around 1135 the abbey of Fischingen.

During the tenth century, the Rodolphingian Cluny (v.) the ancient abbey of Romainmôtier and the new abbey founded at Payerne, to which the ancient monastery of Baulmes was joined; monks from Payerne settled at Bevaix in 998, while those from Romainmôtier had a small priory at Vallorbe from 1139 to 1321. The Cluniacs also established at Geneva, around the year 1000, the priory of St. Victor, near a basilica founded around 500.

At the end of the eleventh and beginning of the twelfth centuries, the Order of Cluny was established further at Rueggisberg (with a dependency at Roethenbach), at Basel (priory of St. Alban), Rougemont, Corcelles (Neuchâtel), Villars-les-Moines, Hettiswyl (with dependencies at Bargenbruck and Leuzigen), and finally at Belmund, from where the monastery moved around 1127 to the Île St-Pierre. St. Udalric resided at Payerne and at Rueggisberg.

Besides Cluny, other Benedictine abbeys foreign to Switzerland made foundations there or had dependencies there. At the end of the eleventh century, the bishop of Basel, Burkhard of Fenis, founded the abbey of Beinwil (Solothurn), and his brother Cono, bishop of Lausanne, that of St-Jean-de-Cerlier (Berne); for this latter foundation, Cono called upon monks from St. Blasien in the Black Forest. Monks from St. Blasien also came to found the abbeys of Engelberg in 1120 and of Trub (Berne) around 1125; Trub in turn created before 1152 the abbey of Alt Sankt Johann in the Toggenburg, with the priory of Sankt Peterzell (St. Gall). Still from the Black Forest, but from the abbey of Sankt Peter, came the monks who established the priory of Herzogenbuchsee (Berne) in 1108.

In French-speaking Switzerland, the priories of St. John in Geneva and of St. Peter of Clages in Valais (the latter with small priories at Granges and Ayent) were dependent, from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries, on the abbey of Ainay (Lyons). Another Lyonnais abbey, Savigny, possessed after 1025 the priory of Lutry (with secondary priories at Cossonay, Broc, St-Paul-sur-Evian, and Vionnaz). Finally, the counts of Geneva donated the priories of Chamonix and of Port-Valais to the abbey of St. Michael of the Clusa in Piedmont.

Benedictine monasticism thus experienced a broad flourishing in the territory of present-day Switzerland. Not all of its foundations, obviously, had the same vigor or shone at the same time. St. GALLIA (v.), which in the Carolingian period was already one of the principal centers of German culture alongside Reichenau and Fulda, occupies the most important place in the history of the Benedictine abbeys.