• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Here come the Wars of Religion...:eek:

And I'm very happy to see Ulster in a United Ireland. Gerry Adams would be proud.:D
 
King Christopher seems like a king with very high stats (I suspect at least 7 in administrative), is that correct? And a break with Rome? Another AAR where the Reformation has come!
 
Fingers crossed for the arrival of a late Hans Tausen. Also a nice use of Frederik IIIs' Arvehyldning.
 
Break with Rome? OH! Whatever could that mean!? :D

Oh, I don't know... Maybe Chris will loose military access from the Pope?

yay for government reforms! break with Rome? I hope this means war.. I like reading about wars haha :p

Well... Let's just say that the last Danish war has not been fought yet

Here come the Wars of Religion...:eek:

And I'm very happy to see Ulster in a United Ireland. Gerry Adams would be proud.:D

I was proud too. I had to do something to deserve that shamrock cookie...

King Christopher seems like a king with very high stats (I suspect at least 7 in administrative), is that correct? And a break with Rome? Another AAR where the Reformation has come!

He was blessed by God, but not by the Pope.

Fingers crossed for the arrival of a late Hans Tausen. Also a nice use of Frederik IIIs' Arvehyldning.

Yeah, it's pretty neat that you can actually see all the "new" buildings in the picture. Except for Copenhagen Castle, it's almost like seeing Slotsholmen today. I think Griffenfeld is the more important of the two in this update, although Tausen will play a role too.
 
Wow...

I just realized that it's been almost two months since my last update. I had some nasty finals and then went home to Denmark for Christmas. Being home after three months abroad I didn't have the time to visit the forums, but now I'm back in San Diego and have been up since 4 am (damned jet lag). So I guess I could try to write about that break with Rome...
 
Glad to have you back at last... be aware that while you were gone I started an AAR (shameless self-advertising, see sig:p) In it I conquered Denmark, only to have them resurface in southern Sweden.:wacko:

Anyway, I do hope you get an update up soon, but if you're too busy to I don't think anyone will mind. Just so long as you finish it unlike my first AAR.;)
 
Yes! An Update! I am rejoicing!
 
He was blessed by God, but not by the Pope.

Heh, hy would one need to be blessed by the Pope when he's already blesed by God himself, yes? :D

Nice to have back, Salik!
 
Glad to have you back at last... be aware that while you were gone I started an AAR (shameless self-advertising, see sig:p) In it I conquered Denmark, only to have them resurface in southern Sweden.:wacko:

Anyway, I do hope you get an update up soon, but if you're too busy to I don't think anyone will mind. Just so long as you finish it unlike my first AAR.;)

I'll be sure to check out your AAR- remember that Denmark will always resurface, just like Ireland;)

Yes! An Update! I am rejoicing!

As always, it is an honour to have you on board.

Heh, hy would one need to be blessed by the Pope when he's already blesed by God himself, yes? :D

Nice to have back, Salik!

Thanks. Yeah, Chris doesn't need the Pope- or anyone else...

sweet! Salik is back! Now hopefully I'll get to seen the Dane's go on a(nother) killing spree hahaha...

Soon enough. Soon enough...
 
Chapter XXX: The archbishop of Copenhagen

Gyldenstjerne.png


Coat of arms of the House of Gyldenstierne

When Hans Tausen and Peder Schumacher facilitated the coup that brought Christopher III to the throne, they probably hoped to end the rule of the Sehestedian movement, but it is dubious whether they had expected or desired the events that would follow.

As mentioned earlier, the Kruse regency made several ill-fated attempts to prevent Christopher from taking power. Chief among them was the idea, that Hans Tausen could be excommunicated, and sacraments distributed by him be retracted. Hans Tausen was an outspoken critic of Sehested, and was furthermore rumoured to be a secret supporter of the Grossoan reformation. If the Eucharist distributed to Christopher had been given by a proven heretic, it could be argued that the miracle of transubstantiation might not have taken place at all, in which case the prince was still a minor. Whether this would have worked is an open question, but it is unlikely. Revoking the sacraments distributed by the bishop would have meant that marriages, christenings and other important rites all would be annulled. Husbands and wives would have lived in sin, deceased children would be caught in limbo forever and the souls of the deceased would be locked in Purgatory for years, being cleansed for sins which had already been confessed and atoned for.

But before the process of excommunicating Hans Tausen could even be started, Christopher was crowned and well on his way to reforming the kingdom. However, Jakob Reventlow, the archbishop of Lund and a member of the regency council, was not a man to step down when wronged. As the head of the entire Nordic church and a cardinal, he would not accept to be surpassed by a mere bishop like Hans Tausen, especially not one of common birth, unlike himself. So in January 1623, an ecclesiastical court was adjourned in Lund to convict Hans Tausen of heresy. The evidence was slim, but sufficiently grave. A priest in Halland, Peer Tøndebinder, who had been found guilty of translating the New Testament to Danish, had in his possession several letters from Tausen, but none of them were in any way heretic. In an alehouse in Copenhagen two fishermen and a merchant’s clerk were heard uttering blasphemies, but were not taken to the stake after they swore to have heard the words from the bishop’s mouth. Hans Tausen was in danger of being excommunicated and possibly burned under the still existing laws of the Kruse regency, when Christopher, urged by Peder Schumacher, made a drastic decision.

When the court adjourned on the 29th of January 1623, the king himself showed up in the cathedral and ordered the arrest of Jakob Reventlow for treason. The charges against Reventlow were many and varied from exercising foreign sovereignty in the king’s realm to buying beef at the same price as the king did. Reventlow’s arrest sent waves of chock throughout Catholic Europe. The new king of Denmark-Sweden-Norway had not only withdrawn from the cause of the Counter-Reformation, he had also laid hand on a prince of the church. A heated battle of words between Rome and Copenhagen began, as Christopher’s best lawyers argued that the king was the sole sovereign in his lands, while the Vatican claimed that no one was above the church, and that no temporal king could pass judgement on an archbishop. Pope Clement finally sent a last letter to Christopher, pleading him to release the archbishop, repent and be forgiven, but Christopher, riding on a wave of popular contempt for the bishops who lived like princes on their mansions, sent back a rude reply. On the 20th of June 1624, the king was excommunicated.

This was not the first time a Danish king was excommunicated. Christopher I and Erik Menved were both excommunicated following conflicts with archbishops of Lund, and Christian I was excommunicated when he invaded the archbishopric of Bremen. All of them quickly made peace with the Pope. Christopher III was different. First of all, he was very young and relentless, believing himself to be the only ruler of the realm by grace of God, something not even the Pope could challenge, and secondly he was being advised by Peder Schumacher who was very sceptical of the Catholic church. So on the 13th of December 1624, the Church of Denmark was instituted. The new church was not reformed or Grossoan, but kept much of the Catholic sacraments and mass, the main difference was, that the king was supreme head of the church. He appointed all bishops, including the archbishop, and commissioned and approved the book of common prayer. A summit of bishops met in Viborg under the leadership of Hans Tausen to lay down the foundations of a new church. A church in which the priests would speak in the local tongue rather than Latin, in which no bishops would grow fat of the land and disregard the laws and in which no monasteries would be filled with hypocritical monks, claiming to live in celibacy while breeding bastards all over their parishes. The Catholic church was a church for feudalism. The Church of Denmark would be a church for a new age. The age of absolutism.
 
Last edited:
An absolutist and semi-protestant royal revolution?

Epicness of drastic proportions :D
 
Welcome back and glad to see a new update! Wee, now the fun begins once you're excommunicated!!! :D
You're just happy because it's going the same way as your AAR now.:p

A good update, though sad to see betrayal against the Catholic Church. Nevertheless, to stay with the Danish bandwagon... OFF WITH HIS HEAD!:D
 
You're just happy because it's going the same way as your AAR now.:p

:rofl: Maybe a little hahaha it is a compelling historical theme to explore though, you have to admit! :)