Swedish Church Ordinance 1571

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The Swedish Church Ordinance of 1571 was the first complete Swedish church order following the Swedish reformation in the 1520s.

The main originator of the ordinance was archbishop Laurentius Petri. Petri had been archbishop since 1531, and had published many doctrinal texts. He had in vain tried to persuade kings Gustav Vasa and Eric to be allowed to publish a complete church ordinance. With the ascension of King John in 1568, Petri was granted permission, and in 1571 published Canon Ecclesiasticus.^[1] It was formalized at a church meeting in 1572.

Through the ordinance, all the fundamental Lutheran doctrines where written down and the canon law formally lost its authority. Petri's work was however marked by a profound compromise between the old and the new. He altered the Catholic doctrines he believed were incompatible with true Christianity, but allowed others to remain if he deemed them useful. So, for example, were the episcopate was retained, even if it was not directly dictated by the holy scripture, ^[1] and prohibited degree of kinship was somewhat lessened, from the seventh to sixth degree of kinship.^[2]

[edit] Aftermath

As useful as the ordinance was, it did not address the essential matter of a statement of faith. Petri planned on writing a declaration statement to the Augsburg Confession, but died shortly after, and the issue was not settled until the Uppsala Synod, 1593. ^[3]

This ordinance was also altered in 1575, when, after the death of Petri, King John III of Sweden made several Catholic-inclined additions to it. These were not reverted until the Uppsala Synod.