Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/405

 SWEDEN

355

SWEOENBORGIANS

,ioned Bishop Thomas Simonsson of Strangnas (d. 1443). He wrote an account in fairly good verse of ,he national hero Engelbrecht, and in his songs iraised the virtue of loyalty and the blessings of frec- lom. Jons Buddc, a Brigittine monk, who was by )irth a German, prei)ared while living first at Vads- enn and then at X&dcndal, P'inland, various versions )f ascetic works, lives of saints and similar treatises, md also translated several books of the Bible, as Ju- lith, Esther, Ruth, and Machabecs. Peder Minsson \Tote text-books on mining. Bishop Brask of Lin- coping wrote two works now lost; one a chronicle of lis diocese, issued in 1523, the other a genealogy of the Swedish nobiUty (1.530). Lastly many reminiscences if the heroic and Catholic eras are still found in the ''(ilkrisorna (folk-songs). Accounts of the five jieri- )(Ls of Protestant Swedish literature may be found in vorks on the subject. Mention should be iiiacio here )f John Me.ssenius, author of "Soandia ilhislrata", he chronicle of a bishop, and various dramas. He vas imprisoned for twenty years on account of Gatho- ic tendencies and on his death-bed openly joined the ^latholic Church. He left a work in manuscript lalled "Hertig Carls Slagtarbank" (Duke Charles's shambles), now in the royal library at Stockholm, vhich, although perhaps somewhat too severe and at limes exaggerated in tone, describes the bloody perse- iution that Catholics who were faithful to king and ^'hurch suffered from the cruel father of Gustavus \diil|ihus. It should also be said that Erik John ^tagnclius (d. 1S23) belongs with Wallin and, in part, ["cgncr, to the foremo.st Protestant poets of Sweden; n his drama "The MartjTs" Stagnehus produced a vork which is of value particularly to Catholics. ■Naturally there is notliing to be said of a Catholic Jwedish literature of the modern era. The mission- iries, however, have not been idle. Besides prayer- )ooks, contemplative works, and catechisms, they lave issued several apologetic works, as Gibbons in his 'V&ra fiiders tro" (Faith of our Fathers); also Ham- nerstein, who has written "Edgar", and devotional reatises {philolhea), and has been a successful trans- ator of Latin and German hymns into Swedish.

ScHlJCK— WABBrRG, Ittustrerad svensk LUeraturhisloria (Stock- lolm, 1.S96-97); Schuck. Srensk Literalurhisloria (Stockholm, 890); Beknabdisi, /^a torm/ure Srandinace (1894): Nieman.v, 5oa Nordtandbuch (1909), an introduction to Scandinavian natural listory and civilization; Andersson, Catalogue de t'exposilion iu^doise de V ensngnmenl superieure (1900), contains many ,uthorities; Ordbok after sienska spraket, issued by the .Swedish Academy: Tamm, Etymolooisi srensk ordbok (Upsala, 1S90 — ); kiDEHWALL, Ordbok ofver stenska medeUidssprdket.

P. WiTTMANN.

Sweden, Vic.vri.^te Apostolic of. See Sweden.

Swedenborgians, the believers in the religious loctriues taught Ijy Emanuel Swedenborg. As an irganized Ijody they do not call themselves Sweden- Kirgians, which seems to assert the human origin of heir religion, but wish to be known as the "C'hurch of he Xew Jerusalem", or "New Church", claiming for t IJivine authorship and promulgation through hu- nan instrumentality.

L Life of Swedenborg.— Emanuel Swedenborg vas b. at Stockholm, 29 Jan., 1688; d. in London, 19 March, 1772. His father was Dr. Jesper Swed- )erg, who later became the Lutheran Bishop of Skara. iwedcnborg's life falls into two very distinct jH-riods: he first extends to the year 174.'j and reveals him as in ade])t in the mathematical and jihysical sciences; n the second he a))pears as a writer on theological lubjects. Endowed with extraordinary talents, he md travelled for four years in England, Holland, i'Vance, and Germany. Shortly after liis return to Sweden, he was appointed by King Charles XII to an us-sessor-ship on the Board of Mines (1716). He gave lignal proof of his engineering ability during the siege )f Frederickshall (1718) by inventing a meana to
 * omi)leted his university course at Upsala in 1710

transport boats and galleys overland for a distance of fourteen miles. His family was ennobled in 1719, a distinction indicated in the change of the name from Swedberg to Swedenborg. He declined (1724) the chair of mathematics at the University of I'psala and published at Leipzig in 1743 his imjiortant "Philo- sophical and Mineral Works" ("Opera ])liilosophicaet mineralia"). A year later appeared his treatise "On the Infinite and Final Cause of Creation" which in- cludes a discu.ssion of the relation between the soul and the body. Another scientific journey took him to Denmark, Germany, Holland, France, and Italy, and in 1740-41 appeared at Amsterdam one of his larger anatomical works ("CEcononiia regni ani- malis"). The trend of his thoughts became dis- tinctly religious in 1734 and exclusively so in 174.5. He alleged that at the latter date Our Lord .ajipeared to him in London, initiated him into (lie .s])iritual sense of the Scrijitures, and commissioned him to ex])oimd it to his fellow men. With this vision there began, he declared, an intercourse with God, angels, and spirits which was to terminate only with his death. In 1747 he resigned his as.sessorship and, at his request, received as a pension the half of his salary. He now spent his time between London, Amsterdam, and Stockholm, and WTote in Latin his voluminous theological works. These soon attracted the atten- tion of the Lutheran clergy of Sweden; a commission was instituted in 1771 to examine them, but took no action against their author. At his death Sweden- borg received the Lord's Supper from a Protestant clergj'man, to whom he affirmed his final attachment to his religious principles. He was never married, was sim])le in his habits, worked and slept without much regard to day or night, and lay at times in a trance for several consecutive days. In 1908 his remains were transferred from London to Sweden and deposited in the cathedral at LTpsala.

II. Doctrinal Principles. — Swedenborg and his followers hold that as the Christian religion succeeded the Jewish so the Swedenborgian teaching sujiple- mented the Christian. This new dispen.sation pro- mulgated by Swedenborg is, according to them, based on a Divinely revealed interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures. Some of the characteristic features of this new religious system are presented in the follow- ing outline. God is Love Itself and Wi.sdom It.self. His Power is from and according to these as they flow forth into creative act. The Trinity does not consist of three distinct Divine persons as Catholics main- tain; but is understood in the sense that in the Incar- nation the Father or Jehovah is essentially the Divine Being, while the Son is the human (or sub-spiritual) element assumed by the Godhead in order to become present among men. The Holy Spirit is the Divine Presence and Power consequent ujion this assumption and resultant transfiguration (glorification in Sweden- borgian language) of the human element which thus became "a Divine Human" with all power in heaven and on earth. Jesus Christ is, therefore, not the Incarnation of a second Divine person, but of the Divine as a whole; he includes the Father (Godhead), the Son (assumed humanity), and the Holy Spirit (Divine-human power). Life does not exist except in Him or from Him, and cannot be created. Its pres- ence in created forms is accounted for by continuous Divine influx.

On this earth man enjoys the highest participation of life, but he is greatly inferior, in this resjiect, to the races undoubtedly inhabiting other planets, e. g., Jupiter, Mercury. His three con.stituent elements are .soul, body, and power. Originally granted full freedom in the use of his faculties, he erroneously con- cluded that he held them from no one but himself and fell away from God. The Lord, after the fall, did not abandon the sinner, but appeared to him in the form of an angel and gave him the law to reclaim