Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/155

Rh the chains with which the Church fettered the people. As an evidence of this tendency we may regard the attempts made already at the close of the middle age to make the Scriptures accessible to the laity through translations into the vernacular. The conditions for a revolution were at hand; there was only need of an impulse from abroad, and when Luther at last raised his mighty voice, there at once spread in ever widening circles a realization of the existing wrongs. The kings immediately became interested in the movement, and, above all, Christian II, who clearly appreciated how closely religion was identified with the popular element. By the reforms which he tried to introduce in the public school system, he manifested his deep sympathy for the masses, and evinced a desire to raise the lower classes such as none of his predecessors, and but few of his successors, ever could boast. But his efforts met with no success, because they were too much in conflict with the egotism and prejudices of the ruling class. Both his ordinances for the improvement of the schools and his other laws were rescinded by his successor, Frederik I, who declared them to be "noxious and opposed to good morals." So when the great fermentation had subsided, when the new doctrines had become firmly established, and when all other matters had been arranged accordingly, the Latin again came to the front, and the national influences still at work had not sufficient strength to repress it. And yet the period between the close of the middle age and the learned age which followed the Reformation, deserves to be called a, since the work done in it was for the people, and since the people were not only recipients, but also took part in the reforms accomplished. Many of the most prominent representatives of the age sprang directly from the ranks of the common people.

Among those who by their literary activity contributed to the cause of the Reformation unquestionably ranks first, and he is rightly styled "the father of Danish literature," since he was really the first important