Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/163

Rh forward as it is, there is revealed to us a great and commanding personality. Every page of it glows with a warm, vigorous and homely eloquence. That of this author's works, which in literary value comes the nearest to his "Visitatsbog," is a collection of sermons called "The Bark of St. Peter," a series of very striking meditations on the development of religion and on the various religious systems. It is, in fact, a system of dogmatics and a church history in nuce, and in it he lets pass no opportunity of attacking the papal church. In his writings, which were intended more directly for the use of the common people, he again and again boldly scourges the besetting sins of the age, avarice, swearing, blasphemy, etc., while several of his other works are written simply for edification.

But the man who by word and deed contributed most to the reformation of Denmark was (1494-1561.) He is the real representative of the Danish ecclesiastical reform, but he accomplished less with his pen than with the living word, and he carried out his mission with zeal and courage, not allowing himself to be intimidated by threats or reproaches. He sprang from poor Danish parents on the island of Funen, and in his twelfth year he ran away from home for the purpose of going to school. Possessing unusual intellectual faculties he soon gained numerous friends, and thus accomplished his desire. He received his education in the Odense school, and it seems that he also studied in Aarhus, at all events his name is found among the pupils of the above mentioned distinguished teacher, Martin Börup. On leaving the school he became a monk in the convent of Antvortskov, in Zealand, and afterward he went to Rostock, where doubtless were developed the germs of the change which took place in his religious views. From Rostock, where he had taken the different academic degrees and become a "docent" (instructor), he went to Copenhagen, where during one year he delivered lectures at the university, and thence he repaired