Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/164

146 to Wittenberg. He went to this city against the express wishes of his superiors. To satisfy them he first visited the orthodox Catholic universities of Cologne and Louvain, but the writings of Luther attracted him with irresistible power to Wittenberg, the head-quarters of the Reformation. Here, according to his epitaph, "he listened for more than a year with incredible eagerness to Luther himself" and was completely converted to the new doctrine. After his return to his own country he openly undertook the task of reformation in the very spirit of Luther. We cannot here enter into a detailed account of all the hardships he had to endure and the struggles through which he secured final victory to the cause of the Reformation in Denmark, and we must confine ourselves to mentioning that as the leader of the Protestants he made his confession of faith in their behalf at the "Herredag " (assembly of nobles and prelates) in Copenhagen in 1530, and replied to twenty-seven articles of faith by which the adherents of papacy sought to combat him. He also participated in the translation of the Bible into Danish, and the five books of Moses were translated by him from the Hebrew text (1535). Besides, he published several religious works, and among them a postil. This collection of sermons, which from cover to cover affords proof of the eminent position Hans Tausen must have occupied as a preacher, a fact which may also be inferred from the great results he achieved, gives us an interesting view of the state of the church generally during the reformation period. The author claims to have had in view, when he prepared the book, not only the needs of the laity, but also "the good and the advantage of those persons who stand in need of plain and simple instruction. * * * If they have the will, they may glean and learn so much from these sermons that, after teaching themselves during the whole week, they may afterward teach their parishioners on Sunday." As long as the struggle for ecclesiastical reform continued, he was fully occupied with the duties of his clerical office; but when the new doctrine had been established,