Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/335



HE literature of Sweden during the middle age is upon the whole as poor as the Danish during the same time, which is naturally accounted for by the fact that the conditions for its development were essentially the same in both countries. The clergy were for a long time in exclusive possession of all intellectual culture, and this could not but give to theology the foremost place in literature. The convents became the centre of this culture, which could not transcend the bounds to which it had been carried by the ecclesiastic students who visited foreign universities. The students could not bring home more than they acquired, and thus from lack of suitable conditions this culture gradually, instead of becoming rooted and established, became impoverished and lost its hold on the people. Nor did there take place any noticeable improvement, when Sweden in 1477 obtained her own university in Upsala, for this institution accomplished but little during the first decades of its existence. There was for a time no progress, since the elements which might have served as the foundation of a national Swedish literature were disregarded, while the foreign elements were neglected and fell into decay. The clergy manifested an increasing distaste for the sciences, the monks grew more and more ignorant, and the study of the ancient classics at length entirely ceased. Legends monopolized everything, and thus the noble Roman tongue degenerated into monkish Latin. Still, the conditions were not as unfavorable in Sweden as in Denmark, for in Sweden the clergy had not isolated themselves