_Sigismund_, the son and successor of John III., was not apt to become more popular than his father. Born at the pleasant prison of Gripsholm, which yet was a prison, he was of a cold, unsympathetic disposition, a king of few words and hard to approach. At John’s death, Sigismund was twenty-six years of age and had reigned several years in Poland. Charles stepped to the front as the head of the government until Sigismund’s arrival.
The Protestants, fearing the worst from their new Catholic king, decided to take firm and early action. The duke ordered a Riksdag at Upsala in February, 1593, the deliberations being held by the clergy alone. The Liturgia was abolished with the majority of Catholic church ceremonies, Luther’s catechisms, L. Petri’s ritual, church visitations, etc., being reintroduced. Abraham Angermannus was elected archbishop, and decision made for the re-establishment of the Upsala University. The duke had not been present at the deliberations, and appeared displeased because not consulted. He, who was secretly accused of being a Calvinist, pointed out more Catholic ceremonies to be abolished, whereupon the decisions won the sanction of the duke, the state council and the bishops. By this act the Lutheran Church was re-established, the Augsburgian Confession being laid down by the meeting as its corner-stone. When this action had been taken, the chairman, Nicolaus Bothniensis, a young Upsala professor, exclaimed: “Now Sweden has become _one_ man, and we all have _one_ God.”
In August, 1593, King Sigismund arrived in Sweden, surrounded by Jesuits and Polish nobles, and with a sum of money wherewith to pay the expenses of a Catholic revival. To the demands made to sign the decisions of the Upsala meeting he gave a flat refusal. The conditions in Stockholm grew perilous, Jesuits and Lutheran ministers preaching denouncements upon each other in the churches and conflicts between the Polish troops and the populace taking place. In January, 1594, Sigismund, accompanied by the state councillors and the members of the Riksdag, came to Upsala for his father’s funeral and his own coronation. Duke Charles arrived with 3,000 men, whom he quartered in the neighborhood. He dismissed the papal legate, Malaspina, and his Jesuits from the funeral procession, before it entered the cathedral, and told the king, in behalf of all, that no coronation would take place before the confessional liberty of the Lutheran Church was confirmed. The Estates declared themselves ready to sacrifice their lives for the pure faith. The king still refused his sanction, whereupon the duke replied that the Riksdag would be dismissed within twenty-four hours if he insisted. Sigismund gave in, upon the advice of the Jesuits, who told him that pledges to Lutherans were not binding. Sigismund was crowned and returned suddenly to Poland.