The bonds which united the two Petri and Anderson were day by day drawn closer. The three friends studied the Scriptures together; they conversed about all the reforms which were needed in the Church; and Olaf, in order to encourage Anderson, communicated to him the letters which he received from Wittenberg, whether from Luther or from other champions of the Reformation. In this manner they were spending happy and useful days, when a domestic event occurred to disturb their pious intercourse.
Olaf had not made any long stay at Orebro since his return from Wittenberg. His parents, and particularly his mother, were strongly attached to the Roman Church; and when in her company, while he would talk to her of the Saviour, he had not courage to attack the superstitions of the Church. On a sudden, a message from their mother informed the two brothers of the death of their father, and summoned them to attend the funeral. They set out immediately without hesitation; but at the same time they foresaw the embarrassment which would arise to increase their filial sorrow. Their mother had requested the Carmelite monks to celebrate the funeral ceremony in conformity with the ordinances of the Roman ritual; and the deceased himself had set apart for this purpose a portion of his landed estate. Olaf and Lawrence journeyed to Orebro, and as they went on their way by the shore of Lake Heilmar they were in perplexity and distress of mind. They rejected the doctrine of purgatory and masses offered for the dead; and Olaf, who was no waverer between truth and error, had determined that his father should be buried in a manner accordant with the spirit of evangelical Christianity.[388]
When they reached their father’s house, the brothers endeavored to console their mother; but at the same time they explained to her in a tenderly affectionate manner that the only purgatory which cleanses from all sin is the blood of Jesus Christ; and that the man who believes in the efficacy of the expiatory death of the Saviour enters immediately into the fellowship of the blessed. The pious woman shed bitter tears. Vague rumors had, indeed, reached her respecting the doctrines adopted by her sons; but now she was convinced of the fact by indubitable proofs, as if she had seen and touched them. The eternal repose of her husband was at stake; and Olaf alleged that the ceremonies enjoined by the Church were superfluous; that no mass ought to be said for the salvation of his soul. She wept more and more. ‘Ah, my sons,’ she said, ‘when God gave you to me, and when I made great sacrifices for the sake of having you instructed in the sciences, I did not think that you would become propagators of dangerous innovations in your native land.’ ‘Dear mother,’ replied the sons, deeply affected, ‘when you hear one of the Latin masses, of what use is it to you? Can you even understand it?’ ‘True,’ answered the devout Karin, ‘I do not understand it; but while listening to it, I beseech God with so much earnestness to accept it, that I can not doubt that He answers my prayer.’ Olaf thought that the best thing he could do was to set forth the living faith which inspired him; and he proclaimed Jesus Christ to his mother, as the only way that leads to heaven. He spoke with so much love that at length she yielded and bade them do as they intended. Olaf and Lawrence at once dismissed the monks, and they themselves paid the last honors to their father, with the noble simplicity and the living faith which are inspired by the Gospel. The monks were angry, and declared that the soul of the deceased was doomed to eternal condemnation. ‘Have no fear of that,’ said the sons to their mother, ‘these are mere arrogant and impious words. God is the only judge of the living and the dead.’[389]