L. H. CHRISTIAN by L. H. Christian

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Apr 28, 1904

L. H. CHRISTIAN

By L. H. Christian

Sabbath-Keepers in Scandinavia Before and After the Reformation—No. 1

L. H. CHRISTIAN

THERE are two truths with which every student of church history may be conversant,—truths that are of intense interest to those who at the present time honor and defend the Bible Sabbath.

The first is that in every age of the Christian era a large number of loyal, heroic believers have observed the seventh day as the Sabbath. In spite of the bitterest opposition, yes, in spite of the bloodiest persecution, they adhered to this vital principle of the divine law, gladly suffering not only all the many inconveniences that always of necessity belong to a despised minority, but even imprisonment, torture, and death. When the redeemed are permitted to study church history in the library of heaven, they will find a record of many a noble Christian who has offered his life for the true Sabbath.

The second truth alluded to above is that in the great revivals of the past when God’s Holy Spirit, bringing new power and truth, has rested on his servants, some of the most learned and god-fearing among the converted ones have been led to accept God’s holy Sabbath. It is a source of encouragement and inspiration to remember this.

The evidences of these truths have often been presented in the REVIEW and in our books—not too often, however, as the Sabbath message can not possibly be too strongly urged and emphasized. We have read of the Sabbath-keepers in England, Germany, Bohemia, Russia, Switzerland, and Abyssinia, but nothing has been told about the ancient Sabbatarians in Scandinavia.

While studying in the university library at Christiania last fall, I noticed in a historical magazine an article entitled “Saturday-keeping in Scandinavia.” The essay, though written by a good author, was quite unfair, yet it clearly showed that there had been a large number of faithful Sabbath-keepers in these countries both before and after the Reformation. And it contained several valuable references to other impartial, reliable works on the same subject. From these I will endeavor to give a brief account of this ancient Sabbath movement in Scandinavia.

The Lutheran catechism as used to-day in Scandinavia is very much like the Catholic. In it the Sabbath commandment reads: “Remember to keep holy the rest day.” But the Scandinavian catechisms have not always given the commandment in that form. In one of the very first catechisms or Bible-lesson books published in Scandinavia the Sabbath commandment reads: “Remember the seventh day to keep it holy;” and in the next edition, or the second part of the same work, it is rendered: “Do not forget to keep the seventh day holy.” [See Bishop Bang’s “History of the Lutheran Catechism,” Vol. I, page 87.] These books were printed or written about the year 1400.

No book—not even the Bible—has such a vast, decided, molding influence on the Scandinavians as their catechisms. That is true to-day, and it was far more true in the past; consequently when the catechism mentioned the seventh day as holy, we may know that many would endeavor to keep the day so plainly designated. That such, too, was actually the case is proved beyond all doubt by the strenuous laws and edicts which the church in Scandinavia enacted against “Saturday-keeping.” At a provincial church council held at Bergen, Norway, in 1435, the following decree was issued:—

“The archbishop has learned that some in different districts of the kingdom, partly through their own weakness of the flesh, partly by the deception and urging of the devil, have presumed (dared) to adopt and observe holy days, which neither God nor the holy church has commanded and permitted, but such as are directly contrary to both God and the church, especially Saturday-keeping, which the Jews and heathen, but not the Christians, did anciently observe. The church law does emphatically prohibit the adoption or observance of any holy day aside from those commanded by the pope, the archbishop, or the bishops. For this reason the archbishop and the clergy assembled in this provincial council at Bergen do decide that the keeping of Saturday must never be permitted to exist except as granted in the church law. Let all, then, under the threat of church penalty abstain from this evil.”—Keyser’s “Norske Kirkes Historie,” Vol. II, page 488.

This council at Bergen was one of great importance to the Catholic Church in Norway. Its object was to strengthen the then somewhat waning power of the papal hierarchy in Scandinavia. At another council held by the same archbishop at Christiania the next year (1436) the following decree was given among other strong edicts:—

It is under heavy penalties “forbidden to keep Saturday holy by abstaining from work according to the custom of the Jews.”

The fact that such severe laws were enacted against the Sabbath is in itself the very best proof of the existence of true Sabbath-keepers. Even modern legislation, with its overgrowth of verbosity and bewildering exemplifications and details, does not make laws against things that do not exist at all; much less did the church and state anciently issue decrees without a cause.

But it was not the laity alone that began to keep the Sabbath; even some of the priests were disposed to do the same. Norway’s state historian, Prof. L. Daae, writing in a prominent Lutheran theological magazine about the ancient Saturday-keepers in Scandinavia, states that in the Danish royal archives he has found an old, forgotten manuscript that gives some interesting facts in regard to this matter. Among other things it is declared:—

“The priests have also deceived or persuaded the laity to promise that they will keep Saturday as Sunday.”

What a blessing it would be if many of the priests of to-day would lead the laity into the same “deception”!

Not only before the Reformation, while the Catholic Church was supreme in Scandinavia, did many of both the laity and the clergy keep the seventh day as their Sabbath, but this belief spread greatly after the Reformation, and continued for more than a century. The Lutheran religion was by coercion and intrigues made the state religion of Denmark and Norway in 1539, during the reign of King Kristian III. In 1544 some severe laws were enacted against Saturday-keeping, which at that time was very common in Norway, if not in Denmark. These laws are known as the “recesses of feudal Lord Huitfeldt,” and read in part as follows:—

“I, Christian Huitfeldt (Whitefield), Lord of Bergen, Stavanger, and Vardo, greet with kind and good intention all the people who dwell in the diocese of Bergen. Master Geble Peterson, Superintendent (Bishop), has informed me that some of you, especially in Aardal—directly contrary to the warning I gave you last year—keep Saturday. In this you have done very wickedly, and would be brought into serious trouble if I should punish you. . . . Now the rulers of these two dioceses, Bergen and Stavanger, have decided that all who are found keeping Saturday shall be punished. I command you to give heed to this. . . . You are rebellious and disobedient in regard to your holy days, since you refuse to be satisfied with the holy days that are given you by the priest and the church ordinance. I bid you, therefore, on behalf of his majesty the king, that you faithfully follow his gracious commands. He that transgresses

shall by my officers be punished as a rebellious and disobedient citizen.”—Niels Krag’s and S. Stephanson’s “History of King Christian III,” Vol. II, page 377.

The preceding quotations prove beyond all question that there were many Sabbath-keepers in Norway both before and after the Reformation.