*Hans Brask (1464–1538) was a Swedish

Bishop of Linköping Bishops of the Diocese of Linköping, Sweden. Before the reformation * Herbert? * Rikard? * 1139–1160s Gisle * 1170–1171 Stenar * 1187–1195/96 Kol * Johannes? * 1216–1220 Karl Magnusson * 1220–1236 Bengt Magnusson * 1236–1258 Lar ...

Biography

Brask was born in

Linköping Linköping () is a city in southern Sweden, with around 105,000 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality and the capital of Östergötland County. Linköping is also the episcopal see of the Diocese of Linköping (Church ...

in 1464 to a bourgeois family. He studied philosophy and

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

at German universities, e.g.

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, ...

, and around 1500 he received a

doctoral degree A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

in civil and canon law from

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. Upon his return to Sweden he first worked as

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

and was later, in 1505, appointed cathedral dean in the

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...

of Linköping. He also became a member of the

council of the realm The Council of the Realm ( es, Consejo del Reino) was a corporate organ of Francoist Spain, created by the Law of Succession to the Headship of the State of 1947. Within the institutional complex created to hierarchize the regime of Francisco Fran ...

(Privy Council of Sweden) and worked for a reconciliation with

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

, with which Sweden has been at war for some years as part of the ongoing conflicts in the Kalmar Union. In 1513 he was appointed bishop in Linköping. Brask was opposed to Sten Sture's struggle with archbishop

Gustav Trolle Gustav Eriksson Trolle (September 1488 – 1535) was Archbishop of Uppsala, Sweden, in two sessions, during the turbulent Reformation events. He was the son of Eric Arvidsson Trolle, a former regent of Sweden during the era of the Kalmar Union. ...

, but signed a document at the 1517

diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...

to remove the bishop. According to

Olaus Petri Olof Persson, sometimes Petersson (6 January 1493 – 19 April 1552), better known under the Latin form of his name, Olaus Petri (or less commonly, Olavus Petri), was a clergyman, writer, judge, and major contributor to the Protestant Reformatio ...

's Swedish chronicles, Brask was forced to sign the document. Under his seal he is supposed to have put a note saying "" - "To this I am forced and compelled". This legend is the origin of a word in modern Swedish: ("brask note"), meaning a hidden reservation. The word can have several other meanings, including ''explanation'', ''excuse'', ''warning'', ''parenthesis'', or ''question mark''. It is unrelated to , which is onomatopoeic and roughly means ''to bang'' or ''to rustle''. Brask supported the Danish king

Christian II Christian II (1 July 1481 – 25 January 1559) was a Scandinavian monarch under the Kalmar Union who reigned as King of Denmark and Norway, from 1513 until 1523, and Sweden from 1520 until 1521. From 1513 to 1523, he was concurrently Duke ...

, but was not part of the events that led to the infamous massacre in Stockholm 1520. After

Gustav Vasa Gustav I, born Gustav Eriksson of the Vasa noble family and later known as Gustav Vasa (12 May 1496 – 29 September 1560), was King of Sweden from 1523 until his death in 1560, previously self-recognised Protector of the Realm ('' Riksför ...

's rebellion, he was forced to join the new king's side, but he would become an opponent of the king's politics. The events of 1527 diet in

Västerås Västerås ( , , ) is a city in central Sweden on the shore of Lake Mälaren in the province of Västmanland, west of Stockholm. The city had a population of 127,799 at the end of 2019, out of the municipal total of 154,049. Västerås is the se ...

led to Brask fleeing the country to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

. Brask was an active man with many ideas. He was the first man to plan a canal between the two large Swedish lakes,

Vänern Vänern ( , also , ) is the largest lake in Sweden, the largest lake in the European Union and the third-largest lake of all Europe after Ladoga and Onega in Russia. It is located in the provinces of Västergötland, Dalsland, and Värmland i ...

and

Vättern Vättern ( , ) is the second largest lake by surface area in Sweden, after Vänern, and the sixth largest lake in Europe. It is a long, finger-shaped body of fresh water in south central Sweden, to the southeast of Vänern, pointing at the tip ...

. He was running a printing house in

Söderköping Söderköping is a locality and the seat of Söderköping Municipality, Östergötland County, Sweden with 6,992 inhabitants in 2010. Söderköping is, despite its small population, for historical reasons normally still referred to as a ''town''. ...

. The correspondence between Brask and others is an important source of history in a country where not much was written down. Bishop Brask is believed to have died in Ląd (Swedish ''Landa'')

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whi ...

(the Cistercian Trail, Poland) in 1538,Hans Brask, https://sok.riksarkivet.se/sbl/artikel/16873, Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (in Swedish) (art av L. Sjödin.), Retrieved 2020-02-06. where his tombstone is seen to this day.

External links

Entry on Hans Brask
on ''

catholic-hierarchy.org ''Catholic-Hierarchy.org'' is an online database of bishops and dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Catholic Churches. The website is not officially sanctioned by the Church. It is run as a private project by David M. Cheney in ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brask, Hans Bishops of Linköping 1464 births 1538 deaths 15th-century Swedish people 16th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Sweden