Lars Ulstadius (c. 1650 – 1732), was a Finnish

Pietist Pietism (), also known as Pietistic Lutheranism, is a movement within Lutheranism that combines its emphasis on biblical doctrine with an emphasis on individual piety and living a holy Christianity, Christian life, including a social concern for ...

, who personified the first appearance of

Radical Pietism Radical Pietism are those Ecclesiastical separatism, Christian churches who decided to break with denominational Lutheranism in order to emphasize certain teachings regarding holy living. Radical Pietists contrast with Church Pietists, who chose t ...

in Finland.

Life

He was a

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

minister and a schoolteacher who, due to contacts with early pietist literature, came to be tormented by religious doubt, guilt, and general anxiety. He first caused a stir in the beginning of the 1680s by blowing up his philosophical works in

Oulu Oulu ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after: ...

with gunpowder. He also renounced his priesthood in the Lutheran church and his schoolteacher job. He then fell ill (or so it was thought by those who didn't understand his

prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...

ic calling), and for about two years he neither washed himself nor had his hair or beard cut. In his agony, he turned to the local vicar, asking for public absolution for his sins. The vicar explained to him that such scruples were merely the work of the devil and he should not pay attention to them. On 22 July 1688 Ulstadius appeared in the Dome of Turku in his rags, with his hair hanging long and with a huge matted beard, interrupting the service by starting to read aloud the radical theses he had written down. He proclaimed that the Lutheran doctrine was doomed, that prayer books and

postil A postil or postill ( la, postilla; german: Postille) was originally a term for Bible commentaries. It is derived from the Latin ''post illa verba textus'' ("after these words from Scripture"), referring to biblical readings. The word first occurs ...

s were a bunch of lies, and that the ministers were not endowed with the

Holy Spirit In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is the divine force, quality, and influence of God over the Universe or over his creatures. In Nicene Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is the third person of the Trinity. In Islam, the Holy Spirit acts as ...

. When two men grabbed him to throw him out of the Dome, what was left of his humble dress fell off and Ulstadius ran down the main aisle of the church, naked and screaming that the disgrace of Finnish clergymen would be revealed, like his current disgrace. Ulstadius and two of his most impassioned followers were sentenced to death, but the conviction was changed to life in prison. Ulstadius was then sent to the infamous prison Smedjegården in Stockholm, capital of the

Swedish Empire The Swedish Empire was a European great power that exercised territorial control over much of the Baltic region during the 17th and early 18th centuries ( sv, Stormaktstiden, "the Era of Great Power"). The beginning of the empire is usually ta ...

, where he remained for the rest of his life, under very hard conditions. During his last years, when he was an old man, he was offered freedom, but when he learned that his freedom was only a pardon, not a change of the original conviction, he said that he didn't want such a freedom, and asked to stay in the prison. He stayed in prison, and they gave him better conditions, so that he was able to hold meetings and prayers in his prison cell, together with the people of the growing radical-pietistic movement in Stockholm. Ulstadius died in 1732; he had then been in prison for 44 years, and was remembered long after, both in Finland and Sweden, as a forerunner for the pietist revival and for free revivals in general.

References

* Matthias Akiander 1857: I 3-30 * Nathan Odenvik - Lars Ulstadius. En pietismens banerförare i fångenskap för sin tro. 1940. * * *

Life

References

See also