The Swedish Church Law 1686 () was a Swedish law which (with some alterations) regulated the relationship between the state and the church in Sweden from 1686 until the Swedish Church Law 1992, as well as in Finland (earlier a Swedish province) until 1870. It replaced the previous

Swedish Church Ordinance 1571 The Swedish Church Ordinance of 1571 was the first complete Swedish church order following the Swedish Reformation in the 1520s. The main originator of the ordinance was archbishop Laurentius Petri. Petri, archbishop since 1531, had published man ...

History

During the reign of

Charles X Gustav of Sweden Charles X Gustav, also Carl X Gustav (; 8 November 1622 – 13 February 1660), was King of Sweden from 1654 until his death. He was the son of John Casimir, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Kleeburg and Catherine of Sweden. After his father's ...

, two proposals were put forward to replace the

: one by and the other by . In 1663, a formal investigation to change the law was initiated, and in 1682, the two proposals were merged. A commission was then established to review the draft, consisting mainly of bishops and superintendents, including Olof Svebilius, Haquin Spegel, and . Their revised proposal was adopted as the 1686 Church Law. The law was translated into Finnish by Henrik Florinus in 1688. The Swedish Church Law 1686 abolished

canon law Canon law (from , , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical jurisdiction, ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its membe ...

and the

Law of Uppland Law is a set of rules that are created and are law enforcement, enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a Socia ...

church charter. The state, represented by the monarch, by then the king of an absolute monarchy, was the head of the Church and thus had final say in matters of the Church, but there was to be no political administration or political bureaucracy between the monarch and the bishops of the Church. Attempts by the state to create an ecclesiastical office with political authority failed due to the resistance of the bishops and clergy. Among the notable reforms introduced was the ('household interview'). Henceforth, the parish

vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English p ...

of every parish of the nation was obliged to conduct an annual survey of the religious knowledge of every household in the parish to ensure all parishioners' knowledge of the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

and

Luther's Small Catechism Luther's Small Catechism () is a catechism written by Martin Luther and published in 1529 for the training of children. Luther's Small Catechism reviews the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Sacrament of Holy Bapti ...

. A consequence of this was the need for every parishioner, regardless of age and sex, to know how to read, as it would be necessary to read the Bible and the catechism to pass the annual survey. Since the predecessor law from 1571, children's schools for reading, writing and counting had already been an obligation in the cities, but this law resulted in the need for every village and rural community to organise basic schooling for their children, normally by paying a ('school master') or ('schoolmadam') to hold lessons in the local vicarage, and from this point forward,

illiteracy Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...

was close to eradicated in Sweden. This law was in force until 1888. Furthermore, all parish vicars were also forced by law to keep a parish register and note every birth, baptism, death and burial in the parish. The 1686 Swedish Church Law – with many changes and modernisations – was the standard for both the internal organisation of the Church of Sweden and its status under public law until 1 January 1993. Changes were made, for example, during the

Age of Liberty In Swedish history, the Age of Liberty () was a period that saw parliamentary governance, increasing civil rights, and the decline of the Swedish Empire that began with the adoption of the Instrument of Government in 1719 and ended with Gustav ...

, by

Gustav III Gustav III (29 March 1792), also called ''Gustavus III'', was King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. He was the eldest son of King Adolf Frederick and Queen Louisa Ulrika of Sweden. Gustav was a vocal opponent of what he saw ...

, through the

1809 Instrument of Government The 1809 Instrument of Government (), adopted on 6 June 1809 by the Riksdag of the Estates and King Charles XIII, was the constitution of the Kingdom of Sweden from 1809 to the end of 1974. It came about as a result of the Coup of 1809, in whi ...

, the 1868 Church Council Regulation and the Dissenter Acts of 1860 and 1873. In the

Grand Duchy of Finland The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed from 1809 to 1917 as an Autonomous region, autonomous state within the Russian Empire. Originating in the 16th century as a titular grand duchy held by the Monarc ...

, which had until 1809 been a Swedish province, the law applied until the Church Law of 1869 was passed by the

Diet of Finland The Diet of Finland (Finnish language, Finnish ''Suomen maapäivät'', later ''valtiopäivät''; Swedish language, Swedish ''Finlands Lantdagar''), was the Diet (assembly), legislative assembly of the Grand Duchy of Finland from 1809 to 1906 ...

Doctrinal paragraph

Doctrine Doctrine (from , meaning 'teaching, instruction') is a codification (law), codification of beliefs or a body of teacher, teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the essence of teachings in a given branch of knowledge or in a ...

in Sweden was defined between 1686 and 1992 as follows: __NOTOC__ With the 1686 Church Law, the rest of the Book of Concord was added to the older formulation from the

Uppsala Synod The Uppsala Synod in 1593 was the most important synod of the Lutheran Church of Sweden. Sweden had gone through its Protestant Reformation and broken with Roman Catholicism in the 1520s, but an official confession of faith had never been dec ...

, and until 1992 the following confessional writings were valid in Sweden: * The

Apostles' Creed The Apostles' Creed (Latin: ''Symbolum Apostolorum'' or ''Symbolum Apostolicum''), sometimes titled the Apostolic Creed or the Symbol of the Apostles, is a Christian creed or "symbol of faith". "Its title is first found c.390 (Ep. 42.5 of Ambro ...

Nicene Creed The Nicene Creed, also called the Creed of Constantinople, is the defining statement of belief of Nicene Christianity and in those Christian denominations that adhere to it. The original Nicene Creed was first adopted at the First Council of N ...

Athanasian Creed The Athanasian Creed—also called the ''Quicunque Vult'' (or ''Quicumque Vult''), which is both its Latin name and its opening words, meaning "Whosoever wishes"—is a Christian statement of belief focused on Trinitarian doctrine and Christolo ...

Augsburg Confession The Augsburg Confession (), also known as the Augustan Confession or the Augustana from its Latin name, ''Confessio Augustana'', is the primary confession of faith of the Lutheranism, Lutheran Church and one of the most important documents of th ...

of 1530 * Decision of the Uppsala Synod of 1593 *

Book of Concord ''The Book of Concord'' (1580) or ''Concordia'' (often referred to as the ''Lutheran Confessions'') is the historic doctrinal standard recognized as authoritative by many Lutheran church bodies since the 16th century. It consists of ten creeda ...

References

Notes

Literature

* Kjöllerström, Sven: ''Kyrkolags problemet i Sverige 1571–1682.'' Samlingar och studier till Svenska kyrkans historia, 11. Stockholm: Svenska kyrkans diakonistyrelses bokförlag, 1944. * Lizell, Gustaf – Lenfvén, Edv. (eds.): ''Kyrkolag og ordning af år 1686 jämte dithörande stadganden, som utkommit till den 1 jan. 1928.'' Stockholm 1928.
Kyrkolag
in the ''

Nordisk familjebok (, 'Nordic Family Book') is a Swedish language, Swedish encyclopedia that was published in print from between 1876 and 1993, and that is now fully available in digital form via Project Runeberg at Linköping University. The public domain edit ...

'' (2nd ed., 1911). {{in lang, sv

External links

Kyrkio-Lag och Ordning (3 September 1686)
— the text in Swedish and Finnish. Church Law 1686 Church Law 1686 Christianity and law in the 17th century 1686 in Sweden 1686 in Christianity

Swedish Church Law 1686 The Swedish Church Law 1686 () was a Swedish law which (with some alterations) regulated the relationship between the state and the church in Sweden from 1686 until the Swedish Church Law 1992, as well as in Finland (earlier a Swedish province) u ...