The weak and ridiculously vain Thure Joensson did not perceive this, but believed that the triumph of his own party was secured. He required that every Lutheran should be declared incapable of ascending the throne, and that all the heretics should be burnt. But the townsmen and the peasants, impatient of so many delays, very loudly declared that the nobles were bound, in fulfilment of their oath, to protect the king against his enemies, and that if they did not do this speedily they would go for him themselves, and would come back in company with him and give the lords a sharp lesson. The adversaries of Gustavus began to feel alarmed. A remarkable change was likewise taking place among the bishops and the influential priests. Did they feel the inward power of evangelical truth, or did policy alone dictate to them a return to duty? The probability is that some of them were impelled by the former and others by the latter of these motives. The wind was changed. Brask and his friend, Thure Joensson, had now to listen to very bitter reproaches; and on all sides the demand was insisted on that apologies should be offered to the king, and that evidence of the devotion of his people should be given to him.[452]
For this mission were selected the Chancellor Anderson and Olaf, as the men who would be able most powerfully to influence Gustavus. None could be more anxious for a reconciliation, for they felt that if the king should sink under the intrigues and the blows of the prelates, the triumphant papacy would trample the Reformation in the dust. They presented themselves at the gates of the castle, were admitted into the presence of the prince, and entreated him, in the name of the States, to return into the midst of them, to resume the government of the kingdom, and to rely on their hearty obedience. Gustavus, who had listened to them with an air of marked indifference, replied with some scorn, ‘I am sick of being your king,’ and sent them away. He was determined to leave the kingdom unless he were satisfied that he should find in the States and in the people the support which was essential to his laboring for the good of all. Other deputations went on three occasions to present to him the same request. But they received the same answer; he appeared to be inexorable.