About this time appeared a man who became in Sweden the most formidable champion of the Romish faith. Bishop Brask of Linkoping was a priest endowed with immense energy. The outcries of the monks at Orebro were heard as far as Upsala; and in July, 1523, Brask received from the chapter of this metropolitan town a letter in which he was informed that the Lutheran heresy was boldly preached in the cathedral of Strengnaes by one Olaf Petri. It appears that this information was absolutely new to the vehement bishop. Completely devoted to the Roman Church, not even imagining that there could be any other, he was greatly agitated. He heard shortly after that emissaries of the Lutheran propaganda had made their appearance in his own diocese. He looked on this as the beginning of a great conflagration which would consume the whole Church. Of haughty temper and of indefatigable activity, he put himself at the head of the champions of the papacy and swore that he would extinguish the horrible fire. When he learnt that Lawrence Anderson, himself an archdeacon, had embraced these opinions, he could refrain no longer. He wrote to the pope and implored him to name, as speedily as possible, bishops to take the places of those who had perished at Stockholm; ‘but especially,’ said he, ‘in the dioceses bordering on Russia, for the new doctrine which they want to introduce is that of _the Russians_.’ He then wrote a dissertation on the Russian Church, supposing that he could thus contend against the Reformation and destroy it. But he was greatly mistaken in fancying a likeness in the Evangelical to the Greek Church. The Reformation went further than the Eastern Church. It was not content with going back to the teaching of the councils of the first six centuries, but it returned to Jesus Christ, and to His apostles, and laid its foundations in the Word of God alone. Meanwhile, the Carmelites of Orebro denounced Olaf and his brother before the dean of the cathedral of Strengnaes, charging them with having spoken contemptuously of the pope and respectfully of Luther. The reformer made so forcible a reply that the dean was silenced, and thought it more prudent to leave the matter to Bishop Brask. This man, indeed, did not stop short at any half measures, but sent to Rome an entreaty that Olaf should be sentenced to death.[390] Thus were dangers thickening day by day around the two brothers, and it appeared as if the evangelical seed in Sweden must soon be smothered. Political events of great importance were on the point of changing the face of things and of giving an entirely unforeseen direction to the destinies of the people.