He provided that a synod should meet each year to consult as to church affairs, in order to provide common schools for the people, and also for the higher education of the youth of the country.
The following great principles, showing that Sweden was in advance of other nations in securing the rights of the citizen, and limiting the rights of the crown, were incorporated in the king's oath, and placed on the statute books. No one should be apprehended or condemned upon a mere assertion, or without knowing his accuser and being brought face to face with him in a fair trial.
No man was to be degraded from office without a fair trial. The land's law provided that, without the consent of the people, neither a law should be made, nor a tax imposed, without the consent of the council and of the Estates. It took the combined authority of Duke John (during his life), of the council and of the Estates, to endorse the wish of the king to make war, peace, a truce or an alliance with a foreign nation. Think how this law safeguarded the rights of the people in a century when great absolutism prevailed.
Under Gustavus the council was reinstated in its position as mediator between king and people, as the Estates deprecated their being burdened with too frequent Diets or Congresses.
The oath taken by Gustavus had eliminated that part which forbade the king to alienate or diminish the property of the crown. One of the first things Gustavus did was to sell the gold and silver plate and all the jewels of the royal family he could obtain. Many of the nobility did the same to provide money for his wars.
The winters of Sweden are long, and the roads at that time were bad, and, of course, no railroads existed, so that it was no wonder the people of the realm disliked being frequently convened, aside from the great expense of such convocations. Among the demands of the nobility at the accession of Gustavus was that, before each Diet, they should be made acquainted, with the great matters to be discussed, in order that they might consider them at leisure and without influence from others, also that they might hold neighborhood conclaves and come to decisions, so that all need not attend the Diet.