Olof Persson, sometimes Petersson (6 January 1493 – 19 April 1552), better known under the Latin form of his name, Olaus Petri (or less commonly, Olavus Petri), was a clergyman, writer, judge, and major contributor to the Protestant Reformation in Sweden. His brother, Laurentius Petri (Lars Persson), became the first Evangelical Lutheran Archbishop of Sweden.
Early life
Born in Örebro, in south-central Sweden, and the son of Peter Olofsson (a local blacksmith) and Kristina Larsdotter, Olaus Petri learned to read and write at the local Carmelite monastery. He then went to the capital and studied at the University of Uppsala, studying theology and German. Later, he attended the University of Leipzig until 1516, and finally finished his education and received a Master's degree at the University of Wittenberg in February 1518. While in Wittenberg with his younger brother Lars, Olaus met with and was influenced by the main characters of the German reformation, Philipp Melanchthon and Martin Luther.
Career
Both Petri brothers returned to Sweden in 1519, nearly dying as their ship ran aground on Gotland island during a storm. They remained on Gotland for a while, with Olaus preaching and assisting the local priest, Soren Norby, and Lars teaching at the local school. In 1520, Olaus returned to Strängnäs on the mainland, accepting ordination as a deacon and serving bishop Mattias Gregersson Lilje as secretary, chancellor of the Diocese of Strängnäs, canon of the Strängnäs Cathedral and dean of the cathedral school.
Olaus accompanied Gregersson to Stockholm and attended the tumultuous crowning of Danish King Christian II, who had captured Stockholm and held it for about a year until returning to Denmark, where he was soon deposed and replaced by his uncle, who became King Frederick I of Denmark. Meanwhile, at the notorious Stockholm Bloodbath in early November, King Christian violated his promises of a general amnesty for the Sture party, and during the post-coronation festivities arrested and executed 80-90 churchmen and secular Swedish nobles, including Bishop Gregersson. When Olaus expressed his outrage, he was almost executed as well, but a German who had seen him in Wittenberg identified Olaus as a fellow German and thus saved his life. King Christian tried to appoint his friend and bishop of Odense, Jens Andersen Beldenak, to the now-vacant Strängnäs bishopric, but both Danes soon returned to Denmark, and the scholar-priest Laurentius Andreae, who had been named archdeacon in 1520, ran the diocese.
The massacre provoked the Swedish War of Liberation, including the election and crowning of Gustav Vasa as King of Sweden, in Strängnäs in 1523. Olaus (whose father died in 1521, after which he and his brother had joined the insurgents under Vasa's leadership) attended the coronation, swore fealty to his monarch, and soon became the kingdom's chancellor. A year later, Olaus was appointed Stockholm's town secretary and moved to the capital, where he also served as a judge (despite a lack of specific legal training) and town councilor.
Olaus became known for his advocacy of Lutheranism and criticism of the prevailing Roman Catholicism. In October 1524, the Uppsala Cathedral's chapter excommunicated both brothers on grounds of heresy. They remained, however, confident in the new Swedish king's strong support. In 1525, Olaus married, as Lutheran practice permitted, and also implemented another of Luther's ideas by having the mass sung in Swedish for the first time. Throughout this period Olaus was also involved in scholarly endeavors, including translating Lutheran works into Swedish. In 1526, Olaus published the first Swedish translation of the New Testament, and also published a catechism in Swedish.
The Petri brothers' efforts to teach their king and fellow Swedes about Luther's ideas bore fruit the following year, as the Diet of Västerås declared Sweden Lutheran. In 1531, Olaus published a slightly simplified version of the Catholic mass in Swedish. Vasa also confirmed the kingdom's Lutheran alignment in 1531 by appointing Lars (who had been ordained a priest in 1527 and had married a daughter of the king's cousin that year) Archbishop of Uppsala, in part because the Pope refused to acknowledge the consecration of his candidate as bishop of Strängnäs, Magnus Sommar (1528–36; ultimately deposed and forced into retirement by the king).
