Johannes Magnus | |
|---|---|
| Archbishop of Uppsala Primate of Sweden | |
.png) | |
| Church | Catholic Church |
| Diocese | Uppsala |
| Installed | 1524 |
| Term ended | 1531 |
| Predecessor | Gustav Trolle |
| Successor | Olaus Magnus |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Johan Månsson 19 March 1488 Linköping, Sweden |
| Died | 22 March 1544(1544-03-22) (aged 56) |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| Parents | Måns Pedersson (father) Kristina Kruse (mother) |
| Occupation | Historian,genealogist |
Johannes Magnus (a modified form ofIoannes Magnus, aLatin translation of his birth nameJohan Månsson; 19 March 1488 – 22 March 1544) was the last functioningCatholicArchbishop in Sweden, and also a theologian, genealogist, and historian.
Johannes Magnus was born inLinköping, son of theburgess Måns Pedersson and his wife Kristina Kruse. (His own later claims to be descended from a noble family named Store are unverified.)[1]Magnus was selected byGustav I Vasa to become Archbishop, in 1523. As he was about to travel to Rome to be ordained, apapal bull fromPope Clement VII was received, stating that the previous ArchbishopGustav Trolle, who was at the time in exile abroad, should be reinstated. The papal bull declared the deposition of Trolle unlawful.
However, Gustav Vasa refused to reinstate Trolle. Instead he ignored the papal bull and took it upon himself to install Magnus without papal acceptance. Before long, however, Johannes Magnus rebelled by declaring his discontent with the Lutheran teachings spread by the brothersOlaus andLaurentius Petri, under the supervision of King Gustav Vasa. The King then sent him off to Russia as a diplomat in 1526. Johannes Magnus was careful not to return home during that time, realizing that he was unwanted. Gustav Vasa appointed a new archbishop,Laurentius Petri, in 1531, and Johannes realized that his time as archbishop was over.
His brother,Olaus Magnus, had meanwhile travelled to Rome to explain the matter of Gustav Trolle to the Pope. In 1533 the Pope finished investigating the Trolle matter and decided that Magnus was the most appropriate successor, and Magnus travelled to Rome to be ordained. However, as Sweden now no longer took direction from the Vatican, both brothers remained in Italy for the remainder of their lives.
Magnus spent his time inVenice andRome, where he wrote two historical works about Sweden:Historia de omnibus Gothorum Sueonumque regibus andHistoria metropolitanæ ecclesiæ Upsaliensis, which are important for their historical information, but are also filled with tales that have no reliable foundation. After the death of Johannes in 1544, the line of Swedish archbishops consecrated by the Pope ended. He died in Rome.
TheHistoria de omnibus Gothorum Sueonumque regibus ("History of all Kings of Goths and Swedes") is a work on Swedish history, which was printed posthumously inRome in 1554 by Johannes' brotherOlaus Magnus. Olaus sent it toSweden with a dedication to the dukesEric,John,Magnus andCharles, Gustav's sons. It was subsequently republished several times. It appeared in a Swedish translation byEr. Schroderus for the first time in 1620. It is a very unreliable source for early Swedish history.
Johannes Magnus made creative use of Jordanes'Getica and ofSaxo Grammaticus to depict a history of the Swedish people, of their kings, and of the "Goths abroad". He states thatMagog, son of Japheth, was Sweden's first king. The first 16 volumes are taken up by the period before AD 1000 in a strange mixture of tales from earlier writers and his own fiction, allegedly derived from runic records at Uppsala in theYounger Futhark, which he claimed had served the Goths as an alphabet for some two millennia before Christ. Johannes Magnus invented a list of kings of Sweden with six Erics beforeEric the Victorious,[2] where he started counting from Jordanes'Berig as Eric I. He also invented six kings of the name Charles beforeCharles Sverkersson. This is how Gustav I Vasa's sons could style themselves asEric (XIV) andCharles (IX). While the work describes these fictional Erics and Charles in generally positive terms, it also includes a few invented tyrants with names similar to Gustav.
The work is exceedingly patriotic and suggests that Denmark was populated by convicts exiled from Sweden, a charge drawing a sharp rebuttal from the Danish court.
A milestone in Swedish and EuropeanGothicism, Johannes’ work proved fundamental in the birth of various declensions of Nordicism, arguing that humankind stemmed from the North and imbuing this cardinal point with powerful political and prophetical meanings.[3]
Media related toJohannes Magnus at Wikimedia Commons| Religious titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Archbishop of Uppsala 1523–1531 | Succeeded by |
| 12th century |  | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 13th century | |||
| 14th century | |||
| 15th–16th centuries |
| ||
| Reformation |
| ||
| 17th century | |||
| 18th century | |||
| 19th century | |||
| 20th century | |||
| 21st century | |||
