[Sidenote: 1537-9] In the immediately following years the Catholics were deprived of their civil rights.

The political benefits of the Reformation inured primarily to the king and secondarily to the third estate.
[Sidenote: Norway] Norway was a vassal of Denmark from 1380 till 1814.

At no time was its dependence more complete than in the sixteenth century.

Frederic I introduced the Reformation by royal decree as early as 1528, and Christian III put the northern kingdom completely under the tutelage of Denmark, [Sidenote: 1536] in spiritual as well as in temporal matters.
The adoption of the Reformation here as in Iceland seemed to be a matter of popular indifference.
[Sidenote: Sweden] After Sweden had asserted her independence by the expulsion of Christian II, Gustavus Vasa, an able ruler, ascended the throne.
[Sidenote: Gustavus Vasa, 1523-60] He, too, saw in the Reformation chiefly an opportunity for confiscating the goods of the church.

The way had, indeed, been prepared by a popular reformer, Olaus Petri, but the king made the movement an excuse to concentrate in his own hands the spiritual power.