ABSTRACT
In 1627 Isaac Rothovius was appointed as bishop of Turku and during his twenty-ve-year episcopate he undertook a programme of reform to advance the Lutheran faith and establish an appropriate setting for worship. e focus of these reforms was the cathedral at Turku, which was intended to serve as a model for not only the diocese but also more widely in the Swedish province of Finland. His episcopate was a marked change from the preceding century, where the initial changes of the Swedish Reformation had been followed by years of inertia and reversals in policies. It was only in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, that there was an attempt to establish Lutheran orthodoxy and standardize religious customs and moral behaviour. Educated at the Universities of Uppsala and Wittenberg, Rothovius was at the forefront of this movement and during his episcopate he focused on the ordering of church life and disciplining of parishioners within the diocese of Turku and at the cathedral. In a letter to the Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna in 1630, Rothovius explained the extent of the task that had to be undertaken at Turku. Although by this date the bishop had already begun to initiate reforms, he described the parlous state of the cathedral: ‘e church is so neglected by its keepers that it lacks all interior decorations, things such as organs and musical instruments, an altar, a choir and wall decorations and, in addition, a roof, which would at least protect it from rain and snow’.1 is essay will explore the programme of reform undertaken by Rothovius. However, the religious changes in Finland were closely linked to political events and the course of the Reformation in Sweden. It will therefore be necessary to examine the early seventeenth century policies of Rothovius in this wider context.
