"Saa ere nu saadanne Billedstytter døde træ oc stene". Billedstriden i Bergen 1568-1572

Sammendrag

This article is an attempt at a reinterpretation of the religious meaning of the iconoclastic conflicts in Bergen 1568-1572. The basic hypothesis is that the superintendent (or bishop) Jens Skielderup understood the stripping of the altars as part of a theological programme to introduce the so-called Calvinist "Second Reformation" in Denmark-Norway. He tried to defend his position in a small dialogue between a priest and a peasant published in Copenhagen in 1572. In Skielderup's dialogue the peasant comes up with more traditional Lutheran arguments, while the priest defends a moderate Calvinist position. In Bergen the Lutheran point of view was strongly advocated by the humanist scholar Absalon Pederssøn Beyer. Skielderup's little book reflects not only the conflict between the bishop and the city council, but also a conflict within the clergy in Bergen. The iconoclastic episode in Bergen was probably part of a more extensive theological conflict within the Lutheran church of Denmark-Norway in the second half of the sixteenth century.