Anderson, Lars (Laurentius Andreae)
ANDERSON, LARS (LAURENTIUS ANDREAE)
Founder of a national Protestant ecclesiastical polity in Sweden; b. Strängnäs, c. 1480; d. there, April 29, 1552. He studied at Rostock, Leipzig, and Greifswald and made several trips to Rome. A canon of Strängnäs, he became the secretary of Bishop Mathias, received the title of apostolic notary, and finally became head of the cathedral chapter in Strängnäs. He was converted to Lutheran views under the influence of the deacon Olaus petri. Anderson, a talented administrator, became King Gustavus Vasa's chancellor in 1523 and aided Olaus and Laurentius Petri in their reforming endeavors, working for a break with Rome and for a Swedish national church, and fully establishing the Reformation at the Council of Oerebro in 1529. In 1540 he opposed Vasa's effort to transform the Swedish church in the direction of Presbyterianism; he was sentenced to death, was pardoned, and lived out his days in retirement. He wrote one theological treatise on Faith and Good Works.
Bibliography: h. holmquist, Die Schwedische Reformation 1523–1531 (Leipzig 1925) 24–27, 32 and passim, h. sandberg, Kring Konflikten mellan Gustav Vasa och reformatorerna (Uppsala 1941) 127–146. p. b. watson, The Swedish Revolution under Gustavus Vasa (Boston 1889). j. wordsworth, The National Church of Sweden (Milwaukee 1911).
[l. w. spitz]