Editing History of Denmark (section)

==== State Lutheranism ====
Denmark became officially Lutheran on 30 October 1536 by decree of King Christian III, and in 1537 the reconstituted State Council approved the [[Church Order (Lutheran)|Lutheran Ordinances]] which was worked out by Danish theologians and [[Johannes Bugenhagen]], based on the [[Augsburg Confession]] and Luther's [[Small Catechism|Little Catechism]]. The government established the Danish National Church ({{langx|da|Folkekirken}}) as the [[state church]]. All of Denmark's Catholic bishops went to prison until such time as they converted to Luther's reform. The authorities released them when they promised to marry and to support the reforms.

If they agreed, they received property and spent the rest of their lives as wealthy landowners. If they refused conversion, they died in prison. The State confiscated Church lands to pay for the armies that had enforced Christian III's election. Priests swore allegiance to Lutheranism or found new employment. The new owners turned monks out of their monasteries and abbeys. Nuns in a few places gained permission to live out their lives in nunneries, though without governmental financial support. The Crown closed churches, abbeys, priories and cathedrals, giving their property to local nobles or selling it.

The King appointed Danish superintendents (later bishops) to oversee Lutheran orthodoxy in the church. Denmark became part of a Lutheran heartland extending through Scandinavia and northern Germany. The Catholic Church everywhere in Scandinavia had sealed its fate by supporting hopeless causes: Christian II and the emperor Charles V in Denmark, Norwegian independence in that country, and in Sweden the Kalmar Union. Geographical distance also prevented them from receiving anything more than a sympathetic ear from Rome.

The 17th century saw a period of strict Lutheran [[orthodoxy]] in Denmark, with harsh punishments visited on suspected followers of either [[John Calvin|Calvinism]] or [[Huldrych Zwingli]]. Lutheran authorities treated Catholics harshly — in the fear that they might undermine the king, government, and national church. In a delayed result of the Reformation, Denmark became embroiled in the [[Thirty Years' War]] (1618–1648) on the Protestant side.