December 11th-17th 1771.-Skara, Sweden. The Rev. Sven Schmidt is tried by the Consistory of Skara on the charge of preaching Swedenborgian tenets; he defends the Doctrines courageously, but is temporarily suspended from office, and put under the care of a physician, as being mentally unbalanced (Sundelin, pp. 139, 140. See, also, Professor Odhner's historical sketch of this case, and of the New Church in the diocese of Skara, in Mess. vol. 58, p. 187).
In the Minutes of the Skara Consistory* for December 11, 1771, Schmidt was subjected to the following examination: "Asked if it was true, as reported by Pastor Luth, that he had burned up all his books; and if he had not used scandalous utterances in the presence of Luth and others; he answered that the first charge was true, and that, with the exception of Swedenborg's writings, none of these was left but the Bible in its original languages and in Swedish translation together with the Swedish Book of Church Law; that, as the Lord had raised up a new church body. so the old must perish and there will be a new doctrine from the Lord through the writings of the Honorable Assessor Swedenborg. In his opinion, these writings are the work of the Lord, and are one and the same as the Holy Scriptures.
This opinion Schmidt had derived from the Lord through the Word."
* A transcript of these Minutes is to be found in the Academy Library. The extract quoted above is taken from pages 577-78 of this transcript. (Jonkoping MSS., pp. 577-78).
The testimony thus courageously given by Pastor Schmidt constitutes the first recorded public statement that the Writings of Swedenborg are the Word of God equally as are the Old and New Testaments; and being made while Swedenborg was still on earth engaged in publishing his Writings, though Pastor Schmidt had never met him, the utterance gives the stronger testimony that it was founded on an inner conviction of the Divine truth of his Writings.
The diocese of Skara became the center of a vital movement. Martyrs were not lacking. Mention should be made of the Rev. Sven Schmidt, who was deprived of his office, declared insane and imprisoned because he insisted on teaching the Swedenborgian tenets.[705] Among the complaints of local pastors was the amusing one that:
"A number of old ladies who have not been married in this world are said to be ;greatly enamoured of these doctrines, because Swedenborg promises a happy marriage to everybody in the eternal life, contrary to the words of our Saviour in Matthew XXII:29, 30." But the Chancellor of justice looked leniently on this lapse in orthodoxy, observing that "the old ladies deserved pity rather than notice." He advised the king to let the matter rest, suggesting that the Skara pastor "look for some more worthy subject for his pen . . . "[706]
added by Michael Cowley from notations in New Church (Swedenborgian) documents
https://www.swedenborgdigitallibrary.org/ES/epic41.htm
http://www.heavenlydoctrines.org/dtSearch.html
