In Sweden, as in all Scandinavian countries, religious liberty has developed only gradually since Lutheranism became supreme in the 16th Century; until a law was passed in 1860 recognizing dissident churches, any attempt to get a Lutheran to change his confession was a penal offense, and apostasy from the state church made a Swede liable to banishment for life. Since 1860 much progress has been made, but it has been slow.
Whenever Roman Catholics take a public drubbing for their policy in Spain, they can retort, as the Jesuit weekly America did last spring: "Let us look at Sweden. It has an...