[Copy of a letter to the Universities of Uppsala, Lund, and Abo]

"In a few days I shall depart for Amsterdam in order to publish there a Universal Theology of the New Church, the foundation of which is the worship of the Lord, our Savior; on which foundation if no temple be now built, lupanaria [brothels] will be erected. And now, as I understand that the religious trial of Drs. Beyer and Rosen has been taken up by the Privy Council and settled in an unexpected manner, and as this will probably be talked about here and there during my absence, therefore, in order to break the force of the malicious comments, which will probably issue from the mouths of certain persons, prompted by their stupidity and interior perverseness, it becomes my duty in the interest of this matter to make known to you what I have in the enclosed document [Swedenborg's letter to the King, see letter of May 10, 1770] submitted to his Royal Majesty. "Two gentlemen of the Supreme Court of Appeals [Justiciae Revisionen] told me that the Privy Council was the pontifex maximus in religious matters. At the time I did not make any reply; if, however, they should repeat this statement to me, I should say that far from being the pontifex maximus, they are simply the vicarius vicarii pontificis maximi, since Christ, our Savior, is alone pontifex maximus; that the Houses of the Diet are His vicarius, and therefore are responsible to Him, and that the Privy Council is the vicarius of the Houses of the Diet, and only as such has plenipotentiary power; and consequently it is the vicarius vicarii pontificis maximi. The Roman Pope's styling himself pontifex maximus is due to arrogance; for he claims and takes upon himself all the power of Christ our Savior, making the people believe that he is Christ on earth. "Every lesser pontifex or every vicarius pontificis maximi ought to have his consistory. The Houses of the Diet have theirs in the reverend House of the Clergy; the Privy Council has its especially in the universities; but in the settlement of the present matter it has made the Consistory of Gottenburg its consistory, to whose opinions it is said to have adhered verbatim; without being aware of the fact that this trial has been the most important and the most solemn that has been before any council during the last 1700 years, since it concerns the New Church which is predicted by the Lord in Daniel and in Revelation, and agrees with what the Lord says in Matt. 24:22. "I have not yet received any answer from the Privy Council; this matter has been before it once, when it was resolved to postpone it until those members of the council, who had previously examined it, should return.

"Em. Swedenborg. "Stockholm, July 23, 1770." * Documents Concerning Swedenborg, Vol. 2, pp. 380-381. See also pp. 378-389.