Copy of letter to the Academies in Uppsala, Lund, and Abo.*

In a few days I am leaving for Amsterdam where I shall publish the WHOLE THEOLOGY OF THE NEW CHURCH, the foundation of which will be the worship of the Lord our Saviour. If no temple be now built on that foundation, brothels will most likely be established upon it later on. Now as I have learned that the religious proceedings in Goteborg with regard to Doctors Beyer and Rosen have been taken up directly by the Council and have been settled in an unexpected way, and as it is likely to be talked about here and there during my absence; therefore, to offset the ill-minded judgments which are likely to issue from the mouths of certain persons, and this from 'their folly and interior perversity, and also because of the importance of the matter, it devolves on me to communicate what I have submitted to His Royal Majesty in this matter, which is done herewith.

I heard from two gentlemen of the Supreme Court of Appeals that in religious cases the Privy Council is the Supreme Pontiff. To this I made no answer at the time, but should I hear again such a thing from them, I should answer that the Council is by no means the Supreme Pontiff, but the vicar of the vicar of the Supreme Pontiff. For Christ our Saviour alone is the Supreme Pontiff; the Estates of the Realm are His vicar, wherefore also they are responsible to Him; and the Privy Council is the vicar of the Estates, being empowered by them, and is thus the vicar of the vicar of the Supreme Pontiff. The fact that the Roman Pope calls himself the Supreme Pontiff is from presumptuousness, because he has assumed and laid upon himself all the power of Christ our Saviour and has set himself upon His throne, letting the people believe that he is Christ on earth.

Every lesser pontiff or vicar of the Supreme Pontiff ought to have his own consistory. The Estates of the Realm have theirs in the revered Estate of the Clergy. The Privy Council has its consistory especially in the academies; but in deciding the present case it has made the Goteborg Consistory its own, by whose opinions it seems to have abided word for word, not knowing that this case has been the weightiest and most important that has come before any Council** for 1700 years, for it concerns the New Church which was predicted by our Lord in Daniel and in the Revelation, and agrees with what the Lord said in Matt. xxiv 22.

I have not yet received an answer from the Council. The matter was before it once, but it was decided that it should rest until the arrival of those in the Council who have been over it before.

Em. Swedenborg

* On 5 May 1770 Beyer had been deprived of his position as Principal Lecturer in Theology by the Bishop, who had acted on a judgment received from the King concerning Swedenborgian theology. Learning of Beyer's dismissal, Swedenborg wrote to the King on 25 May. On 23 July, Swedenborg wrote to Beyer enclosing a copy of a letter which he had written to the universities of Uppsala, Lund, and Abo. ** Swedenborg here uses both the English word Council and the corresponding Swedish word.