Medals, non-regal, Sweden. Hild. 445:120, 43.88 g. Copper medal 1693 by Arvid Karlsteen. A charming allegorical medal, produced upon the centenary of the Uppsala Synod of 1593, by which Duke Carl of Sweden (the future Carl IX) established the kingdom's formal confession of its Lutheran faith. Illustrating a ship sailing on stormy seas, the imagery is evocative of Sweden's complicated history with the Roman Catholic Church, from which it had broken away in the 1520s amidst the Protestant Reformation, though it took over 70 years for the monarchy to formally proclaim its adherence to Lutheranism. 01.
