Canutus Hahn (1633–1687) was a Swedish clergyman who served as

bishop of Lund List of (arch)bishops of Lund. Until the Danish Reformation the centre of a great Latin (arch)bishopric, Lund has been in Sweden since the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658. The Diocese of Lund is now one of thirteen in the Church of Sweden. Catho ...

1680–1687. Hahn was born on 13 November 1633 in Skye in Uråsa parish (Kronoberg County), son of a farmer Abraham Knutsson Hahn. He went to school in Kalmar and Växjö, enrolled at the universities of Greifswald in 1652 and studied there and at Wittenberg and Rostock until 1654. He enrolled at Uppsala, and graduated as a magister in 1661. He became professor of philosophy at the gymnasium in Lund (now Katedralskolan) in 1662, and professor of logic and metaphysics at the newly established

University of Lund Lund University () is a public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially founded in 1666 on the ...

in 1667, and was its rector 1669–1670. Ordained a clergyman in 1671, he served as vicar in

Ronneby Ronneby is a locality and the seat of Ronneby Municipality in Blekinge County, Sweden with 12,029 inhabitants in 2010. Ronneby is regarded as the heart of "the Garden of Sweden", and in 2005 the park "Brunnsparken" in Ronneby was voted Sweden's m ...

and

Backaryd Backaryd is a locality situated in Ronneby Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to t ...

parishes in

Blekinge Blekinge () is one of the traditional Swedish provinces (), situated in the southern coast of the geographic region of Götaland, in southern Sweden. It borders Småland, Scania and the Baltic Sea. It is the country's second-smallest provin ...

1671–1679. In 1679, he was appointed vicar of

Landskrona Landskrona is a town in Scania, Sweden. Located on the shores of the Öresund, it occupies a natural port, which has lent the town at first military and subsequent commercial significance. Ferries operate from Landskrona to the island of Ven, an ...

parish and vice bishop of Lund, to assist the aging bishop

Peder Winstrup Peder Pedersen Winstrup (30 April 1605 – 28 December 1679) was Bishop of Lund in Scania. Winstrup was bishop there during a period spanning both Denmark, Danish and Sweden, Swedish sovereignty and periods of war when the land was contested. H ...

(who was also regarded as politically unreliable by the Swedish authorities). In 1680, after Winstrup's death, Hahn succeeded him as bishop of Lund (and pro-chancellor of Lund University). Hahn has been characterized (Olsson, see below) as a man less suited to learning than to practical issues, and his main achievement was as leader of the Swedification of the provinces Skåne and Blekinge. Through the

Treaty of Lund The Peace of Lund, signed on 16 September ( O.S.) / 26 September 1679, was the final peace treaty between Denmark–Norway and the Swedish Empire in the Scanian War. The war had started when Sweden on French initiative attacked Brandenburg-Pruss ...

in 1679, the former Danish provinces had been allowed the right to keep their Danish laws and customs. The realization of "uniformity" in church language, liturgy and education was a violation of the treaty but the war had convinced the Swedish authorities that it was necessary to push it through in order to retain the provinces. Hahn called in an assembly of parish priests from the diocese in 1681 and convinced them to send a request to Governor-General

Rutger von Ascheberg Count Rutger von Ascheberg (2 June 1621 – 17 April 1693), also known as Roger von Ascheberg was a Sweden, Swedish soldier born in Courland, an officer and civil servant who served as Lieutenant General in 1670, General in 1674, Swedish Field Mar ...

for the realization of uniformity throughout the provinces. According to Hahn's biographer Bror Olsson, the Swedification went smoothly and was largely completed by his death in 1687. He was appointed bishop of Växjö in 1687 but died on 29 December of that year, before he could take office.

References

*Bror Olsson, "Hahn, Canutus", Svenskt biografiskt lexikon vol. 17, pp 758 f. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hahn, Canutus 1633 births 1687 deaths Lutheran bishops of Lund 17th-century Swedish Lutheran bishops 17th-century Swedish clergy