Westeras (or Vesteras)
Westeras (or Vesteras)
a town of Sweden, capital of the laen of Westmanland, sixty miles west- northwest of Stockholm. An imperial diet was held here in 1527, in which the Protestant controversy was brought to a crisis. Liberty was granted for the "preachers to proclaim the pure Word of God," a Protestant definition being coupled with this phrase. The property of the Church, with the authority to regulate ecclesiastical affairs, was delivered into the hands of the king. The Protestant churches retained their revenues and the ecclesiastical property fell, for the most part, to the possession of the nobles. See Fisher, Hist. of the Reformation, p. 176.
