CHRISTIAN VI., who succeeded his father, Frederick IV., in 1730, commenced his reign by discharging the most of his father’s experienced advisers and friends. The very able Bartholomew Deichmann, bishop at Akershus, who was most highly esteemed during the former reign, was deposed and indicted, but died shortly after his degradation, April, 1731. The king allowed himself to be controlled by his German queen, the proud and extravagant Sophie Magdalena. The language and customs of the country were banished from the court, and a proud and haughty tone introduced. The king rarely spoke with any of his subjects unless they belonged to the higher nobility or were Germans. The queen had a mania for building, and large sums were expended on costly palaces in and about Copenhagen.

The Danish-Norwegian Church had also been affected by the pietistic revivalism brought about in the German Protestant Church by Spener and Francke. Christian himself was a pious man, but his religion was mournful and morbid. He was, to a great extent, controlled by his pietistic court-chaplain, Bluhme. A Sabbath ordinance was enacted (1735), by which several preposterous rules about church-going were introduced and some antiquated laws were again put in force. Neglect of attendance at church was punished in the cities by money fines, and in the country by being placed in the stocks, which, for that purpose, were erected outside of every church door. Public amusements hitherto considered harmless—dancing, games and festivities—were forbidden; weddings and social parties were not to be held on a holiday or the evening before. A general Church Inspection College was established in 1737, a kind of Court of Inquisition, whose duty it was to watch over the proper performance of church services. The result of this unwise zeal for religion was a general state of hypocrisy and intolerance. Unscrupulous people, who feigned holiness and imitated the pietists at court, were given offices, while those who were sincere and independent were left out.

One of the beneficial results of the pietism which ruled during the reign of Christian VI. was the introduction of the Confirmation in the Lutheran faith. This was introduced upon the advice of court chaplain Bluhme, by the ordinance of January 13, 1736; the same year in which the second centennial of the introduction of the Reformation was celebrated. The Confirmation led to an improved Christian education of the people, and indirectly compelled all classes of the people to read. Great zeal was also shown in the printing of Bibles and other religious books, and some improvement was made in the Norwegian Church organization by an ordinance of August 13, 1734. The Latin schools were reorganized in 1739, the teachers being given better salaries, while more suitable text-books were introduced.

Some efforts were also made to improve the trade, manufactures and navigation of Norway, but these efforts were not always well directed. The trade with Finmarken, Iceland and Greenland was leased to companies, whose aim seemed to be the greatest possible extortion. Very unwise and harmful to the country was the king’s decree forbidding the people of southern Norway to buy grain from any other country than Denmark. The navy was greatly improved under the supervision of Count Frederick Danneskiold-Samsoe, Admiral Suhm and Constructor Benstrup; but their work took large sums of money.

Toward the close of this reign Norway suffered a great deal from hard times and famine, in common with the greater part of Northern Europe. During the years 1720 and 1741 there died in Norway 31,346 more persons than were born. Many died of starvation, and, in many districts, the people had to make meal from bark, bones and straw. A collection amounting to about 14,000 Rigsdalers (Danish dollars) was made in Denmark in order to help some of the most needy.

During the reign of Christian VI. lived “the father of the Danish-Norwegian literature,” the witty and very productive author, Ludvig Holberg (born in Bergen, 1684, died 1754); also the active and eloquent Peter Hersleb (born in Throndhjem, 1689), who from 1730 to 1737 was bishop at Akershus, and from 1737, until his death in 1757, bishop of Zealand, and who may be considered the father of the public school system. Two Danish bishops of this time who are held in respectful memory by the Norwegians are Erik Pontoppidan, who was bishop in Bergen from 1747 to 1755,—author of “Explanation of Luther’s Catechism,” which is still extensively used in the Norwegian schools—and Hans Brorson (bishop in Ribe, 1694-1764), the author of many church hymns.

Christian VI., during his reign of sixteen years, only visited Norway once, in the summer of 1733. He died August 6, 1746, in his forty-seventh year. In spite of the long peace, a flourishing trade, and large subsidies from foreign powers for mercenaries, which he had furnished from Norway and Denmark, he left a debt of over two million Rigsdalers.