Hans Brask

Hans Brask (1464–1538) was a Swedish Bishop of Linköping.

Biography

Brask was born in Linköping in 1464 to a bourgeois family. He studied philosophy and law at German universities, e.g. Rostock, and around 1500 he received a doctoral degree in civil and canon law from Rome. Upon his return to Sweden he first worked as canon and was later, in 1505, appointed cathedral dean in the cathedral of Linköping. He also became a member of the council of the realm (Privy Council of Sweden) and worked for a reconciliation with Denmark, with which Sweden has been at war for some years as part of the ongoing conflicts in the Kalmar Union. In 1513 he was appointed bishop in Linköping. Brask was opposed to Sten Sture's struggle with archbishop Gustav Trolle, but signed a document at the 1517 diet to remove the bishop. According to Olaus Petri's Swedish chronicles, Brask was forced to sign the document. Under his seal he is supposed to have put a note saying "" - "To this I am forced and compelled".

This legend has birthed the term in modern Swedish of ("Brask note"), meaning a hidden or oblique reservation to an otherwise spotless or obsequious acceptance. The word can by extension have several other meanings, including explanation, excuse, warning, parenthesis, or question mark. It is unrelated to , which is onomatopoeic and roughly means to bang or to rustle. where his tombstone is seen to this day.