The religious history of the fifteenth century was dominated by the Great Schism. The religious education of the laity had never occupied so high a place among the priorities of those clergy who took their duties seriously. The majority of priests capable of preaching and eager to do so effectively lived in towns, and thus their normal congregations represented only a small proportion of the total Christian population. At the beginning of the fifteenth century a ruling of the Inquisition listed the actions characteristic of a good and faithful Christian. The Catholic belongs to a complex society which cannot function without priests. Image-makers, painters and sculptors, put the resources of their talents and craft at the service of this multi-faceted religion. As people can estimate the frequency and regularity of religious practice, they can establish that the majority of the faithful did carry out the prescriptions of the Church, year in, year out.

The Black Death struck the whole of Scandinavia except Iceland; in Norway, in particular, its effects were aggravated by subsequent epidemics, smallpox in 1359-60, plague in 1371. In the political history of the Scandinavian countries, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and the states of the Scandinavian peninsula, Norway and Sweden, the long fifteenth century from c.1390 to the Reformation forms a well-defined period. In Sweden, the resumption of alienated crown lands had aroused the opposition of the Church. The Great Schism having undermined the authority of the Papacy, the general council emerged as the leading ruling body of the Church. Sweden had deposed Erik and was ruled by Karl Knutsson as regent. In the winter of 1439-40 Erik concluded an alliance with the overlord of the Low Countries, Duke Philip of Burgundy. The battle of Brunkeberg was a turning-point in Scandinavian history. The riksråd, convoked to meet on 30 October, declared on the following day that Christian was lawful heir to Sweden.