This thesis focuses on Swedish soldiers and their crimes against God within the Swedish army. In the late seventeenth century, the Swedish army reformed. Earlier wars had proven the old military system of enrolment and jurisdiction ineffective, stressing the fact that new articles of war were needed. In the new statutory framework no less than the first 22 articles determine the conditions of religion and its practice, proclaiming apostasy and heresy as the worst crimes within the army. Nonetheless, research has shown an over-representation of soldiers, or former soldiers committing these types of crimes, addressing the origin of these crimes to the military profession and the military environment. However, the knowledge about this is limited, and how the military adjudication dealt with these matters is highly neglected. By using the theoretical concepts of place and space (in Swedish plats and rum) alongside a theoretical culture perspective, this study aims to examine the contents of military legislation and how the military adjudicated these crimes, and will show that crimes, such as making a deal with the Devil, was a part of the military culture.

This essay presents a comparative study of the Swedish articles of war of year 1621 and 1683 which aims to, through analysis, assess the extent of the development in Swedish army legislature during the 17th century and to derive the likely underlying causes for this development. The study is in large comprised by a detailed comparison of the two collections of articles of war in order to determine the practical changes to the legislature that occurred between the years that they came into force. / Denna uppsats presenterar en komparativ studie av de svenska krigsartiklarna av år 1621 och 1683 och ämnar att genom analys avgöra vad som förändrades inom svensk krigslagstiftning under 1600-talet samt att härleda denna utveckling till de förhållanden som kan förmodas ha framkallat denna. Studien utgörs till stor del av en detaljjämförelse av de två uppsättningarna krigsartiklar för att avgöra de praktiska förändringar i lagstiftningen som tagit plats emellan de år de trädde i kraft.