a Good Friday sermon at Antvarskov Abbey proclaiming the doctrines of Luther. His superior ordered him imprisoned in the Hospitallers monastery in Viborg, Jutland. Tausen taught from his cell and ordinary people responded with enthusiasm. His superior tried to silence Tausen, but a near riot forced his release. In the beginning, he was allowed to preach in the open air but his supporters broke open a Franciscan church, and soon Tausen had more followers than the church could accommodate. Within a year, he was the king's own chaplain. Luther's ideas quickly spread to Aarhus and soon the townspeople demanded the right to hear the liturgy in Danish. The bishop and canons attempted to stop the spread of the Lutheran doctrine in their diocese, but Tausen had caught the imagination of the people and they would not be cowed by anything the bishop might threaten. Most nobles were staunchly Catholic, and that brought even more support from common people. By 1528 most of the cities had begun the process of reforming their churches. Tausen taught that tearing apart ancient churches was wrong and that orderly change should be used to reform the church. In 1533 Frederik I died and his son, Christian III was proclaimed King of Denmark at the Viborg Assembly (Danish: Landsting), but the State Council denominated by the Catholic bishops refused to accept the election and called upon count Christopher of Oldenburg to assist in restoring Catholic Christian II to the throne. This resulted in a two-year war called the Count's Feud. Despite the odds, Christian III prevailed and in the summer of 1536 arrested several of the bishops and threw them into prison. The last Roman Catholic Bishop of Aarhus, Ove Bille (d. 1555) was imprisoned in the summer of 1536 when Denmark officially became a Lutheran nation. The tower is the tallest in Denmark at 96 meters. It received its present form in 1931. In 1642 lightning struck the tower and set it ablaze, destroying some of the historic bells, but damage to the interior of the church was minimal. Interior The fresco paintings and the stained glass window Aarhus Cathedral has a number of fresco paintings dating from 1470 to 1520. Until the Reformation, most of the church's walls were covered in frescoes, of which many were lost. The cathedral still has 220 m2 of frescoes, more than any other church in Denmark. One pre-1470