[2][3] [4] At Copenhagen Svane devoted himself to the study of Oriental languages, and between 1628 and 1635 completed his education abroad, at Franeker in Friesland, Wittenberg, Oxford, and Paris.

It was Svane who, at the opening of the Rigsdag, proposed that only members of the council of state should be entitled to fiefs and that all other estates should be leased to the highest bidder whatever his social station.

[2] During the early and mid 1660s he belonged to the influential circle around Hannibal Sehested, Frederik Ahlefeldt, Peter Bülche, Jacob Petersen and Theodor Lente, who became increasingly opposed to Frederick III's favorite Christoffer Gabel.

The clerical deputies followed him in a serried band, as the burgesses followed Nansen, and the bishop's palace was one of the meeting-places for the camarilla which was privy to the absolutist designs of Frederick III.

[2] Svane was raised to the dignity of archbishop, a title which no other Danish prelate has since borne, and as president of the academic consistory of the university (an office which was invented for and died with him) he took precedence of the rector magnificus.

Moreover, the privileges which he obtained for the clergy did much to increase the welfare and independence of the Church of Denmark in difficult times, while his representations to the king that Danish theology was not likely to be promoted by placing Germans over the heads of native professors bore good fruit.