Meanwhile, affairs in Waldshut took a turn, which might have been foreseen by the prudent. The noise of war drowned the devotions of piety. It was a matter of indifference, whether psalms or frivolous songs were sung in the camp. Nay, it fared worse with the former. Huebmeier himself, at his trial, tells of a supper in the house of a merchant, where he sat at the side of the captain amid music and hurrahs. And what the further aims of these pious warriors were is shown by a letter still extant, written by one of them to the "dear brother and image in God, Heiny Aberly in Zurich," which contains the following: "See, that you send us yet forty or fifty well-armed, Christian fellows; for if there were more of us here, we would then be a council of affairs against the enemy and my lords (the government of Zurich); and if we would again be warned home and then go, it would serve to the damage and hindrance of the kingdom of God."
This unholy proceeding was soon detected by Collin and other men of honor. They returned home, obedient to the renewed summons of the government. Those who staid behind no longer concealed their plan of open resistance; and this spreading over the surrounding country entered also the boundaries of Zurich.
The first news of it was received by the government from the landvogt of Eglisau. The payment of taxes and villanage were refused. A deputy of the Council was pelted with stones. The rebellion extended more and more into the mountain regions. A swarm of insurgents fell upon the monastery of Rueti--the abbot having escaped with the money, jewels and archives--and rioted and caroused there. In many parishes the alarm was sounded; the house of the Knights of St. John at Bubikon was surprised and met a fate similar to that of Rueti. The government with great difficulty succeeded in producing a momentary calm, by a decree inviting the excited country people to hand in their demands and wishes in writing. This was done by the districts of Grueningen, Kyburg, Greifensee, Eglisau and Andelfingen, and thus it soon came to light in what close connection these disturbances in Zurich stood with those, which then, under the name of the Peasant's War, set a great part of Germany in a blaze. Streams of blood and executions by thousands suppressed it there. In Switzerland such dreadful scenes could be prevented.
Still, the complaints, handed in by the districts of Zurich just named, were closely copied after the twelve articles, which the rebellious peasants of Germany everywhere demanded of their lords. But if reasons for rebellion are to be sought in the tyranny of many nobles, as well as in the confused ideas of the people, then, instead of finding abuses in Switzerland, in the canton of Zurich, there was less cause for complaint against the oppression of the people by the government at no period of her history.
The Council therefore, conscious of an upright purpose and strengthened by the increase of the city-guilds, took the points of complaint, which were presented, into consideration. To yield as far as was fair and just, to hold firmly to all that was sustained by sealed treaties and documents, was the general leading principle. It is true, another might have been embraced, that which has been wrought into our existing political life and immoveably planted there, the principle of entire equality, and the rather because the feeling that it was not altogether foreign to the Gospel, was expressed in the memorials of the people. But the contest for and against this principle could not be carried on by one government; duty and prudence enjoined a rigid maintenance of rights guaranteed by documents as long as possible. Upon another field, that of science, and where the Gospel would be appealed to, theological science, it must be decided beforehand. On this field Luther and Zwingli actually carried on the battle and both showed the impropriety of using passages of Scripture, and of wresting them from their true meaning, in the affairs of state.
The government of Zurich on her side kept simply to the letter of the articles received from the different districts. These, agreeing in the main points, still varied as to special privileges, customs and the annoyance of some parts of the canton by others.[1] All were examined and its own answer sent to each district. The reply to the first point, which was the same to all, ran thus: "Since you have declared, that you will have no lords for protectors, save God and the city of Zurich, it needs no answer and is clear of itself, that we will have one God, and My Lords are only your natural lords and superiors in temporal affairs, for they have not obtained dominion over you by any kind of tyranny or warlike power, but bought it freely and with ready money. Let them then retain it; for we all should give to God what is due to Him, and to worldly authority what is due to it; and My Lords hope, that you, their subjects, will also find it so."
Although considerable relief was promised in regard to some of the points complained of, still the envoys of the Council, who were appointed to convey the answer into the different districts, nowhere met with a favorable reception. The universal cry was that nothing further could be done without an assembly of the people, and on Whitmonday, June 5th, an announcement was made to this effect, with a call to the oldest man of every household to appear on the field near Tœss.
It is not at all necessary, in our day, when such things are so common, to describe this first convention of the people. The only difference between it and ours, consisted in this, that no formal resolutions were drawn up beforehand, and no one undertook, or understood how, to preside. Hence the mass was broken up into groups of blustering declaimers or curious spectators, among whom the deputies of the government went about, pacifying here, instructing there, and again perhaps using threats; but "We are to be bidden no longer"--resounded again and again from the incensed multitude--"We wish the cities to get used to walking; for ourselves we will ride once as lords of the day." The popular landvogt, Lavater of Kyburg, succeeded in persuading several of the most influential to pacify their friends and neighbors. But the citizens of Winterthur took the wisest course. They invited the entire host into their town, entertained them liberally, and thus made them forget their enterprise for a while.
But the matter was soon taken up again. And for this the inhabitants of the region between the rivers Rhine and Thur were chiefly to blame. In closer connection with their German neighbors, and excited at the same time by grievances suffered in consequence of the Storming of Ittingen, they meditated a separation from Zurich; in any case they intended to deal with the government not in the character of subjects, but in that of an independent party. Meanwhile the government seeing the importance of the crisis, roused itself for prompt action. First of all, some of its prominent members were empowered to raise troops and money, and in general to make all arrangements for defence in the city itself. Then it was resolved to appeal, as before, to all the districts of the canton, that still remained peaceful, viz: those on the lake, in Limatthal, in the free bailiwicks and in the so-called Neuamt, (new bailiwick). The same mode of proceedure, observed before, was again employed: a delegation from the Council, their explanations and inquiries, and a request for a written answer.
Information in regard to all that had occurred was given to the assembled congregations in the form of a long vindication. They were again reminded of the endeavors of the government to keep aloof from every dangerous foreign influence and maintain the Gospel; and then the points of grievance, handed in by the turbulent districts, and the answers sent by the government were laid before them: "More than a thousand florins have My Lords expended already on account of these people, especially those on the other side of the Thur, and their disorderly doings. How miserably the assembly at Tœss ended, you will all have learned by this time, and that a new one, still more numerous, is announced to meet at Kloten. Our Lords hope, that, if you are invited, you will not go, but if they desire it, and you do, let it be only to warn them back to duty; and although we believe everything good of you, that yet you will inform the government of your mind, the rather because the people of the lake have been one with the city of Zurich from time immemorial and esteemed as burghers of the same, and it is hoped will be so forever."