Footnote [9] Adherents of Cataline, a Roman, whose criminal tampering with the dregs of the people, whose attempt at their head to revolutionize Rome, and whose defeat by Cicero the consul then in power, are pictured in a graphic manner by the historian Sallust.
Footnote [10] Œcolampadius had played the hero at the Conference of Baden, he had gebadet; Zwingli should now do the same at Bern, in whose coat of arms the bear occupied a prominent place.--Translator.
[CHAPTER SIXTH]
ORGANIZATION OF THE PARTIES. BREACH OF THE GENERAL PEACE.
Not only was the reciprocal relation of the states within the Confederacy changed by the conclusion of the Buergerrecht; but that of the entire nation toward foreign countries was just as much altered. Early in the beginning of February, 1528, a letter of the Emperor, written from Spire, reached Luzern, with complaints about this alliance; very similar ones were received from the authorities of the Austrian Government at Ensisheim and Inspruck, and still a fourth one from the captains of the Swabian League. "Constance," such was their general drift, "is not at all competent to conclude a treaty of this kind without the consent of the Emperor, nor have the Confederate Cities any right to enter into it. It is not impossible that it may yet be the occasion of war, and the damage resulting may be ascribed to their own folly by the Confederates." This warning was very acceptable to the deputies of the Eight Cantons. It was immediately communicated to the Zurichers. "You see," was the language of the accompanying letter, "whither the necessity of finding allies for the maintenance of your superstition must lead you. Do not hope that we will stand by you in case of war. It is not our doing; we, who wish to uphold the laws, regulations and customs of our fathers, will not be accused of disturbing the peace of the Empire. We exhort you, by virtue of our Confederation, to abstain from unlawful alliances." But neither Zurich and Bern, on the one hand, nor Constance on the other, were moved by all this. "We have," answered they, "strictly examined our Confederate Charter, our Imperial Privileges, the Hereditary Union with Austria--all necessary documents, and have nowhere been able to find, that we have transcended law or privilege. And Constance is just as little subject to Austria or the Swabian League, as we. Why do they then wish to interfere? Our Buergerrecht was devised not for disturbing the peace of the Empire, but to aid in preserving it." Agreement became more and more difficult. The Five Cantons, already standing in hostile attitude toward Zurich and Bern, sought to persuade Glarus, Freiburg and Solothurn to a closer, special union "for the maintenance of the old, true Christian faith, the holy seven sacraments and particularly the office and sacrifice of the mass, with all good Christian rules, benedictions and usages, as handed down from our forefathers, nothing excepted"--for the suppression of every innovation in the Common Territories, and armed succor, if either there or on their own soil an attack is made on that faith, whose support and defence should be the highest duty, higher even than the preservation of the Confederacy. From Freiburg they received an unconditional assent; from Glarus and Solothurn, where the friends of Reform were increasing in number, one with provisos attached. Wallis (Valois) also joined the alliance. More anon. The time had come, when the Five Cantons began likewise to look beyond the limits of the Confederacy. Austria was the nearest to them. Zurich and Bern had sought foreign aid in order to carry out their innovations more securely, why should they refuse the same for the preservation of the old faith, for upholding the unity of the church. Through the bishops of Chur, especially through their friends in Graubuenden, they hoped to obtain access to the authorities of the Archducal government in Inspruck. Meanwhile these projects were kept secret for a long time within a narrow circle of those who could be trusted. They first came to light, when, in the summer of 1528, a second alliance in addition to the Christian Buergerrecht was concluded between Zurich and Bern, who were moved thereto, as they said, by the violent suppression, on the part of the Eight Cantons, of all attempts at Reform in the Common Territories. "Since," so it is recorded in the original documents relating to this matter, "our dear Confederates of the Eight Cantons are not only offended and show themselves averse to us and our adherents in our Christian enterprise, but have even taken occasion specially to pledge and bind themselves to remain true to the old faith, as they call it, and have attempted to seduce several of ours from their Christian enterprise and respect and obedience to us, promising them help, counsel, encouragement and succor against us, all for the suppression of the Divine Word and of the duty, which our people owe to us, it is not only becoming in us, but our great necessity demands it, so that the Divine Word and evangelical truth may not in any measure be kept down by outrage and violence, but that we and ours may be allowed to remain in the free enjoyment thereof without any fear or terror of man."--And thus one measure of mistrust and dislike continually provoked another still more hostile. There was less and less concealment in the efforts of each to strengthen their party.
Any one acquainted with the history of Switzerland knows what ties of relationship, of agreement in their manners and mode of living, and neighborly intercourse existed from the most ancient times, between the inhabitants of Obwalden and those of the Haslithal and a part of the Bernese Oberland. Their friendship was kept alive by popular festivals celebrated in common, and also by the reverence which was paid, especially in the interior of Switzerland, to Saint Beatus, who, as the first promulgator of Christianity in that region, dwelt in a cave on the shore of lake Thun, called by his name, and received canonization. Numerous pilgrimages were made thither from the Five Cantons. The rumor, that the relics of the saint, exhibited there on such occasions, had been cast into the lake by order of the Bernese government, awakened universal indignation. But this was not true. Two deputies of the Council had taken possession of them in order to carry them to Interlachen and bury them afterward. In complaints against the abolition of their pilgrimages, the inhabitants of the Bernese Oberland joined with their neighbors of Unterwalden. Pastoral races are very tenacious of old customs. If these be taken away their respect for law is often shaken at the same time. The government of Bern had to experience this. Between the two lakes of Thun and Brienz lay, under the lordly supervision of Bern, the wealthy Augustinian cloister of Interlachen. Its domain extended over a great part of the surrounding country and through the mountain-valleys of Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald. The monks of that period were in good repute neither for their learning nor their morals. The Provost himself Nicholas Trachsel, was destitute both of external and internal dignity. And when the doctrines in regard to the uselessness of monkery, the unscripturalness of spiritual lordship, and the rights of Christian liberty now began to spread among the people subject to the foundation, they immediately applied them to deliverance from all dependence; from the duty of paying rents and tithes. If the one, said they, is an invention of man, so is the other. If we are to receive the Gospel, which teaches liberty among brethren, then will we also become our own masters, an independent canton like Unterwalden and Uri. The Provost, who did not know how to resist them, fled with a few friends to Bern, where, for a decent maintenance, he surrendered the monastery along with its domains and privileges into the hands of the Council. Under sanction of the Great Council, an agreement was quickly made by the government with the assembled convent; its seal, documents, revenues and jewels were brought to Bern; an officer was sent thither, and the whole converted into a bailiwick. But the people belonging to the monastery, who asserted that they ought to have had a voice in the change, at once preferred a complaint. When the government tried to postpone investigation, a violent insurrection broke out, which found sympathy even in some parts of their own district. New hopes were excited among the friends of the Old Order by this uprising of the malcontents, with whom the inhabitants of the Haslithal and other Oberlanders also joined, at the instigation of their neighbors in Obwalden. The Council was in great perplexity. Some of its own members secretly rejoiced--but only the most violent. With others, who also were little favorable to the Reformation, the sense of duty, which demanded the sacrifice of personal inclination to the interests of the state, predominated. From this class chiefly, a commission was chosen to examine on the spot the grievances of the malcontents and negotiate with them. They succeeded in restoring political order by lessening their rents, tithes and other taxes; by remitting more than 50,000 pounds of outstanding dues, and a promise of increased support for the poor and sick; but to allay the religious excitement was a far more difficult task.
Here, for the first time, the two religious parties appeared in arms against each other. The occasion was given by a split among the Oberlanders themselves--division in a matter, where no majority could decide. In the Haslithal the Reformation had found resolute adherents. They and the preachers sent hither from Bern were a source of daily vexation to their fellow-citizens of the old faith, who surpassed them in numbers. The latter sought advice from their neighbors of Obwalden, who, on their part, very willingly came forward and tried to gain over their allies to the support of the Oberlanders. In this they were not unsuccessful. Even the ruling authorities of the Five Cantons exhorted them to hold fast to the old religion in public or in private, and hinted at coming events and help just at hand. Under the pretext of looking once more upon the bones of Saint Beatus, the Abbot of Uri, the landamman and several prominent Zugers came to Interlachen. Ought not the wicked attempt of the innovators to commit them to the earth be prevented? Captain Schœnbrunner of Zug, asserted that he had concealed at least part of the relics in his cap and thus saved them. "Come to us in future," they now said, "as we heretofore made pilgrimages to you. St. Beatus lies with us." The public mind became more and more disturbed in the Haslithal. One Sunday in June, some of the leaders, instigated by persons from Obwalden, called together a general assembly of the people. The question was started whether the mass should be restored; and it was decided in the affirmative by a vote of one hundred and fifty one, against one hundred and eleven. Dispatches immediately went forth to Obwalden and Uri for priests, and several were conducted by the country people of the Five Cantons, yea, by the very magistrates, with drums and fifes to Hasle and Brienz; and mass was again celebrated amid great rejoicing. What should the government do? It was a perilous undertaking for them to carry out changes in worship against the decided will of a majority of the people. Some members of the Council declared their opposition to it. The mass, they thought, might be permitted, without bringing back episcopal power and foreign church-rule. But the Great Council firmly rejected every such compromise. Copies of the treaties, by which they had come under the dominion of Bern, were sent to the inhabitants of the Haslithal, and appeals made to their duty of submission to the highest authorities of the Canton, even in ecclesiastical affairs. It was all in vain. The adherents of the old faith, stirred up by their new priests, determined to yield under no circumstances. They asked help from Obwalden; they ventured to appear before the deputies of the Five Cantons, assembled at Beckenried, with a similar request. But no resolution was passed in their favor; even Uri and Zug came out strongly against any interference incompatible with the federal laws. The affair was regarded in a different light by Obwalden, and, under the name, it is true, of an embassy to mediate between the parties in the valley, a delegation was sent thither, accompanied, however, by twenty-eight young men adorned with fir-twigs, the defiant badge of the old party. Instead of reconciliation they brought fiercer quarrels. The friends of the Reformation were roused, when they ventured to call them heretics. Deputies from both sides now hastened to Bern, with prayers for succor from one and a declaration from the other, that they were willing to obey in all things, except matters of faith, which neither the Confederation nor the government, but the Church alone, had a right to touch. In this emergency, where they ought to issue commands, but where those commands could not be executed, was a source of uneasiness to the most skillful statesmen. Meanwhile this much was clear, that a protest must be uttered against every interference from abroad. The schultheiss of Erlach, along with two members of the Small and three of the Great Council, went to Sarnen. All save Councillor Wagner belonged to the lukewarm friends of the Reformation. It was hoped that their language would, for this reason, be less offensive in Obwalden. The schultheiss, in his address, kept wholly within the limits of a political consideration of the question. But when, among various cutting remarks, it was cast up to him, that the very Articles of Confederation, to which he appealed, and which were formerly, by reason of the common, venerable faith of their pious forefathers, sworn to in the names of the Saints, had been first brought into contempt by Bern and violated by her antichristian innovations: "The Articles of Confederation," said Erlach, "do not touch upon religion, and grant full liberty in regard to it."--"Well!" replied the old landamman, Halter, "if you yourselves say, that the Articles of Confederation do not touch upon religion, then they cannot be violated even by our intervention in matters of faith; and if your people or others appeal to us for sympathy or succor, where true Christianity, as we have received it from our old fathers, is concerned, we will pledge our persons and property for its maintenance, and still keep our honor towards you." The more clearly the Bernese tried, after this, to exhibit the distinct peculiarities and rights of church and state before the assembly at Hasle, the more did they fall, perhaps to the injury of their cause, into that confusion of ideas, which is altogether unavoidable, when we do not know how to discriminate between Christ's kingdom of faith and love, resting only on his Gospel, intended both for this world and the other, whose very element is freedom, and a government under tyrannic forms established by men in his name. As a true knowledge of the first lies at the foundation of the visible church, it alone can exert a beneficial influence upon the life of the state; yea, without this influence nothing worthy of being so called can possibly exist. The opposite, found in the latter, leads only to discord.
But for such a discrimination of ideas that age was not at all prepared. Prejudiced opinion and passion triumphed.--A multitude of excited people, from all the vallies of the Oberland, streamed into Hasle. "We ourselves," said they, "desire to uphold the faith, the faith of the church, and be separate from the government. On this faith only have we sworn allegiance; if it be taken away, our obligations are dissolved. We will fall in with the Confederates, who hold fast to the old pledges." Before the eyes of the schultheiss and his companions, in direct violation of the law, leaders were chosen, the ministers of Grindelwald, Æsche and Gsteig driven out of their houses with their families, mass-priests placed in their stead, the adherents of the government threatened and compelled to fly, reports of the help promised by their neighbors circulated on all sides--indeed, after several weeks of agitation and violence, the greater part of the Oberlanders, assembled at Interlachen, swore under no circumstances to separate themselves from the real Catholic church, to seek justice from none but the Seven Cantons of the Old Confederacy; to suffer no persons to be punished except under their sentence; to keep possession of the cloister and its domains, and to render mutual aid with their persons and property.
Bern was thrown into great embarrassment. Berchthold Haller wrote to Zwingli: "The Small Council has lost its head; it is given up by us Evangelicals. We have to hunt up the members at their country-seats; the vintage serves as an excuse for their absence and neglect of duty. Those of the Great Council murmur, lament and rave; but even they can find no remedy. They try by adjournments and tricks to avoid the necessity of sending out troops. Meanwhile the power of Antichrist increases everyday." But the impotence was not so universal as represented by the timid preacher. Courage revived; the Confederates were written to for a faithful examination of affairs and help in the hour of need, and a vanguard was sent to Thun; but the march of the entire army was delayed, because the soldiers were not to be trusted in all cases. This was to be expected. Conflicting religious views and the boldly proclaimed resolution of the Oberlanders to risk everything for their party, might seem to those, who had favored the Reformation more from necessity than inward conviction, no sufficient reason to take up arms against them. Something else had to be added to justify the expedition. But it did not last. Even the lukewarm were compelled to acknowledge that determined action had become just as much a duty as a necessity. The insurgent Oberlanders themselves, though united for the maintenance of the old faith, were no wise so in reference to their position toward the government. Among a portion of them the feeling of loyalty was not wholly extinct. They did not wish to separate themselves from the state of Bern, nor refuse obedience in political matters. It was otherwise with the more violent, who, for the time being, had the upper hand. These latter desired a formal breach with the government. They continued to believe in the possibility of forming an independent canton of the Confederacy, under a constitution and laws of their own making. Moreover, they hoped, should their Catholic neighbors lend them aid, to secure and increase at the same time their real power; and in the youthful heads of Obwalden especially such hopes had found sympathy. In fact, eight hundred men set out for the Oberland, and that under the banner of the canton, which was carried by a grandson of the friar Nicholas von Flue, and six hundred men of Uri were ready to follow them In spite of the disapprobation of their own Council. This rash proceeding was a breach of the General Peace, according to the spirit and letter of the Articles of Confederation, and the Bernese government had henceforth a perfect right to resist it by arms in the most energetic manner. And so it happened. Under the command of the Schultheiss Von Erlach, five thousand men provided with artillery and all, necessary supplies marched out. From the very moment, when the power of the government was displayed, the confidence of its friends increased and the courage of its enemies sank. Many of the Oberlanders, who were in Interlachen, saw the arrival of the men of Obwalden with concern, knowing their cause would be rather endangered than promoted by them. They began to rue the step they had taken, and quietly to desert the ranks of the insurgents. A hurried embassy from Basel, the inhabitants of the country around Sarnen, and even a deputation from Luzern showed the men of Obwalden that their invasion was a breach of the Federal Compact, with good effect upon the more considerate. Cold weather was approaching, and the rain poured down in torrents; they became fearful, if they did not speedily return home, of finding the mountain-passes blocked up with snow, and hence the Bernese advanced without resistance, whilst the enemy retreated and in the end dispersed. The more peaceable and better-thinking people of the Five Cantons expected this turn of affairs, yea even wished it. "Then the peasants," so writes Captain Shœnbrunner of Zug in his journal, which is still extant, "went back again to their Lords of Bern, which was not improper; for it is natural for every man to cleave to his own."
The punishment that followed was truly severe: the restitution of all property stolen or destroyed, payment of costs, the acceptance of the Reformation, the surrendry of their banners with the seal of the canton, and the abrogation of all privileges and immunities, formed the chief items. The oath of unconditional obedience had to be sworn on their bended knees.--"Then," we are told by a contemporary, "the horse-guards were sent into all the insurgent villages, and especially into the valley of Grindelwald to apprehend the real authors of the mischief, the ringleaders and the pillagers. Then were the houses of the rebels ransacked, and their cattle, goods and possessions, and whatever property belonged to the Unterwaldeners in the canton were taken and confiscated to the city of Bern, though afterward through pity much was given back again to women and children. Hereupon some arrived from Halse, Brienz, Grindelwald, Habkeren and Rinkenberg in chains. These they sent with the others, who were captured on the ascent at Oberhofen, to Thun, and thence to be dealt with according to their deserts, well guarded to Bern." A number of the parties most deeply implicated escaped punishment by fleeing to Obwalden. Among these was a certain Hans im Sand, an aged, wealthy and, in other respects, estimable man. He afterward crossed over the Bruenig by stealth to visit his family, and was then betrayed, condemned and beheaded. In accordance with the barbarous custom of the age, his widow was obliged to pay the executioner, who went himself to get his wages. At the earnest request of those, who had remained faithful, part of their privileges were gradually restored, first to the inhabitants of the Haslithal and then to the people of the monastery. Most of the captives were set free through the prayers of friends or by giving bail. On the other hand, the brother of the Provost of Interlachen and two more of the principal rebels were executed, and Christian Kolb, who had everywhere stirred up the insurgents to excess and violence, was not only slain but quartered.