Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/415

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SWITZERLAND


363


SWITZERLAND


several districts including Schaffhausen and Appen- zell. A peasant revolt broke out, partly in connexion with the Anabaptist movement; this outbreak, how- ever, was mainly settled by negotiations after serfdom had been aboUshed. Notwithstanding the decisions of the Diet of 152-1 and all efforts made by the Cath- olic districts of central Switzerland, Zwinglianism spread to other Swiss cities and territories. The heretical doctrine was introduced into the city of St- Gall by Joachim von Watt (Vadianus) and his fol- lowers; in 1.528 all Catholics were excluded from the council, and only the abbey remained loyal to the Catholic Faith. Zwinglianism extended from St- Gall into Appenzell and spread among the communes of Appenzell-Ausserrhoden. Through the influence of Zurich, Protestantism wa.s introduced into Toggen- burg, which belonged to the Abbey of St-Gall, and into Thurgau, so that in 1525 the majoritj' of the inhabitants of both these districts belonged to the new faith. Protestantism also found entrance into Glarus, Sargans, and the valley of the Rhine, as well as into the Grisons. In these districts, however, the adher- ents of the heretical doctrine could not attain absolute control. The cities of Ba-sle and Schaffhausen also fell away from the Catholic Faith; much was done for the spread of Protestantism at Basle by CEcolampadius (q. v.). For a considerable time Berne wavered, but in 1528 the new doctrines urged by Francis Kolb, N. Manuel, Berchtold Haller, and Johann Haller con- quered, and the heretical doctrine was introduced by force in all the territories of Berne.

The districts that had become Protestant united both with one another and with foreign Protestant cities. The five Catholic districts of Switzerland, mentioned above, had also united in defence of the old Faith in their territories, and had formed an alliance with Austria. Zwingli now sought to force them to submit to his erroneous teachings. This resulted in the two wars of Kappel (l.")28-31), which ended in the victory of the CathoUc districts bj' the battle near Kappel in 1531, in which Zwingli was killed. In the second Peace of Kappel which was now signed (1531) the Cathohc Faith was completely restored in the common dependencies of Baden, Freiamt, and Rap- perswjl, and numerous parishes in Thurgau; the valley of the Rhine became Catholic again and the monasteries were re-established. The Protestant Faith was recognized by the Constitution; in the re- ligiously mixed districts and in the German subject lands the individual parishes could decide to which faith to belong, but the free exercise of the religion of the minority was protected; the districts which were entirely Protestant or entirely CathoUc retained their respective confessions, and the alliance of the Zwing- lian districts was dissolved. In the meantime the heretical doctrine had been carried from Berne into French Switzerland. Among the lordships belonging to the Bishop of Basle in the ,Iura the new faith made its way into the Miinsterthal, Biel, the city of Xeu- chdtel, and also in the district of Neuchatel. In 1536 Berne conquered the district of Vaux and intro- duced Protestantism into it by force, as well as in the lands that Berne owned in common with Fribourg. Berne also supported the adherents of the new faith, which in 1535 had gained the supremacy in the posse.s- tions of its ally Geneva, where Calvin soon made his appearance and where he established a new centre of Protestantism.

In religious matters the Confederation was now divided as follows: the five districts of I'ri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug, and Lucerne with their dependen- cies (among them Ticino), also Fribourg, Solothurn, the allied Valais, the Abbot of St-Gall, and the com- mon dependencies of Baden, Freiamt, and Rapper- swyl remained Catholic; Zurich, Berne with Vaud, Basle, Schaffhausen, the city of St-Gall, and Geneva were Protestant; both confessions existed together in


Appenzell, which in 1597 was divided into Catholic Innerrhoden and Protestant Aus.serrhoden, Glarus, the Grisons (where only the "graue Bund" remained Catholic), and in the dejicndciit districts of .\argau Thurgau, W'erdenberg, the valley of the Rhine, and Toggenburg. True inner religious reform, based on the pure Cathohc Faith, foimd zealous promoters in Switzerland in the era of the Council of Trent. St. Charles Borromeo (q. v.) laboured with great success, as did also Bishop Christopher Blarer of Basle. Of great value in this work was the summoning of the Jesuits, of whom the most important was Peter Cani- sius (q. v.); in the j-ears succeeding 1574 they erected flourishing colleges in numerous cities, as Lucerne, Fribourg, Porrentruy, Siders, Brig, Sion, and Solo- thurn. The Capuchins also entered Switzerland at the same time, and erected their first mona-stery on Swiss soil at Altorf in 1579; this was gradually fol- lowed by the founding of nearly thirty more houses, so that their spiritual labours embraced the larger part of the Catholic districts of the Confederation. An- other important factor in the revival of ecclesiastical and religious life was the establishment of a permanent papal nunciature to the Confederation with its seat at Lucerne (from 1579). The Collegium Helveticum at Milan and the Collegium Germanicarum at Rome, both of which had a number of free scholarships for Swiss theologians, did much for the thorough education and earnest religious training of the clerg)'. The re- vival of Catholic life was vigorously supported by zealous and orthodox priests, such as provost Sch- neuwly at Fribourg, and Catholic statesmen, such as L. PfyfTer, of Lucerne, and M. Lussy in the forest districts that had formed the original Swiss League. The internal reform of the Church based on the de- crees of the Council of Trent made its way through- out Catholic Switzerland to the gi'eat benefit of the loyal Catholic population. The seven Catholic dis- tricts formed the Borroniaean League in 1.586 to pre- vent the further advance of Protestantism.

The subject lands of Bormia, Chiavenna, and Val TeOina, which had belonged to the Grisons since 1513, remained loyal to the Catholic Faith. They were hard pressed, and the attempts to spread the heretical doctrine in these regions also were supported in every possible manner by the Protestant nuijority in the Grisons. During the violent political disputes which raged in the Grisons during the seventeenth century a revolt broke out in Val Tellina. The knight James of Grossoto marched into the valley in 1620 and a large part of the Protestant population was killed (the ValteUine Massacre). This led to a war between the Protestant and Catholic districts and their foreign allies, the final end of which was that the Val Tellina and the other Italian subject lands were lost to the Confederates. After the Peace of Kappel of 1531 the Catholic districts h;vd the majority in the Diet of the Confederation, a jioint of much import- ance in the garrisoning of the lands held in common that separated Berne and Zurich from each other. These two i)0wcrful Protestant members of the Diet sought an occasion to change this state of afTairs. The supjjre.'ision of a Protestant community in Arth, that belonged to Schwyz, gave rise to a di.spute be- tween the t'atliolic and Protestant districts which led to the two Villmergen wars (16.56 and 1712). The Cathohc districts conquered in the first war; disturb- ances in Toggenburg led to the second war, in which political questions were especially prominent. This latter war ended in the victory of the Protestant dis- tricts, and it was followed by a new partition of the common lordships in favour of the conquerors, as well as by the granting of complete parity to the Protest- ant inhabitants of the subject lands. This treaty divided the Confederation into tw'o distinct confes- sional groujjs.

The hostility to the Church shown in the French