with hospitality, and they remained there peaceably until the next night, when, learning that the prisoner would not be set at liberty, they began to be turbulent. Wirth endeavoured in vain to quell the disturbance. At this moment the inhabitants of Stammheim received and obeyed orders to return home; but the villagers who remained plundered and set fire to the monastery.

A report of this outrage was made to his government by Amberg, who took care to lay the whole blame upon Wirth and his sons. A Diet was called to see what should be done. They seemed at first disposed to confound the innocent with the guilty, and to chastise without discrimination the citizens of the offending towns; but the deputies from Zurich persuaded them to take a more equitable course. They sent a party of soldiers to seize the principal persons accused of taking a part in the violence. Many of these escaped; but Wirth and his sons refused to fly. "You need no force," said the former; "had a child brought us an order from our sovereign, we should have obeyed it without resistance."

The prisoners were brought to Zurich. On examination they confessed that they had joined the crowd and followed them to the monastery; but they averred that they made every effort to

prevent the destruction of the building. Their defence was of no avail; the Cantons required them to be given up to the Diet. The Council answered that the case belonged to their jurisdiction. The Cantons replied, that if their demand was not complied with, they would carry off the offenders by force of arms. To this threat of civil war, the Council, in opposition to the earnest remonstrance of Zwingle, were unjust and pusillanimous enough to yield. The prisoners were removed to Baden. Torture was applied to force from them some confession which might serve to give at least an appearance of justice to their condemnation. They bore their sufferings with admirable fortitude; but neither the noble bearing of the bailiff and his sons, nor the tears of the wife and mother, could soften the hearts of the judges. The father and the elder son were sentenced to death; the former for treason, and the latter for "having preached up the Lutheran and Zwinglian sect." The victims met their fate with Christian firmness. The younger son was pardoned and escaped to Zurich. In such cases, the sentence usually involved the confiscation of the property of the condemned; but in this instance, that part of the punishment was remitted, through the intercession of three Cantons who had thus far refused to act in the matter, on the cruel condition that the widow should

pay ten crowns to the executioner of her husband and child.

This tragical affair shows the degree of the enmity which existed to Zwingle and the reformers. They were not, however, to be intimidated or silenced. The civil authorities continued to introduce many changes, and in 1525 the celebration of mass was formally abolished, and the Lord's Supper commemorated in the simple manner now practised by Protestants. The Chapter of the cathedral placed their revenues at the disposal of the government; and their example was followed by a convent of nuns in the vicinity. Plans for public instruction were formed, and an academy to prepare young men for the ministry was established. Zwingle was the agent who superintended the execution of these changes, and he performed the work with fidelity and prudence.

In the mean time, the papal party contrived a plot, by which they hoped to get Zwingle into their power, and to crush the growing heresy. A conference was appointed, to which the Swiss Reformer was invited to discuss the points at issue between the Romanists and the Reformers, with Eccius, the antagonist of Luther. But so evident was the inimical purpose of those engaged in bringing about this meeting, that the Council of Zurich refused to permit their preacher to

leave the city. His cause was defended in the debate, which took place at Baden, by several learned divines; but his absence defeated the object of the papists, and they contented themselves, for the present, with the passage of a sentence of excommunication against him and his followers, and the prohibition of the sale of heretical books, or the introduction of any change in forms of worship.

About this time, the Reformation was greatly assisted by a revolution which took place in Berne, one of the most important members of the Helvetic confederacy. At the close of the year 1527, several of the towns belonging to that Canton petitioned the government for leave to introduce the worship practised at Zurich. This request found both friends and foes in the Senate; and on that account a convention of the clergy was summoned to deliberate upon it. Great numbers from all parts of Switzerland, together with some foreign divines, attended this meeting. Zwingle, in compliance with the earnest entreaty of his friend Haller, a pastor of Berne, and his own desire to embrace an occasion so favorable for the promulgation of his opinions, was present, and took a prominent part in the debate. The result of the convention was a new victory for the Reformers. Berne threw off the control of her bishop, and directed her preachers to teach

only what the majority of the assembly had approved. Priests were permited to marry; nuns to leave their convents and return to the world; and the funds of the monasteries were intrusted to the civil magistrates. In the short space of four months the capital and all its dependencies adopted the new religion.

One incident may be mentioned here, to show how much the eloquence and learning of Zwingle contributed to effect this revolution. During the sittings of the Convention, the clergymen present preached in turn in the cathedral of the city. On one occasion Zwingle ascended the pulpit, just as a priest was preparing to say mass, at one of the altars of the church. His desire to hear the celebrated heretic caused him to suspend his employment. Zwingle, in his sermon, stated and defended his own views of the Lord's Supper with such clearness and power that the priest was converted on the spot, and in the sight of the whole congregation laid aside his robes and joined the Reformers,