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In the Buergerrecht, stipulations were certainly made in regard to the Emperor and Empire, as well as the Confederates, so that the obligations under which the two cities had come toward them, seemed to be ratified on the face of it; but this same Buergerrecht spoke also of the possibility of warlike expeditions, the division of whatever might be conquered, and the privilege of enlarging and extending itself to other cities and territories.
It certainly cannot be denied, that a considerable portion of the clergy of the monks, who were ejected from the Territories in consequence of the Reformation, were men without knowledge, often without morals and generally of little worth, and that the three civil functionaries just-mentioned, had, by their harshness, immorality and acts of violence, stirred up the righteous indignation of the people; yet the forms, under which Zurich proceeded, were not those of confederate law, but the offspring rather of an arbitrary will, whose continued assumption of power tended only to awaken the most bitter animosity amongst the Five Cantons, and found no approval with her own party, including even the cities of the Christian Buergerrecht.
Hence her deputies proposed to send an embassy to the Five Cantons, from the collective cities of the Buergerrecht, even without Zurich, if she did not see fit to join it. Earnest expostulation and at all events a hint about prohibiting the export of provisions, in case a hearing were refused, could not remain without its due effect. Basel said that sending embassies and letters were useless.
In fact, at the close of the year, Strassburg was also admitted into the Buergerrecht; but when this city along with Zurich and Basel proposed that it should be extended likewise to the Landgrave of Hess, Bern raised difficulties, and at last refused consent, with the remark, that she could not justify before her own subjects the admission of so remote a prince. Zwingli was highly displeased.
He represented himself as a deputy of the Council of Zurich in agreement with the cities of the Christian Buergerrecht, communities living jointly under free constitutions, like that of Venice. Natural and common interests bound them to resist a universal, all-devouring monarchy, such as the Emperor aimed at.
The states of the Confederacy, favorable to peace, now supplied the place of Schaffhausen, who had taken a decided stand with the cities of the Buergerrecht, by calling in the French embassy. The latter immediately turned to Zwingli himself. "Dear highly esteemed man," they wrote to him, "we have once before expressed our urgent wishes to thee, and thou hast not answered us.
Certainly the Bernese government would have reason for anxiety in regard to the growing preponderance of Zurich in the Buergerrecht, if Zwingli could be supported in it both by Strassburg and the Landgrave; but its reluctance no doubt was just as much owing to its peculiar policy, which was always less concerned about the infusion of philosophical or theological principles into the national life, than about the maintenance of existing treaties and friendly relations as far as possible with all the Confederates.
Our Buergerrecht was devised not for disturbing the peace of the Empire, but to aid in preserving it." Agreement became more and more difficult.
In Bern, meanwhile, the negotiations touching the Christian Buergerrecht were actively carried on by the government during the Religious Conference, in spite of the opposition, as it appears, of a party averse to the Alliance. Roist and the town-clerk, Mangolt, sent information of this to Zurich in several letters.
In order, therefore, to exert a new and powerful influence upon the cities of the Buergerrecht, Zurich invited them to hold a conference; which, with all in attendance, was opened on the 6th of March.
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