United States or United States Virgin Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
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?
Accordingly, on the morning of New Year's Day, 1308, the castle of Rostberg, in Obwalden, was taken possession of, its keeper, Berenger, of Landasberg, made prisoner, and compelled to promise that he would never again set foot within the territory of the three cantons, after which he was allowed to retire to Lucerne.
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.
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.
Now openly and earnestly they set about arming themselves, refused peace beforehand without the humiliation of Obwalden, and called upon Bern by letters and an embassy not to make the least abatement in its unsettled grievances against that district, but rather to insist with redoubled zeal on satisfaction and the fullest indemnity. Indeed, Zwingli wished to go yet further.
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.
Still more bitter was the refusal of Obwalden: "To serve you we are at all times ready. But now you invite our learned men to you.
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.
Here a bitterness of spirit had been left behind by the unsuccessful inroad into the Haslithal, which was essentially increased by the claims of Bern for indemnification, the sojourn of fugitive Oberlanders and the execution of Hans im Sand, who had enjoyed special favor in Obwalden.
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.
Word Of The Day