him
unmixed satisfaction. The men of Gessenay demanded pay for their support
in the form of costly enfranchisements from contributions or taxes; the
revenues of Gruyere had already been decreased by the long legal
processes of the succession, the maintenance of the army of defence, and
the payment of Countess Claude's dot and her daughter's pension, as well
as by the heavy purchase money of the chateaux of Aubonne and Moliere.
While still preserving its appearance of luxury the court of Gruyere was
now supplied and maintained by loans from Berne and Fribourg, while
Count Jean, who had prevailed against so powerful an array of foes, was
like his predecessors, despoiled by the bishop of Lausanne, who demanded
the cession of his rights over a rich part of his possessions. Thus the
reign which had begun by an astonishing display of courage and firmness
was so embarrassed by the expenditure incident to its establishment,
that it ran thereafter a very inglorious course unmarked by the happy
prosperity of former years. When Maximilian I prepared to proceed to
Italy to be crowned emperor of the Romans, the Bernois consented to
enroll Count Jean's son, his son-in-law, the seigneur of Chatelard, and
Claude de Vergy, under the Gruyere banner in the army of confederates
which was to swell the imperial forces. But with the refusal of Venice
to permit the passage of Maximilian this dream of worldly experience and
adventure was necessarily abandoned. Except for the service of the
Count's illegitimate son Jean, who fought with a force of Gruyeriens in
the battle of Novara, when the Swiss preserved Milan to its dukes
against the invading army of Louis XII, no military honor accrued to
Gruyere during his reign.

CHAPTER VIII

RELIGIOUS REFORM

The death of Count Jean in the beginning of the 16th century left to his
son Jean II the task of upholding the old ideals of the Gruyere house
against the continually growing democracy in Switzerland, as well as
against the advance of religious reform. Endowed with all his father's
firmness, he possessed the chivalric ardor of his predecessors and a
full share of their personal charm. The long and intimate relation of
Gruyere and Savoy which had been interrupted by his father's maintenance
of his rights of succession against the will of Duke Philibert II, were
renewed by Count Jean II, who soon merited the title so worthily won by
his predecessors of the "greatest noble in Romand Switzer