va. Zwingli took the position
of an Old Testament prophet, subordinating state to church. At first
he had agreed with the Anabaptists in separating (theoretically) church
and state. But he soon came to believe that, though true Christians
might need no government, it was necessary to control the wicked, and
for this purpose he favored an aristocratic polity. All matters of
morals were strictly regulated, severe laws being passed against
taverns and gambling. The inhabitants were forced to attend church.
After the suppression of the Catholics and the radicals, there
developed two parties just as later in Geneva, the Evangelical and the
Indifferent, the policy of the latter being one of more freedom, or
laxity, in discipline, and in general a preference of political to
religious ends.

[Sidenote: Basle November, 1522]

The Reformation had now established itself in other cities of German
Switzerland. Oecolampadius coming to Basle as the bearer of
Evangelical ideas, won such success that soon the bishop was deprived
of authority, [Sidenote: 1524] two disputations with the Catholics were
held, [Sidenote: 1525] and the monasteries abolished. [Sidenote: 1527]
Oecolampadius, after taking counsel with Zwingli on the best means of
suppressing Catholic worship, branded the mass as an act worse than
theft, harlotry, adultery, treason, and murder, called a meeting of the
town council, and requested them to decree the abolition of Catholic
worship. [Sidenote: October 27, 1527] Though they replied that every
man should be free to exercise what religion he liked, on Good Friday,
1528, the Protestants removed the images from Oecolampadius's church,
and grumbled because their enemies were yet tolerated. Liberty of
conscience was only assured by the fairly equal division of the
membership of the town council. On December 23, 1528, two hundred
citizens assembled and presented a petition, drawn up by Oecolampadius,
for the suppression of {157} the mass. On January 6, 1529, under
pressure from the ambassadors of Berne and Zurich, the town council of
Basle decreed that all pastors should preach only the Word of God, and
asked them to assemble for instruction on this point. The compromise
suited no one and on February 8 the long prepared revolution broke out.
Under pretence that the Catholics had disobeyed the last decree, a
Protestant mob surrounded the town hall, planted cannon, and forced the
council to expel the twelve Catho