d vindication,
her fourth complaint against exclusion from the public councils in
direct violation of treaties resounded unheard, and her letters to the
Five Cantons were no longer read, and threats multiplied, the
neighboring imperial city of Constance found herself in a like forsaken
condition. There also, through the preaching of Ambrosius Blaarer, a
friend of Zwingli, and others, the reformation of the church had made
such active progress, that the bishop and the majority of the canons
withdrew in anger to Ueberlingen and M[oe]rsburg, and the Emperor
caused the city to feel the weight of his displeasure; but the Council,
devoted to the new order of things, looked around beyond the walls for
support in case of need. The necessity appeared the greater, because
the suspicion prevailed among many of the citizens that Austria, sure
of the secret approval of the head of the Empire, would use the
favorable moment to take possession of a place so well situated on the
frontier. The behavior of the Archducal Vicegerent, Marcus Sittich von
Ems, strengthened the suspicion. His troopers rode up close to the
gates of the city. He himself looked about in the neighborhood for a
spot, as he said, on which to pitch a camp. In these straits Constance
turned toward Zurich and sought a defensive alliance with her. After
long negotiations, conducted in secret, this was at last concluded on
the 25th of December, 1527, a few days before the Zurichers set out to
the Conference at Bern. They carried the news thither. Bern also, in a
certain measure by storm, was won over as a party. As early as the 6th
of January, 1528, the very day on which the Religious Conference was
opened, the majority of the Great Council expressed their willingness
to take the matter in hand. The name given to the Alliance, the
Christian _Buergerrecht_, (Citizen's rights), was easy to understand,
not so its spirit. In the ancient treaties the Five Cantons had
surrendered the privilege of contracting other alliances without the
common consent of all the states; the three original cantons,
therefore, could not permit any deliberation among separated cantonal
authorities. Zurich, on the contrary, and Bern, at the time of their
accession to the Confederacy, had reserved this privilege in writing.
As a natural consequence, the ties of the Federal Compact were viewed
somewhat differently by its members. To the original cantons they
appeared closer; to the cities, especially