olved, in March of the year 1526, to accept the offer of Eck, to
whom the general-vicar Faber had joined himself, and assemble a
religious conference at Baden, in the middle of October. To these
preparatory consultations and to the sessions of the diet Zurich had
not been invited for a long time. In vain had she complained of it. But
now she received a cold letter, almost hostile in its tone, from her
sister-confederates, of which the following are the essential contents:
"It cannot be concealed from you, that for a good while there has been
much talk of a disputation. Transactions of this sort have not at all
been displeasing and repugnant to your feelings heretofore. Well! Now
we are to act for a final restoration of peace. Require Zwingli and his
associates to appear here along with your deputies, and thus show
yourselves as those, who would willingly suffer discord, ill-will and
disturbance to be put away, and themselves be taught what is better."
It is easy to imagine, that, on such an invitation, Zurich found the
matter worthy of more mature consideration before she could accept.

The government had undoubtedly begun and proceeded, without heeding the
frequent prayers and warnings of her Confederates, in a thorough work
of reformation within the limits of her own canton; beyond these she
had neither exercised, nor sought to exercise, a direct ecclesiastical
influence. What she had done, was in strict accordance with her rights;
no law of the Confederation had been violated by her. And yet the
confederates continued to assume more and more the attitude of judges
over her. When the deputies from the Zurich Council appeared in the
midst of the diet, at the close of the discussion in regard to the
conference at Baden, they were excluded, called in again, if they
thought fit to come, not asked for their opinion, and simply informed
of what had been determined without their assistance, and what they
were now expected to carry into execution. In the same form, a
knowledge of these decrees was a second time communicated to the
government. The doctrines of Zwingli were styled heretical beforehand,
and he was charged with being the author of sedition; then it was
resolved: "It is not our will that any changes be made in the faith,
and, as dutiful members, we have no thought of sundering ourselves from
the Holy Church; but in order that Zwingli may be obliged to leave off
his seditious teachings in our Confederacy, and the co