hich, because she had no jurisdiction in
that region, was denied them.

If the Reformation should continue to spread in this way, what was left
for the Five Cantons, except to throw open at last their own territory
for its entrance, or, surrounded by opponents, to see themselves
overwhelmed in case of war, and reduced, perhaps, to the most fearful
want by the obstruction of commerce? Under these circumstances many,
whose ideas of affairs were just, gradually yielded, and what had for a
long time been secretly hoped for by a few, an alliance with their
powerful neighbor, Austria, who likewise remained loyal to the faith,
found increasing favor among the rulers of the people. On the 14th of
February, 1529, deputies of the Five Cantons met the Austrian
authorities at Feldkirch. Whether they had invited them thither, as a
historian of Luzern informs us, or whether, as said by several
reporters of the opposite party, one of whom was himself present as a
spy, the suit of the Austrian counsellors at first foiled through the
great coldness with which it was received by the Confederates, can
scarcely be ascertained now. The records afford no proof for either
view. In the meantime, a draught of a mutual treaty was made, which, if
approved by the Archduke Ferdinand, King of Hungary and Bohemia, as
well as by the Councils and parishes of the Five Cantons, was to be
published and ratified as a definitive alliance in Waldshut. This took
place in April, and in the same month King Ferdinand himself handed
over a copy of the document to the Diet of the collective states
assembled in Baden, with the explanation that the alliance was intended
neither to aggrieve, nor attack or injure, but simply to protect the
old, true faith, to uphold peace and order, and was open to every
Christian government, which desired to enter it. At the same time,
the Zurichers and Bernese must have clearly seen, that it was a
counter-part, and a suspicious one, of the Christian _Buergerrecht_. On
the side of the Reformed only one imperial city came forward, whilst on
that of the Catholics stood the mightiest of the neighboring states,
and that with articles capable of a far wider application than any in
the Christian _Buergerrecht_. They commenced by declaring, that every
reform in matters of faith, yea even the representation of the
necessity of such a thing was interdicted in the territories of the
allies, and that whosoever "would undertake to raise up and f