ty,
declared before the assembly of the Zurichan leaders in the camp at
Cappel, that Zwingli's demand on the Five Cantons for the abolition
of pensions need expect no support from Bern. This drew angry words
from the Reformer: "Well then! we can put the question to the whole
commons-at-war; we can also send an embassy to Bern herself, to learn
how the city and canton think. I know it and can prove it by writings,
which I promise to produce, that that people, as well as ours,
abhor pensions. Who maintain them? Some great families, who live by
them."--"It will come to this," replied Hans Escher, "we must first put
questions everywhere; the councils of leaders are no longer of any
account; one has just as much to say as another; squire and knight,
common man and captain; now, let all, for my sake, cry out at once;
then at least we will be done with the matter; if we ourselves cannot
strike because of discord, then let the others strike." Zwingli
confessed that he had gone too far, and smothered his chagrin. He had
hoped for a victory of principles, but now saw only the possibility of
a temporary compromise, achieved by political arts. The men, from whom
there was nothing to hope in support of the Reformation, in one canton,
and everything to fear in regard to the others, stood at the helm and
saw their power continually secured by foreign influence and foreign
gold. He beheld the times coming, when the old Adam would again awaken
in Zurich herself. Earlier or later, the seed sown, so he foreboded,
must be again stifled and the tender fruit sunk under the rank growth
of sprouting weeds.

Meanwhile the arbitrators in Steinhausen did all they could, and when
Bern used just as decided language against the Five Cantons as against
Zurich, then a treaty was formed, with which the statesmen of the
latter canton said they would be satisfied. First of all, the
Territories were to be left to their own free choice in matters of
religion; to declare for one system or the other. The alliance with
King Ferdinand was to be abolished and its documents annihilated.
Doctor Murner was to be arraigned before the Confederates in Baden, to
answer for defamation of Zurich and Bern. These were the chief
articles. What the Five Cantons should pay as costs of the war, and
indemnification to the surviving family of Jacob Kaiser, was left to
the arbitrators to determine afterward. But Zurich and Bern were
expressly empowered, if the conditions bindin