§ 34. THE REFORMATION IN ST. GALL. 127
law of Grebel, their leader, but he opposed them in the interest of peace and order.
The death of the abbot, March 21, 1529, furnished the desired opportunity, at the advice of Zurich and Zwingli, to abolish the abbey and to confiscate its rich domain, with the consent of the majority of the citizens, but in utter disregard of legal rights. This was a great mistake, and an act of injustice.
The disaster of Cappel produced a reaction, and a portion of the canton returned to the old church. A new abbot was elected, Diethelm Blaurer ; he demanded the property of the convent and sixty thousand guilders damages for what had been destroyed and sold. The city had to yield. He held a solemn entry. He attended the last session of the Council of Trent and took a leading part in the counter-Reformation.
Watt showed, during this critical period, courage and moderation. He retained the confidence of his fellow-citizens, who elected him nine times to the highest civil office. He did what he could, in co-operation with Kessler and Bullinger, to save and consolidate the Reformed Church during the remaining years of his life. He was a portly, handsome, and dignified man, and wrote a number of geographical, historical, and theological works. ^
John Kessler (Chessellius or Ahenarius), the son of a claylaborer of St. Gall, studied theology at Basel, and Wittenberg. He was one of the two students who had an interesting interview with Dr. Luther in the hotel of the Black Bear at Jena in March, 1522, on his return as Knight George from the Wartburg.2 It was the only friendly meeting of Luther with the Swiss. Had he shown the same kindly feeling to Zwingli
^ Pressel.pp. 100-103, gives the titles of twenty-seven of his writings, mostly Latin, published between 1510 and 1548.
- Reported by him in the Swiss dialect with charming naivete in Sabbata, pp. 145-151: "Wie mir M. Luther uff der strass IBeise'] gen Wittenherg'begegnet ist." Kessler's companion was John Spengler. See an account of the interview, in vol. VI. p. 385.
128 THE SWISS EEFORMATION.
at Marburg, the cause of the Reformation would have been the gainer.
Kessler supported himself by the trade of a saddler, and preached in the city and surrounding villages. He was also chief teacher of the Latin school. In 1571, a year before his death, he was elected Antistes or head of the clergy of St. Gall. He had a wife and eleven children, nine of whom survived him. He was a pure, amiable, unselfish, and useful man and promoter of evangelical religion. His portrait in oil adorns the City Library of St. Gall.
The county of Toggenburg, the home of Zwingli, was subject to the abbot of St. Gall since 1468, but gladly received the Reformed preachers under the influence of Zwingli, his relatives and friends. In 1524 the council of the community enjoined upon the ministers to teach nothing but what they could prove from the sacred Scriptures. The people resisted the interference of the abbot, the bishop of Constance, and the canton Schwyz. In 1528 the Reformation was generally introduced in the towns of the district. With the help of Ziirich and Glarus, tlie Toggenburgers bougfht their freedom from the abbot of St. Gall for fifteen hundred guilders, in 1530 ; but were again subjected to his authority in 1536. The county was incorporated in the canton St. Gall in 1803. The majority of the people are Protestants.
The canton Appenzell received its first Protestant preachers— John Schurtanner of Teufen, John Dorig of Herisau, and Walter Klarer of Hundwil — from the neisrhborinCT St. Gall, through the influence of Watt. The Reformation was legally ratified by a majority vote of the people, Aug. 26, 1528. The congregations emancipated themselves from the jurisdiction of the abbot of St. Gall, and elected their own pastors. The Anabaptist disturbances promoted the Roman- Catholic reaction. The population is nearly equally divided, — Innerrhoden, with the town of Appenzell, remained Catho-