§ 36. THE ORISONS. 133
remarkable relic of prehistoric times, an independent sister of the Italian, and is spoken in the Upper and Lower Engadin, the Miinster valley, and the Oberland. It has a considerable literature, mostly religious, which attracts the attention of comparative philologists. ^
The Grisonians (Graubiindtner) are a sober, industrious, and heroic race, and have maintained their independence against the armies of Spain, Austria, and France. They have a natural need and inclination to emigrate to richer countries in pursuit of fortune, and to return again to their mountain homes. They are found in all the capitals of Europe and America as merchants, hotel keepers, confectioners, teachers, and soldiers.
The institutions of the canton are thoroughly democratic and exemplify the good and evil effects of popular sovereignty.^ " Next to God and the sun," says an old Engadin proverb, " the poorest inhabitant is the chief magistrate." There are indeed to this day in the Grisons many noble families, descended in part from mediseval robber-chiefs and despots whose ruined castles still look down from rocks and cliffs, and in greater part from distinguished officers and diplomatists in foreign service ; but they have no more influence than their personal merits and prestige warrant. In official relations and transactions the titles of nobility are forbidden.^
1 The Roraansh language (to distinguish it from other Romanic languages) has two dialects, the Ladin of the Engadin, the Albula, and Miinster valleys, and the Romansh of the Oberland, Ilanz, Disentis, Oberhalbstein, etc. It is spoken by about 37,000 inhabitants. The whole population of the canton in 1890 was 94,879,-53,168 Protestants and 41,711 Roman Catholics. The largest number of Romansh books is in the Cantonal Library at Coire, and the Bohmer collection in the University Library of Strassburg. Colonel von Sprecher at Maienfeld also has about four hundred volumes.
2 "In no nation, ancient or modern," says Dr. McCrie (p. 293), "have the principles of democracy been carried to such extent as in the Grison Republic."
^ The best known and most respectable noble families are the Salis (one of them a distinguished lyric poet), Planta, Bavier, Sprecher, Albertini,
134 THE SWISS REFORMATION.
Let US briefly survey the secular histoiy before we proceed to the Reformation.
The Grisons were formed of three loosely connected confederacies or leagues, that is, voluntary associations of freemen, who, during the fifteenth century, after the example of their Swiss neighbors, associated for mutual protection and defence against domestic and foreign tyrants.^ These three leagfues united in 1471 at Vatzerol in an eternal covenant, which was renewed in 1524, promising to each other by an oath mutual assistance in peace and war. The three confederacies sent delegates to the Diet which met alternately at Coire, Ilanz, and Davos.
At the close of the fifteenth century two leagues of the Grisons entered into a defensive alliance with the seven old cantons of Switzerland. The third league followed the example.^
In the beginning of the sixteenth century the Grisonians
Tscharner, Juvalta, Mohr, Buol. See Sammlung rhdtischer Geschlechter. Chur, 1847.
1 The three confederacies or Biinde (whence the canton has its name Graubunden') are: —
1) The Gotteshausbund (Lia de Ca De), the League of the House of God. It dates from 1396, and had its centre since 1419 at Coire, the capital of the canton.
2) Tlie Obere Bund or Graue Bund (^Lia Grischa), the Gray League (hence the term Graue, Grisons, Grays). It was founded under an elm tree at Truns in 1424, and gatliered around the abbey of Disentis.
3) The Zehngerichtenbund (^Lia deltas desch dretturas), the League of the Ten Jurisdictions. It originated in 1436 at Davos and in the valley of Prattigau.
After the middle of the fifteenth century these leagues appear in the documents under the name of the Gemeine drei Biinde or Freistaat der drei Biinde in Hohenrhdtien. A modern historian says: " Frei und selbstherrlich sind viele Volker geworden, aber icenige auf so rechtliche und ruhige Weise als das Biindner Voik." See the documents in Tschudi, I. 593 ; II. 153 ; and compare Miiller, Schweizergeschichte, III. 283, 394, and Bluntschli, Geschichte des schweizerischen Bundesrechts, I. 196 sqq. (2d ed. Stuttgart, 1875).
2 The alliance was formed with the two older leagues separately in 1497 and 1498. The league of the Ten Jurisdictions was not admitted by the seven cantons because the house of Austria had possessions there ; but in 1590 it concluded an eternal agreement with Ziirich and Glarus, in 1600 with Wallis, and in 1602 with Bern. See Bluntschli, I.e. I. 198 sq. and the documents from the Archives of Ziirich in vol. II. 99-107.