§ 37. THE REFORMATION IN THE ORISONS. 139
abridgment of the sixty-seven conclusions of Zwingli. The first thesis was : "• The Christian Church is born of the Word of God and should abide in it, and not listen to the voice of a stranger" (John 10:4, 5). He defended this proposition with a wealth of biblical arguments which the champions of Rome were not able to refute. There was also some debate about the rock-passage in Matt. 16 : 18, the mass, purgatory, and sacerdotal celibacy. The Catholics brought the disputation to an abrupt close.
In the summer of the same year (June 26, 1526), the Diet of Ilanz proclaimed religious freedom, or the right of all persons in the Grisons, of both sexes, and of whatever condition or rank, to choose between the Catholic and the Reformed religion. Heretics, who after due admonition adhered to their error, were excluded and subjected to banishment (but not to death). This remarkable statute was in advance of the intolerance of the times, and forms the charter of religious freedom in the Grisons.^
The Diet of Ilanz ordered the ministers to preach nothing
^ Campell, II. 309: "Die Disputation [of Ilanz] blieh nicht ohne alle Frucht. Sie hatte wenigstens die Folge, dass ein Gtsetz erlassen wurde, wonach es in den drei Biinden Jedermann, wess Standes oder Geschlechts er audi war, freigestellt wurde, nach Gutdiinken zu einer der beiden Confessionem, der katholischen oder evangelischen, sich zu bekennen und an ihr festzuhalten. Hiebei wurde, unter Androhung einer angemessenen Strafe, Jedem streng untersagt, irgend Jemanden um seines Glaubens willen zu schmdhen oder, sei es offentlich oder heimlich, zu verfolgen, loie diess von der andern Partei schon oft genug geschehen war. Bei dieser Gelegenheit wurde ein altes Landesgesetz den Geistlichen aufs Neue eingescharft, wonach selbe durchaus keine andere, als die in derh. Schrift enthaltene Lehre dem Voike vortragen sollten." [Then follows a list of the leading statesmen, John Travers, John Guler, etc., who contributed to this result.] " 3Iit dem niimlichen Gesetz liber freie Ausilbung des evangelischen Glaubens wurde die game Kezerei der Wiedertaufe streng untersagt und alle ihre Anhdnger mit Verbannung bedroht. Die strenge Ueberwachung der erstern dieser zwei Verordnungen hatte in Beziig auf ojfentliche Ruhe und Frieden zwischen beiden Confessionen dusserst wohlthdtige Folgen, indem beide Theile sich lange Zeit hindurch der grossten Mdssigung befissen, bis erst in den letzten Jahren bei den katholischen Geistlichen sich abermals eine feindselige Stimmung gegen die evangelischen Prediger in Schmdhungen aller Art kund gab, woriiber mannigfache Klagen vor dem Beitag laut wurden." — Comp. Bullinger, I. 315; De Porta, I. 146.
140 THE SWISS EEFORMATION.
but what tliey could prove from the Scriptures, and to give themselves diligently to the study of the same. The political authority of the bishop of Coire was curtailed, appeals to him from the civil jurisdiction were forbidden, and the parishes were empowered to elect and to dismiss their own priests or pastors. ^
Thus the episcopal monarchy was abolished and congregational independency introduced, but without the distinction made by the English and American Congregationalists between the church proper, or the body of converted believers, and the congregation of hearers or mere nominal Christians.
This legislation was brought about by the aid of liberal Catholic laymen, such as John Travers and John Guler, who at that time had not yet joined the Reformed party. The strict Catholics were dissatisfied, but had to submit. In 1553 the Pope sent a delegate to Coire and demanded the introduction of the Inquisition; but Comander, Bullinger, and the French ambassador defeated the attempt.
Comander, aided by his younger colleague, Blasius, and afterwards by Gallicius, continued to maintain the Reformed faith against Papists, Anabaptists, and also against foreign pensioners who had their headquarters at Coire, and who punished him for his opposition by a reduction of his scanty salary of one hundred and twenty guilders. He was at times tempted to resign, but Bullinger urged him to hold on.^ He stood at the head of the Reformed synod till his death in 1557.
He was succeeded by Fabricius, who died of the pestilence in 1566.
Philip Gallicius (Saluz) developed a more extensive activity. He is the Reformer of the Engadiu, but labored also
1 Campell, II. 310 sqq., gives the principal of the Twenty Articles of the Diet of Ilanz.
2 See his letters to Bullinger and Vadian in De Porta, I. 67, 179 sqq. ; II. 278.