374 H E L V 
Thefe perfons vifited the hermit, and befought his in- 
tenpjbfition. He was not deaf to their requefts, but 
quitted his peaceful retirement, and appeared at the 
congrefs of Stantz, the chief town of his canton. All 
prefent felt for him the veneration due to hoary faiiCcity; 
all regarded him as the genius of beneficence ; and all 
recelledted the wifdom of his counfels, his unfwerving 
rdClittide, his love of his country, and his devotion to 
its welfare. When he was announced, all eyes were 
fixed on him, all ears were open, and all minds became 
fufceptible of conviction. His una(Turnings yet touching 
eloquence awoke, in-the hearts of the deputies, thofe 
fentiments of fratermty and patriotifin, to which the 
confederacy owed its glory and its exigence. The can- 
tons recognized an arbiter under the garb of a hermit, 
adopted all the mealures which he propofed in order to 
allay their differences, and employed themfelves in de¬ 
viling thofe which teemed beljt calculated to prevent 
fimilar evils in future. Many very important regula¬ 
tions, to which the confederacy owed much of its fubfe- 
quent firength and liability, derived their origin from 
this extraordinary interpofition, and front the fpirit of 
unanimity and cordiality which it called forth. Had de 
flue been a faint, endowed with the gift of miracles, 
he could not have wrought one more fignal, nor more 
ufeful to his country; nor have acquired fironger claims 
to its gratitude, than by drawing clofely together the 
bonds of union between fiates fo different the one from 
the other, whether we regard the extent of territory, 
the manner of life of the inhabitants, or the feveral po¬ 
litical conftitutions under which they lived, an'd which 
varied^fo as to fill up all the gradations between pure 
unlimited democracy and exclufive hereditary arifto- 
cra’cy; Having terminated the falutary work of pacifi¬ 
cation, de Flue clofed his miflion by addrelling, to the 
aflembled deputies, counfels full of wifdom and patriot¬ 
ifin. He exhorted them to be on their guard againft 
the feduCtions of foreign courts, and the attractions of 
their penfions and their fervice. He pointed out to them 
tile dangerous confequences of this line of conduct, and 
recommended it to them to imitate the, frugality and 
fimplieity of their ancient manners, as the necellary fafe- 
guard of that liberty which of itfelf ought to fuffice to 
render them happy. At this convention, which took 
ilace in 1481, Friburg and Soleure were admitted merp- 
iers of the confederacy.. The venerable hermit d,ied in 
J487 ; and his pofterity have continued to be perfons of 
conlideration in Underwalden down to our times. After 
his death, he was regarded by the people as a faint, but 
never obtained a place in the Roman calendar. His fer- 
vices were of a different kind from thofe which fecured 
that diftinCtion. Canonization was the reward of thofe 
who advanced the papal power and revenue, by what¬ 
ever means effected ; and among thofe who were ho¬ 
noured with the Chriftian apotheofis, we cannot count 
many patriots; while various turbulent fubjefts, like 
Becket, obtained that pre-eminence. 
Grols as was the corruption which at this period had 
obtained among the Swifs, it appears from a trait which 
.hiftory has preferved, and which we gladly prefent to 
the reader, that it had by no means extinguiflied in this 
eople tlie fentiments natural to an independent and 
rave nation. The Pifans, whom Charles VIII. on his 
entrance into Italy, had releafed from the yoke' of the 
Florentines, applied to the fame prince,, on his departure^ 
from that country, to continue to them his protection, 
and not to confign them over to the domination of their 
former opprefi'ors. Charles hefitated. The unhappy 
citizens requeued the intercefiion of the army. The 
Swifs, t'entible of the value of liberty, fympathifed with 
them, and warmly intereited themfelves in their favour. 
They deputed their commander in chief to the king, in 
order to 1 epreferit to him that his own glory, the honour 
of the French name, and the willies of the Swifs his al- 
E T I A, 
lies, required that he fiiould continue to the Pifans the 
bleffing 0/ liberty which he had conferred on them 3 and 
that, if he were in want of the money which the Floren¬ 
tines might offer to tempt him to defert the Pifans, they 
would lay at his feet, the officers their golden chains, 
and the foldiers' their pay, rather than that unhappy 
people fhould be delivered up to flavery. 
The fanguinary conteft which took place between the 
Helvetic Confederacy and the Swabian League, owed 
its origin to the attempts of the imperial tribunals to 
renew their jurifdi&ion aver Helvetia. It brought the 
Tyrol into fucli a deplorable ftate of defolation, that 
an imperial officer, who was conducing a detachment 
through the country, among many fccnes of mifery and 
horror, faw two old women driving fome hundreds of 
half-naked and emaciated children before them, who on 
arriving at a field lefs wafted than the remainder/>f 
the country, threw themfelves down and browfed the 
grafs like cattle. He was told that moll of them were 
orphans, whofe fathers had been killed, and mothers 
ftarved ; and that they had for fome time had no other 
nourifliment : the old women added, that many of them, 
periflied daily; and that (hortly they mud all, the chil¬ 
dren as well as themfelves, fall miferable victims to. 
hunger and difeafe. 
By the peace of Bafil, which terminated this mod de- 
ftructive ftruggle, the empire renounced all jurifdictiou 
within the territories of the confederacy; the independ¬ 
ence of which was, therefore, at this time, virtually 
acknowledged ; though this was not formally done till 
the peace of Wefiphalia. And, on the 29th pf Novem¬ 
ber 1516, a general pacification was concluded at Fri¬ 
burg, by which the Frenph, king, as duke of Milan, 
ceded for ei>er to the cantons the polfeffion of the tranf- 
alpine bailiwicks, and the provinces of Valteline, Chia- 
venna, and Bormio, to the Grifons, with an option, 
however, of their furrendering their principal caftles in 
thofe diftriCts to the French king for the fum of three 
hundred thoufand crowns: all the privileges that had' 
ever been held by the confederates in the kingdom of 
France, were revived and confirmed; the payments fti- 
pulated by the convention of Dijon were, ratified, with 
the addition of a free gift of three- hundred thoufand 
crowns to the whole Helvetic body, and an annual fub- 
fi.d y of two thoufand livres to each of the cantons, to 
the Valais, and to the Grifon leagues. This compact 
was declared to be perpetual, and has in fa<ft been the 
bafis of the many leagues that were afterwards made 
between the crown of Franee and the Helvetic confe¬ 
deracy. 
The reformation is the next prominent feature in the 
hiftory of Helvetia. As to the cattles which brought 
about this lingular revolution in human affairs; the 
chief of them were, the oppreffions exercifed by the 
Romilh hierarchy, the wealth and power which it had 
amatled, the claims which it arrogated, and the igno¬ 
rance and bad lives of its clergy. “ Tlie generality of 
the priefthood, (lays Mr. Planta,) did not fcruple to 
acknowledge their deficiency in the molt elementary 
parts of learning. The canons of the collegiate church 
of Zurich, having to notify an election to th>e v bilhop of 
Conltance, confelfed that they tranfmitted it inthe hand¬ 
writing of their notary, becaufe feveral of them could 
not write. In the examinations for holy orders, i.t was 
deemed amply fufficient that the candidate could read, 
and tolerably comprehend what he read : even after the 
reformation had made fome progrels, the people firmly 
believed, and the priefls confirmed them in tlie perfua- 
fion, that the bells travelled every paffion-week to Rome 
to receive frelli baptilm ; and that tlie exorcifms of 
priefts could effectually difpel lwarms of loculis, and 
all manner of infetts. When, at an aftembly of the 
clergy in the Valais, mention was made of the Bible, 
only one of ihe priefts had ever heard of luch a book r 
