ABSTRACT
During the difficult years 1532 and 1533, Heinrich Bullinger struggled to save the Zurich church after the death of its prophet, Huldrych Zwingli, at the Battle of Kappel.* Among his many concerns was the fate of Reformed congregations among the Swiss subjects in jointly ruled territories like the Aargau and Thurgau. Although the terms of the second Kappel Peace Treaty of 1531 [Zweiter Kappeler Landfrieden] allowed Reformed subjects to continue practicing their faith in these areas, the Swiss Confederation’s structure made it too easy for the Catholic cantons-already dominant because of their majority among the cantons ruling the Thurgau-to interpret not only the Landfrieden but also the Swiss Confederation’s other founding documents in their own favor. As Bullinger complained,
we see now with the Landfrieden what kind of judgments we would get, ‘according to the word and content of our alliances’: what they want, they think they have the power and right to, according to the peace, since they interpret the peace however they want, and will do the same with the alliances.1
