ABSTRACT
In 1536, the city-republic of Bern conquered and seized the nearby francophone territory of the Pays de Vaud. The politically fragmented and militarily weak Vaud was no match for the formidable Bernese army. In December 1536, a second mandate was issued that clarified and expanded on the first. Religious officials in Bern believed that such ritualistic practices had no biblical basis and were only superstitious forms of idolatry. There was little native attraction to the Protestant Reformation in Vaud; many were reluctant to give up the old faith. Mandates that ordered religious change, acceptable behavior, and new ways of worship were common during the Protestant Reformation throughout Europe. Nevertheless, they do demonstrate the confessionalizing spirit of the age, in which secular and religious authorities sought to control and modify both religious belief and behavior.
