Switzerland

SWITZERLAND. - The smallest (41,295 sq km) of the states bordering Italy, contained in that strip of central Europe enclosed between the Jura and the Alpine arc.

I. GEOGRAPHY

It is a mountainous country, where from the high peaks of the Alpine arc (Dufour Peak, 4623 m.) which forms more than half of its territory, one passes, through a kind of inclined plain (Mittelland) dotted with lakes, to the strip of the Jura stretching along the French border. Of the territorial surface, slightly less than 1/4 is unproductive, occupied as it is by rocks, glaciers and lakes; and only 1/8 is arable, while pastures and artificial meadows cover more than 2/5 of the total. Mineral resources are almost entirely lacking (salt in conspicuous measure, iron in minimal quantities), while hydroelectric ones abound; on the other hand, the isolation from the sea is aggravated by the obstacle of the mountain barriers that enclose the territory on every side, even though among the great valleys that cross it there are some that allow a more or less easy passage from one sector to another (Rhone, Rhine, Aar), thus accentuating the role that Switzerland plays by virtue of its intermediate position between Western Europe and Central Europe, between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic regions on the other.

This explains why the Swiss economy, while not neglecting the modest agricultural possibilities that the country possesses (valued above all under the pressure of the supply difficulties that have accompanied the recent international crises), rests essentially upon an increasingly rational and intensive livestock raising (cattle and pigs), and a highly specialized industry, devoted to articles of value and precision (mechanical, chemical and textile), on which the heavy transport costs imposed by the importation of almost all raw materials have less impact.

Switzerland is a confederation of 22 Cantons (of which 2 are double), governed by a federal assembly that has legislative functions and from its midst appoints a council of 7 members invested with executive power. The Assembly consists in turn of a national council and a council of States, both elective. The president is renewed every year. The Swiss population (4.6 million inhabitants) is made up of 72% Germans, 20.4% French, 6% Italians (Canton Ticino and adjacent valleys of the Grisons) and 1% Ladins; the distinction, founded on the use of the respective languages, is recognized by the State.

Besides the capital, Bern (130 thousand inhabitants), Zurich (336 thousand), which is the largest center of the country, Basel (170) and Geneva (124) exceed 100 thousand inhabitants.

Giuseppe Caraci

II. CIVIL HISTORY

The history of S[witzerland] begins with the subjection of the country to Rome. The Celtic population of the Helvetii that inhabited it was forced by Julius Caesar to remain in its settlements to prevent Germanic tribes from settling there. The country was completely conquered under Augustus: the last to surrender were the Raetians of the upper Rhine and the Lepontii of the upper Ticino.

The importance of the region lay in the routes that from the Alps and the Rhone Valley reached through it the line of the Rhine. During the imperial age the country of the Helvetii was profoundly Romanized: the principal centers were "Augusta Rauricorum" (August), "Aventicum" (Avenches), "Geneva" (Geneva), "Noviodunum" (Nyon), "Lausanna" (Lausanne). The region, however, did not form an administrative unit: it was divided among Gallia Narbonensis, Gallia Cisalpina, Gallia Belgica, and Raetia. This division did not facilitate defense against the attacks of the Germans: the most dangerous point for a breakthrough was the crossing of the Rhine at Coblenz, and so on the plain between Königsfelden and Windisch the great fortress of Vindonissa had been built. The limes then received in the 4th century a second line of resistance supported by numerous castles. The attacks of the Germanic tribes began around the middle of the 3rd century; in 260 the Alemanni succeeded in destroying Aventicum. New raids are recorded under Diocletian and then again under Gratian. When later, at the beginning of the 5th century, Rome withdrew its garrisons from the Rhine to defend Italy, which had been invaded by the Visigoths, the tribes of the Burgundians and the Alemanni threw themselves without difficulty into the valleys of the Rhine and the Rhone and settled there with the consent of the imperial government. In the second half of the 5th century the Burgundians advanced from Savoy into the Valais, occupying Sion, and north of Lake Geneva they reached Avenches and Basel. Thus the Alemanni of northern Helvetia advanced southward, occupying Raetia. The Burgundians became Romanized, adopting the language and customs of the local Roman population; the Alemanni, on the other hand, overwhelmed the scanty Roman population, perhaps respecting only the principal centers; the dominant language was Germanic. After a brief Ostrogothic occupation the Franks succeeded in occupying the entire Helvetic region, which definitively followed the fortunes of the Merovingian state.

In the Carolingian age a distinction began to take shape among the Helvetic lands. The lands west of the Aar, of Burgundian civilization, formed part of Frankish Neustria; the lands east of the Aar, of predominantly Alemannic civilization, formed part of Austria or Germany: this division, which appeared in the Treaty of Verdun (843), became more firmly established in the Treaty of Meerssen (870). In the Burgundian lands between the Rhine and the Rhone, at the end of the 9th century, the two Kingdoms of Lower Burgundy, southwest of Lake Geneva (879), and of Upper Burgundy from Geneva to the Valais and the Bernese Oberland (888), were formed. In the Alemannic region, on the other hand, the old political organization continued to exist under the dukes of Alemannia or Swabia; the kings of Germany did not always succeed in keeping them submissive. During the 10th century the Helvetic region suffered grave damage from the raids of the Hungarians from the east and those of the Saracens from the west, and not a few cities were destroyed. In 1033, the emperor Conrad II gathered the inheritance of the last king of Burgundy, Rudolf III, and united the Burgundian lands with the Kingdom of Germany, while still respecting their particular juridical tradition; through his consort Gisela he also obtained the inheritance of the dukes of Swabia and assigned Burgundy and Swabia to his son Henry. During his reign, Henry III made the Burgundian-Swabian region the center of his power. After his death, the Empress regent for Henry IV gave this complex of territories to her son-in-law Rudolf of Rheinfelden; he, however, rebelled, and the Helvetic lands were the theater of struggles between the two parties. Henry IV took Alemannia-Swabia away from Rudolf and gave it to Frederick count of Staufen; Rudolf gave the Duchy to his son Berchtold, from whom the rights passed in 1092 to the related counts of Zähringen. Having come to an agreement, they established that the Duchy should remain with the Staufen and that the Zähringen should have the territories south of the Danube, that is, the Helvetic lands around Zurich. The Zähringen claimed to call themselves dukes still, not however of Swabia, but of their castle Zähringen.

A profound feudalization between the 10th and 11th centuries favored the further political disintegration of the country. Numerous dynasties of counts appear with almost absolute authority in their districts. Churches and abbeys became centers of vast patrimonies, and a new ecclesiastical feudality formed with its own viscounts, vidames, and advocates. The great barons contended for the lordship of the churches and of the small vassals. The Staufen retained the Duchy of Swabia until their disappearance (1268). The Zähringen, having received in 1127 from Conrad IV the office of rectors of Burgundy, sought to create a great territorial state between the Alps, the Jura, and the Rhine. In 1172 they gathered the succession of the powerful counts of Lenzburg; Frederick Barbarossa gave them the advocacy of the three bishoprics of Geneva, Lausanne, and Sion. The dynasty was already extinct in 1218. Three feudal dynasties profited from this. In the western zone around Lake Geneva the counts of Savoy rose to power; their influence expanded in the Valais and in the Vaud. In northwestern S[witzerland] the counts of Kyburg had arisen with domains in the cantons of Zurich and Aargau: they possessed the county of Thurgau and from the inheritance of the Zähringen they obtained Freiburg, Burgdorf, and Thun. But these too died out after the middle of the 13th century. The Habsburgs seized upon their inheritance.

Lords of upper Alsace, these had become in the 11th century the lords of Habichtsburg ("Castle of the Vulture"), built by them between the Reuss and the Aar on a spur of the Jura, dominating the trade routes that led from Basel and western Switzerland toward eastern Switzerland. The Habsburgs had possessions and feudal rights of various kinds in central Helvetia; the advocacy of the monastery of Murbach in its courts of the Aargau and in the Zürichgau around Lucerne, seigneurial rights between the Reuss and the Limmat, the advocacy over the cloister of Sackingen, properties at Willisau and Sempach, the bailiff's authority (Vogtei) over the Lake of the Four Cantons, in the districts of Schwyz and Unterwalden. From the inheritance of the Zähringen they obtained the bailiff's authority in the country of Uri. Possessions and rights of various kinds scattered over a vast region, but through them the Habsburgs, in the age of Frederick II, appeared as the most powerful feudal lords between the Rhine and the Danube. The division of the family into two lines did not harm the development, which was cultivated in a special way by the senior branch. At the middle of the 13th century this was represented by Rudolf, son of Albert IV (1239-91). Through his work the policy of the Habsburgs acquired greater precision; now the task was to create a unified territorial State, linking its various elements together. Rudolf of Habsburg knew how to remain constantly faithful to Frederick II, obtaining various concessions from him. At a certain point he found himself faced with the opposition of Peter II of Savoy, who also claimed a share in the inheritance of the Kyburgs, but when, in 1279, Rudolf became King of Germany and affirmed his prestige by crushing the power of the King of Bohemia, he then saw more than ever the necessity of giving unity to all the family's possessions, from the ancestral ones in Alsace to the very recent ones in Austria. This he assigned to his eldest son Albert, and to the younger son Rudolf he thought of giving the Duchy of Alamannia-Swabia. The program of uniting the domains of the Helvetic region, however, clashed with the populations of the alpine valleys, who had long since conquered, often only in fact, judicial and financial autonomies. The reaction appeared vigorous in the valleys of Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden. These regions had emerged from their silence in the 13th century, when international commerce had brought into prominence the route from the Gotthard to the Rhine Valley.

Rudolf was determined to support his local feudal claims with the far greater weight of royal authority. The conflict with the populations was therefore already open in the period 1273-91. When Rudolf died, on 15 July 1291, his son Albert had not yet been able to obtain from the princes recognition as King of the Romans, while the younger son, Rudolf Duke of Swabia, had died shortly before. The three alpine valleys, in the first days of Aug. 1291, decided to secure themselves against any future eventuality, by joining together and committing themselves to concerted action. The famous "Letter of League," which is still preserved, established the commitment of mutual aid against all, not to accept foreign judges in the valleys, to settle disputes by arbitration, to act in concert against acts of violence, killings, arson, etc. The act of 1291 is connected with another similar act of alliance, some years earlier, which has not come down to us. Once the conflict for the Empire between Albert of Habsburg and Adolf of Nassau had taken shape, an anti-Habsburg league formed in 1291 in southern Germany; the three forest cantons joined it. The Duke of Austria, disappointed by the triumph of his competitor, hastened to intervene in the Helvetic region, subduing Lucerne, besieging Zurich, but the three Cantons of Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden remained firm in their devotion to King Adolf. However, when the latter fell at Göllheim and Albert of Habsburg triumphed, the cantons found themselves once again in the situation of the age of Rudolf; their lord was the king, and they could not appeal to the king against their lord. These are the beginnings of the Swiss Confederation, stripped of the veils of the legends of the tyrant Gessler and the hero Tell, which arose from late 15th-century chronicles to explain a conquest of independence that seemed miraculous.

Albert of Austria, engaged in the German struggles, left matters in suspense, as well as the problem of the reconstruction of the Duchy of Savoy claimed by his nephew John, and this was the cause of his assassination in 1308. From the new king, Henry VII of Luxembourg, already in 1309, the Cantons obtained confirmation of King Adolf's decree that placed the three valleys under royal protection, and furthermore the privilege for their inhabitants of being summoned to judgment only within their own borders and of being cited only before the Royal court. The three valleys, however, committed themselves to stand within their borders before a royal judge. It was a step toward complete separation from Habsburg jurisdiction. The sons of Albert of Habsburg, through loyal feudal service rendered to the Emperor in Italy, sought to obtain from Henry the withdrawal of the terrible document. The Emperor, from Brescia, in 1311, promised them that he would have the Habsburg rights in the valleys verified and would eventually restore them to their legitimate possession. After the death of Henry VII, in the duel for the succession between Louis the Bavarian and Frederick of Habsburg, the Swiss Cantons took a position against the Habsburgs. In their war of 1314 against the abbey of Einsiedeln, Leopold of Habsburg intervened energetically; the conflict ended with Leopold's defeat at Morgarten (15 Nov. 1315). After the victory the three Cantons bound themselves at Brunnen on 9 Dec. 1315 with more solemn pacts; none of the confederates would recognize a lord without common agreement. Louis the Bavarian, out of hatred for the Habsburgs, on 29 March 1316 confirmed the privileges and revoked to the Empire all the Habsburg possessions and fiscal rights in the valleys themselves, in which royal authority was to be represented by a bailiff (Reichvogt). Later it seemed that Louis and Frederick were reconciled: full of fear, the confederates concluded a perpetual league with the Habsburg city of Lucerne (13 Nov. 1332). The danger reappeared in 1347 when the successor of Louis the Bavarian, Charles IV of Luxembourg, in order to secure the support of the Habsburgs, reconfirmed to them all the old rights and fiefs, declaring the acts of the Bavarian null and void. The confederates then succeeded in securing the perpetual alliance of the powerful Habsburg city of Zurich (1 May 1351): shortly afterward they also concluded a perpetual league with Glarus, a land owned by the abbey of Sackingen (4 June 1352), and immediately afterward with Zug (27 July 1352). The confederates were now seven. The Duke of Austria, after having besieged Zurich in vain and tried to break the league, came to negotiations with the mediation of the Margrave of Brandenburg. In the Treaty of 1352 the sovereignty of the Habsburgs over Schwyz and Unterwalden passed over in silence, while the patrimonial and protection rights over churches and monasteries were recognized; Zurich kept its alliance with the Cantons, but with the commitment not to make agreements with other subjects of the Habsburgs without their consent; Lucerne, Glarus, Zug, while keeping their treaties, recognized Habsburg sovereignty. The peace was not maintained; Charles IV intervened; in 1346 there was an agreement between Zurich and the dukes, and now the Cantons, weary, ended up adhering to it. During this phase of negotiations the Cantons succeeded in procuring the perpetual alliance of Bern, which however considered the alliance only as a guarantee of peace and not as a bond in its political activity (6 March 1353).

Peace lasted on the Lake of the Four Cantons for about three decades. In 1385 a dispute between Lucerne and the Habsburgs reopened the struggle: Duke Leopold was defeated at Sempach (19 July 1385) and then at Näfels (9 April 1388), and peace was restored in 1394 for twenty years; the Habsburgs' rights over the Cantons were no longer spoken of; Lucerne, Glarus and Zug had their independence recognized; the confederates' conquests were confirmed. The Confederation (Eidgenossenschaft) now comprised five countries and three cities: Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Glarus, Zug, Lucerne, Zurich, Bern. These were autonomous states bound by particular treaties which, within the framework of imperial law, agreed to defend their traditional autonomies. Since there was no single treaty but rather different treaties, nor was there equality among the contracting parties (Glarus was in reality a protectorate of the three Cantons), disputes were not lacking: these were eliminated by the so-called "Priests' Letter" (Pfaffenbrief) of 7 October 1370, concerning ecclesiastical jurisdictions, and then by the "Letter of Sempach" in 1375 (Sempacherbrief), for the discipline of the militias in military expeditions.

The Confederation claimed immediate dependence on the Reich (Reichsfreiheit) without feudal mediation. When the emperors were in agreement with the Habsburgs, they fought the League; when they were at odds with them, they protected it. Rupert in 1401 sided with the Habsburgs; Sigismund, on the other hand, in 1415 recognized the confederates' privileges, granting them the right to elect that royal bailiff who had hitherto represented the Reich among them (Reichsvogt) and to administer high justice directly. The Confederation, in the 15th century, acted as the predominant power in the central Alps. In 1411 Appenzell and St. Gallen were received as protected members of the League. Basel, by concluding an alliance with Bern in 1400, bound itself in some way to the Confederation. After the death of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, the disintegration of the Milanese state gave Uri and Unterwalden a pretext to intervene south of the Gotthard: in 1419 they occupied Bellinzona, but in 1422 they were defeated at Arbedo and driven back north. In the upper Rhaetia, the struggles among the bishops, the barons and the burghers led in those decades to the creation of the "Grey League," which allied itself with Glarus. In 1474 a definitive, perpetual peace was reached between the Confederation and the Habsburgs, with the Treaty of Senlis concluded under the auspices of Louis XI (11 June 1474). The reconciliation was due to the expansionist program of Charles the Bold. Louis XI prevented the Swiss from keeping their conquests of the Burgundian Franche-Comté, of the Savoyard Vaud and of the Milanese Canton of Ticino, although at Giornico defeated the army of Sforza (Dec. 28, 1478). The military victories brought about serious internal conflicts between the old city aristocracies and the popular elements. The crisis ceased when the great wars of hegemony between France, Spain and Austria broke out. The powers vied with one another in recruiting Swiss mercenaries: the Cantons in turn divided according to their political sympathies. Basel became part of the Confederation on June 9, 1501 and Schaffhausen on Aug. 10. Later, on Dec. 17, 1513, Appenzell as well. The Confederation remained thus until the French Revolution.

In the wars of Lombardy for the Duchy of Milan, Swiss mercenary militias fought on both sides. Ludovico il Moro, driven out by the French, recovered the Duchy with the help of the Swiss, who then betrayed him together with the Swiss of the French army (1500). The cantons of Uri and Unterwalden took advantage of the French triumph to occupy Bellinzona and the Ticino region, which Louis XII ceded to them by the Treaty of Arona (1503). In the following years the Swiss sided with Julius II; in 1512 they brought the Sforza back to Milan and established a veritable protectorate over Milan. The defeat inflicted on them at Marignano in 1515 forced them to withdraw. A serious crisis appeared with the spread of the Lutheran Reformation and the religious-national preaching of Ulrich Zwingli. The war between Catholic and Protestant cantons (the Kappel War) ended with the Treaty of Nov. 20, 1531, which recognized religious freedom for both sides, and the Confederation managed to save itself. The religious question brought closer to the confederates the city of Geneva, which had rebelled against the Duke of Savoy and had become the center of Calvinism; in 1558 Geneva allied itself with Bern. During the 16th century the Confederation procured the alliance of cities and princes, distinguishing them according to proximity and importance into first-rank allies (Zugewandte) and second-rank allies (Verwandte), with the aim of securing a barrier against the threats of the great powers. In the face of the European wars the Confederation began to assert the principle of neutrality. The treaty of union with Austria (1511) and the perpetual peace with France (1516) now appeared to be insufficient guarantees. Neutrality, however, was threatened by the consent given to the cantons for enlistments abroad. During the Thirty Years' War the Confederation managed to prevent the outbreak of strife between the parties and created a military system for the defense of the borders (Defensional).

In the peace of 1648 the representatives of the Confederation, with the support of France, obtained recognition of sovereignty and the abolition of all feudal dependence on the German Empire. Thus the Confederation (it was called the "Helvetic Body") after 1648 was a public-law entity with full independence. In the following age it underwent a long crisis of an economic character.

The old mercantile aristocracies of the cities and the landed aristocracies of the Cantons, through their oppression, provoked the rebellion of the working and rural classes. There were new struggles between Catholic and Protestant Cantons: the latter were defeated in 1636, then victorious in 1712 (Peace of Aarau). The Catholics placed themselves under the protection of Louis XIV.

In the 18th century Switzerland came to occupy a prominent place in the European cultural movement: Zurich, Basel, Geneva were important centers of literary and scientific studies. The influence of European political and economic theories made more exasperated what was the persistent internal imbalance of the Confederation, due to its antiquated organization. The subject lands aspired to equality with the ruling cantons, and the populations wanted to free themselves from the predominance of the city patriciates. In the second half of the 18th century there were insistent movements of rebellion that preceded the outbreak of the French Revolution.

After 1789 the democratic agitations were followed by aristocratic repressions. Switzerland became a field of observation between French revolutionary agents and French and European monarchist ones. In Paris the Swiss democrats appealed for the liberation of Switzerland from the cantonal oligarchies. After Bonaparte's expedition to Italy, the possession of Switzerland acquired great importance as a route of communication between Italy and France, and in 1798 the French divisions entered Switzerland: in Apr. at Aarau, under French auspices, an assembly proclaimed the unitary and democratic Helvetic Republic in place of the old Confederation of sovereign aristocratic States. The rural cantons responded to the decisions of Aarau by rebelling, but they were subdued by force. Requisitions and forced contributions then struck the populations. The directory of Aarau concluded with the government of Paris a defensive and offensive alliance; France secured free passage for its armies (Aug. 19, 1798). The traditionalists filled the country with controversies and struggles. To cut them short the First Consul imposed a new Constitution (Act of Malmaison) which established a Confederation of 17 Cantons with autonomy and a property-based constitution (Apr. 29, 1801). The Diet rejected this constitution and established another, which the French in turn rejected. From this followed a new military occupation of the country. At the Helvetic Consulta of Paris in 1803 the First Consul granted a new Constitution (Act of Mediation). There were then 19 Cantons with broad autonomy; the only thing uniting them remained the equality of the cantons that formed the Diet. Napoleon proclaimed himself protector of the Helvetic Republic and imposed his alliance on it. After Napoleon's fall, in 1814, the partisans of the old regime rose up and organized a government at Lucerne. The European powers, however, refused their consent and decided that three new Cantons should be added to the 19 Napoleonic Cantons: Neuchâtel, Valais, Geneva; then on Nov. 20, 1815 they signed the "Declaration of the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland and of the inviolability of its territory." The Federal Pact of Aug. 7, 1815 established that Switzerland was a perpetual Confederation of 22 sovereign States. Each Canton regulated its own Constitution as a sovereign, and the only common institutions were those of diplomacy and war. The Federal Diet was to sit alternately in the three cities of Bern, Zurich, Lucerne, under the direction of the central Council of the place. After a period of tranquility, around 1830 there began what the Swiss called the period of regeneration. The triumph of the oligarchic system of 1815 had, in fact, brought about new agitations, revolutions, civil wars.

A party called "radical" was formed, which wanted constitutional revision aimed at establishing the sovereignty of the people, universal suffrage, equality, and the freedoms of the press, of association, and of belief. Seven reforming Cantons created a "League for the defense of the reforms"; at Sarnen the "League of the traditionalist Cantons" was formed. After 1840 the discussions turned into a struggle between Catholic and Protestant Cantons. In 1845 seven Catholic Cantons — Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug, Lucerne, Fribourg, Valais — created a "Separate League (the Sonderbund) to defend their traditional rights against Protestant radicalism, which wanted the expulsion of the Jesuits. The Constitution of 1848 reorganized the Confederation according to the radical program. The federation of states (Staatenbund) of 1815 was replaced by a federal state (Bundesstaat) with a federal public law superior to that of the cantons. Bern became the federal capital, with the presidency and the assembly formed by the National Council and the Council of States. The Confederation had full competence over diplomacy, the army, customs, currency, finances, postal services, and railways. Citizens then became citizens of Switzerland and no longer of the cantons, and the conception of the Swiss nation was truly born from this (Sept. 12, 1848). Internal struggles thus ceased: the Catholic cantons slowly adapted, taking advantage of the freedoms assured by the moderate radical program. Later there were revisions of the Constitution, as in 1874, so as to strengthen the central power. New democratic reforms were introduced, such as that of the popular initiative for certain laws and that of the popular sanction for certain governmental measures. After 1891 it was established that constitutional reforms could be proposed by 50,000 citizens and submitted to a popular vote (referendum). The neutrality of the Confederation passed successfully through the two great crises of the wars of 1914-18 and 1939-45: the European powers have regarded the Swiss Confederation as a happy oasis of peace suited to international negotiations and discussions. The Swiss, however, having little trust in the powers, created a small but well-trained army to defend their civilization.

Francesco Cognasso

III. THE SONDERBUND WAR

Fought in 1847 in Switzerland between the liberal and Protestant Cantons and the conservative and Catholic ones.

Political and religious reasons led to the conflict. The radical liberals, who found an obstacle to the triumph of their ideas in the federal state system that had emerged in 1814, which granted a very broad governmental autonomy to the individual Cantons, aimed at a revision of the Federal Pact; the conservatives and Catholics of other Cantons successfully opposed this in the years after 1830. The conflict soon also took on a religious aspect, when the liberals of Aargau secularized seven convents (4 male and 3 female) on the pretext that the friars and nuns had incited the population against the constituted authorities. The federal authorities, to whom both parties had appealed, proclaimed the illegality of this act, but the government of Aargau did not comply with that resolution. Then the Catholic and conservative Cantons, in the face of the others' infringements, began closer contacts among themselves; their adversaries took extreme positions. The suppression of the convents in Aargau was answered with the calling of the Jesuits into the Canton of Lucerne. A

liberal attempt to seize Lucerne with free corps and the assassination of Joseph Leu, the leader of Catholic conservatism in that Canton, led the conservative Cantons to defend their own rights, against radicals and liberals, through a separate alliance (Sonderbund) considered indispensable because of the inefficiency of the federal authorities. The Alliance was concluded secretly on 11 Dec. 1845 between Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Lucerne, Zug, Fribourg and Valais, with the commitment to repel any attack by every means at their disposal. To procure adequate armaments the seven Cantons turned to Austria and France. After the mediation of certain Protestant conservatives, led by Bluntschli, had failed, the Sonderbund refused to bow to the order of dissolution approved by the majority of the Federal Diet, and war broke out. General Dufour, appointed supreme commander of the federal forces on 24 Oct. 1847, had under him about 100,000 men with 172 guns, while the Sonderbund could oppose about 80,000 armed men with 88 cannon; moreover the strategic situation was unfavorable to the Sonderbund, hemmed in on all sides by enemy Cantons and furthermore divided into two parts. Dufour first threw himself against Fribourg, separated from the Sonderbund by the Canton of Vaud, and took it on 14 Nov. Then, turning his forces against Lucerne, he entered it ten days later. The army of the Sonderbund, in full rout, ceased to exist. Zug had already surrendered without a fight on 21 Nov. On the 25th Unterwalden capitulated, on the 26th Schwyz, on the 27th Uri and on the 28th Valais. In all the conquered Cantons radical governments came to power, which hastened to issue laws against the Jesuits and to secularize the monasteries. The defeat of the Sonderbund was due to the trust placed in military intervention by Austria and France on its side, which determined the renunciation of any offensive plan on the part of General Salis-Soglio, supreme commander of the forces of the Sonderbund.

Silvio Furlani

IV. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

1. Origins

The first Christian origins of Switzerland go back to the 3rd-4th century, and Christianity penetrated there, through obscure missionaries, merchants or soldiers, along the two great arteries of communication between northern Italy and the regions beyond the Alps: the first crossed the Pennine Alps and led into Valais and Switzerland, whence it then forked toward Gaul and Germany; the other, through the Rhaetian Alps, debouched at Chur and from there followed the Rhine toward the north.

A company of Christian soldiers (Theban [v.]), probably intended to put down the revolt of the Bagaudae, was put to death, under the reign of Diocletian and Maximian (285-292), at Agaunum (v.) in Valais, which became one of the most popular sanctuaries of the early Middle Ages. The ruins of a chapel on the islands of Brissago (Ticino); two clay lamps found at Geneva, one bearing the fish and the other the palm; a glass discovered at Avenches with the inscription Vivas in Deo, may go back to the 4th century or even to the end of the 3rd.

Late and unfounded accounts claim that St. Barnabas evangelized certain regions of Valais and of the Canton of Ticino, that the apostle St. Peter himself crossed the Alps and passed into the Lower Valais and to Geneva, that a hermit already venerated on the shores of Lake Thun, St. Beatus, was a disciple of St. Peter. It has also been claimed that Geneva had bishops from the end of the 1st century. Since the early Middle Ages, Chur venerated St. Lucius who, toward the end of the 2nd century, is said to have come from Great Britain (where he was king) into Rhaetia and to have preached the Christian faith there.

2. The first bishoprics

a) The part of present-day Swiss territory comprised between the Alps and the Jura formed the Civitas Helvetiorum. The capital, Avenches, knew a brilliant prosperity until the day when, around 265, the Alemanni sacked it; a second invasion seems to have struck it again around the middle of the 4th century. Nevertheless, in the Middle Ages, Avenches preserved the memory of having been an episcopal see and even claimed to have had a very long series of bishops (7, according to a petition of 1447 to the Pope, or 22, according to a tradition reported in 1228). Be that as it may, no name is known before the 6th century. Indeed, at the beginning of that century it seems that the see passed from Avenches to the city of Windisch, already an ancient castrum that was located at an important geographical point, near the confluence of three rivers, the Aar, the Reuss and the Limmat. However, when, in 561, the ancient Civitas Helvetiorum remained divided between Austrasia (the kingdom of Sigebert) and Burgundy (the kingdom of Guntram) and the border of the two kingdoms was extended as far as the river Aar, the episcopal see was once again brought back from Windisch to Avenches. And the most famous bishop of this see in the 6th century was St. Marius (574-94), a native of Autun and buried at Lausanne: which suggests that he transferred his see to the latter city.

b) On the periphery of the Civitas Helvetiorum, four other "cities" had their capital in the present territory of Switzerland: the Civitas Vallensium (Valais) to the south, the Civitas Genavensium (Geneva) to the west, the Civitas Rauricorum (Augusta) to the north-west and the Civitas Raetorum (Chur) to the east. The territory of these last three "Cities" extended far beyond the present Swiss borders: only the Civitas Vallensium, embracing the Valais, was entirely contained within present-day Switzerland.

St. Theodore is the first certain bishop of the Valais; he appears at the Council of Aquileia, in 381, with the title of Octodurum (today Martigny) which was then the capital of this civitas. The order of his signature places him among the bishops long in office, which allows us to reto date the foundation of the episcopal see to around the middle of the 4th century or shortly after the middle of it; it is possible that the prelate of the same name present at a Milanese Synod of 389 or 390 is the same person. At the Council of Epaone in 517 and at the two Councils of Orléans in 541 and 549, bishops of Octodurum still took part: Constantius (517) and Rufus (541 and 549). Three other bishops of Valais are known through mentions relating to Agaunum, where they perhaps had their residence; they are Salvius, in the second quarter of the 5th century, Protasius, toward the end of the same century, and Agricola in 565. The floods of the Dranse at Octodurum, then the invasion and sackings of the Lombards at Agaunum in 574, were undoubtedly the cause of the transfer of the episcopal see: in fact, at the time of the Council of Mâcon in 585, Bishop Heliodorus (who had sent a delegate there) already resided at Sion (v.).

c) Geneva had a certain bishop, Isaac, at the end of the 4th century. Three of his successors in the 5th century and five in the 6th century are known; the latter took part, like their neighbors, the bishops of Valais and those of the Helvetii, in the Councils of Epaone (517: Maximus), Orléans (541 and 549: Papulus), Mâcon (585: Cariatto). Geneva would remain an episcopal residence until the 16th century. The episcopal see of Geneva therefore did not experience the changes of the Helvetic and Valais sees. On the other hand, the question of an episcopal see at Nyon, between Geneva and Lausanne, which would have been the capital of the Civitas Equestrium, has been sharply debated; the bishops of Nyon would then have transferred their see to Belley (France), and the territory of Nyon would have been united to the diocese of Geneva. Msgr. Besson has demonstrated the fragility of this hypothesis; he himself and Msgr. Duchesne have shown that no bishop of Nyon is known; as for those of Belley, they appear only after the middle of the 6th century, and without any link to a supposed see of Nyon.

d) The Civitas Rauricorum, which extended from the Rhenish Jura to the southern Vosges, had at first Augusta as its capital, east of Basel. It was undoubtedly there that the episcopal see of this Civitas must have been established. Information about this bishopric before the 8th century is lacking; in fact, the oldest episcopal catalogue of this Church, written in the 11th century, begins with Bishop Walaua, a contemporary of Pope Gregory III (731-41). Nevertheless, the name of Justinian, bishop of the Raurici, is found in a list of bishops who would have taken part in a Council of Cologne in 346; the reality of this Council is disputed, but the list of bishops would have been compiled with real names. In the 7th century the monk Jonas cites, in his biography of St. Eustace, Ragnacarius, bishop of Augusta and Basel, Augustanae et Basiliae. Thus, between 600 and 650, the episcopal see seems to have been established at Basel. It is not known when the transfer took place, but it undoubtedly occurred following the expansion of the Alemanni in the 5th and 6th centuries.

e) Chur (v.) had a certain bishop in the middle of the 5th century: Asinius, who had himself represented in 451 at a Milanese Synod by Abundantius, bishop of Como. The bishopric of Chur still exists, and the city of the same name is the oldest episcopal residence still found on the territory of S.

f) Moreover, the bishoprics of Milan and Como, already established in the 4th century, embraced in the Middle Ages the Italian valleys of present-day S., but it is unknown to what era this division dates back. Hidber thinks that the diocese of Novara would originally, and for several centuries, have extended its jurisdiction over the whole of the present Canton of Ticino.

g) We are not well informed about the foundation of the bishopric of Constance. It was formerly believed that it was the continuation of the ancient bishopric of Windisch, whose bishop Grammatius had taken part in the Council of Orléans in 549. Now, Msgr. Besson has demonstrated that Grammatius was the head of the bishopric of the Helvetii, and his see was moved back to Avenches after the division of 561 among the Merovingian kings and later fixed at Lausanne. A manuscript of the 12th century, preserved at Stuttgart, places at the head of the episcopal catalogue of Constance a bishop Maximus, who has been placed in the second half of the 6th century; nothing is known of him, observes M. Besson, and for his part L. Duchesne notes that no mention of a bishopric at Constance exists before the more or less advanced 7th century v. It should be noted, however, in this regard that the Vita Sancti Galli, written toward the end of the 8th century, recalls a Synod, held ca. 615 at Constance, which appointed John as bishop of this city.

3. Bishoprics of the Middle Ages

From the middle of the 8th century, the ecclesiastical map of S. remained fixed and would no longer change until the 16th century. Five cities of present-day S. are the center of dioceses: Geneva, Chur, Sion, Lausanne, Basel. The whole of eastern S. belongs to the diocese of Constance, which the Aar separates, to the west, from the dioceses of Basel (downstream of the Sigger, a tributary of the left bank of the Aar) and of Lausanne (upstream of the Sigger). Note that Porrentruy and its region, northwest of the Jura, were part of the diocese of Besançon, and the southern valleys of the Alps, Italian-speaking, are linked to the bishoprics of Novara, Milan and Como. Novara kept the valley of Gondo (Valais) until the 19th century; Milan possessed, from at least the 10th century, the whole of the Leventina above Bellinzona, with the Blenio valley which is an articulation of it, as well as the territories of Brissago, the Capriasca and Campione. To the diocese of Como belonged the Mendrisiotto, Lugano, Locarno, Bellinzona, as well as Poschiavo and Brusio (Graubünden).

4. Metropolitan sees

The participation of the first bishops of Octodurum (381) and of Chur (451) in Italian councils has led to the supposition that these bishops originally depended on the metropolitan see of Milan. In the 6th century the bishops of Valais, of the Helvetii and of Geneva instead attended councils of the Frankish Empire. It is risky to establish certain bonds of dependence in this era; nevertheless Valais and Geneva appear within the sphere of Vienne on the Rhône, and it may be that the bishopric of the Helvetii originally depended on Lyon. When Besançon separated from the province of Lyon to form the center of a new province, at the beginning of the 7th century, the bishoprics of Lausanne and Basel became suffragans of the new metropolitan see. At the end of the 8th century Tarantasia likewise freed itself from dependence on Vienne and formed an Alpine province with Sion and Aosta as suffragans. Finally Chur was united, after 843, to the metropolitan see of Mainz. These relationships lasted until the end of the Middle Ages.

From 1492 the bishop of Sion, Jost of Silenen, sought to free himself from dependence on the archbishop of Tarantasia, but without succeeding; his second successor, Matthew Schiner, obtained from Pope Julius II, in 1510, to be dispensed from it, for the duration of his episcopate; shortly afterward, in 1513, Leo X abolished it definitively. Sion was thus the first Swiss bishopric that depended immediately on the Holy See. The other bishoprics remained subject to their metropolitans until the beginning of the 19th century.

5. Monasticism

Around 450, St. Romanus, the founder of the "monks of the Jura," created the monastery of Condat (today St-Claude) on the western slope and that of Romainmôtier on the eastern slope. In Valais, Bishop Theodore of Octodurus built in the 4th century a small basilica in honor of St. Maurice (v.) and his companions put to death at Agaunum (v.); from the 5th century this basilica attracted pilgrims, even from Gaul, as St. Eucherius, bishop of Lyon (d. ca. 450), testifies. Shortly afterward the Burgundians settled in the Rhône basin; St. Sigismund, son of their king Gundobad, founded in 515 near the basilica of Agaunum a monastery, which must therefore be considered as a "monasterium basilicae." These are the oldest monasteries erected in the present territory of Switzerland and they are earlier than St. Benedict.

The domination of the Alemanni in northern Switzerland delayed the expansion of Christianity and civilization in this region, where one must wait until ca. 600 to find the bishoprics of Constance and Basel established, and to see the first monasteries appear there. These are linked to the group of Irish monks whose head and legislator was St. Columban who, after founding the monastery of Luxeuil in the Vosges, moved to Bregenz, on the shores of Lake Constance, and then to Bobbio where he died in 615. He was the apostle of the Alemanni. His principal disciple, St. Gall, withdrew into a forest south of Lake Constance; tradition likewise links to the Columbanian group two other hermits, St. Ursanne, who settled on the bank of the Doubs, in the Jura, and St. Sigisbert, who withdrew to the bank of the Rhine, in upper Raetia. On the tombs of these saints the abbeys of St. Gall, St. Ursanne and Disentis were formed in the 7th-8th centuries. Duke Crammelenus also appealed to the monks of Luxeuil to restore the abbey of Romainmôtier and found the priory of Baulmes (Vaud) in the course of the 7th century; St. Wandregisel made prolonged stays at St. Ursanne and at Romainmôtier before founding Fontenelle in Normandy (v. BOUER). The monks of Luxeuil also founded Moutier-Grandval, where St. Germanus was the first abbot around 666. In the 8th and 9th centuries the Rule of St. Benedict supplanted everywhere the prescriptions of St. Columban. It was introduced in 748 at St. Gall, then at Moutier-Grandval, which, in the Carolingian era, was in close relation with St. Gall. Dependent on Moutier-Grandval, in the 9th century, is a monastery that arose on the tomb of the hermit St. Imier, in the Suze valley (Jura). Perhaps the Benedictine Rule was introduced in the 8th century also at St-Maurice, where a chapel of St. Benedict is noted later. Other Benedictine abbeys owed their origin to St. Pirmin who founded in 724, on an island of Lake Constance, the abbey of Reichenau; this later created the monastery of Pfäfers (Rheintal); St. Meinrad passed from Reichenau to Einsiedeln where he was murdered in 861; at the same time the Irish monk St. Fintan, who died in 878, lived at Rheinau, on an island of the Rhine. Furthermore in the 9th century the abbey of Murbach in Alsace founded the priory of St. Leodegar at Lucerne. Shortly after the year 1000, the abbey of St. George, founded around 966 at Hohentwiel, settled at Stein am Rhein, and the monks of Einsiedeln went to populate the convent of Muri in Aargau, founded by the Habsburgs; in 1052 the abbey of Allerheiligen at Schaffhausen appears, to which the new abbey of Wagenhausen was united in 1083, but until 1417 even the abbey of Petershausen near Constance claimed to direct the monastery of Wagenhausen, and it was the monks of Wagenhausen and of Petershausen who founded around 1135 the abbey of Fischingen. In the course of the 10th century, the Rudolfian dynasty of Burgundy donated to Cluny (v.) the ancient abbey of Romainmôtier and the new abbey founded at Payerne to which the ancient monastery of Baul-

(phot. Reichenau)
SVIZZERA - Interior of the Town Hall (15th cent.) - Geneva.

mains; monks of Payerne settled at Bevaix in 998; while those of Romainmôtier had a small priory at Vallorbe from 1139 to 1321. The Cluniacs also established at Geneva, around the year 1000, the priory of St. Victor, near a basilica founded around 500. At the end of the 11th century and the beginning of the 12th, the Order of Cluny also established itself at Rueggisberg (with a dependency at Roethenbach), at Basel (priory of St. Alban), Rougemont, Corcelles (Neuchâtel), Villars-les-Moines, Hettiswyl (with dependencies at Bargenbrück and Leuzigen) and finally Belmund, from where the monastery moved, around 1127, to the Island of St-Pierre; St. Ulrich resides at Payerne and at Rueggisberg.

Besides Cluny, other foreign Benedictine abbeys made foundations in S. or had dependencies there. At the end of the 11th century the bishop of Basel, Burkhard of Fenis, founded the abbey of Beinwil (Solothurn) and his brother Conon, bishop of Lausanne, that of St-Jean-de-Cerlier (Bern); for this latter foundation Conon appealed to the monks of St. Blasien in the Black Forest. Also from St. Blasien came the monks who founded the abbeys of Engelberg, in 1120, and of Trub (Bern) around 1125; Trub in turn created before 1152 the abbey of Alt Sankt Johann in the Toggenburg, with the priory of Sankt Peterzell (St. Gall). Again from the Black Forest, but from the abbey of Sankt Peter, came the monks who created the priory of Herzogenbuchsee (Bern) in 1108. In Romance-speaking S., the priories of St. John at Geneva and of St. Peter of Clages in Valais (this one with small priories at Granges and Ayent) depended, from the 12th to the 16th century, on the abbey of Ainay (Lyons). Another Lyonese abbey, Savigny, possessed after 1025 the priory of Lutry (with secondary priories at Cossonay, Broc, St-Paul-sur-Evian, Vionna). The counts of Geneva finally donated the priories of Chamonix and of Port-Valais to the abbey of St. Michael of the Chiusa in Piedmont. Benedictine monasticism thus experienced a broad flourishing on the present territory of S. Not all of its foundations evidently had the same vigor and did not shine in the same era. St. Gall (v.), which in the Carolingian era was already one of the principal centers of German culture along with Reichenau and Fulda, occupies the most important part in the history of the Benedictine abbeys.

Moutier-Grandval had a rapid splendor in the 8th and 9th centuries, then declined. Romainmôtier and Payerne reached their apogee in the 10th and 11th centuries; then came the turn of Disentis, Einsiedeln, Muri, Allerheiligen, Engelberg, all important abbeys.

6. The principalities

The ancient bishoprics and abbeys of S. possessed from the Middle Ages to the 18th century a temporal jurisdiction, which made them so many true States, of varying extent, importance, and duration. It should also be noted, with regard to the bishoprics, that the territory of the principality did not coincide with the territory of the diocese.

It appears that the bishopric of Chur was the first to enjoy a temporal power from the end of the 7th century. Later Rudolph III, last king of Burgundy (993-1032) granted analogous rights to the prelates of his Kingdom. The German emperors, concerned with securing free passage through the Alps and maintaining points of support against hereditary Lords, favored the development of the ecclesiastical principalities both abbatial and episcopal. The ecclesiastical princes generally gathered in their hands the legislative, administrative and judicial powers, with the right to establish taxes, demand military service, mint coin. Some officials (ministeriales) exercised the various administrative, judicial and fiscal duties. Moreover great variety existed according to places, even under the same ecclesiastical lord. This complex and characteristic politico-ecclesiastical situation of S. will be set forth, of necessity, in a compendious manner; we shall dwell by way of example on the sole principality of Chur, while for the others only the essential data will be recalled.

a) The origins of the episcopal principality of Chur are complex. The dynasty of the Victorids, which governed Raetia from the beginning of the 7th century to the end of the 8th, gave Chur a series of bishops who, although designated by popular election and ratified by the Frankish kings, nevertheless occupied the episcopal see in an almost hereditary manner. The landed properties of the Victorids thus passed to the bishopric; the bishop Paschal III (d. in 695) left to his successor, Victor II (d. in 714) the Domleschg, and the bishops Tello (758-73), Constantius (end of the 8th century) and Remedius (d. ca. 805) were at the same time bishops and rulers (praeses) of the country; indeed Remedius also issued laws. After his death Charlemagne separated the spiritual power from the temporal, which was entrusted to the ruler Unfrid, then to Roderic. The latter engaged in a violent struggle against the bishop Victor III, who three times sued him before the emperor. Finally in 831 Louis the Pious granted Victor III a diploma of immunity, which constituted the foundation of the episcopal State. The Ottonians, especially Otto I, favored its development, so that the State in the 13th century comprised Chur and its region, the Domleschg, the Oberhalbstein, the Val Bregaglia, the Upper Engadine, Poschiavo, Münster, several domains in the Vintschgau (Austria) and Grossängstigen in Württemberg. From 1170 to 1803 the bishops of Chur were princes of the Holy Roman-Germanic Empire. In 1282 the councillors (consules) appear at Chur; from that moment the city will seek to free itself from episcopal power. The development of the communes will restrict the rights of the prince-bishop. The bishop Peter Gelito (1355-68) with his policy of alliance with Austria, irritated his subjects, and their delegates, assembled at Chur in 1367, agreed to resist the prelate; this is the origin of the League of the House of God (Lega Cadri or Ca[sa] Dei), a kind of federal State, which in 1498 will form an alliance with the Swiss Cantons, except Bern. The 15th century saw the progressive emancipation of Chur, which enjoyed, among other things, the protection of the emperor Frederick III. The Articles of Ilanz, in 1526, reinforced in 1541 by six other new articles, abolished most of the temporal rights of the bishop; therefore neither the bishop nor the Chapter ever wanted to recognize them. In reality the bishops retained reduced rights until 1798. During these three centuries the politico-religious conflicts were numerous; one of the last, in 1753, opposed the city of Chur, in Protestant majority, to the episcopal Court (Hof) which formed the upper city, and each of the two parties claimed full independence from the other. The bishop Joseph Benedict von Rost departed for Vienna, where the empress Maria Theresa acted as mediator; indeed on his return the prelate was received with honor and the pacification was completed.

b) The abbey of Disentis, situated in the upper valley of the Rhine to the east of Chur, began its temporal power with the testament (766) of the bishop Tello of Chur (d. in 773). The important geographical and strategic position of the abbatial territory earned the monastery the protection of Otto I (960, 965) and II (976), of Henry III, who granted it immediate imperial dependency (1048); a privilege subsequently confirmed several times. The abbots were princes of the Empire. The Helvetic revolution of 1798 put an end to the abbatial principality.

c) The abbey of Pfäfers, situated to the north of the diocese of Chur, founded in the 8th century, received from Lothair I (840) the freedom of election, a privilege again confirmed in 949 by Otto I. The abbatial lordship ceased at the end of the 18th century.

d) The very extensive diocese of Constance had its bishops as princes of the Empire. From the 12th century onward the city of Constance came into conflict with its prince-bishop in order to make itself free. The Treaty of Baden (1554) reduced the rights of the bishop, whose episcopal principality lasted, in Germany, until 1803.

e) The abbey of St. Gall possessed from the 8th century to the end of the 18th century such notable temporal power as to make it one of the principal ecclesiastical states of Switzerland, whose extent and power were modified on several occasions by acquisitions, wars and diplomacy. The abbey was suppressed in 1805. From 1077 to 1418 St. Gall was an abbey reserved to the nobility. From 1207 to 1798 the abbot held the title of prince of the Holy Roman Empire, and the House of Savoy granted him the Order of the Annunciation beginning in 1686.

f) The abbey of Rheinau, erected at the end of the 8th century or the beginning of the 9th, had as its principal benefactor Duke Wolvene, who later became its abbot (d. 878). The abbey's possessions were scattered across the present-day territories of Zurich, Schaffhausen, Thurgau, Baden and even in Italy. Otto II in 972 confirmed to the abbey the privilege of immunity and the freedom of election of the abbots. Over the city of Rheinau the abbot exercised high and low justice by means of his advocatus and, from 1460, of the Swiss bailiff of Thurgau. On 6 March 1798 the abbey's temporal rights ceased.

g) The abbey of Einsiedeln, with the grant by Otto I (27 Oct. 947) of the privilege of the free election of its abbots and of immunity, received the foundation of the abbatial state, which comprised the region of Einsiedeln and possessions and rights in other regions. The abbey's temporal power ceased definitively with the end of the 18th century.

h) The abbey of Muri (Aargau), founded in 1027 by the Habsburgs and placed under imperial protection from 1164 onward, passed under the protection of the Confederates after the conquest of Aargau (1415). The Emperor Leopold I granted the abbots the title of prince of the Empire (1701), but less than a century later the abbey's temporal rights were suppressed by the Helvetic Revolution (1798).

i) The abbey of Engelberg, founded in 1120, was placed under imperial protection by Henry V (28 Dec. 1124); however, beginning in 1415, the abbey had to accept the protection of the Swiss Cantons. The abbey's temporal rights were suppressed in 1798 and its territory annexed to the ephemeral canton of Waldstätten, then to that of Nidwalden (1803) and finally to that of Obwalden (1815).

l) Other monasteries of the ancient diocese of Constance, although they did not attain the importance of the great abbeys mentioned above, were at the head of notable lordships. Such were the monasteries: of Stein on the Rhine (Schaffhausen), suppressed in 1525; of Allerheiligen at Schaffhausen, which benefited from the privileges of the Nellenburg confirmed by Gregory VII and Henry V, suppressed in 1524; of Fischingen (Thurgau), founded ca. 1135, which lost its temporal rights in 1798; of Sankt Johann of Toggenburg, founded in 1152 and incorporated into St. Gall in 1555; the priory of St. Leodegar, around which the city of Lucerne arose; this priory in the 9th century depended on the Alsatian abbey of Murbach. When Lucerne attempted to emancipate itself, the abbey of Murbach placed the priory of St. Leodegar under the protection of the bishop of Constance (1253) and ceded its temporal rights to Rudolf I of Austria (16 Apr. 1291). The priory obtained from Callixtus III the right to be erected into a Collegiate church in 1455. Finally, two female monasteries that also had notable importance should be noted: the abbey or Fraumünster of Zurich, endowed on 21 July 853 by Louis the German, suppressed in 1524, became a chapter of canonesses, reserved to the nobility, and the abbess held the title of princess of the Empire; the abbey of canonesses of Saeckingen, built on an island in the Rhine (Baden), which appears in documents from 878 onward. The abbess was declared princess of the Empire by Albert I in 1307. The last remnants of its temporal power disappeared with the suppression of 1805.

m) To the northwest of Switzerland there extended before 1729 the principality of the bishops of Basel, the most important in the region along with that of St. Gall. The origin of the temporal power of the bishops of Basel goes back to the donation made by Rudolf III of Burgundy in 999 to Adalbert II of the rich abbey of Grandval in the Jura, founded in the 7th century by the monks of Luxeuil, which resisted until 1210 in order to preserve its independence. The temporal rights over the city of Basel recognized to the bishop by Henry II (1030) were more than ever a subject of disputes between the inhabitants and the bishop, despite the institution, from the 12th century onward, of a city council. In 1521 the city emancipated itself from the bishop and in 1529 passed to the Reformation. The bishop then transferred his seat to Porrentruy and attempted to restore his principality, which was again and harshly tried during the Thirty Years' War, especially between 1635-50, and during the French Revolution. In 1803 the last prince-bishop lost all his territories situated on the right bank of the Rhine. From 1579 to 1735 the prince-bishops were allies of the 7 Catholic Cantons; thereafter, until the revolution, the policy of rapprochement with France prevailed.

n) The bishops of Lausanne possessed a principality whose territory increased during the Middle Ages, ninthdespite the rivalries of powerful feudal families, such as the counts of Geneva, of Gruyère, of Savoy and the barons of Blonay. The bishop held the title of prince-bishop and took part in the imperial diets at least from 1125 onward. In 1157 the bishop, Bl. Amadeus, granted franchises to Lausanne, and from that time the city council appears, but the inhabitants sought repeatedly to free themselves from the bishop's authority. In 1434 Lausanne was declared an imperial city; in 1481 the union between the upper town and the lower town was achieved, and in 1529 a mayor was elected. The occupation of Lausanne and of the country of Vaud by the Bernese (1536), with the subsequent imposition of the Reformation, put an end to the episcopal principality.

o) The abbey of Romainmôtier, in the diocese of Lausanne, a Cluniac priory in the 10th century and richly endowed by Rudolph III, held a small lordship, which was governed with wise administration until the Bernese occupation of 1537. In the same diocese of Lausanne, the abbey of Payerne, founded in the 10th century and passed to Cluny, received a notable endowment from the Rudolphians; here too the invasion of the Bernese in 1536 put an end to the abbey's temporal rights.

p) The bishops of Geneva appear already in possession of temporal power from the 11th century onward, a power contested by the counts of Geneva. Despite the agreement of Seyssel of 1124, the counts of Geneva, later called of the Genevois, continued to stir up conflicts against the bishop, to whom Frederick I in 1154 recognized the rights of prince-bishop. From the 13th century it was the counts of Savoy who tried to dominate the city, but the city, organized municipally, preferred to remain under the episcopal lordship. However, from 1444 onward the dukes of Savoy succeeded in seizing the bishopric, placing in it members of their house or men loyal to it. This intrusion prepared, by reaction, the ground for the Reformation, which the city embraced in 1535. The Bernese armies, having come to the aid of the city besieged by the Savoyards (1536), ensured the triumph of the Reformation, and Geneva was able to proclaim itself a republic. The bishop, driven from the city in 1533, established his see at Annecy, continuing until 1802 to bear the title of prince-bishop.

q) The temporal lordship of the bishops of Sion goes back to 999, the year in which Rudolph III of Burgundy ceded to them the county of Valais. In 1189 Henry VI declared the bishop of Sion immediately subject to the empire, and the title of prince begins to appear from 1249 onward. To administer their territory the bishops at first made use of hereditary « ministeriales », replaced beginning in the 13th century by removable officials. In 1339 a general council of the country, later called the « diet », was already functioning. The principality of the bishops of Sion had abroad a terrible enemy in the counts of Savoy and at home the constant action of the democrats, or patriots, who tended to reduce more and more the episcopal powers. The patriots succeeded in having the republic proclaimed in 1627 and the bishop had to surrender his powers in 1634 with the exception of certain honorary prerogatives. The bishop remained nominally head of state until 1798; from 1815 to 1847 he was granted a limited participation in legislative power.

r) The abbey of St-Maurice in the canton of Valais, founded in 515 by King Sigismund, was largely endowed by him, for which reason the dukes Norbert (c. 735), Hubert (856), Conrad (864), his son King Rudolf I of Burgundy and his successors down to 1032, and then the counts of Savoy, coveted its temporal possessions. The abbots found themselves at the head of a conglomerate of lordships, governed by very different statutes and scattered through Valais and Vaud, in the French Jura, in the region of Grenoble and in the Aosta Valley. These domains were administered first by a series of "ministeriales" and then by castellans. The abbots held the right of high justice, which they exercised by means of regional tribunals, and enjoyed legislative and administrative powers. The temporal rights of St-Maurice received a hard blow from the Valaisan, Bernese and Fribourg conquests of the years 1475-76 and 1536. From 1571 onward the abbey had to submit to the protection of the canton of Valais. The temporal lordship of the abbots ceased with the revolution of 1798.

s) The cathedral chapters of Lausanne, Geneva and Sion likewise possessed, sometimes with the right of high justice, numerous lordships administered by various ministeriales, hereditary, or by removable castellans. The provostship of Great St. Bernard also had its temporal domain.

t) In the canton of Ticino, the bishop of Como possessed from Carolingian times various temporal rights which, beginning in the 12th century, he had to cede to the commune of Como. Another notable ecclesiastical lordship was that of the metropolitan chapter of Milan, constituted by the so-called Ambrosian valleys of Leventina, Blenio and Riviera. The origin of this lordship goes back to the 10th century; from the 12th century a true ecclesiastical state or county was formed in the aforesaid valleys (whence the title of count given to the canons of the Milan cathedral) with communal life, a general council and statutes. The Visconti in the 14th century then received the investiture of the temporal domain of Como and of the Canons of Milan in the canton of Ticino. The Swiss occupied the Leventina from 1403 and the Milanese chapter definitively renounced its temporal power over the Ambrosian valleys in 1487.

7. Religious life

a) As can be seen, numerous and vast regions of present-day Switzerland found themselves placed during the Middle Ages and sometimes until the end of the 18th century under the temporal government of ecclesiastical princes or lords: bishoprics, abbeys and chapters, uniting the two powers, spiritual and temporal, contributed powerfully to the religious development and the civil progress of the country. Bishoprics and monasteries became cultural centers of high importance, whose beneficial influence was felt even in the most distant regions of their temporal domain.

From the strictly religious point of view, the boundaries of the dioceses did not coincide with the political ones. Only Sion and Lausanne did not, or almost did not, go beyond the boundaries of present-day Switzerland. The greater part of German Switzerland belonged to the diocese of Constance, which extended also into southern Germany. Chur reached the Vorarlberg and the Tyrol. Basel comprised the whole of upper Alsace and Geneva the whole of northern Savoy. Around 1300 there existed in the present territory of Switzerland 66 deaneries or archpriesthoods. The cartulary of Lausanne of 1228 records for this diocese 301 parishes; the accounts of the papal tithes for the diocese of Sion indicate 64 parishes in 1364 and 67 in 1428. The registers of the pastoral visits of the diocese of Geneva count 529 in 1445. While the parochial organization had reached its full development in the diocese of Lausanne, from the 13th century in the Alpine regions the parishes were few in number, despite the great distances: this was due to the low density of the population.

b) All the Swiss regions count numerous saints: the best known are the Theban martyrs (v.) headed by St. Maurice (v.). In the diocese of Sion the following bishops are venerated: Theodore (d. at the end of the 4th century), Salvius or Silvius (425-50), Amatus (d. at the end of the 7th century), Garinus the Cistercian (1138-1150); in the diocese of Lausanne the bishops Marius (d. in 594), Protasius (d. in 659), Amadeus of Hauterive (1144-1159), Boniface Clutine (1230-39); in the diocese of Chur: Asinius (451), Valentinian (d. in 548), Urisicinus (754-58), Adalgott (1151-60); in the diocese of Constance: Conrad (934-75), and Gebhard II (979-95). Among the monks are to be remembered: St. Romanus, founder in the 5th century of Condat and Romainmôtier; St. Ambrose (d. in 520), one of the first abbots of St-Maurice; St. Imier, hermit at the close of the 6th century; St. Ursanne, disciple of St. Columbanus (d. in 615) like St. Gall (d. c. 630-45); St. Amatus (d. c. 630), hermit near Agaunum, then abbot of Remiremont, in the Vosges; St. Sigisbert and St. Placid at Disentis (8th century); St. Otmar (d. in 759), restorer of monastic life at St. Gall; St. Magnus (d. in 750) and St. Notker the Stammerer (d. in 952), both monks of St. Gall.

c) The medieval historical vicissitudes offered various popes the occasion to cross Switzerland: Stephen II was met by the ambassadors of Pepin the Short at St-Maurice (753); St. Leo IX (1049-54) and Bl. Eugene III (1145-53) passed through Switzerland and Eugene III consecrated the church of St-Maurice (1148); Bl. Gregory X, after the Council of Lyon, reached Italy through Switzerland and consecrated the cathedral of Lausanne (1275). On the occasion of the struggle between Guelphs and Ghibellines, the bishops of Switzerland, who held their temporal power from the emperor, generally ranged themselves in favor of the latter. The first Confederate States had the same attitude. To the initiative of Bishop Hugh of Lausanne is due the proclamation of the Truce of God, which took place at Montriond in 1036 in the presence of the archbishops and bishops, the lords and the people of the kingdom of Burgundy.

d) From the 12th to the 14th century various religious Orders established themselves on Swiss territory and erected numerous monasteries and convents there; most of them suppressed at the time of the Reformation or on the occasion of the anti-Catholic movements of the end of the 18th century and of the 19th century. The Cistercians appeared in 1124 at Lucelle in the diocese of Basel; the Premonstratensians in 1126 at Lac-de-Joux (Vaud); the Carthusians in 1146 at Oujon (Vaud); the Franciscans in 1216 at Lugano; the Dominicans in 1229 at Zurich; the Augustinians in 1256 at Fribourg; the Antonians in 1304 at Basel. Until the 11th-12th century a regular life was led in the cathedral chapters, and likewise, and for a longer time, in about fifty collegiate churches, of which the oldest is that of Solothurn (742). Numerous too were the female monasteries: Cistercian nuns, Poor Clares and Regular Canonesses.

8. From the Western Schism to the Reformation

The French-speaking regions of Switzerland were consistently for Avignon, which is not surprising if one bears in mind that the antipope Clement VII belonged to the family of the counts of Geneva. The German-speaking regions, on the other hand, were divided and wavering: Duke Leopold III of Austria (d. 1386), by placing himself under Avignon obedience, drew in his wake the monasteries of St. Leodegar in Lucerne, Muri, Allerheiligen in Schaffhausen, St. Urban, Wettingen, Kappel and the Chapters of Beromünster, Zofingen, Schönenwerd and Solothurn. To react against the Habsburgs, the states of Lucerne, Zurich, Zug, Glarus, Schwyz and Nidwalden, together with the monasteries of St. Gall, Einsiedeln, Engelberg, Stein am Rhein, Zurzach and Friensberg, remained faithful to Rome. The cantons of Bern, Uri and Obwalden and the city of Basel were not consistent in their religious policy and turned now to one obedience, now to the other. The diocese of Geneva was always for the Avignon obedience, while the other dioceses experienced two episcopal elections: one Avignon, the other Roman. From this period the Councils of Constance (v.), which put an end to the schism with the election of Martin V, and of Basel (v.) are well known; the latter culminated in the election of the antipope Felix V (v.), crowned at Basel on 24 July 1440, and dissolved at Lausanne on 25 April 1449, after accepting the antipope's resignation and acclaiming Nicholas V. For nine years, therefore, Switzerland recognized the authority of the antipope.

The numerous ecclesiastical and lay figures who took part in the aforementioned Councils brought to Switzerland the aura of the Renaissance, and the humanist Enea Silvio Piccolomini, who resided at Basel from April 1432 to September 1433 and from the spring of 1436 to November 1442, having become pope under the name of Pius II, granted the Council of the city of Basel the privilege of creating a University, which was opened on 4 April 1460 and remained the only one in Switzerland until the 19th century.

The end of the Western Schism and the restoration of pontifical unity marked for Switzerland the beginning of an intense religious restoration: the old Orders renewed themselves and new ones established themselves there, such as the Carmelites in 1425 at Géronde in Valais, the Servites in 1471 at Mendrisio, the Poor Clares reformed by St. Colette in 1422 at Vevey (Vaud); various churches were restored and numerous others built — in the canton of Solothurn alone, for example, as many as 40 churches were erected in the half-century preceding the Reformation; certain saints exercised a beneficial reforming action there: suffice it to recall the preaching of St. Vincent Ferrer in French-speaking Switzerland (1403-1404), the work of St. Colette (v.), the ascetic life of Bl. Ludovica of Savoy (d. 1503) at Orbe (Vaud), and the truly extraordinary influence of St. Nicholas of Flüe (v.). Indications of the general religious awakening are also: 1st the spread of devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus, sometimes joined with that of Mary; 2nd the erection of many confraternities; 3rd the establishment of various guilds of arts and crafts under the patronage of certain saints; and 4th the creation of the Swiss Guard (v.), a sign of a profound love for the Holy See.

9. From the Reformation to the present day

The Swiss religious awakening of the 15th century suffered a violent backlash in the first half of the following century with the introduction and rapid spread of the Reformation, which found favorable ground in the discontent that was creeping about against the prince-bishops and prince-abbots, often foreigners and commendatory holders, over conflicts of temporal jurisdiction, and against the regular and secular clergy over the worldly life of some of them (the Jetzer scandal at Bern), and also in the state of spiritual agitation in which certain regions found themselves, such as Basel, where Swiss humanism flourished with Erasmus, and where men had gathered, some of them eminent, suspect both religiously and politically. In this environment the heterodox doctrines of Luther (1520-36) and above all of Ulrich Zwingli (v.) and their rebellion against ecclesiastical authority found easy purchase. Zurich, with the assent of the public civil authorities, became from 1519 the driving center of Zwinglian propaganda, which raged in various cantons and subject or allied regions, thanks to the work of fanatical preachers, most famous among them John Oecolampadius (v.), who spread Zwinglian doctrines at Basel. There the government and the university at first opposed the reforming novelties, but in 1520 the Catholics were overwhelmed and the innovators abandoned themselves to such excesses that Erasmus and various of his admirers, disgusted, left the city to go to Fribourg in Switzerland. By 1528 Zwinglian preaching had already spread to Schaffhausen, Glarus, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Bern, St. Gall and into the Grisons. Moreover, from as early as 1525 the Anabaptists had appeared at Zurich and St. Gall, against whom Zwingli's own followers raged. The cantons of Schwyz, Uri, Unterwalden, Lucerne and Zug remained faithful to the Catholic Church and attempted to stem the schism; Solothurn wavered for a short time in the face of the new preaching; other cantons were forced to split into two parts.

If the religious conference that the Catholic cantons promoted against Zwingli and that was held at Baden in May 1526 with the participation of the famous theologian John Eck (v.) was salutary for them, it led to a worsening of relations with the cantons contaminated by Zwinglian preaching. In 1527 Zurich concluded the "Christian confederacy" with Constance, to which Bern, Basel and other cities associated themselves in 1528; for their part the Catholic cantons did not wish to remain isolated and in 1529 united among themselves and with Austria; Fribourg and Valais also took part in this "Christian alliance." Armed clash was not long in coming; the hostilities of 1529, soon suspended by an agreement favorable to the reformed, were then violently resumed in 1531. The Catholics then forestalled the reformed cantons, and on 11 October 1531 the latter lost the battle of Kappel, where Zwingli himself met his death. The chief conditions of the peace were that the cantons should not molest one another on account of religion and that Catholic worship should be respected in the common subject regions (Thurgau, Aargau, Ticino, etc.), which were thus in large part withdrawn from the influence of the reformed; however, the Catholics did not know how to reap all the advantages that victory offered them. The situation obtained by the victory of 1531 lasted until the second war of Villmergen in 1712, in which the reformed gained the upper hand, their first Villmergen campaign in 1656 having failed.

Having ended the war with the Catholic cantons, Bern turned toward the west and in 1536 came to the aid of Geneva, which was attempting to free itself from the dukes of Savoy; the region of Vaud, the cities of Lausanne, Yverdon, Morges and Vevey welcomed the Bernese and accepted the reformed doctrines, while Valais remained faithful to the religion catholic. Geneva, having freed itself from Savoy, fell into the orbit of Bern, with which it had been in a "combourgeoisie" since 1526, and therefore the reformers had free rein there, among them G. Farel and Calvin (v.), who appeared there in 1536. However, since the Calvinist doctrine was in conflict with that of the Bernese, the latter, aided by a faction favorable to them, succeeded in driving Calvin and his supporters out of the city (1538); Calvin, however, entreated by the city of Geneva, returned there in triumph in Sept. 1541 and remained there as a veritable dictator until his death (1564), thus ensuring the triumph of his "City-Church." For political reasons Calvin made peace with the theologians of Zurich in 1549 (consensus Tigurinus; the "2nd Helvetic Confession" of 1566 was later to strengthen Swiss Protestantism definitively) and, in 1557, had himself represented at Worms by his disciple and later continuator Beza (v.). With Calvin's death the religious configuration of S. was fixed and remained so, apart from slight changes, down to our own day. The Reformed Cantons employed the most drastic methods of persecution against the Catholic Church, and the Catholics who remained in their territories were frequently harshly oppressed. The bishops of Basel and Geneva had to change their see, and their territories were considerably reduced; monasteries and collegiate chapters were suppressed and others reduced in their possessions; ecclesiastical temporal jurisdictions were abolished and churches were profaned. It is worth remembering, however, that on their side the Catholic Cantons punished apostates with death.

Although they did not hasten to put the decrees of the Council of Trent into execution, the Catholic Cantons concluded an alliance with Pius IV on 10 Apr. 1565, and after long negotiations and through the good offices of St. Charles Borromeo (to whom Catholic S. owes much), Gregory XIII sent them an ordinary nuncio on 2 May 1579, in the person of Giov. Francesco Bonhomini, bishop of Vercelli (the first non-ordinary nuncio was Giov. Ant. Volpi in 1559-63). The nuncios made a notable contribution to the Swiss Catholic reform, in which they vied with many members of the secular clergy, the Jesuits and the Capuchins. Relations with the Holy See, generally good, knew difficult moments, for example in the 18th century because of the controversy that arose concerning the powers of the nuncio and because of certain civil interferences in ecclesiastical questions, as at Chur and Lucerne. Toward the end of the century S. was largely hospitable toward the priests and political refugees persecuted by the French revolutionaries.

In the 19th century the Catholic Church in S. was once again harshly persecuted. The first warning signs came from 1797 with the French invasion and the creation of the Helvetic Republic (1798-1802), which drove the apostolic nuncio from its territory on 9 July 1798 and suppressed all ecclesiastical temporal jurisdictions. During the Napoleonic period and immediately after the Restoration there were lively disputes over the erection of new dioceses or the reorganization of the ancient ones, which were settled by various conventions with the Holy See, now collected in the 3rd vol. of Lampert. But the open struggle against the Church began in 1830 and was waged by every means by the radical party, which triumphed in 1847 with the defeat of the Sonderbund (v. above). The persecution intensified still further at the time of the German Kulturkampf (v.). But by now radicalism was slowly moderating, and Swiss Catholics immediately took advantage of this to resume their activities and heal the wounds inflicted by persecution: they distinguished themselves especially in the social field, with the creation of trade unions and numerous welfare works for the working class, and in the cultural field with the erection of the Catholic University of Fribourg (1889), which in a short time became an international center of higher culture. In the political field too they obtained notable successes, and the Catholic from Ticino Giuseppe Motta (d. 23 Jan. 1940) was elected president of the Confederation 5 times from 1915. During the world wars of 1914-18 and 1939-45 Swiss Catholics distinguished themselves by their works of assistance to the affected civilian populations and to prisoners of war; and it was precisely these charitable contacts of the "Swiss Catholic Mission" with the Holy See that induced the latter to send a representative to the Federal Government in 1917, elevated on 17 Aug. 1920 to the rank of Apostolic Nuncio.

Catholics still number 1,666,000, distributed in 6 dioceses all immediately subject to the Holy See: BASEL and LUGANO, CHUR, LAUSANNE GENEVA and FRIBOURG, ST. GALL, SION; and two "nullum" abbeys: ST-MAURICE and ST. MARY THE VIRGIN OF EINSIEDELN. The Catholic cantons are: Valais, Ticino, Obwalden and Nidwalden (Unterwalden), Schwyz, Uri, Appenzell Inner Rhoden, Lucerne, Zug and Fribourg. Protestants number 2,300,000. The Cantons with an absolute Protestant majority are: Vaud, Neuchâtel, Zurich, Schaffhausen, Appenzell Ausser Rhoden, Glarus, Grisons; with a slight Protestant majority: Geneva, Bern, Solothurn, Basel (city and country), Aargau, Thurgau and St. Gall.

Leone Dupont Lachenal-A. Pietro Frutax

V. RELATIONS WITH THE HOLY SEE

Juridical condition of the Church. - Given the particular political configuration of Switzerland, the juridical situation of the Church must be considered according to the individual ecclesiastical circumscriptions into which the territory of the Republic is divided.

1. Diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg

It embraces the Cantons of Fribourg, Vaud, Geneva and Neuchâtel. The government has no interference in the appointment of the bishop, nor in that of the parish priests, with the exception of the parish priest of the cathedral of St. Nicholas in Fribourg, elected by the burghers of the city from among three candidates presented by the bishop (bull Sollicitudo omnium Ecclesiarum, 17 Oct. 1924, AAS, 17 [1925], pp. 56-61). The cantonal government does, however, have a say in the appointment of the ten residential canons of the Chapter of St. Nicholas according to the norms established in the aforementioned bull.

2. Diocese of Basel and Lugano

It extends into the Cantons of Solothurn, Lucerne, Bern, Aargau, Zug, Basel, Thurgau, Schaffhausen. Still in force is the Convention stipulated between Leo XII and the Cantons of Lucerne, Bern, Solothurn and Zug on 26 March 1828, which regulates the composition and endowment of the cathedral Chapter, the appointment of the canons, the endowment of the episcopal mensa and of the seminary, and confers on the senate of the Cathedral the right of appointing the bishop, after establishing that no candidate under consideration is a person displeasing to the cantonal governments (brief Quod ad rem of the same Pontiff dated 15 Oct. 1828). Subsequent and more recent agreements have regulated the appointment of the provosts and canons of the two collegiate churches of St. Leodegar in Lucerne and of St. Michael in Beromünster, of the rectors of the benefices with cure of souls, of the professors of theology in the seminary and of the teachers of religion in the cantonal schools, and their financial treatment by the government. 3. Diocese of St. Gallen. - It comprises the Cantons of St. Gallen and of Appenzell. According to the Convention of 7 Nov. 1845, still in force, the bishop is elected by the cathedral Chapter and must be a person not displeasing to the Supreme Catholic Council, which in the canton of the same name has the care of the interests of the Catholic party. The prior consent of the Holy See is also required. 4) Diocese of Chur. - It comprises the cantons of Graubünden, Schwyz, Ob-und-Nid-Walden, Uri, Glarus, Zurich and the Principality of Liechtenstein. The cathedral Chapter has the privilege of electing the bishop from among three candidates proposed by the Holy See. Certain difficulties exist in the Canton of Zurich, where that government, besides not recognizing the bishop of Chur, recognizes only three of the more than twenty parishes existing in the territory, and grants subsidies to these alone.

5. Diocese of Sion

It comprises the Canton of Valais, excluding the part entrusted to the nullius abbey of St-Maurice. The appointment of the bishop is made freely by the Holy See, after assurance that nothing, from the political point of view, stands in the way of the election of the candidate.

6. Apostolic Administration of Ticino

It has been the subject of three Conventions: of 1 Sept. 1884, of 23 Sept. 1884 and of 16 March 1888. Ticino is nominally attached to the diocese of Basel, whose bishop also bears the title of Lugano. In fact, however, it constitutes a true and proper diocese, distinct and independent. The appointment is made by the Holy See in agreement with the bishop of Basel and must fall on a priest of Ticino. The administrator has episcopal character.

The other questions that concern the juridical condition of the Church, such as the juridical personality of the Church itself, the protection of the Catholic religion by the State as the religion of the people, the free administration of ecclesiastical property, their exemption from taxes, freedom of teaching, religious instruction, the juridical recognition of religious Orders and congregations, government contributions to ecclesiastical bodies and to expenses of worship in general, etc., have a different solution from canton to canton. All the Constitutions, however, guarantee freedom of conscience, of religion and of worship. The Holy See has diplomatic relations with Switzerland. An apostolic nuncio is accredited to the federal government, but without reciprocity.

Ippolito Rotoli

VI. LITERATURE

It would be more accurate to say "literatures," since this is a trilingual, indeed quadrilingual, country. Swiss literary production in German, French and Italian might suggest a foreign appendix of the literatures in those languages. This is true only to a certain extent: there exist, in fact, numerous writers, minds and tendencies that belong properly to S. The exposition will be limited to the 19th-20th centuries: the 17th and 18th centuries - if one makes abstraction of Rousseau, who belongs more to France than to S., and of Pestalozzi, an inspired pedagogue rather than a writer - are centuries of culture, of theology, of science. Above all "pastors" write, edit journals, hold forth on literature, morality, religion, etc. Only in the 19th century does S. finally express itself in the novel and the novella, sometimes in poetry, not yet in the theater.

1. Literature of German S

In the 19th century three great narrators stand out: Gotthelf, Keller, Meyer. Jeremias Gotthelf (1797-1854), a "pastor" poorly understood by his parishioners, in order to make himself better understood writes tales for almanacs and, subsequently, novels, in which he depicts the rural milieu of the Emmenthal at the moment when the patriarchal - and matriarchal - spirit is threatened by the spirit of the new times, by attachment to money, by egalitarian radicalism, etc. He reacts against this and therefore writes thesis books, even inserting sermons into the tales; but his perfect knowledge of his region and his people allows him such a powerful evocation of them as to make one forget the intent of preaching a return to the family, Bernese, Christian tradition. Gottfried Keller (1819-91), on the other hand, does not preach. A member of the petty bourgeoisie, his admirable tales express a bourgeois and civic spirit. He is the master of the long novella, in which the protagonist, through errors, loves and disappointed ambitions, returns to reason and to home. The prodigal sons he portrays know nothing of the path of repentance set down in the Gospel. Keller is also the author of a stupendous Bildungsroman: Der grüne Heinrich. He would have liked to be a painter and, like Rousseau, loved solitary walks: hence in his work nature is as alive as his characters. Conrad Ferdinand Meyer (1825-98) was the first, in S., to confer dignity upon the historical tale. This patrician of Zurich is captivated by the Italian Renaissance and its prestigious decorum; but he never loses contact with the severe Protestantism in which he grew up. His novellas have an imposing stylistic perfection, but, like his poems, they still interest because of the inner conflict, the hidden tragedy that they let one glimpse and that tormented the author throughout his life.

To these three great writers one could add the poet Carl Spitteler (1845-1924), one of the isolated epic talents of his century, but who did not exert the influence of the former. Each of these, in fact, has his epigones today. Many, in the footsteps of Gotthelf, have described domestic crises, stories of dynasties or of dominion, and this under a sky not too dark or at least tending toward clearing endings. Thus Rudolf von Tavel (1866-1934) narrated the deeds of numerous Bernese figures and their kin; Josef Reinhart (b. 1875) numerous anecdotes of the Solothurn region; Alfred Huggenberger (b. 1867) the life of the populations of Thurgau, etc. A literature, as can be seen, provincial and one that often, by reason of dialect, proves difficult of access to the foreign reader.

The lineage of Keller, of his Der grüne Heinrich, is found in many Bildungsromane: a genre still flourishing in German S. and represented by the Johannes of Jac. Schaffner (b. 1875), a novelized life of the author, who passed through every sort of trade before becoming a writer, and by several of the tales of the excellent Catholic author Henri Federer (1866-1928). At present, Arn. Kübler is publishing a very long novel of this type. In German S. this Germanic narrative form shows no sign of exhausting itself. Inheritance from Keller - and in particular from his Martin Salander - is likewise the Zeitroman, that is, the tale of a political or social crisis (the Schweizerspiegel of Meinrad Inglin [b. 1893], Wenn Puritaner jung sind by A. J. Welti, etc.). From the beautiful and solid novellas of C. F. Meyer derive the numerous historical novels that appear every year between Bern and Zurich: those of Emmanuel Stickelberger (b. 1884), of R. Faesi (b. 1883), of G. H. Heer, of Mary Lavater-Sloman. This at a time when the historical novel elsewhere is silent.

Besides the legacy of the 19th century, there are new phenomena. The theater, first of all, which, with César von Arx, Max Frisch and Fred Dürrenmatt, asserts itself notably in a country where the theater previously did not exist. Furthermore that seductive genre that is the "novel of escape" or "of spiritual elevation," cultivated by the anthroposophist Steffen. One would like to insist more on this contemporary literature, where the strange often insinuates itself, as if a magic wand had touched beings, places, objects. See the tales of Cécile Lauber, of Cécile Inès Loos and, above all, of Regina Ullmann. These new phenomena (and one should also insist on the development of "lyricism"), here only barely outlined, take an ever more important place.

2. Literature of French S

In French S. the 19th century is likewise represented by three authors, but of a physiognomy entirely different from that of the authors already named. Alexandre Vinet (1797-1847), author of essays in moral philosophy, discourses on religious subjects, on freedom of worship, etc., is a Protestant thinker of broad views and more Christian than Protestant. Admirable above all is his literary criticism: a Pascalian criticism, in the sense that for him the works of the spirit are testimony of our misery and of our possibility of greatness (through the Grace of God), and this both for what they say and for what they conceal. Thus, for one who reflects, the study of literature serves to establish the necessity, the truth of the evangelical Revolution. Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821-81) does not write for a vast public, but for himself, first of all, and for those who are concerned with the inner life. From the 16,000 pages of his Journal intime two volumes have been extracted, then three, then unpublished fragments. The Journal offers the spectacle of an intellectual and spiritual life; it makes known the author's friendships, his walks, his amorous longings, his religious quest and above all that "indefinite hospitality of thought" that characterizes him. He wanders between Leibnitz and Spinoza, between the biblical God and the call of pantheism, between freedom and holiness. No one, better than Amiel, represents what is international in the Swiss spirit. Rodolphe Toepffer (1799-1846) also left pages of art criticism, besides one or two novels, novellas and those astonishing Albums, which have delighted four generations. Here at last, amid a literature of intellectuals, is a writer of imagination, a humorist, Christian like Vinet, a good citizen of a tiny republic (Geneva), who meditates on happiness, "always a relative thing," and who teaches the most smiling wisdom. Besides these three, one must remember Marc-Monnier (1829-85), who recognized that Italy "is not at all the land of the dead," and Juste Olivier (1804-76), whose songs express the poetry of Swiss dead and memories.

The three principal writers of the 19th century have had no descendants. They are venerated, reprinted, but little followed. For the literary landscape of French-speaking S. has greatly changed after 1900. A generation of thinkers and critics has been succeeded by a generation concerned with creating, with inventing. A great poet, C. F. Ramuz, meanwhile was at work. Furthermore, the Catholic part of the French-speaking zone, which had long remained silent, found an eloquent and brilliant interpreter in Gonzague de Reynold (b. 1880) — historian, lyric and epic poet — and subsequently, storytellers such as Léon Savary, Maurice Zermatten, Corinna Bille, etc. Finally, French-speaking S., more consciously Swiss than ever, is, from the literary point of view, closer to France than in the past. C.-F. Ramuz (1878-1947) is the greatest figure of the French-Swiss 20th century. To read him, one would believe that the waters and the mountains, the seasons, the conduct of men, the inflection of their voices, everything is captured and reproduced for the first time. And Ramuz represents, on the margins of the properly French tradition, the purest, noblest effort of verbal expression, of transposition into words of the immediate reality, that has manifested itself in French-speaking S.

The literary geography of the region has become complicated. Today there is the novel of analysis, which is not an autochthonous product but imported from France, and which has borne excellent fruit with Robert de Traz (1884-1951), Jacques Chenevière (b. 1886), Bernard Barbey, etc.; the anticipatory novel, with Noëlle Roger (b. 1874); the fantastic, poetic novel, with Pierre Girard and Jean Marteau; the novel of spiritual elevation, with Monique St-Hélier; the picturesque and highly moral tale, with Benjamin Vallotton (b. 1877). It seems that at present the most original and representative writers are: in the wake of Ramuz, but more humane and of a most personal talent, C.-F. Landry, and, in the field of psychological analysis, Jacques Mercanton. And, as in German-speaking S., the theater has greatly developed after 1900 (René Morax [b. 1873] and his Théâtre du Jorat, etc.); just as, with Henry Spiess (b. 1876), later with René-Louis Piachaud (1896-1941) and Gilbert Trolliet, and today with the Christian poet Edm. Jeanneret, lyric poetry has found its voice.

3. Literature of Italian-speaking S

Italian-speaking S. came late to literary creation. Its tradition was one of art (architecture, painting, decoration). It is precisely for this that Ticino asserted itself in Italy and in Europe. Fr. Soave (1743-1806), in the 18th century, was nothing but a polygraph, a translator, a pedagogue. But, from the beginnings of this century, Italian-speaking S. has its great poet, who has become, over the years, the master of the short story: Francesco Chiesa (b. 1871), whom Italy adopted from his very beginnings. His attachment to his native place, to all the aspects of the corner of the world where he grew up, is found again in Giuseppe Zoppi (1896-1952) and Guido Calgari.

Poetry too, in Italian or in dialect, has developed during the last twenty years. The most gifted author of the young generation is, without doubt, Felice Filippini, author of Il signore dei poveri morti, as well as sculptor, painter, musician.

Carlo Clerc

VII. ART

To the time of the first expansion of Christianity in Switzerland (4th-5th centuries) belong remains of sacred buildings at St-Maurice and Geneva, and the primitive core of the church of Romainmôtier dates back to the first half of the 7th century. At Riva S. Vitale (v. LUGANO), on the other hand, there exists a baptistery, built at the beginning of the 7th century, which is the oldest sacred monument still entirely preserved in Switzerland.

After the partial destruction of Christianity by the Alemanni following their invasion in the 5th century, new missionary currents established themselves in the 7th century through the efforts of the Franco-Irish apostles, St. Columban and his followers, from whose cells there originated in the 8th century a series of Benedictine monasteries, among which St. Gall, with its famous scriptorium, with its library of insular and Carolingian illuminated manuscripts, and with the plan of the Abbey dating back to c. 820, the greatest document of early medieval architecture. With the single-nave churches (Saalkirchen) of the Grisons, with three horseshoe-shaped apses (Müstair, Mistail, Disentis, Chur, etc.), for the most part of the 9th century, there appears a type of building which, one may say, is found solely in the Rhaetian region. An idea of their decoration is given by the stucco fragments of Disentis, the greatest document of this kind north of the Alps, and by the fine New Testament frescoes of Müstair, of c. 800, discovered in 1948, unique of their kind. Of the few Carolingian circular crypts north of the Alps, two with traces of painted decoration are found at St-Maurice, which from this period also possesses singular inlaid enamels, and one at Chur; while the crypt of Disentis has characteristics entirely its own.

A particular group of sacred buildings arose in the 10th and 11th centuries in the lands belonging to the Kingdom of Upper Burgundy (Amsoldingen, Spiez, Schönenswerd, Zurzach, Beromünster, St-Imier, etc.), for the most part flat-ceilinged basilicas with three apses without a transept, related to the churches of Lombardy and Piedmont. The Cluniac reform movement gave rise in the 11th century to two important buildings which, as basilicas with transept and apsidal choir, follow, with the exception of the vault and the renunciation of a crypt, the second building of Cluny: Romainmôtier (initially with a flat ceiling), whose western forebuilding (Westwerk) resembles that of Tournus; and Payerne, which, begun with a western forebuilding and a finely articulated choir, was completed only in the 12th century. From Hirsau, center of the German reform movement, Schaffhausen received in its Cathedral, consecrated in 1104, the best example of the Hirsau type. From the time of the Ottonians there have been preserved the famous golden antependium (Paris, Musée de Cluny), donated by Emperor Henry II to the cathedral of Basel, and the panels of the Apostles and of St. Vincent.

In the 12th century the cathedral of Zurich was brought to completion as a true basilica with a matroneum, having been built initially in imitation of the basilica of St. Ambrose in Milan. To the late Romanesque belongs the cathedral of Chur (c. 1150-1250), which, as a basilica without a transept, with vaults and pointed arches partly with horseshoe-shaped ribs, and rich in plastic decoration, seems to unite in itself Lombard, Burgundian and southern French influences. In Ticino, the style of the century is most evidently represented by S. Nicola in Giornico. Another singular church is that of the priory of Grandson, dependent on the abbey of La Chaise-Dieu in Auvergne, in which Auvergnat architectural influences are noticeable. In the 12th century there arose a series of Cistercian churches whose architectural type, apart from the choir renewed in the Gothic period, has been preserved in all its purity at Hauterive (founded in 1137). As early as 1185 there arose in Basel (v.) the magnificent late Romanesque cathedral, whose original imprint was seriously damaged by the Gothic vault and the choir of the 14th century (after the earthquake of 1356); it recalls in the articulation of its walls the cathedral of Modena, and in its pointed arches and ribs and in its groin vaults Burgundian models. It is cross-shaped, then with five naves; it possesses a crypt, whose ambulatory calls to mind a sunken choir ambulatory, and the famous portal known as that of St. Gall.

For sculpture, mention is due to Madonnas and Crucifixes in carved wood from Valais, the Grisons and central Switzerland. For painting, alongside the stained-glass windows of Flums and the frescoes of Montchérand, Payerne, Spiez, Degenau, Prugiasco and Rovio, above all the painted wooden ceiling of Zillis, executed around 1140, the oldest preserved in Europe. At Engelberg the illumination of codices flourished. In goldsmithing, especially the various relics of St-Maurice, the chalice of Eptingen in Basel and the processional cross of Engelberg (v.) hold a notable place in the history of art. To the early Gothic belongs the most beautiful cathedral of Switzerland, Notre-Dame of Lausanne (v.), begun in 1173, which, even in the already classical tripartite division of the walls above the triforia, along the windows possesses still a gallery that dates back to Norman models. Its characteristic is constituted by a narthex closed with apses on both sides and by one of its particular ornaments, the southern rose window, designed by Villard de Honnecourt, whose magnificent stained-glass windows have no equal in Switzerland. In relation to Lausanne, St. Peter's in Geneva (v. vol. VII, pl. CIX) was evidently also brought to completion as regards its main part in 1232. Numerous, from the second half of the 13th century, are the churches of the Mendicant Orders, and the parish churches made in their imitation, according to a more or less uniform scheme, with a flat-ceilinged basilical nave and with a long choir covered by a star or groin vault. The church of the Franciscans in Basel surpasses all in size, while the simpler one of Königsfelden (1311-30) presents stained-glass windows that are among the best of the period (others at Blumenstein, Oberkirch and Kappel, all around 1300). The typical style of their figures, proper to the artistic milieu of southern Germany in the first half of the 14th century, is represented also by the frescoes of Oberwinterthur and by those of the "Master of Waltensburg" in various churches of the Grisons, while in the last third of the century on the southern side of the Alps (e.g., at Brione, Verzasca) visible Giottesque influences appear. Sculpture created in the first half of the 14th century, under the influence of mysticism, a series of devout sacred images carved in wood, besides various crucifixes, pietàs, tombs of saints (Ems), especially the group of Jesus and John of Katharinental. To these are stylistically parallel certain works of architectural sculpture (main portal of the cathedral of Basel and south portal of St. Nicholas of Fribourg; both under the influence of Strasbourg of the beginning of the 14th century). There follow, toward the middle of the century, sacred images and Madonnas of the so-called "precious style" (e.g., in the Spalentor in Basel). With the exception of the choir of the cathedral of Basel, the Gothic of the 14th century created nothing important in architecture.

On the contrary, however, the late Gothic spread even into the most remote mountain valleys, as is shown above all by the many churches of the villages of Graubünden. The principal work is the collegiate church of Bern, a church without a transept with a front tower (completed in the 19th century) akin to the cathedral of Ulm, begun as early as 1421 by Matthew Ensinger, son of the builder of the cathedral of Ulm, and finished in the same style in 1575. The storied stained-glass windows of the choir, interesting from the iconographic point of view, may be considered, together with those of Staufberg and Biel, as the principal work of Swiss glass painting of this period. With compartments arranged like a basilica, the church of St. Oswald at Zug was completed, with a fine portal with figures, begun by Franz Felder of Öttingen (Bavaria). Alongside this architectural type, by then out of fashion, there are only a few examples of the typical late Gothic three-aisled churches of equal height (Hallenkirchen): the church of St. Leonard at Basel, begun by Niesenberger of Graz in 1490, and the churches of Raron and Savièse in Valais and that of the monastery of Müstair, Carolingian in origin but rebuilt with three aisles at the end of the 15th century. The richest cloister of this period is found in the monastery of Mariaberg at Rorschach, where Erasmus Grasser worked, among others. In the churches spared by the wave of iconoclasm, especially in Graubünden and Valais, numerous altarpieces have been preserved, particularly from the second half of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th. While Valais, western and central Switzerland turned especially to local workshops (Basel, Bern, Lucerne, etc.) linked to the Rhenish artistic milieu (the best altarpiece is at Münster in Valais, a work by Jörg Keller of Lucerne, 1209), Graubünden and northern Switzerland were supplied by Swabian workshops (one of the most remarkable altarpieces at Stürvis, the largest at Chur by Jakob Russ of Ravensburg, numerous works by Ivo Strigel of Memmingen, etc.). Panel painting of the first half of the century is represented, besides by the Madonna of the Strawberries at Solothurn, still influenced by the "precious style," by Konrad Witz, the "Masaccio of the North," with his altarpiece with scenes from the History of Salvation at Basel, partly preserved, and with his Geneva altar.

In the second half of the century they are immensely active were the various "Carnation Masters" (their most notable work being the altarpiece in the Franciscan church in Fribourg, 1480). The Renaissance never became completely acclimatized in S. The choir of St. Nicholas in Fribourg, renovated around 1630 in a delayed Gothic style, shows how faithfully the traditional Gothic was adhered to. Renaissance forms were adopted mainly in decorative elements, often combining in a singular way with the late Gothic. Mixed forms of this kind were employed, for example, by Hans Franz Reyff of Fribourg in the central body of the church of the Visitation and in that of the Ursulines in Fribourg. The new style was joined in a suggestive manner to the old in the monastery of Werthenstein (Canton of Lucerne). Purer is its imprint in the Hofkirche of Lucerne (1633-44) and in the parish church of Stans (1641-47), both already on the threshold of the Baroque. Naturally the purest Renaissance building is found in the south, and it is the facade of St. Lawrence in Lugano (v.) erected in 1517. How gracefully the forms of the Renaissance combine with the Gothic structure is demonstrated by the Castelberg altar at Disentis. Ticino entered the sphere of the great Lombard painting (for example, Luini in S. Maria degli Angioli in Lugano), while in Basel Hans Holbein the Younger attained great and clear Renaissance forms in a classical production not reached by any other Nordic artist of his time.

The Jesuit church in Lucerne (1666-78) and, in relation to it, the Jesuit church in Solothurn (1680-88) and the cathedral of Arlesheim (1680-81) by Giacomo Angelini give, so to speak, the start to the Baroque, which triumphantly conquered the Catholic districts and even in the most remote regions of the Alps erected as if by magic suggestive chapels and churches, causing several ancient buildings to disappear. The new style did not come directly from Italy

(where it was propagated, among others, by the Ticinese D. Fontana and Maderno), but rather was brought to southern Germany and Austria by southern Swiss and by Mesolcinesi such as Zuccalli, Viscardi, Barbieri, Angelini, Bertalli, and from there it spread into S. in a new form. Of notable importance in this regard were architects and builders from Vorarlberg, the Thumb, Beer, Moosbrugger, etc. From their collaboration arose from 1700 onward Baroque churches with three naves, as variations of the cathedral schema known as that of Vorarlberg: Rheinau, St. Urban, Münsterlingen, Katharinental, Disentis, Pfäfers, etc.; then, as an expansion of this through the joining of longitudinal naves with a central building, such as the vast complex of Einsiedeln by the able Kaspar Moosbrugger and the magnificent abbey church of St. Gall, built in 1752 with the participation of several architects and likewise strongly influenced by the designs of Kaspar Moosbrugger. At Muri a Romanesque basilica in the form of a cross was already joined in 1695-98 with a grandiose octagon. To the decoration of these churches, through paintings, stuccoes, choir stalls, wrought-iron grilles and organs, contributed very famous artists such as the Asam brothers at Einsiedeln, Appiani at Arlesheim, Giuseppe Antonio Feuchtmayr and Wenzinger at St. Gall, Zeiller at Fischingen, all, except the Asam, artists of the airy Rococo. Also famous and active were the Schmutz, the Barbieri, Giovanni Betini, the Stauder of Constance and Franz Ludwig Hermann.

In central S. two families of architects, both emigrated from Austria, the Singer and the Purtschert, built numerous and imposing parish churches such as Sarnen, Schwyz and Ruswil. Melchior Wyrsch of Nidwalden, educated in France, distinguished himself as a painter of altarpieces. In Valais, from the last quarter of the 17th century until the end of the 18th century, there flourished an art of carving and of constructing altars whose most notable representatives, the Ritz and the Sigristen, supplied numerous works to the Grisons and to central S. Among the few Protestant Baroque churches, the Church of the Holy Spirit in Bern stands out. The church of St. Ursus in Solothurn, built in 1762-73 by Gaetano Matteo Pisoni of Ascona and by his nephew Paolo Antonio in Neo-Classical style, closes the grandiose and fertile epoch of the Baroque. As an architectural work worthy of attention, the historicism of the 19th century, otherwise sterile, produced the Protestant Elisabeth Church in Basel, and in painting the very active Paul Deschwanden represents the tendency of the "Nazarenes."

A new and fertile rebirth occurred in all sectors of sacred art in the 20th century, when with religious seriousness and with a sense of artistic responsibility it was sought that form should correspond to liturgical requirements. The church of St. Anthony in Basel, an important work by Karl Moser (1925), gave the start to the numerous reinforced-concrete churches of Metzger, Baur, etc. On their decoration worked numerous sculptors (von Matt, Schilling, Rossi), painters (Stocker, Cingria, Severini), goldsmiths (Burch, Feuillat) and embroiderers (Sister Augustina Flücher). Thanks to these works S. has assumed a position of avant-garde, especially in architecture, in contemporary sacred art.

VIII. SCHOOL SYSTEM

In Switzerland, a confederation of twenty-two Cantons, three of which are divided into two half-cantons, the school does not depend on the central power, nor is there a Federal Department of Public Education. The Cantons and half-cantons are sovereign in school matters; there are therefore in Switzerland 25 departments of public education. This state of affairs is explained by the history of the country; and it takes into account the difference of languages (German, French, Italian, Romansh), the difference of religions, of cultures, and the particular needs of each region.

The federal Constitution nevertheless gives some directives. It requires, without specifying anything further, that a sufficient, free and compulsory primary education be given in all the Cantons; it does not claim for the Cantons the monopoly of education; it simply requires that all children receive an education at least equal to that determined by the official programs of the Cantons where they live. The opening of private schools is therefore authorized under certain conditions that are specified by cantonal law. The federal Constitution further requires that all children be able to attend school without being offended in their freedom of conscience and faith, a requirement that nevertheless does not imply the absolute neutrality of the school. Thus different Cantons (Catholic or Protestant) have confessional schools. Although the federal Constitution provides that the official school be placed under the direction of the State, ecclesiastics, religious men and women may occupy positions in official teaching. A certain number of federal laws, ordinances and decrees have influenced the school, e.g., the provision of the federal military organization, which provides for an examination (written and oral) for recruits, the result of which is communicated to the various directors of public education; the federal law of 26 June 1930 which sets the minimum age for entering apprenticeship at 15 years completed; the provisions of the federal military organization on the teaching of gymnastics in the primary school and in the normal schools; the regulation according to which no one is admitted to the federal examinations for the professions deriving from medicine and for entry without examinations to the "Polytechnicum" unless he has a maturity recognized by the Confederation.

The Cantons, very often together with the communes, are responsible for the school. At the head of the school organization of the canton stands the department of public education, directed by a member of the government, assisted by a council; inspectors are charged with supervising the classes subordinate to it. In each commune, moreover, a school commission supervises the proper conduct of the schools.

Nursery schools generally depend on private associations, religious congregations, etc. The age of admission to the popular school varies according to the Cantons, from 6 to 7 years completed; the duration of compulsory schooling likewise varies between 7, 8 or 9 years. It comprises the primary school (elementary grade, attended by all children, the basis of all further instruction; upper grade which brings together the children who do not attend other schools), the secondary school, an institution peculiar to Switzerland, with a different name according to the regions (real school, district school, etc.) which, according to its organization, leads in 2 or 3 years either to the end of studies or to entry into a higher school (gymnasium, vocational school, etc.). Boys who do not go to one of these schools or do not serve an apprenticeship are required to attend supplementary courses (a few hours per week) until the age of 16-17 or 17-18. In the large cities there are special classes for the backward. Primary teachers are generally trained in normal schools (cantonal or municipal), secondary teachers at the University.

The middle schools (with a different name according to the regions) prepare, in a number of years that varies according to the degree of preparation required for admission, for one or more forms of baccalaureate (or maturity): type A, Latin-Greek; type B, Latin-modern languages; type C, mathematics-sciences. Some prepare for the commercial maturity. Their professors come from the University; for special branches from special schools (fine arts, music).

The Universities (Basel, Bern, Fribourg, Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchâtel, Zurich) depend on the Cantons that created and support them. St. Gallen has a commercial university. The Confederation has never made use of its right to erect a University. Only the "Polytechnicum" of Zurich depends on it.

Mention should also be made of the types of schools found in almost all the Cantons and under various forms of organization: industrial, commercial, vocational schools, schools of agriculture, of arts and crafts, of fine arts, conservatories, technical institutes, etc. Furthermore, schools of domestic economy, social schools for women, schools of nursing, schools of child care, the many forms of boarding schools, alpine lyceums for children of delicate health, all the varieties of institutes for deficient children (blind, deaf-mute, mentally abnormal, etc.).

The pedagogical associations that group the different categories of teachers are numerous. The pedagogical press is represented by numerous journals and is widely circulated. - See plates CXIV-CXVII.

Laura Dupraz