SWITZERLAND — The Wall of the Reformation — Geneva.
Moutier-Grandval enjoyed 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
From the Middle Ages to the 18th century, the ancient bishoprics and abbeys of Switzerland possessed temporal jurisdiction, which made them true States of varying extent, importance, and duration. It should also be noted regarding the bishoprics that the territory of the principality did not coincide with that of the diocese.It seems that the bishopric of Chur was the first to enjoy temporal power from the end of the 8th century. Later, Rudolph III, the last king of Burgundy (930), granted similar rights to the prelates of his kingdom. The German emperors, concerned to secure free passage through the Alps and to maintain strongholds against the hereditary lords, fostered the development of ecclesiastical principalities, both abbatial and episcopal. The ecclesiastical princes generally combined in their hands legislative, administrative, and judicial powers, with the right to levy taxes, demand military service, and mint coinage. Certain officials (ministeriales) carried out the various administrative, judicial, and fiscal duties. Moreover, great variety existed according to place, even under the same ecclesiastical lord. This complex and characteristic ecclesiastical-political situation of Switzerland will be presented, necessarily, in a concise manner; by way of example, the principality of Chur will be examined in detail, while for the others only essential data will be recalled.
a) The origins of the episcopal principality of Chur are complex. The Victorid dynasty, which ruled Raetia from the beginning of the 7th to the end of the 8th century, provided Chur with a series of bishops who, although elected by popular vote 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; Bishop Paschalis III (d. 695) left to his successor, Victor II (d. 714), the Domleschg, and Bishops Tullio (758–773), Constantius (late 8th century), and Remedius (d. c. 805) were at the same time bishops and rulers (praeses) of the country; indeed, Remedius even issued laws. After his death, Charlemagne separated spiritual from temporal power, entrusting the latter to the ruler Unfrid, and then to Roderic. The latter engaged in a violent struggle against Bishop Victor III, who three times brought suit against him before the emperor. Finally, in 831, Louis the Pious granted Victor III an immunity diploma, which formed the foundation of the episcopal State. The Ottonians, especially Otto I, fostered its development so that by the 13th century the State included 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 Empire. In 1282, councillors (consules) appeared in Chur; from that time, the city sought to free itself from episcopal authority. The development of the communes restricted the rights of the prince-bishop. Bishop Peter Gelyto (1355–68), with his policy of alliance with Austria, provoked the resentment of his subjects, and their delegates, gathered in Chur in 1367, agreed to resist the prelate; this was the origin of the League of the House of God (League Cadéi or Ca[sa] Dei), a kind of federal State, which in 1498 formed 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 Emperor Frederick III. The Ilanz Articles, in 1526, reinforced in 1541 by six additional articles, abolished most of the temporal rights of the bishop; consequently, neither the bishop nor the Chapter ever recognized them. In reality, the bishops retained reduced rights until 1798. During these three centuries, political-religious conflicts were numerous; one of the last, in 1753, pitted the city of Chur, predominantly Protestant, against the episcopal court (Hof), which formed the upper city, each side claiming full independence from the other. Bishop Joseph Benedikt von Rost departed for Vienna, where Empress Maria Theresa acted as mediator; indeed, upon his return, the prelate was received with honors and the pacification was achieved.
b) The abbey of Disentis, situated in the upper Rhine valley to the east of Chur, began its temporal power with the testament (766) of Bishop Tello of Chur (d. 773). The important geographical and strategic position of the abbey’s territory secured the monastery the protection of Otto I (966, 975) and Otto II (976), and of Henry III, who granted it immediate imperial dependence (1048): a privilege that was repeatedly confirmed. 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 north of the diocese of Chur, founded in the 8th century, received from Lothair I (840) the freedom of abbatial election, a privilege again confirmed in 949 by Otto I. The abbatial lordship ceased at the end of the 18th century.
d) The vast diocese of Constance had its prince-bishops of the Empire. From the 12th century, the city of Constance entered into conflict with its prince-bishop to free itself. The Treaty of Baden (1554) reduced the rights of the bishop, whose episcopal principality lasted in Germany until 1803.
e) The abbey of Saint Gall possessed from the 8th to the end of the 18th century such notable temporal power that it became one of the principal ecclesiastical States of Switzerland, whose acquisitions, wars, and diplomacy repeatedly modified its extent and power. The abbey was suppressed in 1805. From 1077 to 1418, Saint Gall was an abbey reserved for 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, founded at the end of the 8th or beginning of the 9th century, had as its principal benefactor Duke Wolvene, who later became its abbot (d. 879). The abbey’s lands were scattered across the present-day territories of Zurich, Schaffhausen, Thurgau, Baden, and even Italy. Otto II in 972 confirmed for the abbey the privilege of immunity and the freedom of abbatial election. Over the town of Rheinau, the abbot exercised high and low justice through his advocatus and, from 1460, through the Swiss bailiff of Thurgau. On March 6, 1798, the temporal rights of the abbey ceased.
Switzerland — The Wall of the Reformation — Geneva.
g) The abbey of Einsiedeln, with the grant by Otto I (October 27, 947) of the privilege of free abbatial election and immunity, had the foundation of the abbatial State, which included the region of Einsiedeln and lands and rights in other areas. The temporal power of the abbey definitively ceased at 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, passed under the protection of the Swiss Confederates after the conquest of Aargau (1415). Emperor Leopold I granted the abbots the title of prince of the Empire (1701), but less than a century later the temporal rights of the abbey 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 temporal rights of the abbey were suppressed in 1798, and its territory was annexed first to the Canton of Waldstätten, then to that of Nidwalden (1803), and finally to Obwalden (1815).
l) Other monasteries in the ancient Diocese of Constance, though not reaching 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 in Schaffhausen, which benefited from the privileges of the Nellenburg confirmed by Gregory VII and Henry V, suppressed in 1524; of Fischingen (Thurgau), founded in 1135, which lost its temporal rights in 1708; of St. Johann in 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 sought to emancipate itself, the Abbey of Murbach placed the Priory of St. Leodegar under the protection of the Bishop of Constance (1233) and ceded its temporal rights to Rudolph I of Austria (16 Apr. 1291). The priory obtained from Callistus III the right to become a collegiate church in 1455. Finally, two female monasteries should be noted that also held considerable importance: the Abbey or Fraumünster in Zurich, endowed on 21 July 853 by Louis the German, suppressed in 1524, became a chapter of canonesses, reserved for the nobility, and the abbess held the title of Princess of the Empire; the Abbey of canonesses of Säckingen, built on an island in the Rhine (Baden), which appears in documents beginning in 879. The abbess was declared Princess of the Empire by Albert I in 1307. The last remnants of its temporal power disappeared with its suppression in 1805.
m) To the northwest of Switzerland lay, before 1729, the Prince-Bishopric 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 dates back to the donation made by Rudolph III of Burgundy in 999 to Adalbert II of the rich Abbey of Grandval in the Jura, founded in the 7th century by monks from Luxeuil, which resisted until 1210 to preserve its independence. The temporal rights over the city of Basel, recognized to the bishop by Henry II (1030), were long the subject of disputes between inhabitants and bishops, despite the establishment as early as the 12th century 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 see to Porrentruy and attempted to restore his principality, which was again and severely tested during the Thirty Years' War, especially between 1635-50, and during the French Revolution. In 1803 the last prince-bishop lost all his territories on the right bank of the Rhine. From 1579 to 1735 the prince-bishops were allied with the seven Catholic Cantons, after which, 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, despite the rivalries of powerful feudal families such as the Counts of Geneva, Gruyère, Savoy, and the Barons of Blonay. The bishop held the title of prince-bishop and participated in the imperial diets at least since 1125. In 1157 Bishop Amadeus granted privileges to Lausanne, and from then on the city council appears; however, the inhabitants repeatedly sought to free themselves from episcopal authority. In 1434 Lausanne was declared an imperial city; in 1481 the union between the upper and lower towns was achieved, and in 1529 a burgomaster was elected. The occupation of Lausanne and the Pays de Vaud by the Bernese (1536), followed by the 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 generously endowed by Rudolph III, held a small lordship, which was administered with wise governance 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 considerable endowment from the Rudolphian dynasty; here too, the Bernese invasion of 1536 put an end to the temporal rights of the abbey.
p) The Bishops of Geneva already possessed temporal power from the 11th century, power contested by the Counts of Geneva. Despite the Seyssel Agreement of 1124, the Counts of Geneva, later called of Geneva, continued to provoke 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 attempted to dominate the city, but this, organized municipally, preferred to remain under episcopal lordship. However, from 1444 onwards, the Dukes of Savoy succeeded in taking control of the bishopric by placing members of their house or those loyal to them in II. This interference prepared, by reaction, the ground for the Reformation, which the city embraced in 1535. The Bernese armies, arriving to aid the city besieged by the Savoyards (1536), ensured the triumph of the Reformation, and Geneva was able to proclaim itself a republic. The bishop, expelled from the city in 1533, established his see in Annecy, continuing until 1802 to bear the title of prince-bishop.
q) The temporal lordship of the Bishops of Sion dates back to 999, the year in which Rudolph III of Burgundy ceded them the County of Valais. In 1189 Henry VI declared the Bishop of Sion immediately subject to the Empire, and the title of prince began to appear from 1249. To administer their territory, the bishops first used hereditary *ministeriales*, replaced beginning in the 13th century with removable officials. By 1339 a general council of the country, later called the "diet," was already functioning. The principality of the Bishops of Sion had as an external enemy the Counts of Savoy and internally the constant action of democrats or patriots who sought to reduce
a true ecclesiastical state or county was thus formed in the aforementioned valleys (hence the title of count given to the canons of the metropolitan church of Milan) with communal life, a general council, and statutes. The Visconti in the 14th century then received the investiture of the temporal dominion over Como and the canons of Milan in the Ticino Canton. The Swiss occupied the Leventina as early as 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 were placed during the Middle Ages and sometimes until the end of the 18th century under the temporal rule of ecclesiastical princes or lords: bishoprics, abbeys, and chapters, uniting both spiritual and temporal powers, contributed powerfully to the religious development and civil progress of the country. Bishoprics and monasteries became cultural centers of high importance, whose beneficial influences extended even to the most distant regions of their temporal dominion.From a strictly religious point of view, the boundaries of the diocese did not coincide with the political ones. Only Sion and Lausanne did not exceed or almost exceed the boundaries of the present diocese. Most of the German-speaking part of Switzerland belonged to the diocese of Constance, which extended also into southern Germany. Chur reached as far as the Vorarlberg and the Tyrol. Basel included all of Upper Alsace, and Geneva all of northern Savoy. Around 1300 there were 66 deaneries or archpriestships in the territory now comprising Switzerland. The cartulary of Lausanne of 1228 records 301 parishes for that diocese; the accounts of papal tithes for the diocese of Sion list 64 parishes in 1364 and 67 in 1428. The registers of pastoral visits of the diocese of Geneva count 529 parishes in 1445. While parochial organization had reached its full development in the diocese of Lausanne, from the 13th century onwards in the Alpine regions the number of parishes was small despite the great distances, due to the sparse population.
b) All Swiss regions have numerous saints; the best known are the Theban martyrs (v.) with St. Maurice (v.) at their head. In the diocese of Sion the following bishops are venerated: Theodore (d. at the end of the 4th century), Salvio or Silvio (425–50), Amato (d. at the end of the 7th century), Garino, a Cistercian (1138–50); in the diocese of Lausanne: Marius (d. in 594), Protasio (d. in 659), Amadeus of Haute-Rive (1144–59), Boniface Clutine (1230–93); in the diocese of Chur: Asinio (451), Valentinian (d. in 548), Ursicinus (754–58), Adalgott (1151–60); in the diocese of Constance: Conrad (934–75), and Gebhard II (979–95). Among monks worthy of mention are: 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. Minierus, a hermit at the end of the 6th century; St. Ursicinus, a disciple of St. Columbanus (d. in 615) like St. Gall (d. c. 630–45); St. Amatus (d. c. 630), a hermit near Agaunum, later abbot of Remiremont in the Vosges; Sts. Sigibert and Placidus at Disentis (8th century); St. Otmar (d. in 759), restorer of monastic life at St. Gall; St. Magnus (d. in 750) and St. Nocher the Stammerer (d. in 952), both monks of St. Gall.
c) Medieval historical events gave various popes the opportunity to travel through Switzerland: Stephen II was met by envoys of Pepin the Short at St-Maurice (753); St. Leo IX (1049–54) and the Blessed Eugenius III (1145–53) passed through Switzerland, and Eugenius III consecrated the church of St-Maurice (1148); the Blessed Gregory X, after the Council of Lyon, reached Italy through Switzerland and consecrated the cathedral of Lausanne (1275). During the struggle between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, the Swiss bishops, who held their temporal power from the emperor, generally sided with the latter. The early Swiss Confederates took the same stance. The Truce of God was proclaimed at Montrond in 1036 at the initiative of Bishop Hugh of Lausanne, in the presence of archbishops and bishops, lords, and the people of the kingdom of Burgundy.
d) From the 12th to the 14th century various religious orders established themselves in Switzerland, founding numerous monasteries and convents; most of these were suppressed during the Reformation or in the anti-Catholic movements of the late 18th and 19th centuries. 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 Antonines in 1304 at Basel. Until the 12th century, in 1311, regular chapter meetings were held in cathedral chapters, as well as for a longer period in about fifty collegiate churches, the oldest of which is that of Solothurn (742). There were also numerous women’s monasteries: Cistercian nuns, Poor Clares, and Canonesses Regular.
8. From the Western Schism to the Reformation
The French-speaking regions of Switzerland consistently adhered to Avignon, which is not surprising given that the antipope Clement VII belonged to the family of the counts of Geneva. The German-speaking regions were divided and hesitant: Duke Leopold III of Austria (d. 1386), placing himself under Avignonese obedience, brought with him the monasteries of St-Leodegar in Lucerne, Muri, Allerheiligen in Schaffhausen, St-Urbain, Wettingen, Kappel, and the chapters of Beromünster, Zofingen, Schönenwerd, and Solothurn. To counter the Habsburgs, the states of Lucerne, Zurich, Zug, Glarus, Schwyz, and Nidwalden, along with the monasteries of St-Gall, Einsiedeln, Engelberg, Stein am Rhein, Zurzach, and Frienisberg, remained loyal to Rome. The cantons of Bern, Uri, and Obwalden and the city of Basel were inconsistent in their religious policy, shifting between the two obediences. The diocese of Geneva was always under Avignonese obedience, while the other dioceses experienced dual episcopal elections: one Avignonese and one Roman. Notable events of this period include the Councils of Constance (v.), which ended the schism with the election of Martin V, and of Basel (v.), which culminated in the election of the antipope Felix V (v.), crowned in Basel on 24 July 1440 and dissolved in 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 participated in the aforementioned councils brought to Switzerland the spirit of the Renaissance, and the humanist Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, who resided in Basel from April 1432 to September 1433 and again from spring 1436 to November 1442, later becoming Pope Pius II, granted the city council of Basel the privilege of founding a university, which 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 papal unity marked for Switzerland the beginning of an intense religious restoration: old orders were renewed and new ones established, such as the Carmelites in 1425 at Géronde in Valais, the Servites in 1471 at Mondrison, and the Poor Clares reformed by St. Colette in 1422 at Vevey (Vaud). Many churches were restored and numerous others built; in the canton of Solothurn alone, for example, 40 churches were erected in the half-century preceding the Reformation. Some saints exercised a beneficial reforming influence, such as the preaching of St. Vincent Ferrer in Romandy (1403–1404), the work of St. Colette (v.), the ascetic life of the Blessed Ludovica of Savoy (d. 1503) at Orbe (Vaud), and the truly extraordinary influence of St. Nicholas of Flue (v.). Signs of the general religious revival also include: 1° the spread of devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus, sometimes united with that of Mary; 2° the establishment of many confraternities; 3° the formation of various craft guilds under the patronage of certain saints; and 4° the creation of the Swiss Guard (v.), a sign of deep devotion to the Holy See.
Switzerland – South apse of the church of the monastery of St. John; the frescoes of the apse and the first zone below it, discovered in 1948, are Carolingian in date, those of the lower zones are from the end of the 12th century – Müstair.
From the Reformation to the present day. — The Swiss religious revival of the 15th century suffered a violent setback in the first half of the following century with the introduction and rapid spread of the Reformation, which found fertile ground in the widespread discontent against prince-bishops and abbots, often foreigners and commendatory prelates, due to conflicts over temporal jurisdiction, and against both regular and secular clergy on account of the worldly lives led by some of them (the scandal of Jetzer in Bern) and also in the spiritual agitation that prevailed in certain regions, such as Basel, where Swiss humanism flourished under Erasmus and where men—some of them prominent—had gathered, suspected both religiously and politically. In this environment, the heterodox doctrines of Luther (1520–36) and especially of Ulrich Zwingli (q.v.) and their rebellion against ecclesiastical authority found easy acceptance. Zurich, with the assent of the civil authorities, became from 1519 the driving centre of Zwinglian propaganda, which spread through various cantons and subject or allied regions through the efforts of fanatical preachers, most notably Johannes Oecolampadius (q.v.), who disseminated Zwinglian doctrines in Basel. There, the government and university initially opposed the reforming novelties, but in 1529 the Catholics were overwhelmed, and the innovators indulged in such excesses that Erasmus and several of his admirers, disgusted, left the city for Freiburg in Br. By 1528, Zwinglian preaching had already spread to Schaffhausen, Glarus, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Bern, St. Gallen, and the Grisons. Moreover, from 1525 onwards, Anabaptists had appeared in Zurich and St. Gallen, against whom even Zwingli’s own followers raged.
The Catholic cantons of Schwyz, Uri, Unterwalden, Lucerne, and Zug remained faithful to the Catholic Church and attempted to stem the schism; Solothurn wavered briefly before the new preaching, while other cantons were forced to split in two.
Though the religious conference that the Catholic cantons promoted against Zwingli, held at Baden in May 1526 with the participation of the renowned theologian Johannes Eck (q.v.), was salutary for them, it led to a worsening of relations with the cantons infected by Zwinglian preaching. In 1527, Zurich formed the “Christian Combregne” with Constance, joined in 1528 by Bern, Basel, and other cities; in response, the Catholic cantons refused to remain isolated and in 1529 united among themselves and with Austria. This “Christian Alliance” also included Fribourg and Valais. Armed conflict soon followed; the hostilities of 1529, quickly suspended by an agreement favourable to the Reformers, were resumed with greater violence in 1531. The Catholics forestalled the Reformed cantons, and on 11 October 1531 the latter suffered defeat at Kappel, where Zwingli himself perished. The peace terms stipulated that the cantons should not molest one another on religious grounds and that Catholic worship should be respected in the common subject territories (Thurgau, Aargau, Ticino, etc.), which thus largely escaped Reformed influence; yet the Catholics failed to exploit fully the advantages of their victory. The situation established by the 1531 victory persisted until the Second War of Villmergen in 1712, in which the Reformed cantons gained the upper hand, their first campaign in 1656 having failed.
Once the war with the Catholic cantons was over, Bern turned westward and in 1536 came to the aid of Geneva, which sought to free itself from the dukes of Savoy. The region of Vaud and the cities of Lausanne, Yverdon, Morges, and Vevey accepted Bernese rule and embraced the Reformed doctrines, while Valais remained loyal to the Catholic faith. Geneva, freed from Savoyard control, fell within Bern’s “Combregne” since 1526, and thus the Reformers gained a foothold there, including Guillaume Farel and John Calvin (q.v.), who arrived in 1536. However, since Calvinist doctrine clashed with that of the Bernese, the latter, aided by a favourable faction, succeeded in driving Calvin and his supporters from the city in 1538. Nevertheless, invited back by the Genevan authorities, Calvin returned in triumph in September 1541 and remained as a virtual dictator until his death in 1564, thereby securing the triumph of his “City-Church.” For political reasons, Calvin made peace with the theologians of Zurich in 1549 (Consensus Tigurinus); the Second Helvetic Confession of 1566 then definitively strengthened Swiss Protestantism; and in 1557 Calvin sent his disciple and successor, Pierre Viret (q.v.), to Bern. With Calvin’s death, the religious configuration of Switzerland was fixed and remained so, with only minor changes, down to the present day. The Reformed cantons employed the most drastic methods of persecution against the Catholic Church, and Catholics remaining in their territories were frequently harshly oppressed. The bishops of Basel and Geneva were obliged to transfer their sees, their territories were significantly reduced, collegiate churches and chapters were suppressed or stripped of their goods, ecclesiastical temporal jurisdictions were abolished, and churches were profaned. It should be noted, however, that the Catholic cantons, for their part, punished apostates with death.
Though not hastening to implement the decrees of the Council of Trent, the Catholic cantons formed an alliance with Pius IV on 19 April 1565, and after lengthy negotiations and through the efforts of St. Charles Borromeo (to whom Swiss Catholicism owes much), Gregory XIII sent them an ordinary nuncio on 2 May 1579, in the person of Giovanni Francesco Bonhomini, Bishop of Vercelli (the first non-ordinary nuncio had been Giovanni Antonio Volpi in 1559–63). The nuncios made a notable contribution to the Catholic Reformation in Switzerland, in which they were joined by many members of the secular clergy, the Jesuits, and the Capuchins. Relations with the Holy See, generally good, experienced difficult moments, for example in the 18th century over disputes concerning the powers of the nuncio and certain civil encroachments in ecclesiastical matters, as at Chur and Lucerne. Towards the end of the century, Switzerland was hospitable to many priests and political refugees fleeing the persecution of the French revolutionaries.
SWITZERLAND — Detail of the cenotaph of the Counts of Neuchâtel (14th–15th century).
In the 19th century the Catholic Church in Switzerland was again harshly persecuted. The first signs of this appeared in 1797 with the French invasion and the creation of the Helvetic Republic (1798–1802), which on 9 July 1798 expelled the apostolic nuncio from its territory and suppressed all ecclesiastical temporal jurisdictions. During the Napoleonic period and immediately after the Restoration lively disputes arose over the erection of new dioceses or the reorganisation of old ones; these were settled by various conventions with the Holy See, now collected in vol. III of Lampert. Open conflict against the Church began in 1830 and was pursued by the Radical party with all available means, achieving its triumph in 1847 with the defeat of the Sonderbund (q.V. above). Persecution intensified further during the German Kulturkampf (q.v.). By now, however, radicalism was slowly moderating, and Swiss Catholics quickly took advantage of this to resume their activities and heal the wounds inflicted by persecution. They distinguished themselves especially in the social field by founding trade unions and numerous works of assistance for the working class, and in the cultural field by the establishment of the Catholic University of Fribourg (1889), which soon became an international centre of higher learning. Politically, too, they achieved notable successes, and the Ticinese Catholic Giuseppe Motta (d. 23 Jan. 1940) was elected five times president of the Confederation from 1915 onwards. During the world wars of 1914–18 and 1939–45 Swiss Catholics distinguished themselves through their works of assistance to civilian populations and prisoners of war; it was precisely these charitable contacts of the “Swiss Catholic Mission” with the Holy See that led the latter in 1917 to send a representative to the Federal Government, elevated on 17 Aug. 1920 to the rank of Apostolic Nuncio.
Catholics today number 1,666,000, distributed among six dioceses all immediately subject to the Holy See: Basel and Lugano, Chur, Lausanne-Geneva-Fribourg, St Gallen, Sion; and two “nullius” abbeys: St Maurice and Our Lady of Einsiedeln. The Catholic cantons are: Valais, Ticino, Obwalden and Nidwalden (Unterwalden), Schwyz, Uri, Appenzell Inner Rhodes, Lucerne, Zug and Fribourg. Protestants number 2,300,000. The cantons with an absolute Protestant majority are: Vaud, Neuchâtel, Zurich, Schaffhausen, Appenzell Outer Rhodes, Glarus, Grisons; those with a slight Protestant majority: Geneva, Berne, Solothurn, Basel (city and countryside), Aargau, Thurgau and St Gallen.
Leone Dupont–Lachelan–A. Pietro Frutaz
V. RELATIONS WITH THE HOLY SEE
Legal status of the Church. — Given Switzerland’s distinctive political configuration, the legal status of the Church must be considered in relation to the individual ecclesiastical circumscriptions into which the country is divided.9. Diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg
Covers the cantons of Fribourg, Vaud, Geneva and Neuchâtel. The government has no say in the appointment of the bishop or of parish priests, except for the parish priest of the cathedral of St Nicholas in Fribourg, who is elected by the town’s citizenry from three candidates presented by the bishop (Apostolic Letter Sollicitudo omnium Ecclesiarum, 17 Oct. 1924, AAS, 17 [1925], pp. 56–61). The cantonal government, however, does have a say in the appointment of the ten resident canons of the Chapter of St Nicholas according to the norms laid down in the aforesaid bull.10. Diocese of Basel and Lugano
Extends over the cantons of Solothurn, Lucerne, Berne, Aargau, Zug, Basel, Thurgau and Schaffhausen. Still in force is the convention concluded on 26 March 1828 between Leo XII and the cantons of Lucerne, Berne, Solothurn and Zug, which regulates the composition and endowment of the cathedral chapter, the appointment of canons, the endowment of the episcopal see and of the seminary, and grants the cathedral senate the right to appoint the bishop, provided that no candidate under consideration is objectionable to the cantonal governments (Apostolic Brief Quod ad rem of the same Pope dated 15 Oct. 1828). Later and more recent agreements have regulated the appointment of provosts and canons of the two collegiate churches of St Leodegar in Lucerne and of St Michael in Beromünster, of the rectors of benefices, of theology professors in the seminary and of religion teachers in the cantonal schools, as well as the economic treatment of these posts by the government.11. Diocese of St Gallen
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 Catholic Supreme Council, which in the eponymous canton has charge of Catholic interests. Prior approval of the Holy See is also required.12. Diocese of Chur
Comprises the cantons of Grisons, Schwyz, Obwalden and Nidwalden, Uri, Glarus, Zurich and the Principality of Liechtenstein. The cathedral chapter has the privilege of electing the bishop from three candidates proposed by the Holy See. Some difficulties exist in the canton of Zurich, where that government, besides not recognising the bishop of Chur, recognises only three of the more than twenty parishes existing in its territory, and grants subsidies to these alone.13. Diocese of Sion
Comprises the canton of Valais, excluding the part entrusted to the abbey nullius of St Maurice. The bishop is appointed freely by the Holy See, after assurance that nothing from the political point of view stands in the way of the candidate’s election.14. Apostolic administration of Ticino
Has been the subject of three conventions: of 1 Sept. 1884, 23 Sept. 1884 and 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 proper diocese, distinct and independent. The appointment is made by the Holy See in agreement with the bishop of Basel and must fall upon a Ticinese priest. The administrator has episcopal rank.Other questions concerning the legal status of the Church—such as the juridical personality of the Church itself, state protection of the Catholic religion as the religion of the people, free administration of ecclesiastical goods, their exemption from taxation, freedom of teaching, religious instruction, juridical recognition of religious orders and congregations, government contributions to ecclesiastical bodies and to general cult expenses, etc.—are resolved differently from canton to canton. All constitutions, however, guarantee freedom of conscience, religion and worship. The Holy See has diplomatic relations with Switzerland; an Apostolic Nuncio is accredited to the federal government, but without reciprocity.
SWITZERLAND — Gold pallium donated by Henry II to the Cathedral of Basel (11th century): Christ between St Benedict and the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. At Christ’s feet the donors — Paris, Musée de Cluny.
insistence on the development of lyricism, here only sketched, assumes ever greater importance.
15. Literature of French Switzerland
In French Switzerland the 19th century is likewise represented by three authors, but of a wholly different stamp from those already named. Alexandre Vinet (1797–1847), author of essays on moral philosophy, discourses on religious topics and on freedom of worship, etc., is a broad-minded Protestant thinker who is more Christian than Protestant. Above all admirable is his literary criticism: Pascalian in the sense that for him works of the spirit are testimony both to our wretchedness and to our capacity for greatness (through God’s grace), and this both in what they say and in what they conceal. Thus, for the reflective mind, the study of literature serves to establish the necessity and truth of the evangelical Revelation. Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–81) does not write for a wide public but first and foremost for himself and for those concerned with the inner life. From the 16,900 pages of his Journal intime two volumes were extracted, then three, then unpublished fragments. The Journal offers a spectacle of intellectual and spiritual life; it reveals the author’s friendships, his walks, his amorous fancies, his religious quest and above all that “infinite hospitality of thought” which characterizes him. He wanders between Leibniz and Spinoza, between the biblical God and the lure of pantheism, between freedom and holiness. No one better than Amiel represents what is international in the Swiss spirit. Rodolphe Toepffer (1799–1846) likewise left pages of art criticism, as well as one or two novels, short stories and those astonishing Albums that have delighted four generations. Here, amid a literature of intellectuals, we find a writer of imagination, a humorist, a Christian like Vinet, a good citizen of a tiny republic (Geneva), who meditates on happiness—always a relative thing—and teaches the most smiling wisdom. Besides these three, mention must be made of 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 the dead and of Swiss memories.These three principal writers of the 19th century have left no successors. They are revered, reprinted, but little followed. For the literary landscape of French Switzerland has greatly changed since 1900. A generation of thinkers and critics has given way to one concerned with creation and invention. Meanwhile a great poet, C.-F. Ramuz, has been at work. Moreover, the Catholic part of the French-speaking region, long silent, has found an eloquent and brilliant interpreter in Gonzague de Reynold (b. 1880)—historian, lyric and epic poet—and subsequently in narrators such as Léon Savary, Maurice Zermatten, Corinna Bille, etc. Finally, French Switzerland, 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 20th-century French-speaking Switzerland. On reading him one would believe that waters and mountains, the seasons, human conduct and the inflection of their voices—everything has happened and been reproduced for the first time. Ramuz represents, on the margins of the properly French tradition, the purest and noblest effort at verbal expression, the transposition into words of proximate reality, that has appeared in French Switzerland.
The literary geography of the region has grown more complex. Today we have the novel of analysis, not an indigenous product but imported from France, which has yielded excellent fruit with Robert de Traz (1884–1951), Jacques Chenevière (b. 1886), Bernard Barbey, etc.; the novel of anticipation 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 Valloton (b. 1877). It seems that the most original and representative writers today are: in the wake of Ramuz but more human and with a personal talent, C.-F. Landry, and in the field of psychological analysis, Jacques Mercanton. And, as in German Switzerland, the theatre has developed greatly since 1900 (René Morax [b. 1873] and his Théâtre du Jorat, etc.); likewise, with Henry Spiess (b. 1876), later René-Louis Piachaud (1896–1941) and Gilbert Trolliet, and today with the Christian poet Edm. Jeanneret, lyric poetry has found its voice.
16. Literature of Italian Switzerland
Italian Switzerland came late to literary creation. Its tradition lay in the arts (architecture, painting, decoration). For this very reason Ticino established itself in Italy and Europe. Fr. Soave (1743–1806), in the 18th century, was merely a polygraph, translator and pedagogue. But from the beginning of this century Italian Switzerland has had its great poet, who in time became the master of the short story: Francesco Chiesa (b. 1871), whom Italy adopted from his earliest works. His attachment to his native place, to every aspect of the corner of the world where he grew up, is found again in Giuseppe Zoppi (1896–1952) and Guido Calgari.Poetry, in Italian or dialect, has also developed during the last twenty years. The most gifted author of the younger generation is undoubtedly Felice Filippini, author of Il signore dei poveri morti, as well as sculptor, painter and musician.
VII. Art
To the period of the first expansion of Christianity in Switzerland (4th–5th centuries) belong early sacred buildings at St-Maurice and Geneva, and the primitive nucleus of the church at Romainmôtier dates from the first half of the 7th century. At Riva San Vitale (v. Lugano) there is instead a baptistery built at the beginning of the 7th century, which is the oldest sacred monument still fully preserved in Switzerland.After the partial destruction of Christianity by the Alemanni following their invasion in the 5th century, new missionary currents gained ground in the 7th century through the efforts of the Franco-Irish apostles, St Columbanus and his followers, from whose cells there arose in the 8th century a series of Benedictine monasteries, among which
S. Gall with its famous scriptorium, with its Library of Insular and Carolingian illuminated manuscripts, and with the plan of the Abbey dating back to about 820, the most important document of early medieval architecture. With the single-nave churches (Saalkirchen) of the Grisons, with three horse-shoe apses (Müstair, Mistail, Disentis, Chur, etc.), for the most part of the 9th century, there appears a type of construction that, it may be said, is found only in the Rhaetian region. An idea of their decoration is given by the fragments of stucco from Disentis, the most important document of this kind north of the Alps, and by the valuable New Testament frescoes of Müstair, of about 800, discovered in 1948, unique of their kind. Of the few circular Carolingian crypts north of the Alps, two with traces of painted decoration are found at St-Maurice, which also possesses in this period singular inlaid enamels, and one at Chur; while the crypt of Disentis has characteristics all its own.
A particular group of sacred buildings arose in the 10th and 11th centuries in the countries belonging to the Kingdom of Upper Burgundy (Amsoldingen, Spiez, Schönenwerd, 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 a transept and apsidal choir, follow, except for the vaulting and the renunciation of a crypt, the second construction of Cluny: Romainmôtier (originally with a flat ceiling) whose western superstructure (Westwerk) resembles that of Tournus; and Payerne which, begun with a western superstructure and a finely articulated choir, was completed only in the 12th century. From Hirsau, centre of the German reform movement, Schaffhausen had in its Cathedral, consecrated in 1104, the best example of the Hirsau type. From the Ottonian period there have been preserved the famous gold 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 completed as a true basilica with a matroneum, built at first in imitation of the basilica of St. Ambrose in Milan. To the late Romanesque period belongs the cathedral of Chur ([V. 1150-1250] ca.), which, as a basilica without a transept, with pointed arches and ribs in part horse-shoe shaped, and rich in plastic decoration, seems to unite in itself Lombard, Burgundian and Franco-Meridional influences. In Ticino, it represents in the most evident way the style of the century: S. Nicolò 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 noted. In the 12th century a series of Cistercian churches arose 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 vaulting and the 14th-century choir (after the earthquake of 1356); it recalls in the articulation of its walls the cathedral of Modena, and in the pointed arches and ribs and the ribbed vaults Burgundian models. It is in the form of a cross, then with five naves; it possesses a crypt, whose ambulatory suggests a sunken choir ambulatory, and the famous portal called of St. Gall.
For sculpture, mention should be made of wooden carved Madonnas and Crucifixes from Valais, the Grisons and central Switzerland. For painting, alongside the stained glass of Flums and the frescoes of Montchérard, Payerne, Spiez, Degersheim, Preglia and Rovio, above all the painted wooden ceiling of Zillis executed about 1140, the oldest in Europe to have been preserved. At Engelberg the illumination of manuscripts flourished. In goldsmithing, especially the various relics of St-Maurice, the Eptingen chalice in Basel ENGLBERG (v.) occupy a notable place in the history of art. To the early Gothic belongs the most beautiful cathedral in Switzerland, Notre-Dame of Lausanne (v.), begun in 1173, which, despite the already classical tripartite division of the walls above the triforia, along the windows still possesses a gallery that goes 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 has no equal in Switzerland. In relation with Lausanne it was evidently brought to completion for the main part in 1232 also St. Pierre in Geneva (v. vol. VII, tav. CIX). 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 stellar or ribbed vault. The Franciscan church in Basel surpasses all in size, while the simpler one of Königsfelden (1311-130) has stained glass 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 environment 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) Giottesque influences are visibly apparent. Sculpture created in the first half of the 14th century, under the influence of mysticism, a series of devotional sacred images carved in wood, besides various crucifixes, Pietàs, tombs of saints (Einsiedeln), especially the group of Jesus and John by the Master of Katharinenthal. To these are stylistically parallel some works of architectural sculpture (main portal of the cathedral of Basel and south portal of St. Nicholas in Fribourg; both under the influence of Strasbourg at the beginning of the 14th century). Following, towards the middle of the century, are sacred images and Madonnas of the so-called “graceful style” (e.g., in the Spalentor in Basel). Except for the choir of the cathedral of Basel, the Gothic of the 14th century has created in architecture nothing of importance.
On the contrary, Late Gothic spread even into the most remote mountain valleys, as is shown especially by the many churches in the Grisons. 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 Matteo Ensinger, son of the builder of the cathedral of Ulm, and completed in the same style in 1575. The historiated windows of the choir, interesting from an iconographic point of view, may be considered, together with those of Stauberg and Biel, as the principal work of Swiss glass painting of this period. Similarly, the church of St Oswald in Zug was completed as a basilica, with a fine portal of figures, begun by Franz Felder from Öttingen (Bavaria).
Alongside this architectural type, which had then gone out of fashion, there are only a few examples of typical three-aisled churches of equal height (Hallenkirchen) of the Late Gothic: the church of St Leonard in Basle, begun by Niesenberg der Graz in 1490, and the churches of Bann and Savièse in the Valais, and that of the monastery of Müstair, originally Carolingian, 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, among others, Erasmus Grasser worked. In the churches spared by the iconoclastic wave, especially in the Grisons and the Valais, numerous polychrome works have been preserved, particularly from the second half of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th.
While the Valais, western and central Switzerland, turned especially to local workshops (Basle, Berne, Lucerne, etc.) linked to the Rhenish artistic environment (the best altarpiece is at Münster in the Valais, a work by Jörg Keller of Lucerne, 1509), the Grisons and northern Switzerland were supplied by Swabian workshops (one of the most notable altarpieces is 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 the *Madonna of the Strawberries* of Solothurn, still influenced by the “pretty style,” by Konrad Witz, the “Masaccio of the North,” with his polychrome work with scenes from the History of Salvation in Basle, partly preserved, and with his altarpiece in Geneva.
In the second half of the century the various “Masters of the Carnation” were immensely active (the most notable work is the altarpiece in the church of the Franciscans at Freiburg, 1480). The Renaissance never fully took root, although acclimatized in Switzerland. The choir of St Nicholas in Freiburg, renewed about 1630 in a delayed Gothic style, shows how attachment to the traditional Gothic persisted. Renaissance forms were adopted mainly in decorative elements, often combining in a singular way with Late Gothic. To such mixed forms adhered, for example, Hans Franz Reyff of Freiburg in the central body of the church of the Visitation and in that of the Orellen in Freiburg. The new style was combined in a suggestive way with the old in the monastery of Werthenstein (Canton of Lucerne). Its purest imprint is found 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 façade of St Lawrence in Lugano (v.), erected in 1517.
How lightly Renaissance forms are joined to Gothic structure is shown by the altarpiece of Castelberg at Disentis. Ticino entered the sphere of great Lombard painting (e.g., Luini in S Maria degli Angeli at Lugano), while in Basle Hans Holbein the Younger achieved great and clear Renaissance forms in a classical production unmatched by any other northern artist of his time.
The Jesuit church at Lucerne (1666–78) and, in relation to it, the Jesuit church at Solothurn (1680–88) and the cathedral of Arlesheim (1680–81) by Giacomo Angelini may be said to have given the impetus to the Baroque, which triumphantly conquered the Catholic districts and even in the most remote Alpine regions erected as if by magic suggestive chapels and churches, causing the disappearance of many ancient buildings. 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 into southern Germany and Austria by southern Swiss and Mesolcinesi such as Zuccalli, Viscardi, Barbieri, Angelini, Bertalli, and from there spread into Switzerland in a new form. Architects and builders from the Vorarlberg, the Thumbs, Beer, Moosbrugger, etc., were of notable importance in this regard. From their collaboration there arose from 1700 onwards Baroque three-aisled churches, as variations of the so-called Vorarlberg cathedral scheme: Rheinau, St Urban, Münsterlingen, Katharinenthal, Disentis, Pfäfers, etc.; then, as an extension of this by the combination of longitudinal naves with a central building, the vast complex of Einsiedeln by the able Gaspare Moosbrugger and the magnificent abbey church of St Gall, built in 1752 with the participation of several architects and also strongly influenced by the designs of Gaspare Moosbrugger. At Muri a Romanesque basilica in the form of a cross was already united in 1695–98 with a grand octagon.
To the decoration of these churches, through paintings, stuccoes, choir stalls, wrought-iron grilles and organs, there contributed very famous artists such as the Asam brothers at Einsiedeln, Appiani at Arlesheim, Giuseppe Antonio Feuchtmayer and Wenzinger at St Gall, Zeiller at Fischingen, all, excepting the Asam brothers, artists of the airy rococo. Celebrated and active were also the Schmutzlers, the Barbieris, Giovanni Betini, the Stauders of Constance and Francesco Ludovico Hermann.
In central Switzerland two families of architects, both emigrated from Austria, the Singers and the Purtscherts, 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 the Valais, from the last quarter of the 17th century to the end of the 18th, there flourished an art of woodcarving and altar construction whose most notable representatives, the Ritz and the Sigristens, supplied numerous works to the Grisons and central Switzerland.
Among the few Protestant Baroque churches, the church of the Holy Spirit in Berne stands out. The church of St Ursus in Solothurn, built in 1762–73 by Gaetano Matteo Pisoni of Ascona and his nephew Paolo Antonio in neo-classical style, closes the grand and fruitful epoch of the Baroque. As an architectural work worthy of attention, the historicism of the 19th century, otherwise meagre, produced the Protestant church of St Elizabeth in Basle, and in painting the very active Paolo Deschwanden represents the tendency of the “Nazarenes.”
A new and fruitful renaissance took place in all fields of sacred art in the 20th century, when with religious seriousness and artistic responsibility it was sought to make form correspond to liturgical needs. The church of St Anthony in Basle, an important work by Carlo Moser (1925), gave the impetus to the numerous reinforced concrete churches by Metzger, Baur, etc. To their decoration there contributed numerous sculptors (von Matt, Schilling, Rossi), painters (Stocker, Cingria, Severini), goldsmiths (Burch, Feuillat) and embroiderers (Sister Augustina Flüeber). Thanks to these works Switzerland has assumed a position of vanguard, especially in architecture, in contemporary sacred art.
VIII. ORDINAMENTO SCOLASTICO
In S., confederazione di ventidue Cantoni, dei quali tre sono divisi in due semicantoni, la scuola non dipende dal potere centrale né vi è il Dipartimento federale dell’istruzione pubblica. I Cantoni e i semicantoni sono sovrani in materia scolastica; vi sono dunque in S. 25 dipartimenti dell’istruzione pubblica. Questo stato di cose si spiega con la storia del paese; e tiene conto della differenza delle lingue (tedesco, francese, italiano, romanzo), della differenza delle religioni, delle culture, e dei bisogni particolari di ciascuna regione.
Svizzera - Coppa (pisside), detta del Centauro, con medaglioni a sbalzo riproducenti alcuni episodi della vita di Cristo (sec. xit). St-Maurice, Tesoro dell'abbazia.
La Costituzione federale dà tuttavia qualche direttiva. Essa esige, senza precisare nulla di più, che un insegnamento primario sufficiente, gratuito e obbligatorio sia dato in tutti i Cantoni; non rivendica per i Cantoni il monopolio dell'istruzione; esige semplicemente che tutti i fanciulli ricevano un'istruzione almeno uguale a quella che determinano i programmi ufficiali dei Cantoni dove vivono. L'apertura di scuole private è dunque autorizzata sotto certe condizioni che vengono precisate dalla legge cantonale. La Costituzione federale esige ancora che tutti i fanciulli possano frequentare la scuola senza essere urtati nella loro libertà di coscienza e di fede, esigenza tuttavia che non implica la neutralità assoluta della scuola. Così differenti Cantoni (cattolici o protestanti) hanno la scuola confessionale. Benché la Costituzione federale preveda che la scuola ufficiale sia posta sotto la direzione dello Stato, ecclesiastici, religiosi e religiose possono occupare posti nell'insegnamento ufficiale. Un certo numero di leggi, di ordinanze e di decreti federali hanno influsso sulla scuola, ad es. la disposizione dell'organizzazione militare federale, che prevede un esame (scritto e orale) per le reclute, il cui risultato viene comunicato ai vari direttori dell'istruzione pubblica; la legge federale del 26 giugno 1930 che fissa a 15 anni compiuti l'età minima per entrare nell'apprendistato; le disposizioni dell'organizzazione militare federale sull'insegnamento della ginnastica nella scuola primaria e nelle scuole normali; il regolamento secondo cui non sono ammessi agli esami federali per le professioni derivanti dalla medicina e per l'entrata senza esami al Polytechnicum e non quelli che hanno una maturità riconosciuta dalla Confederazione.
I Cantoni, spessissimo con i comuni, hanno l'incarico della scuola. A capo dell'organizzazione scolastica del cantone sta il dipartimento dell'istruzione pubblica, diretto da un membro del governo, assistito da un consiglio; degli ispettori sono incaricati di controllare i classi ad esso subordinato. In ogni comune, poi, una commissione scolastica sorveglia il buon procedimento delle scuole.
Le scuole materne dipendono generalmente da associazioni private, congregazioni religiose, ecc. L'età di ammissione alla scuola popolare varia secondo i Cantoni, da 6 a 7 anni compiuti; la durata della scuola obbligatoria varia ugualmente tra 7, 8 o 9 anni. Essa comprende la scuola primaria (grado elementare, frequentato da tutti i fanciulli, base di tutte le ulteriori istruzioni; grado superiore che riunisce i fanciulli che non frequentano altre scuole), la scuola secondaria, istituzione propria della S., con nome differente secondo le regioni (scuola reale, scuola di distretto, ecc.) che, secondo la sua organizzazione, conduce in 2 o 3 anni sia alla fine degli studi, sia all'entrata in una scuola superiore (ginnasio, scuola professionale, ecc.). I ragazzi che non vanno in una di queste scuole o non fanno l'apprendistato sono tenuti ai corsi complementari (qualche ora per settimana) fino a 16-17 o 17-18 anni. Nelle grandi città vi sono classi speciali per gli arretrati. Gli istitutori primari si formano in generale in scuole normali (cantonali o comunali), i maestri secondari all'Università.
Le scuole medie (con nome diverso secondo le regioni) preparano, in un numero di anni differenti, secondo il grado di preparazione preteso per l'ammissione, a una o più forme di baccellierato (o maturità): tipo A, latino-greco; tipo B, latino-lingue moderne; tipo C, matematica-scienze. Alcune preparano alla maturità commerciale. I loro professori provengono dall'Università; per branche speciali da scuole speciali (belle arti, musica).
Le Università (Basilea, Berna, Friburgo, Ginevra, Losanna, Neuchâtel, Zurigo) dipendono dai Cantoni che le hanno create e le sostengono. S. Gallo ha una università commerciale. La Confederazione non ha mai fatto uso del suo diritto di erigere una Università. Solo il Polytechnicum di Zurigo dipende da essa.
Sono anche da ricordare i tipi di scuole, che si riscontrano in quasi tutti i Cantoni e sotto diverse forme d'organizzazione: scuole industriali, commerciali, professionali, scuole d'agricoltura, d'arte e mestieri, di belle arti, conservatori, istituti tecnici, ecc. Inoltre le scuole di economia domestica, scuole sociali femminili, scuole di infermieri, scuole di puericultura, le molteplici forme di pensionati, i licei alpini per fanciulli di salute delicata, tutte le varietà di istituti per ragazzi deficienti (ciechi, sordomuti, anormali psichici, ecc.).
Le associazioni pedagogiche che raggruppano le differenti categorie di insegnanti sono numerose. La stampa pedagogica è rappresentata da numerose riviste ed è largamente diffusa. - Vedi tavv. CXIV-CXVII.