troops, then the best soldiers in Europe.

As in Germany, many causes were at work to prepare the ground for the
new religious teaching. On account of the free character of its
institutions refugees of all kinds fled to Switzerland for asylum, and
were allowed great liberty in propagating their views. Again, the
Swiss mercenaries, returning from their campaigns and service, during
which they were brought into contact with various classes and nations,
served much the same purpose as does the modern newspaper. In both
these ways the peasants of Switzerland were kept in touch with the
social, political, and religious condition of the rest of Europe, and
with the hopes and plans of their own class in other kingdoms.
Humanism had not, indeed, made very striking progress in Switzerland,
though the presence of Erasmus at Basle, and the attacks that he
directed against the monks and the clergy, could not fail to produce
some effect on a people whose minds were already prepared for such
methods by their acquaintance with modern developments.

If, however, the Church in Switzerland had been free from abuses not
all the wit and eloquence of Erasmus and his followers could have
produced a revolt, but unfortunately, the influences that led to the
downfall of religion in other countries were also at work in the Swiss
cantons. The cathedral chapters were composed for the greater part of
men who had no vocation to the priesthood, and who adopted the
clerical profession because they wished to enrich themselves from the
revenues of the Church, and were ensured of good positions through the
influence of their relatives and patrons. Many of the clergy were far
from being perfect, nor were all the religious institutions mindful of
the spirit or even of the letter of their constitutions.
Unfortunately, too, owing to the peculiar political development of