The Bernese magistrates, however, were not willing to break with their allies. The war against Savoy, which they had undertaken in 1536, for the defence of Geneva and the occupation of the Pays de Vaud, had convinced them of the need of their support. Consequently, they sent delegates to the four colloquies which were held that same year at Basel, to take into consideration the agreement with the doctors of Wittenberg. But the council, so far from breaking with Megander, put him at the head of these theologians. So the confession which was prepared at the first of these colloquies, in January 1536 (the second conference of Basel and the first of Switzerland,) when speaking of eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ, added that this took place only in a spiritual sense. This displeased Bucer. The Zwinglians, in turn, called him ‘a doubled-faced man,’ and said that this pretended peacemaker brought division into the Helvetic Churches. It was to no purpose that his defence was undertaken by Myconius, who, since 1532, had presided as overseer of the Church at Basel, and the learned professor Grynæus. The Zwinglian party would not hear a word about an agreement with the _Strasburg trimmer_. Various circumstances occurred to bring about a change in this state of things. The Swiss and the Bernese themselves were touched by the beautiful letter which Luther had written to the burgomaster of Basel, in which he spoke approvingly of the confession drawn up in that city. The aged Kolb, pastor of Berne, had died at the end of 1535; and on February 25, 1536, Haller also had passed into the unseen world. A great change then took place in Berne. Kunz, a man of a very different spirit from Zwingli and Haller, became pastor in the place of Kolb. Having studied at Wittenberg, he was a passionate admirer of Luther and of his doctrine. Of ardent temperament, Kunz longed to promote the triumph of his master’s doctrine, and so much the more as he was his inferior in respect to the living faith of the Gospel. Sebastian Meyer, a former Franciscan, who from the beginning of his ministry had been remarkable for the violence of his discourses, and who was a friend of Bucer, had taken the place of Haller. The council had probably been influenced in the election of these men by the Strasburg doctors, with whose projects the members were more and more pleased. Thus it seemed likely that in Berne the Lutheran party would succeed the Zwinglian. The new pastors, however, did not immediately set up their claim; they rather applied themselves to the preparation of men’s minds, and their conquests were very numerous, especially among politicians. But Megander, the inflexible Zwinglian, still kept the upper hand; and it was he who spoke in the name of Berne in the Swiss assemblies. Bucer, doubtless, had him in mind when he complained to Luther ‘of those untractable heads which are found in Switzerland, which for every trifle make so much ado.’[530]