His son Nicholas, then thirty-one years of age, had been for two years provost of the church of Berne, and as such, by virtue of the papal ordinances, enjoyed great privileges; accordingly Berthold Haller used to call him "our bishop."[535] The prelates and the pope spared no endeavours to bind him to the interests of Rome;[536] and it seemed as if everything would keep him from a knowledge of the Gospel; but the ways of God are more powerful than the flatteries of man. Watteville was turned from darkness to the mild light of the Gospel, says Zwingle.[537] As a friend of Berthold Haller, he read all the letters which the latter received from Zwingle, and could not find language to express his admiration.[538] [535] Episcopus noster _Vadivillius_. Zw. Epp. p. 285. [536] Tantum favoris et amicitiæ quæ tibi cum tanto summorum pontificum et potentissimorum episcoporum cœtu hactenus intercessit. Zw. Opp. i. anc. ed. lat. 305. [537] Ex obscuris ignorantiæ tenebris in amœnam Evangelii lucem productum. Ibid. [538] Epistolas tuæ et eruditionis et humanitatis testes locupletissimas. Zw. Epp. p. 287. The influence of the two Wattevilles, one of whom was at the head of the state and the other of the church, would apparently draw after it the whole republic. But the opposite party was not less powerful. Amongst its leaders were the schulthess of Erlach, the banneret Willading, and many patricians whose interests were identical with those of the convents under their administration. Behind these influential men were an ignorant and corrupted clergy, who called the evangelical doctrine "an invention of hell"--"My dear confederates," said the councillor Mullinen before a full assembly in the month of July, "take care that this Reformation does not come here; at Zurich a man is not safe in his own house, and he is obliged to have a guard to protect him." Accordingly they invited to Berne the reader of the Dominicans of Mentz, one John Hein, who went into the pulpit and declaimed against the Reformation with the eloquence of a Saint Thomas.[539] [539] Suo Thomistico Marte omnia invertere. Ibid. Thus were the two parties drawn up in battle-array against each other; a struggle seemed inevitable, and already the result did not appear doubtful. In fact, one common faith united a part of the people to the most distinguished families of the state. Berthold Haller exclaimed, full of confidence in the future: "Unless God's anger be turned against us, it is not possible for the Word of God to be banished from this city, for the Bernese are hungering after it!"[540] [540] Famem verbi Bernates habent. Ibid. 295. [Sidenote: FIRST SUCCESSES OF THE REFORM.]