not touch upon religion, then they cannot be violated even by our intervention in matters of faith; and if your people or others appeal to us for sympathy or succor, where true Christianity, as we have received it from our old fathers, is concerned, we will pledge our persons and property for its maintenance, and still keep our honor towards you." The more clearly the Bernese tried, after this, to exhibit the distinct peculiarities and rights of church and state before the assembly at Hasle, the more did they fall, perhaps to the injury of their cause, into that confusion of ideas, which is altogether unavoidable, when we do not know how to discriminate between Christ's kingdom of faith and love, resting only on his Gospel, intended both for this world and the other, whose very element is freedom, and a government under tyrannic forms established by men in his name. As a true knowledge of the first lies at the foundation of the visible church, it alone can exert a beneficial influence upon the life of the state; yea, without this influence nothing worthy of being so called can possibly exist. The opposite, found in the latter, leads only to discord. But for such a discrimination of ideas that age was not at all prepared. Prejudiced opinion and passion triumphed.--A multitude of excited people, from all the vallies of the Oberland, streamed into Hasle. "We ourselves," said they, "desire to uphold the faith, the faith of the church, and be separate from the government. On this faith only have we sworn allegiance; if it be taken away, our obligations are dissolved. We will fall in with the Confederates, who hold fast to the old pledges." Before the eyes of the _schultheiss_ and his companions, in direct violation of the law, leaders were chosen, the ministers of Grindelwald, Æsche and Gsteig driven out of their houses with their families, mass-priests placed in their stead, the adherents of the government threatened and compelled to fly, reports of the help promised by their neighbors circulated on all sides--indeed, after several weeks of agitation and violence, the greater part of the Oberlanders, assembled at Interlachen, swore under no circumstances to separate themselves from the real Catholic church, to seek justice from none but the Seven Cantons of the Old Confederacy; to suffer no persons to be punished except under their sentence; to keep possession of the cloister and its domains, and to render mutual aid with their persons and property.