If the Reformation should continue to spread in this way, what was left for the Five Cantons, except to throw open at last their own territory for its entrance, or, surrounded by opponents, to see themselves overwhelmed in case of war, and reduced, perhaps, to the most fearful want by the obstruction of commerce? Under these circumstances many, whose ideas of affairs were just, gradually yielded, and what had for a long time been secretly hoped for by a few, an alliance with their powerful neighbor, Austria, who likewise remained loyal to the faith, found increasing favor among the rulers of the people. On the 14th of February, 1529, deputies of the Five Cantons met the Austrian authorities at Feldkirch. Whether they had invited them thither, as a historian of Luzern informs us, or whether, as said by several reporters of the opposite party, one of whom was himself present as a spy, the suit of the Austrian counsellors at first foiled through the great coldness with which it was received by the Confederates, can scarcely be ascertained now. The records afford no proof for either view. In the meantime, a draught of a mutual treaty was made, which, if approved by the Archduke Ferdinand, King of Hungary and Bohemia, as well as by the Councils and parishes of the Five Cantons, was to be published and ratified as a definitive alliance in Waldshut. This took place in April, and in the same month King Ferdinand himself handed over a copy of the document to the Diet of the collective states assembled in Baden, with the explanation that the alliance was intended neither to aggrieve, nor attack or injure, but simply to protect the old, true faith, to uphold peace and order, and was open to every Christian government, which desired to enter it. At the same time, the Zurichers and Bernese must have clearly seen, that it was a counter-part, and a suspicious one, of the Christian _Buergerrecht_. On the side of the Reformed only one imperial city came forward, whilst on that of the Catholics stood the mightiest of the neighboring states, and that with articles capable of a far wider application than any in the Christian _Buergerrecht_. They commenced by declaring, that every reform in matters of faith, yea even the representation of the necessity of such a thing was interdicted in the territories of the allies, and that whosoever "would undertake to raise up and form new lawless sects among the people," he should be taken by the magistracy, supported of course by the allies, and punished "in honor, body and life, or according to the form laid down for that crime." What was now to be done in the territories held by Zurich and Bern in common with the Five Cantons? Could the former permit the inhabitants, who wished for reform and sought aid for its introduction, to be punished by the _vogts_ (bailiffs) perhaps with fire and sword, merely because their religious convictions were not those of a part of their rulers? Then