At this conference of the protectorate cantons held at Wyl, the abbot wished to conduct his cause in person. Zurich, to whom his absence was all-important, sent an order to the governor-general secretly to fill the castle with a garrison of trusty men. Kilian, learning this and fearing an ambuscade, staid away; but the people of the abbacy appeared before the deputies of the cantons with a petition, which showed that they knew how to carry out the doctrine of the unscriptural character of spiritual lordship to a further extent than was pleasant even to Zurich herself. "Accordingly, since the Holy Word of God does not direct or oblige us, we do not wish henceforth to have this or any other abbot; and because we are without court or council, and so exposed to outrage that no one scarcely is safe, we desire permission to have a chief-bailiff, a court, a council and similar officers _of our own_, so that crime may be punished, the peaceful and good protected, evil-doers suppressed, and a happy life led; for, as we pay rents and tithes we ought not to be left without law; and that you may see we do not ask for anything unreasonable, aged persons can yet be found, who remember that such a chief-bailiff and council, as we now desire, formerly existed among the people of the abbacy." None of the Four Cantons was at all willing to grant this petition. The deputies of Luzern and Schwyz simply defended the rights of the abbot, complained to the Zurichers of the tyrannical proceeding of their governor-general and requested the removal of the garrison from the castle. Zurich and Glarus endeavored to quiet the people of the abbacy by promising to send home a report and afterward to communicate the views of their governments. The resolution now passed by the privy council of Zurich plainly unfolds its policy in this affair.--"Whereas you, our worthy deputies," so it reads, "cannot but see and regard the petition of the people of the abbacy as a desire, under show of a good spirit, to obtain the liberty of the flesh, to shake off authority, to lay hold of the rein with their own hands and appropriate to themselves power and rule, and the administration of the higher offices; and as you also cannot presume, that either you or we of the two cantons (Zurich and Glarus) have a right to act in this matter without the knowledge and approval of the other cantons; you will perceive that it is not advisable to grant them, just at this time, a chief bailiff, judge, council and high courts of dignity and appeal; we are only able, in order that they may have no reason to complain about justice and law, to allow them now, in the beginning, to fill the lower courts, as they have come down from antiquity, with honest, upright, sensible and God-loving men, but the principal posts of government, the high offices, to which sovereignty pertains, must continue as they are, until it is seen what course the abbot and the two cantons, who support