It is painful to read of an act of violence committed by the Papists in the expulsion of the Evangelians from Locarno, in the winter of 1555, where a little band of two hundred adherents of the Zwinglian Church had formed round Beccaria. Zurich supported them, notwithstanding the opposition of France, and even of some of the Protestant cantons, and Bullinger was their comfort and strength in all transactions. However, Beccaria was compelled to flee to Misox valley, whence he ministered by stealth to his flock. In January, 1555, stronger measures were taken, and men and women were driven over the snowy heights to Misox, a sorry substitute for the luxurious homes some of them had left in Locarno. But they were soon moved on by the Papal legate, and in May some 120 of the band arrived at Zurich, where Bullinger had arranged for them a hospitable welcome. These new-comers revived the old trade with Lombardy, and reintroduced the silk manufacture, which, being a monopoly, became a source of great wealth to Zurich. Thus the town was rewarded for its hospitality. Some of the aristocratic Zurich families of to-day trace their origin to these Locarno refugees. The city of Zurich was indeed at this time a general asylum for religious refugees from all quarters. Germans, Italians, and English fled there, and especially the Marian exiles from England. We find Peter Martyr from Oxford established as a professor at the Carolinum; and Occhino as minister to the Italian congregation in Zurich; Socinus and other famous Italians.[61] Martyr and Socinus both died at Zurich, and lie buried in its minster. For several years Peter Martyr and Bullinger had lived on terms of the closest friendship with each other, and their letters show how close was the tie between them. Their respective religious views naturally tended to greater mutual resemblance. Bullinger, like Calvin, kept up an immense correspondence with the reformed churches, and was in frequent communication with monarchs, princes, powerful nobles, and learned doctors. The readers of the present story will naturally feel most interest in the relation between the Swiss and the English Churches, and it will perhaps be better to leave on one side the tangled skein of religious dissensions which agitated Europe, and show from authentic sources[62]--letters chiefly--how the Swiss Churches and Swiss divines influenced the Reformed Church of England.