Highlights in Bern
In 1191, Duke Berchtold V von Zähringen traveled through the forests near Burgundy when he came upon a virtually impregnable bend in the Aare River. A settlement on this peninsula would be an ideal military outpost against the French, thought the duke, given its watery borders and steep cliff faces. Legend says that within days a successful hunting trip helped Berchtold decide upon a name for the new settlement: Bär means "bear" in German. Bern became part of the Swiss Confederation in 1353, and it became the nation's capital in 1848.
Religious communities arrived not long after Bern's founding. Franciscan monks arrived in 1255. The Dominicans followed soon after in 1269 and immediately commenced building a priory church, now called the French Church, the oldest existing church in Bern. About 400 years later, in 1689, the church would fully live up to its name when it became the domicile and house of worship for French Huguenot refugees. By that date, the Dominican church was no longer in use by the Bernese citizens, who had moved their worship into the Cathedral.
The Franciscan and Dominican brotherhoods each had religious duties within Bern, but their coexistence wasn't a happy one. Competition and religious differences caused friction that came to a head in 1506 during what became known as the Jetzer Affair. The tailor Hans Jetzer arrived in town and, after taking up residence with the Dominicans, claimed to have seen visions of the Virgin Mary. Furthermore, according to Jetzer, Mary confirmed that the Franciscan doctrine of her immaculate conception was flawed.
Such claims would have been received with great interest in early 16th-century Switzerland. Marian devotion was widespread across the Confederation. In Oberbüren in Bernese territory, an image of the Virgin was believed to revive dead children, and became so popular that it drew an income of over 45,000 dollars. The shrine was developed and in 1512 received its own letter of indulgence.
Jetzer's claims regarding the Virgin Mary grew ever grander until finally the tailor, along with several Dominican friars, staged a mock apparition of the Virgin. When the Franciscans identified Jetzer in costume, the prank was exposed and several Domincans were executed for their part in the scheme.
As a result of the Jetzer Affair, Bern's magistrate took into their own hands the right to elect ecclesiastical benefices, where they ordinarily resided with the bishop. The magistrate retained certain control of the city's religious life, voting in 1523 for "Catholic Reform" rather than full Reformation. Fiscal and legal privileges of the clergy were dissolved; letters of indulgence were banned; compulsory offerings, pilgrimages, confessions and belief in purgatory were forbidden; and married clergy were no longer exiled.
But Bern's reforms weren't enough to stem the growing tide of Protestantism. In 1528 the Disputation at Bern lasted 19 days. Chief among those arguing the Reformed side were Huldrych Zwingli, the great Swiss Reformer; Berthold Haller, a Bernese teacher and pastor; and Johannes Oecolampadius, a Reformer from Basel. The Reformers' arguments carried the day, and the ten "Theses of Bern" were accepted. Key among the theses were the ideas of the ultimate supremacy of the Bible; the blasphemy of the doctrine of transubstantiation; and the permissibility of a married clergy. Bern's acceptance of the Reformation set the example for Basel, which, under the influence of Oecolampadius, followed suit in 1529.
Bern was the first canton to follow Zürich into the Reformation. The city's enthusiasm for the Reformation resulted in their drive to spread the movement west, through Switzerland's lakes and valleys to Geneva and the Vaud. In 1536, Bern took arms in Geneva against the siege of Charles III, Catholic Duke of Savoy. There the Bernese helped secure victory for the Reformation and went on to conquer the Vaud from the Savoyards and Lausanne from the bishop, Sebastian de Montfulçon. A souvenir of the Bernese conquest stands at the front of Bern's Münster: A massive, black granite altar, taken from Lausanne's Cathedral of Our Lady.
