Highlights in Graubünden
Graubünden enjoyed a friendly alliance with the rest of Switzerland throughout its history, but its status as a canton didn't begin until 1803 when the independent democratic republic joined the Swiss Confederacy. The canton's Christian history, however, far predates that era. Tradition traces Graubünden's Christianization to the latter part of the 2nd century, to St. Lucius, a royal prince of Britain, and Emerita, his sister, who were martyred for their faith.
Local tradition asserts that St. Lucius was the first bishop of Graubünden's capital Chur, but the first verifiable evidence of a Bishop of Chur originates from 452, referencing a Bishop Asimo affiliated with the Creed of Chalcedon in Asia Minor.
Chur, the oldest city north of the Alps, supported a well-appointed bishopric. Bishops of Chur commonly amassed great wealth, to the point of becoming temporal princes. During this early Christian period the whole country of Graubünden stood under the jurisdiction of the bishops of Chur in Graubünden and Como in northern Italy.
The Convent of St. John Müstair, one of Switzerland's finest historic convents, traces its roots to this early Christian period. Founded by Charlemagne himself about 780 as a monastery and converted to a convent in the 12th century, the building still serves as an active convent for the Benedictine order. 21st-century nuns worship and live among original Carolingian frescoes, 12th- and 13th-century statuary and architectural elements that span the building's lifetime.
By the time of the Reformation in the early 16th century, there was no distinctively Swiss church anywhere in the country; the lands of the Confederation fell largely within the enormous diocese of Constance, with others divided among the bishops at Basel, Sitten, Lausanne and Chur.
Reform began when Huldrych Zwingli sent an address to the "three confederates in Rhätia" (an ancient Roman province that included present-day eastern Switzerland, including Graubünden, and western Austria), exhorting them to reform the Church in alliance with Zürich. Zwingli also sent several of his pupils to preach in Graubünden. Philip Gallicius went to the Romansh people, in the Engadin region of Graubünden, explaining Reformed principles for the first time in the Romansh tongue to a surprised and pleased crowd. Gallicius went on to translate the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, the Ten Commandments and several chapters of the Bible into Romansh, thus laying the foundation of Romansh literature as well as Romansh Protestantism.
Another of Zwingli's religious ambassadors to Graubünden was John Comander. A Protestant preacher, formerly a Roman priest, Comander proclaimed Reformed doctrine in Chur's St. Martin Church in 1524. The citizens protected him against any threatened violence, accompanying him to and from the church. Unhappy with this turn of events, the bishop of Chur arraigned Comander for heresy in 1525 before the confederate Diet, which ordered a public disputation at Ilanz beginning on Jan. 7, 1526. The Reformed side was argued primarily by Comander, while the Catholic party consisted of the Episcopal Vicar, the abbot of St. Lucius and a few priests and monks. The entire disputation was presided over by the civil authorities. After several days' argument, the debate concluded with a substantial victory for the Reformation.
Comander composed for the occasion eighteen theses-an abridgment of Zwingli's sixty-seven conclusions in Zürich. His first thesis was one central to the Reformation across Europe: "The Christian Church is born of the Word of God and should abide in it, and not listen to the voice of a stranger."
In spite of the victory in Ilanz, the city's Diet did not mandate Protestantism for its citizens. Instead, the Diet announced a startlingly progressive proclamation: They guaranteed to their citizens religious freedom. "That it shall be free to all persons of both sexes, and of whatever condition or rank, within the territories of the Grison [Graubünden] confederation, to choose, embrace, and profess either the Roman Catholic or the Evangelical religion; and that no one shall, publicly or privately, harass another with reproaches or odious speeches on account of his religion, under an arbitrary penalty."
The Diet of Ilanz also ordered ministers to preach nothing that could not be proven from the Scriptures and to give themselves diligently to biblical study. The bishop's political authority was curtailed, civil judicial appeals were forbidden, and parishes were empowered to elect and dismiss their own priests or pastors. Even so, in 1527 the mass was abolished, religious images were removed and the Lord's Supper was celebrated after the Reformed style in St. Martin's Church in Chur, Davos and Ilanz.
For decades hostilities between Catholics and Protestants continued in Graubünden. Comander had his salary reduced when he preached against pensioners (those who collected money in exchange for procuring Swiss mercenaries). He was tempted to leave Chur because of the hardship. And in 1553 Pope Julius III sent a delegate to Chur to demand the introduction of the Inquisition; Comander, Bullinger and the French ambassador defeated the attempt.
The Reformers and their successors in Graubünden firmly established an evangelical church in the region numbering nearly two-thirds of the population, while one-third remained Roman Catholic. The Second Helvetic Confession of Bullinger was formally accepted as the creed of the Church in 1566.
