Protestantism in Switzerland - James Aitken Wylie

people, and banish this sect from the soil of
Switzerland, than all the punishments with which
the magistrates pursued it. One melancholy and
most revolting instance has come down to us. In a
solitary house in the canton of St. Gall there lived
an aged farmer, John Schuker, who, with his family
and servants, had received the "new baptism." Two
of his sons were specially noted for the warmth of
their zeal. On Shrove Tuesday the father killed a
calf and invited his Anabaptist friends to the feast.
The company, the wine, the fanatical harangues
and visionary revelations in which the night was
spent, would seem to have upset the reason of one
of the sons. His features haggard, his eyes rolling
wildly, and speaking with hollow voice, he
approached his brother, Leonard, with the gall of
the calf in the bladder, and thus addressed him,
"Bitter as gall is the death thou shalt die." He then
ordered him to kneel down. Leonard obeyed. A
presentiment of evil seized the company. They
bade the wretched man beware what he did.
"Nothing will happen," he replied, "but the will of
the Father." Turning to his brother, who was still
kneeling before him, and hastily seizing a sword,
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