This composition shows the more developed character that the Union Shoe had assumed under Joss Fritz.The plebeian element of the cities began to assert itself more and more.The ramifications of the conspiracy went over into Alsace, present-day Baden, up to Wuerttemberg and the Main.Larger meetings were held from time to time on remote mountains such as the Kniebis, etc., and the affairs of the Union were discussed.The meetings of the chiefs, often participated in by local members as well as by delegates of the more remote localities, took place on the Hartmatte near Lehen, and it was here that the fourteen articles of the Union were adopted: No master besides the emperor, and (according to some) the pope; abolition of the Rottweil imperial court; limitation of the church court to religious affairs; abolition of all interest which had been paid so long that it equalled the capital; an interest of 5 per cent as the highest permissible rate; freedom of hunting, fishing, grazing, and wood cutting; limitation of the priests to one prebend for each; confiscation of all church estates and monastery gems in favour of the union; abolition of all inequitable taxes and tolls; eternal peace within entire Christendom, energetic action against all opponents of the Union; Union taxes; seizure of a strong city, such as Freiburg, to serve as the centre of the Union; opening of negotiations with the emperor as soon as the Union hordes were gathered, and with Switzerland in case the emperor declined -- these were the points agreed upon.We see that the demands of the peasants and plebeians assumed a more and more definite and decisive form, although concessions had to be made in the same measure to the more moderate and timid elements as well.
The blow was to be struck about Autumn, 1513.Nothing was lacking but a Union banner, and Joss Fritz went to Heilbrun to have it painted.
It contained, besides all sorts of emblems and pictures, the Union Shoe and the legend "God help thy divine justice." While he was away, a premature attempt was made to overwhelm Freiburg, but the attempt was discovered.
Some indiscretions in the conduct of the propaganda put the council of Freiburg and the Margrave of Baden on the right track.The betrayal of two conspirators completed the series of disclosures.Presently the Margrave, the council of Freiburg, and the imperial government of Ensisheim sent out their spies and soldiers.A number of Union members were arrested, tortured and executed.But the majority escaped once more, Joss Fritz among them.The Swiss government now persecuted the fugitives with great assiduity and even executed many of them.However, it could not prevent the majority of the fugitives from keeping themselves continually in the vicinity of their homes and gradually returning there.The Alsace government in Ensisheim was more cruel than the others.It ordered very many to be decapitated, broken on the wheel, and quartered.Joss Fritz kept himself mainly on the Swiss bank of the Rhine, but he also went often to the Black Forest without ever being apprehended.
Why the Swiss made common cause with the neighbouring governments this time is apparent from the peasant revolt that broke out the following year, 1514, in Berne, Sollothume and Lucerne, and resulted in a purging of the aristocratic governments and the institution of patricians.The peasants also forced through some privileges for themselves.If these Swiss local revolts succeeded, it was simply due to the fact that there was still less centralisation in Switzerland than in Germany.The local German masters were all subdued by the peasants of 1525, and if they succumbed, it was due to the organised mass armies of the princes.These latter, however, did not exist in Switzerland.
Simultaneously with the Union Shoe in Baden, and apparently in direct connection with it, a second conspiracy was formed in Wuerttemberg.
