The Catholic triumph at the disputation of Baden, however transitory, was a setback for all that Zwingli stood for. The forces of opposition had united against him in public discussions from which Zurich had been excluded. An answer there must be, likewise in a public forum, as well as in print, and this happened in January 1528, when the Swiss reformers came into their own. This, it is to be noted, was in Berne, the capital of the largest state in Switzerland.

Sixty miles of relatively difficult country separated Berne from Zurich and brought a greater degree of detachment than is suggested by the distance. Their boundaries nowhere coincided since between them was thrust the tongue of the Freie Aemter, part of the Mandated Territories under joint inter-state control. The two states had indeed been Confederates since 1353, and their inhabitants were German speakers, but their dialects were very different and their traditions almost equally divergent. Zurich, with its mildly democratic constitution, was an ancient trading centre where transport, commerce and manufactures kept its citizens busy and reasonably prosperous. Berne was an artificially created borough whose affairs were managed in practice by a small number of leading families; it was a rustic place, little more than a convenient cattle market and centre of supplies for farmers from the countryside.

Berne had been the most successfully aggressive of all Swiss city states and had secured notable gains in central Switzerland.