[2] By 1523, Protestants already held significant posts in Bern, including artist Niklaus Manuel and preacher Berchtold Haller.
[3][4] The Swiss government called for an official disputation in 1526 in the Catholic town of Baden in Aargau.
[1] Many Protestants deemed it unsafe to attend, especially and notably the leading Swiss reformer Huldrych Zwingli.
[1][2]: 143 The two leading Protestant delegates to Baden were Johannes Oecolampadius, in the stead of Zwingli, and Bern's Berchtold Haller.
[3][1] In addition, the Swiss government refused to let the leaders of Bern see the documentation of the proceedings of the disputation.
[1] The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V called for it to be cancelled, but the letter arrived too late to take effect.
[1] Johannes Eck, the chief Roman Catholic in the Baden Disputation, refused "to follow the heretics into their nooks and corners.
"[1] The leading Protestant representatives included Huldrych Zwingli, Heinrich Bullinger, Johannes Oecolampadius, Martin Bucer, and Wolfgang Capito.
The holy Christian Church, whose only Head is Christ, is born of the Word of God, and abides in the same, and listens not to the voice of a stranger.
Since, according to the Scripture, an open fornicator must be excommunicated, it follows that unchastity and impure celibacy are more pernicious to the clergy than to any other class.
The council also approved 13 additional articles drafted by Zwingli that furthered ecclesiastical reforms that abolished the priesthood and installed a new liturgy.