Reformation
For the old Swiss Confederation, the effect of the Reformation was actually like dividing the country into two: the original cantons of Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Lucerne, Fribourg and Valais together with the modern day canton of Tessin kept their old beliefs whereas the cantons of Basel, Zurich and Bern became Protestant; in some other cantons, like Graubünden, Solothurn, St. Gallen and Thurgau, there were both Catholic and Protestant communities. The centres of the Reformation were Basel (Humanists), Zurich (Huldreych Zwingli) and Geneva (John Calvin).
One still speaks today about Protestant and Catholic cantons even though in the Reformation cities of Zurich and Geneva the Catholics are now in the majority as a result of migration.
The hostility between the supporters of both confessions was strong and led to military conflicts between the Swiss. Huldreych Zwingli, the reformer from Zurich, put an end to the second Kappeler War between the Protestants and Catholics on the battlefield (1531).
The ideas of the Reformation awakened a spirit of resistance among the rural population against the dominance of the cities and the clergy, which is why there were also local peasants' wars in Switzerland. One bloody chapter in the history of the Reformation in Switzerland concerns the evangelically disposed Anabaptist movement. Its supporters were persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, killed and expelled by the Protestant side.