Sources
Presenting 2000 years of history in the space available here has to be very sketchy, particularly when it deals with such a complex and multifaceted area as the history of religion. For the territory of present day Switzerland it is primarily the history of Christianity and the Church because of the major world religions practically only Christianity and Judaism were represented in Swiss territory until the 19th century, if one ignores the “pagan” religions in pre-Christian, Roman, Celtic, Germanic and other times.
In terms of quantity, the available sources are almost endless and qualitatively they are not always completely beyond reproach, especially if there is a vested interest involved in the writing of the history. A choice therefore had to be made. I have mainly used the following sources:
- Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz (www.hls.ch, Lexicon of the History of Switzerland))
- Wikipedia (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki)
- Ökumenische Kirchengeschichte der Schweiz, Paulusverlag, Freiburg/
Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel, 1994 (Ecumenical History of the Church in Switzerland) - Fritz Blanke; Columban und Gallus, Urgeschichte des schweizerischen
Christentums; Fretz & Wasmuth Verlag, Zürich, 1940 (Columbanus and Gallus, the Prehistory of Swiss Christianity) - Heinrich Büttner, Müller Iso; Frühes Christentum im schweizerischen
Alpenraum; Benziger, Einsiedeln 1967 (Early Christianity in the Swiss Alpine Region) - P. Theodor Schwegler, OSB; Geschichte der katholischen Kirche in der Schweiz, Josef von Matt, Stans, 1943 (History of the Catholic Church in Switzerland)
Erich Liebi