page_title: Abbey of Saint Gall
section_title: An associate of the Swiss Confederation
hierarchical_section_title: Abbey of Saint Gall / History / Under the Prince-Abbots / An associate of the Swiss Confederation
caption_attribution_description: English: Interior in the abbey church in St.Gallen Norsk bokmål: Klosterkirken i St.Gallen
context_page_description: The Abbey of Saint Gall is a dissolved abbey in a Catholic religious complex in the city of St. Gallen in Switzerland. The Carolingian-era monastery has existed since 719 and became an independent principality between 9th and 13th centuries, and was for many centuries one of the chief Benedictine abbeys in Europe. It was founded by Saint Othmar on the spot where Saint Gall had erected his hermitage. The library of the Abbey is one of the richest medieval libraries in the world. The city of St. Gallen originated as an adjoining settlement of the abbey. Following the secularization of the abbey around 1800 the former Abbey church became a Cathedral in 1848. Since 1983 the whole remaining abbey precinct has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
context_section_description: However, in early 1490 the four cantons decided to carry out their duty to the abbey and to invade the St. Gallen canton with an armed force. The people of Appenzell and the local clerics submitted to this force without noteworthy resistance, while the city of St. Gallen braced for a fight to the finish. However, when they learned that their compatriots had given up the fight, they lost confidence; the end result was that they concluded a peace pact that greatly restricted the city's powers and burdened the city with serious penalties and reparations payments. Varnbüler and Schwendiner fled to the court of King Maximilian and lost all their property in St. Gallen and Appenzell. However, the abbot's reliance on the Swiss to support him reduced his position almost to that of a "subject district".
  The town adopted the Reformation in 1524, while the abbey remained Catholic, which damaged relations between the town and abbey. Both the abbot and a representative of the town were admitted to the Swiss Tagsatzung or Diet as the closest associates of the Confederation.
  In the 16th century the abbey was raided by Calvinist groups, which scattered many of the old books. In 1530, abbot Diethelm began a restoration that stopped the decline and led to an expansion of the schools and library.
  Under abbot Pius (1630–74) a printing press was started. In 1712 during the Toggenburg war, also called the second war of Villmergen, the Abbey of St. Gall was pillaged by the Swiss. They took most of the books and manuscripts to Zürich and Bern. For security, the abbey was forced to request the protection of the townspeople of St. Gallen. Until 1457 the townspeople had been serfs of the abbey, but they had grown in power until they were protecting the abbey.
caption: The interior of the Cathedral is one of the most important baroque monuments in Switzerland
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