On the 7th of January, 1528, the great conference was opened. None of the prelates, and very few of the higher powers who had been invited were present; yet a great number of ecclesiastics and learned men assembled from all parts of Switzerland and the surrounding countries. As many as a hundred evangelical teachers from Glaris, Schaffhausen, St. Gall, Constance, Ulm, Lindau, Isenach, Augsburg, Strasburg, and other places proceeded first to Zurich, in order to go in a body with Zwingle. But so suspicious were the Zurichers of papal treachery, and so anxious about the safety of their own Reformer, that the magistrates sent forward his party under a strong military escort.
More than three hundred and fifty ministers of the gospel were present at the disputation. Many of those worthy men deserve a place in our history for the Lord's sake; but we can only give the names of a few. Haller was supported by Zwingle, OEcolampadius, Capito, and Bucer, the flower of the Swiss and Strasburg Reformation; there were also Pellican, Bullinger, Blaurer, Hoffmeister, Megunder, Zingk, Schmidt, the burgomaster Reust, and Vadian, consul of St. Gall. On the side of the papacy the cause was left, says Waddington, "to the feeble protection of men without talents or learning, or any sort of reputation or authority, not comparable to Eck and Faber—Alexius Grad, Tregarius, Buchstab, Egidius—names which appear on no other occasion on the page of history. But the positions of Haller were defended with much solid erudition and great and practiced talents." If we accept a few feeble attempts by the papal party to disturb the unanimity of the Reformers, there was no feature of any remarkable interest in the whole assembly, at least to readers in our day.