The Storm against Convents in the Canton of Aargau

The dissolution of the eight convents, 1841

The dissolution of the convents (four male monasteries – Benedictines; Cistercians of Wettingen, Baden and Bremgarten) were a serious offence against the Federal Treaty of 1815 which guaranteed the safety of religious houses.

From the speech by the director of the seminary in Aargau: "place a monk on the green pastures of paradise and you will see that as far as his shadow falls the grass will die and no longer grow. The monasteries began with idleness and intrigues and in idleness and intrigues they will end. In the orient and occident all they left behind were bare steppes, barbarity and a state of incivility".