Switzerland had at least one great shrine, that of Einsiedeln; to her Virgin many pilgrims came yearly in hopes of the plenary indulgence, expressly promising forgiveness of both guilt and penalty of sin.

Berne was the theater of one of the most reverberating scandals enacted by the contemporary church.

[Sidenote: The Jetzer scandal] A passionately contested theological issue of the day was whether the Virgin had been immaculately conceived.

This was denied by the Dominicans and asserted by the Franciscans.

Some of the Dominicans of the friary at Berne thought that the best way to settle the affair was to have a direct revelation.