Schwyz and Glarus) in 1451. While Appenzell and St. Gallen became full members of the Swiss Confederation in 1454. Then, in 1457 the town of St. Gallen became officially free from the abbot. In 1468 the abbot, Ulrich Rösch, bought the County of Toggenburg from the representatives of its counts, after the family died out in 1436. In 1487 he built a monastery at Rorschach on Lake Constance, to which he planned to move. However, he encountered stiff resistance from the St. Gallen citizenry, other clerics, and the Appenzell nobility in the Rhine Valley who were concerned about their holdings. The town of St. Gallen wanted to restrict the increase of power in the abbey and simultaneously increase the power of the town. The mayor of St. Gallen, Ulrich Varnbüler, established contact with farmers and Appenzell residents (led by the fanatical Hermann Schwendiner) who were seeking an opportunity to weaken the abbot. Initially, he protested to the abbot and the representatives of the four sponsoring Confederate cantons (Zürich, Lucerne, Schwyz, and Glarus) against the construction of the new abbey in Rorschach. Then on July 28, 1489, he had armed troops from St. Gallen and Appenzell destroy the buildings already under construction. When the abbot complained to the Confederates about the damages and demanded full compensation, Varnbüler responded with a counter suit and in cooperation with Schwendiner rejected the arbitration efforts of the non-partisan Confederates. He motivated the clerics from Wil to Rorschach to discard their loyalty to the abbey and spoke against the abbey at the town meeting at Waldkirch, where the popular league was formed. He was confident that the four sponsoring cantons would not intervene with force, due to the prevailing tensions between the Confederation and the Swabian League. He was strengthened in his resolve by the fact that the people of St. Gallen elected him again to the highest magistrate in 1490. An associate of the Swiss Confederation 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 result was that they concluded a peace pact