In 1523 Johannes (Dorfmann) Comander was appointed parish priest of St. Martin's Church and began preaching the new faith of the Protestant Reformation. It spread rapidly and by 1524-25 the bishop had fled the city and Protestant services were taking place in the churches of St. Martin and St. Regula. The Ilanz articles of 1524 and 1526 allowed each resident of the Three Leagues to choose their religion, and sharply reduced the political and secular power of the Bishop of Chur and all monasteries in League territory. By 1527 all of Chur, except the bishop's estates, had adopted the Reformation. On 1 January 1529 Abbot Theodore Schlegel was publicly beheaded. Bishop Thomas Planta, a friend of St. Charles Borromeo, tried, but without success, to suppress Protestantism. He died, probably poisoned, 5 May 1565.