| being covered by the purchased indulgences.
| public voice loudly demanded that a check should

210

MARTIN LUTHER.

to complete in the most splendid manner a struc-
ture designed by Michael Angelo and decorated by
Raphael. He determined to extend the sale to
Germany. In the new code, Leo showed his
knowledge of the human heart, for he affixed a
tolerably good price for an indulgence to get a
beloved wife, husband, child, or parent out of the
torments of purgatory.

But this was harmless in comparison to the
monstrous iniquity of the sales of indulgence for
sins—each sin had its price. Leo, however, had
not the credit of originating this profitable system
of money-making, he only extended it; the bright
invention rests with Urban XL, and being vigor-
ously followed up by Julius II. These Infallibles
must have said in their hearts, “Tush! can God
see it?” Yes, He did see it; and made the very
enormity of the offence the means, not only of its
most crushing punishment, but of introducing the
REFORMATION under circumstances which were
rendered effective by the public indignation which

| they evoked.

Leo was resolved to make St. Peter’s the
grandest building, and his own the grandest family
on the face of the whole earth; he must have vast
sums for both purposes, and so he set to work to
raise them. He sent at once to Albert, Elector

of Mentz and Archbishop of Magdeburg, a grant |

the profits arising from the sales. The Arch-
bishop forthwith looked about him for an active

agent to carry out the trade, and fixed upon a/|

Dominican friar of the most licentious morals,
whose name was Tetzel. This man ‘“ out-Heroded
Herod,” and executed his commission with such
wicked zeal, that without the slightest prudence
he threw off the observance of all common decency.
At length this monstrous traffic was carried to
such an extent, that the most fearful and disgust-
ing crimes were committed under the certainty of

The

be laid upon the sales.

The great Elector, Frederick, was amongst the
first to proclaim such a traffic, though sanctioned
by the Holy See, infamous; and now it was that
Luther stood forth in the most fearless manner.
He exposed the avarice, the artifice of those who
sold and the folly of those who bought indulgences
that must lead to the destruction of all the most
sacred bonds of society, and the salvation of their
own souls. Thus, in 1517, in the great church
of Wittemburg, he exhorted his hearers, with a
truth and eloquence never before witnessed. The
effect was almost miraculous; thousands flocked to
hear him; thousands burnt the indulgences they
had bought, and were converted. The chief
opponent of all this was the Archbishop Albert,

| to promulgate these indulgences, with a share of |

who, deprived of the handsome profits allowed him
on the sales, in every way endeavoured to thwart
the exertions of Frederick and the preaching of
Luther, but without effect.

Amongst other converts, it is pleasing to haye
to mention the Augustine friars, to whose brother-
hood Luther belonged, and whom he had instructed
and enlightened. It was a bold step in advance
when (we quote from an interesting article on the
great Reformer *) “Luther published a treatise in
which he appealed ‘To the Christian nobility of
the German nation, concerning the Reformation of
the Christian Estate.” ... . “He depicts,” continues
the writer, “with extraordinary vigour and frank-
ness, the corruptions of the church ; and the breach
from Rome was, from the moment of this publica-
tion, irreparable. He appealed, in a word, to the
Government and the lay authorities of the German
nation to take into their own hands the Reformation
which was needed. Some abuses, as being within
their own control, he calls on them to abolish at
once. For the removal of others, he begs them to
summon a general council, and, when it is sum-
moned, to protect the freedom of its deliberations,
Injustice and falsehood were supported by ecele-
siastical authority, and Luther appeals to Czsar,
to the German Kaiser and his Diet.” It further
appears, that “at the very moment when Luther
was completing this treatise, the agent of his
Holiness was returning to Germany with the
famous Papal Bull of excommunication that in
1520 was issued against him; delivering his body
to destruction, his soul to Satan, and excommuni-
cating all who read his works.”

Luther was nothing daunted, and only replied to
it by demanding anew a general council, in which
he offered to defend his opinions, to expose the
abominable corruptions of the Church of Rome,
and to show that the Pope was the predicted man
of sin, and finally expressed his joy that he
(himself) was marked as an object of papal per-
secution, because he ventured to assert the liberty
of the universal church of God. He had really,
however, at this time nothing to fear. His treatise
had met with unparalleled success, within a very
short space some thousand copies of it had been
sold, and it won for the author golden opinions
from all classes of the community.

Not only Luther’s work, but the disgust ocea-
sioned by the sale of indulgences, had so acted on
the public mind that the power of the papal
censure was treated with scorn in Germany; and
a reformation in religion became the ery of the
people.. In fact, Luther’s doctrines were now s0
well received, that students from all parts of the
Empire flocked to Wittemburg in order to attend

2 In the December Number, 1868, of Maemillan’s Magazine,
by the Rey. H. Wace.