REFORMATION. 



money by the sale of indulgences, by 

 which the purchasers were allowed the 

 practice of several sins, and a deliver- 

 ance from the pains of purgatory. To 

 defend these indulgences, it was urged, 

 that as one drop of Christ's blood is suffi- 

 cient to atone for the sins of the whole 

 world, the remainder of blood shed by 

 the death of the Saviour belonged to the 

 church, and that its efficacy might be sold 

 out to the people. It was supposed also, 

 that to the church belonged all the g-ood 

 works of the saints, beyond what were 

 employed in their own justification. 

 These superabundant merits were ac- 

 cordingly sold to the unthinking multi- 

 tude at various prices, according to the 

 nature of the offence for which they were 

 to atone. The form of these indulgen- 

 ces not being very generally known, we 

 will give an exact copy of one of these 

 most extraordinary instruments. 



" May our Lord Jesus Christ have 

 mercy upon thee, and absolve thee by 

 the merits of his most holy passion. And 

 I, by his authority, that of his blessed 

 apostles, Peter and Paul, and of the 

 most holy Pope, granted and commit- 

 ted to me in these parts, do absolve 

 thee, first from all ecclesiastical cen- 

 sures, in whatever manner they have 

 been incurred ; and then, from all thy 

 sins, transgressions, and excesses, how 

 enormous soever they may be, even 

 from such as are reserved for the cog- 

 nizance of the holy see ; and as far as the 

 keys of the holy church extend, I remit 

 you all punishment you deserve in pur- 

 gatory on their account ; and I restore 

 you to the holy sacraments of the 

 church, to the unity of the faithful, and 

 to that innocence and purity you pos- 

 sessed at baptism ; so that when you 

 die, the gates of punishment shall be 

 shut, and the gates of the paradise of life 

 shall be opened ; and if ym shall not 

 die at present, this grace shall remain 

 in full force when you are at the point 

 of death. In the name of the Father, 

 of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 

 Amen." 



This is the form of absolution sold by 

 the agents of Leo X. in various parts of 

 the Christian world ; an instrument so ab- 

 surd, that were it not well authenticated, 

 and had we not even in our day a similar 

 instance of imposture on the one hand, 

 and credulity on the other, in the seals 

 disposed of by Johanna Southcott, one 

 might be tempted to doubt the truth of 

 its existence. 



The promulgation of these indulgences 



in Germany, together with a share aris- 

 ing from the profits in the sale of them, 

 was assigned to Albert, Elector of Mentz, 

 and Archbishop of Magdeburg, who, as 

 his chief agent for retailing them, em- 

 ployed one Tetzel, a Dominican Friar, of 

 licentious morals, but of a bold and active 

 spirit. Tetzel, assisted by the monks of 

 his order, executed this ignoble commis- 

 sion with great zeal and success ; but with 

 the most shameless indecency and indis- 

 cretion; at the same time magnifying the 

 benefits of these indulgences in the most 

 extravagant manner. To such enormities 

 did Tetzel proceed in describing the effi- 

 cacy of these pretended dispensations^ 

 that he even said, "if any one had ravish- 

 ed the mother of God, he (Tetzel) had 

 wherewithal to efface his guilt." He also 

 boasted, that " he had saved more souls 

 from hell by these indulgences, than St. 

 Peter had converted to Christianity by- 

 his preaching." These enormous blas- 

 phemies and abuses roused the indigna- 

 tion of Martin Luther, a monk of the 

 Augustinian Eremites, and professor of 

 divinity in the academy at Wittemberg, 

 to such a pitch of fervour, that he began 

 to declaim with boldness against these 

 scandals of the Christian name. In 

 ninety-five propositions, maintained pub- 

 licly at Wittemberg, on the 30th of Sep- 

 tember, 1517, he censured the extrava- 

 gant extortions of the questors, and 

 plainly pointed out the Roman Pontiff as 

 a partaker of their guilt, since he suffer- 

 ed the people to be seduced by such de- 

 lusions, from placing their principal con- 

 fidence in Christ, the only proper object 

 of their trust So daring an opposition 

 from an obscure monk, in a corner of 

 Germany, excited the surprise and admi- 

 tion of Ml the world, except Rome itself, 

 which seemed most likely to have been 

 first alarmed. Luther had no sooner pub- 

 lished his propositions than multitudes 

 flocked to his standard, and joined him in 

 the outcry against the shameful abomina- 

 tions of the Church of Rome. It was, 

 however, some time before an irruption 

 took place ; or that the friends of reform 

 declared open war against the decrees 

 and authority of the Church. Tetzel and 

 others vainly attempted to defend the in- 

 dulgences, but were continually repulsed, 

 and put to shame by the arguments and 

 intrepidity of Luther. The history of 

 the various disputes which called forth 

 the energies of this Reformer, and ex- 



Eosed the nakedness of the Church, is 

 oth interesting and curious: we must 

 nevertheless pass over this portion of the 



