'Well, all tins is expiated the moment your money cliinks in the pope's chest.' "* Myconius assures us that he himself heard Tetzel harangue with incredible effrontery concerning the unlimited j)ower of the pope and of indulgences, t
« Michelet's Life of Luth. p. 21. t Myconius' MS. Hist, of the Eef.
' ' The youthful Myconius was one of Tetzel's hearers.
He felt an ardent desire to take advantage of this offer.
' said he in Latin to the commissioners, ' and I have need of a gratuitous pardon.'
'Those alone,' replied the merchants, 'can have Christ's merits who lend a helping hand to the church ; that is to say, who give vaonej.'
'What is the meaning then,' asked Myconius, ' of those promises of a free gift posted on the gates and walls of the churches ?'
' Give at least a groat, ' said Tetzel's people, after having vainly interceded with their master in favor, of the yoiiug man.
'lam not worth so many.'
The Dominicans begin to fear that he came on pur^DOse to entrap them.
" 'Listen,' said they ; 'we will make j'ou a present of the six deniers.'
The young man replied indignantly, 'I vail have no bought indulgences.
If I desired to buy them, I should only have to sell one of mj' school-books.
I desire a gi-atuitous pardon, and for the love of God alone.
You ^nll render an account to God for having allowed a soul to be lost for six deniers.'
'Who sent you to entraii us ?' exclaimed the venders.
'Nothing but the desire to receive God's pardon could have made me appear before such great gentlemen,' replied the young man as he "withdrew.
" 'I was very sad at being thus sent away unpitied.
But I felt, a comforter within me, who said that there was a God in heaven who pardons repentant souls -ndthout monejand without price, for the love of his Son Jesus Christ.
As I took leave of these folks, the Holy Sjiirit touched my heart.
I burst into tears and prayed to the Lord with anguish.
'since these men have refxised to remit my sins because I wanted money to pay them, do thoxt. Lord, have intv on me, and pardon of thy pure grace.'
I repaired to my chamber ; I praj-ed to my crucifix, which was lying on my desk ; I put it on the chair and fell down before it.
I cannot describe to you what I begged God to be a father to me, and to do with me whatever ho "Thisfroiitless mouk," says another distinguished ecclesiastical historian, "not only executed his iniquitous mission with matchless insolence, indecenc}^, and fraud, but even carried his impiety so far as to derogate from the all-sufficient power and influence of the merits of Christ.
Some readers may be curious to see the ipsissima verba of one of Tetzel's indulgences.
"Our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on thee, N.
N., and absolve thee by the merits of his most holy sufferings.
And I, in virtue of the apostolic power committed to me, absolve thee from all ecclesiastical censures, judgments, and penalties that thou mayest have merited
; and further, from all excesses, sins, and crimes that thou mayest have committed, however great and enormous they may be, and of whatever kind, even though they should be reserved to our holy father the pope, and to the apostolic see.
"I efface all the stains of weakness, and all traces of the shame that thou mayest have drawn upon thyself by such actions.
I remit the pains thou wouldst have to endure in purgatory.
I receive thee again to the sacraments of the church.
I felt my nature changed, converted, transformed.
"What had delighted me before, now became an object of disgust.
To live with God and to please him was now my earnest, 'my sole desire.
"Thus did Tetzel himself prepare the Eeformation."
THE LIFE AND TIMES hereby reincorporate thee in the communion of the saints, and restore thee to the innocence and purity of thy baptism
; so that, at the moment of death, the gate of the place of torment shall be shut against thee, and the gate of the j)aradise of joy shall be opened unto thee.
And if thou shouldst live long, this grace continueth unchangeable till the time of thine end.
"In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Tetzel, Commissary, hath signed this with his own hand.
"JOHN TETZEL. "=So ran this charlatan and blasphemous dijDloma.
Tetzel was accustomed to inculcate»such frightful doctrines as these That he had such grace and power from the pope, that though one had defloured the virgin mother of God, he could forgive it, provided the person placed the requisite amount of money in the box.
That if St. Peter were now here, he would not have greater grace or power than he had.
That he would not in heaven exchange places with St. Peter, for he had saved more souls with his indulgences than St. Peter by his preaching.
That if any one cast money into the box for a soul in purgatory, the soul would fly up to heaven as soon as the coin tinkled at the bottom.
That it was not necessary to feel sorrow and grief on account of sin, or to repent, if one pnrcliasecl the indulgences.
That the red indulgence cross erected in the churches, with the pope's armorial bearings upon it, was just as efficacious as the cross of Christ.
These, and many more similarly absurd and blasphemous iitterances, were bellowed forth by this abandoned wretch.
All decent men heard him with a mixture of disgust and astonishment.
It is related of the emperor Maximilian, that chancing once to be at Inspruck when Tetzel was delivering one of his foul harangues, he was so offended at the wickedness and impudence of the mountebank monk, that he sentenced him to instant death
; ordering him to be seized, placed in a bag, and flung like a dog into the river Eponte.
From this richly merited fate the Dominican inquisitor was saved by the solicitations of the elector Frederic," who, fortunately for him, and for the cause of truth, since his blasphemous discourses were destined to provoke the Reformation, chanced to be present.
Tetzel's flagitious career was about to be closed quite as summarily and effectually as it would have been if he had suffered at Inspruck under the wrathful decree of the German emperor. caiUner's Ch. Hist., Vol.
It is stated that Luther first heard of Tetzel, though he does not appear to liave been fully informed regarding the nature of the atrocious doctrines he inculcated, at Grimnia, in 151G, just before Staupitz left him for the Netherlands, and as he was commencing the vicar-general's duty of visitation.
Stai;pitz perhaps, having repeated one of his extravagant expressions, Luther then exclaimed, " If God permit, I will make a hole in his drum.""'
In the following year, 1517, a great flourish of trumpets and a babel of tongues announced the approach of the infamous license-monger to the immediate neighborhood of Wittemberg.
Erecting his red indulgence cross at Juterbock, four miles distant from Luther's universitv, the scandalous i:)riest enacted all the impious mummeries of his extensive repertoire.
" This great purse-thresher," said Luther afterwards, "began to thresh bravely, so that the money leaped and fell tinkling into the box."t
Although Tetzel drew oif crowds of his parishioners and students from Wittemberg to his indulgence market at Juterbock,.]: Luther at the commencement paid no attention to his harangues. r Luther's 0pp. (W.), XVII.
1 D'Aiibigno's Hist. Hef., Vol.
At a later period lie made this record of himself " I was at that time a monk aud a furious Papist ; so intoxicated, uaj, so drowned iu the Eomish doctrines, that I would have wiUingly aided, if I could, in killing any one who should have had the audacity to refuse the slightest obedience to the pope
: I was a very Saul, as there are many still."* At the same time " his heart was ready to catch fire for every thing that he recognized as truth, and against every thing that he believed to be error."
It was in this memorable jea,v of 1517 that a number of persons hapjDened one day to present themselves at Luther's confessional, and after ow^niug themselves to be guilty of the grossest crimes— adultery, licentiousness, usury—yet refused to perform the penances imposed upon them by the Augustinian, alleging that they were possessed of Tetzel's diplomas of indulgence, and reading to him these words: "I absolve thee from all ecclesiastical censureSj^'udgments, and penalties Avhich thou mayest have incurred
; moreover from all excesses, sins, and crimes that thou mayest have committed, however gi-eat and enormous they may be, and from whatsoever cause, were they even reserved for our most holy father the pope, and for the apostolic see."t
Horrified at such audacity, Luther still refused to absolve them.
He had no knowledge of -these t See the full form of this diploma quoted in the preceding chapter, pp. 127, 128.
THE LIFE AND TIMES impious diplomas, lie said; he only knew that the plain declaration of Christ himself was, " Except je repent, je shall all likewise perish."*
" Have a care," he added, " how you listen to the clamors of these indulgence merchants; you have better things to do than buy licenses which they sell at so vile a price."t
Tetzel's frightened dupes hastened to him at Juterbock, where he still lingered, and informed him that the Augustinian of Wittemberg had refused to recognize the legitimacy of his operations, and would not absolve them on his papers.^
Myconius informs us that the Dominican, upon hearing these complaints, bellowed with anger, and rushing to his pulpit, hurled from it an avalanche of insults and curses upon the Wittemberg professor.
For the purpose of striking greater terror into the gaping crowd which stood watching his movements, he had a fire built a number of times in the public market-place of Juterbock, pretending at the same time that he had received an order from Leo instantly to burn at the stake all blasphemous heretics who should presume to oppose his most holy indulgences.§
But Martin Luther, now ripe in years—he was at this time thirty-four—learned in the Scriptures, profoundly versed in the literature of the schools, and possessed of a vehement courage which had f L0pp. Lat. iu Prief.
X Meurer's Life of Luther.
§ Myconius' Hist. Ref. ever held him steadfastly anchored to what Jie considered his duty, was neither to be deceived nor alarmed by the paltry tricks, theatrical shows, and sounding words of a charlatan priest.
He therefore took an early opportunity to preach from his pulpit in the castle chapel of Wittemberg a sermon in which he exposed
Tetzel's chicaneries with masterly argumentative and satirical power.
This discourse was shortly after published, and it created a profound sensation.* On the 31st of October of this same year, 1517, an event is said to have occurred which occasioned much comment at the time, and whose truth is avouched by a number of credible witnesses.
Upon that morning it seems that the elector Frederick of Saxony was at his palace of Scliweinitz, six leagues from Wittemberg.
He w^as accompanied also by his chancellor and by his brother John, duke of Saxony, co-regent with himself, and w^ho upon Frederick's death governed their former united dominions alone.
These three being seated together, the elector said suddenly, " I must tell you of a dream, brother, which I had last night, and of which I should like to know the meaning.
It is so firmly graven in my memory that I should never forget it, even were I to live a thousand years; for it came three times, and always with new circumstances."
" Was it a good or a bad dream ?" queried Duke * Melancthon's Vita, Lutheii.
"I cannot tell; God knows," responded the elector.
"Do not be uneasy about it then," said the duke; " Having gone to bed last night," commenced the elector, " tired and dispirited,
I soon fell asleep after saying my prayers, and I slept calmly for about two hours and a half.
I then awoke, and all kinds of thoughts occupied me till midnight.
" I reflected how I should keep the approaching festival of All Saints.
I prayed for the wretched souls in purgatory, and begged that God would direct me, my councils, and my people, according to the truth.
" I then fell asleep again, and dreamed that the Almighty sent me a monk who was a true son of the apostle Paul.
He was accompanied by all the saints, in obedience to God's command, to bear him testimony, and to assure me that he did not come with any fraudulent design, but that all he should do was conformable to the will of God.
" They asked my gracious permission to let him write something on the doors of the palace chaj^el at Wittemberg, which I conceded through my chancellor.
" Upon this the monk repaired thither and began to write.
So large were the characters, that I could read from Schweinitz what he was writing.
The pen he used was so long that its extremity reached as far as Borne, where it pierced the ears of a lionwliicli lay there, and shook the triple crown on the pope's head.
"All the cardinals and princes ran up hastilj^, and endeavored to support it.
I both tendered our assistance : I stretched out mj arm ; that moment I awoke, with my arm extended, in great alarm, and very angry with this monk, who could not guide his pen better.
I recovered myself a little ; it was only a dream.
"I was still half asleep, and once more closed my eyes.
The dream came again.
The lion, still disturbed by the pen, began to roar with all his might, until the whole city of Rome, and all the states of the holy empire, ran up to know what was the matter.
" The pope called ujson us to oppose this monk, ' and addressed himself particularly to me, because the friar was living in my dominions.
I again awoke, repeated the Lord's prayer, entreated God to preserve his holiness, and fell asleej).
''' I then dreamed that all the princes of the empire, and we along with them, hastened to Eome, and endeavored one after another to break this pen.
It cracked as if it had been made of iron ; we gave it up as hopeless.
"I then asked the monk—for I was now at Rome, now at Wittemberg—where he had got that pen, and how it came to be so strong.
"'This pen,' rephed he, 'belonged to a Bohemian goose a hundred years old.f THE LIFE AND TIMES one of my old schoolmasters.
It is so strong because no one can take the pith out of it, and I am myself quite astonished at it.'
" On a sudden I heard a loud cry ; from the monk's long pen had issued a host of other pens.
" What is your opinion, Mr. Chancellor ?" now asked Duke John.
"Would that we had here a Joseph, or a Daniel, taught of God."
The chancellor thus called upon, then said, " Your highnesses know the vulgar proverb, that the dreams of young women, wise men, and great lords have generally some hidden meaning.
But we shall not learn the significance of this for some time, until the events have come to pass to which it relates.
For this reason, confide its accomplishment to God, and commit all things into his hands."
" My oj^inion is the same as yours, Mr. Chancellor," said the duke " it is not proper for us to rack our brains to discover the interpretation of this dream
; God will direct every thing to his own glory."
The elector then closed the conversation by saving, "Mav our faithful God do even so.
I/O' tj shall never forget this dream.
I have thought of one interpretation, but I shall keep it to myself.
Time will show perhaps, whether I have conjectured rightly."* * The foregoiug account of tlie elector's di-eam lias been taken from D'Aiibigu6, who extracts it from a MS. among the Weimar
State papers, taken cIo\\ti fi-om Spalatin's o\vn lips.
Thus, according to the Weimar manuscript, passed the October, at the palace of At noon of this same day, Luther, spurred thereto by Tetzel's continuation of his uubhishing career
; by the oath of his bibhcal doctorate, which bound him to combat with his whole energy such shocking and antichristian dogmas
; and by his high respect for the pojie and the Roman ritual, which he esteemed discredited by these monstrous claims : selecting the day which preceded the festival of All
Saints, and when crowds of pilgrims thronged to Wittemberg to witness the magnificent ceremonies of that occasion, Avalked to the door of the castle church and boldly nailed upon it those famous ninety-five theses, which he had composed in the solitude of his cloister
; acquainting no one with their nature, or with his intentions respecting them ; and which, unintentionally enough to him, did indeed, as in the elector's prophetic dream, disturb the Roman lion, strike the pontiff's triple croAvn, and convulse the universe.
Those propositions wliicli Lutlier affixed to the door of the Wittemberg church at mid-day, on the 31st of October, 1517, opened thus
" ;From a desire to ehcit the truth, the folloAviug theses will be maintained at Wittemberg, under the presidency of the reverend father, Martin Luther, of the order of the Augustines, master of arts, master and lecturer in theolog}^, who asks that such as are not able to dispute verbally with him, will do so in writing.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Then follow the ninety-five theses.
From the series we quote the more essentM ones " When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ says repent, he means that the whole life of his believers upon earth shall be a constant and perpetual repentance.
" This word cannot be understood of tiie sacrament of penance, (that is, of confession and satisfaction,) as it is administered by the priest.
3. "Yet the Lord does not intend to speak in this only of internal repentance ; internal repentance is null, if it does not produce externally all kinds of mortification of the flesh.
" Bepentance and sorrow, that is to say, true penitence, last as long as man is displeased with or MARTIN LUTHER. himself, that is to say, until he passes from this life into the life eternal.
" The pope is unable and does not desire to remit any other penalty than that which he has imposed of his own good pleasure, or conformably to the canons or papal ordinances.
" The pope cannot remit any condemnation ; but only declare and confirm the remission of God, except in the cases that aj)pertain to himself.
If he does otherwise, the condemnation remains entirely the same.
" The laws of ecclesiastical penance ought to be imposed solely on the living, and in no respect concern the dead.
" The commissaries of indulgences are in error when they say, that by the papal indulgence a man is delivered from every punishment and is saved.
" The same power that the pope has over purgatory throughout the church, each bishop possesses individually in his own diocese, and each priest in his own parish.
" They preach mere human follies who maintain that, as soon as the money rattles in the strongbox, the soul flies out of purgatory.
" This is certain, that as soon as the money tinkles, avarice and love of gain arrive, increase, and multiply.
But the support and j)rayers of the church depend solely on God's will and good pleasure.
" Those who fancy themselves sure of salvai40 THE LIFE AND TIMES tion by indulgences, will go to perdition along with those who teach them so.
" TheJ are teachers of antichristian doctrines who pretend that to deliver a soul from purgatory, or to buy an indulgence, there is no need of either sorrow or repentance.
36. "Every Christian Avho truly repents of his sins, enjoys an entire remission both of the penalties and of the guilt, without any need of indulgences.
Christian, whether dead or alive, participates in all the blessings of Christ and of the church by God's gift, and without a letter of indulgence.
" Still we should not contemn the papal indulgence and pardon ; for this pardon is a declaration of the pardon of God.
" True repentance and sorrow seek and love the punishment ; but the mildness of indulgence absolves from the punishment, and begets hatred against it.
" We should teach Christians that the pope has no thought or desire of comparing in any respect the act of buying indulgences with any work of mercy.
" We should teach Christians that he avIio gives to the poor, or lends to the needy, does better than he who purchases an indulgence.
" For the work of charity increaseth charity, and renders a man more pious ; Avhereas the indulgence does not make him better, but only renders him more self-confident, and more secure from punishment.
46. "We should teach Christians that if they have no superfluity, they are bound to keep for their own households the means of procuring necessaries, and that they ought not to squander their money in indulgences.
" We should teach Christians that the j)urchase of an indulgence is a matter of free choice, and not of commandment.
" We should teach Christians that the pope, having more need of prayers offered up in faitli than of money, desires prayers more than money when he dispenses indulgences.
" We should teach Christians that the pope's indulgence is good, if we put no confidence in it ; but that nothing is more hurtful, if it diminishes our piety.
Christians that if the pope knew of the extortions of the preachers of indulgences, he would rather the mother church of St. Peter were burnt and reduced to ashes, than see it built up with the skin, the flesh, and the bones of his flock.
51. "We should teach Christians that the pope, as it is his duty, would distribute his own money to the poor whom the indulgence sellers are now stripping of their last farthing, even were he compelled to sell the mother church of St. Peter.
" To hope to be saved by indulgences, is a lying and empty hope ; altliough even the commis-