Chapter IV: Indulgences

In order to make the absolution effective, the sacrament of confession comprises penances by which the wrongs done are paid. Originally the amount of satisfaction was measured by the time alone during which the state of penance should last. As we have already seen, this situation inflicted the greatest disgrace, and caused the greatest distress of mind. But gradually a change was wrought, and penitents who showed undoubted sorrow were relieved of their penance earlier than the old usage demanded. This abridgement of the long sentence was called an indulgence, and was really the beginning of that system which reached its infamous maturity under Leo X and in the preaching of the wicked Tetzel. In that age no one knew anything of purgatory or the treasury of merits acquired by the saints, and disposed by the Pope; or even of the supreme bishop at Rome, with authority over all the churches and clergy everywhere.

At first indulgences were limited exclusively to church penances, but in process of time they embraced all the temporary punishments due the soul on earth and in purgatory. Christ, it was said, had endured and removed the eternal penalties of sin; but the sufferings short of everlasting continuance must be borne in purgatory, pilgrimages, or be removed by indulgence. The earthly sufferings could be enduring by deputy--any amount of fasting, flagellation or pilgrimage work could be discharged by substitute--and throngs of monks in time of papal darkness were competitors for the repulsive service.

It was argued that when a man performs his allotted task for the day he deserves additional reward or credit for any further services he may render. Such labors are beyond what his agreement demands; they are works of supererogation. So when a Christian leading a blameless life is persecuted and killed, as his sins did not draw his sufferings, these pains were meritorious, they were higher than a man's deserts--these were works of supererogation. It was claimed that millions of saints in heaven had left a legacy of such merits to the Church, and that in it she had a treasury of good deeds of immense value, incapable of exhaustion, no matter how many drafts, through indulgences, the Holy Mother might make upon it. Sometimes it was said that one drop of the Saviour's blood was sufficient for the sins of the whole world, and that all the rest went into the treasury, which the Church might give to souls in purgatory, or rich men on earth who had money to buy it, or to men not so wealthy who had some means. This was the paid-up capital of the bank of indulgences. The doctrine and practice of indulgence constitute the very center of the hierarchial system.

In the fifteenth century the disposal of indulgences became a common traffic, and public sale of them was generally preceded by some specious pretext. Often the pretenses for selling them were in reality bloody, idolatrous and superstitious. Pope John XXIII empowered his legates to absolve penitents from all sorts of crimes upon the payment of sums of money proportioned to their guilt. D'Aubigne, in his "History of the Reformation," tells us that when such indulgences were to be published, the disposal of them was commonly farmed out; for the papal court could not always wait to have the money collected and conveyed from every country of Europe. And there were rich merchants at Genoa, Milan, Venice and Augsburg who purchased the indulgences for a particular province, and paid to the papal chancery handsome sums for them. Thus both parties were benefited. The chancery came at once into large sums of money, and the farmers did not fail of a good bargain. They were careful to employ skillful men to sell the indulgences, persons whose boldness and impudence bore due proportion to the eloquence with which they imposed upon the simple people. Yet, that this species of traffic might have a religious aspect, the Pope appointed the archbishops of the several provinces to be his commissaries, who in his name announced that indulgences were to be sold, and generally selected the men to sell them, and for this service shared the profits with the merchants who farmed them. These papal hawkers enjoyed great privileges, and, however odious to the civil authorities, they were not molested. Complaints, indeed, were made against these contributions, levied by the popes upon all Europe. Kings and princes, clergy and laity, bishops, monasteries and confessors, all felt themselves aggrieved by them; the kings, that their countries were impoverished, under the pretext of crusades that were never undertaken, and of wars against heretics and Turks; and the bishops, that their letters of indulgence were rendered inefficient, and the people released from ecclesiastical discipline. But at Rome all were deaf to all these complaints, and it was not till the revolution produced by Luther that unhappy Europe obtained the desired relief.

JOHN TETZEL

Leo X, in order to carry on the expensive structure of St. Peter's Church in Rome, published indulgences, with a plenary remission to all such as should contribute toward erecting that magnificent building. The right of promulgating these indulgences in Germany, together with a share in the profits arising from the sale of them, was granted to John Tetzel, a Dominican friar, a licentious wretch, but an active and enterprising spirit, and remarkable for his noisy and popular eloquence. Assisted by the monks of his order, selected as his chief agent for retailing them in Saxony, he executed the commission with great zeal and success, but with no less indecency.

That my readers may have some idea of the course pursued, I give one of his harangues. After the cross had been erected and the arms of the Pope suspended from it, Tetzel went into the pulpit, and with a tone of assurance began to extol the value of indulgences in these words:

Indulgences are the most precious and most noble of God's gifts. This
cross has as much efficacy as the very cross of Jesus Christ. Come and
I will give you letters, all properly sealed, by which even the sins
you intend to commit may be pardoned. I would not change my privileges
for those of Saint Peter in heaven; for I have saved more souls by my
indulgences than the apostle by his sermons. There is no sin so great
that an indulgence can not remit; and even if one (which it doubtless
is impossible) had offered violence to the Virgin Mary, Mother of God,
let him pay--only let him pay well, and all will be forgiven him.
Reflect then, that every mortal sin you must, after confession and
contrition, do penance for seven years, either in this life or in
purgatory; now, how many mortal sins are there not committed in a day,
how many in a week, how many in a month, how many in a year, how many
in a whole life! Alas, these sins are almost infinite, and they entail
an infinite penalty in the fires of purgatory. And now, by means of
these letters of indulgence, you can once in your life, in every case
except four, which are reserved for the apostolic see, and afterward
in the article of death, obtain a plenary remission of all your
penalties and all your sins!

Do you know that if any one desires to visit Rome, or any country
where travelers incur danger, he sends his money to the bank, and for
every hundred florins that he wishes to have, he gives five or six or
ten more, that by means of the letters of this bank he may be safely
repaid his money at Rome or elsewhere.... And you, for a quarter of a
florin, will not receive these letters of indulgence, by means of
which you may introduce into paradise not a vile metal, but a divine
and immortal soul, without its running any risk.

But more than this, indulgences avail not only for the living, but for
the dead. For that repentance is not even necessary. Priests! nobles!
merchant! wife! youth! maiden! do you not hear your parents and your
other friends who are dead, and who cry from the bottom of the abyss:
"We are suffering horrible torments! A trifling alms would deliver us;
you can give it, and you will not!" At the very instant that the money
rattles in the bottom of the chest, the soul escapes from purgatory,
and flies liberated to heaven. Oh, stupid and brutish people, who do
not understand the grace so richly offered! Now heaven is everywhere
opened! Do you refuse to enter now? When, then will you enter? Now you
can ransom so many souls! Stiff-necked and thoughtless man! with
twelve groats you can deliver your father from purgatory, and you are
ungrateful enough not to save him! I shall be justified in the day of
judgment; but--you will be punished so much the more severely for
having neglected so great salvation. I declare to you, though you
should have but a single coat, you should strip it off and sell it, in
order to obtain this grace. The Lord our God no longer reigns. He has
resigned all power to the pope.

Do you know why our most Holy Lord distributes so rich a grace? It is
to restore the ruined Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and those
of a multitude of martyrs. The saintly bodies, through the present
state of the building, are now, alas, beaten upon, inundated,
polluted, dishonored, reduced to rottenness, by the rain and the hail.
Alas, shall these sacred ashes remain longer in the mire and in
degradation?

"Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see: for I tell
you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see, and have not
seen them; and to hear those things, which ye hear, and have not heard
them!"

When Tetzel concluded his discourse he immediately left the pulpit, ran to the money box, and, in the sight of the people, dropped into it a coin, being very careful to make it rattle so that it could be heard by the excited people. This was the signal that "indulgence had established its throne in the place with due solemnity." Confessionals, decorated with the pope's arms, were arranged in convenient places. On "each of these confessionals were posted in large letters the names, the surnames and titles of the under commissaries and of the confessors. Men, women and children crowded around these confessionals, all with money in their hands. Even those who lived on alms found money to buy indulgences!"

After having privately explained to each individual the greatness of indulgence, the confessors addressed the following question to each penitent: "How much money can you conscientiously spare to obtain so complete a remission?" "The demand," said the instructions of the archbishop of Mentz to the commissaries, "should be made at this moment, in order that the penitents might be better disposed to contribute."

To all who should aid in building the cathedral of Saint Peter in Rome, the following graces were promised: (1) The full pardon for every sin; (2) the right of choosing a confessor, who, whenever the hour of death appeared at hand, should give absolution for all sin, even from the greatest crimes reserved for the apostolic see; (3) a participation in all the blessings, works and merits of the Catholic Church, prayers, fasts, alms, and the pilgrimages; and (4) redemption of the souls that are in purgatory. To obtain the first of these graces it was said to be necessary to "have contrition of heart and confession of mouth, or at least an intention of confessing. But as for the three others they might be obtained without contrition, without confession, simply by paying." The intention was to make it appear that whoever possessed money could, by using it in the purchase of indulgences, introduce souls into heaven. The indulgence mongers said:

As for those who would deliver souls from purgatory and procure the
pardon of all their offenses, let them put money into the chest;
contrition of heart or confession of mouth is not necessary. Let them
only hasten to bring their money: for thus they will perform a work
most useful to the souls of the dead, and to the building of the
Church of Saint Peter.

The confession over, there was a rush to the trafficker, who examined very closely the dress, manner, gait and appearance of the applicant. The sum required was measured by his judgment of the financial ability of the individual. If he made a mistake about the price set, he was empowered to make the best bargain possible, "and all was to be arranged according to the data of sound reason, and the generosity of the donor." For adultery, polygamy, sacrilege, perjury, murder, witchcraft, infanticide, and fratricide he had a particular tax. In fact, "there was no vein in the gold mine that they did not find the means of working." Tetzel executed the commission with great zeal and success, but with no less indecency. He assured the purchasers that their crimes, however enormous, would be forgiven; that the efficacy of indulgences was so great that the most heinous sins would be expiated and remitted by them, and the person freed both from punishment and guilt; and that this was the unspeakable gift of God to reconcile men to himself.

In order that my readers may understand more fully the frightful extent of the wickedness to which the traffic led, I give the usual form of the letters of absolution, which was as follows:

May the 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 apostles Peter and Paul, and of the most holy pope, granted and
committed to me in these parts, do absolve thee, first, from all
ecclesiastical censures, in whatever manner they may have been
incurred; then from all thy sins, transgressions and excesses, how
enormous soever they may be; even such as are reserved for the
cognizance of our most holy father the pope and for the apostolic see.
I remit to thee all punishment which thou deservest in purgatory on
their account; and I restore thee to the holy sacraments of the
Church, to the unity of the faithful, and to the innocence and purity
which thou possessedst at baptism; so that when thou diest the gates
of punishment shall be shut, and the gates of the paradise of delights
shall be opened; and if thou shall not die at present, this grace
shall remain in full force when thou art at the point of death. In the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Friar John
Tetzel, commissary, has signed with his own hand.

This abolished all guilt and fear of hell in the minds of the purchasers, and inasmuch as the sale of indulgences was universally prevalent, the Church of Rome was everywhere triumphant, darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people; the children of God were driven to caves and secret places of the earth, hunted by armed bands at the command of the apostate Church. The condition was appalling!