XV. CHAP. happy invention of the art of printing.(a) It would indeed be absurd to suppose that without some powerful predisposing circumstances the efforts of an obscure individual could have effected so important a revolution in the ecclesiastical world. But if Luther did not contribute all the materials of the immense blaze which now burst forth, he certainly applied the spark which called them into activity; nor could the great work of reformation have been intrusted to a more unconquerable spirit or a more intrepid heart. A. D. 1517. A. t. 42. Promulga dulgences. The immediate occasion of this grand distion of in- sension has been generally attributed, by the protestant writers, to the misconduct and rapacity of Leo X. whose unbounded extravagance in the gratification of his taste for luxury, magnificence, and expense, as well as his liberality in promoting works of genius and of art, had exhausted the pontifical treasury, and induced him to have recourse to new methods for its replenishment. On the contrary, the adherents to the ancient discipline, anxious for the (a) These more obvious causes of the reformation are fully enlarged upon by Fra. Paolo and other protestant writers, and particularly by Dr. Robertson in his History of Charles V. book ii. XV. the honour of the church, in the person of its CHAP. chief minister, have endeavoured to shew that Leo had much more commendable objects in view; and that the real motive of soliciting the aid of the Christian world by the sale of indulgences, was for the purpose avowed in the brief itself, the completion of the immense fabric of S. Peter's, begun on so magnificent a scale by Julius II. That this was an object of his unremitting attention during the whole of his pontificate, appears, indeed, from authentic documents; and the astonishing expenses thus incurred had certainly contributed, with other causes before noticed, to increase the necessity of further supplies. (a) The grant, by the pontiff, of a portion of the profits to arise by the sale of indulgences to his sister Maddalena, asserted by Guicciardini and Fra. Paolo, as it would have convicted the pope of a direct and sacrilegious misapplication of the P 2 (a)" Naturalem ergo propensionem ad omnia magnifica exequenda secutus, ædificationem superbam Basilica "S. Petri, a prædecessore Julio II. inchoatam, absolvere "moliebatur; sed exhauserat ærarium immodicis in omnis "generis res splendidas sumtibus, qui potentissimo orbis. "Monarchæ potius, quam Vicario illius conveniebant, cujus regnum non est de hoc mundo." Maimburg, Hist. Lutheranismi. ap. Seckendorf, Commentar. de Lutheranismo. lib. i. sect. v. p. 11. Ed. Lipsia, 1694. fo. A. D. 1517. A. t. 4. A. Pont. V. XV. CHAP. the revenues of the church, has been the subject of particular examination by a Roman prelate, who had the custody of the papal archives, and who has positively asserted the falsity of this pretended donation; of which no memorial whatever appears in the records of that period. (a) That there was any degree of novelty in the method adopted by Leo, of obtaining a temporary aid to the revenues of the church by the dispensation of indulgences, may be denied with still greater confidence; it being certain, that these measures had been resorted to as early as the year 1100, when Urban' II. granted a plenary indulgence and remission of sins to all such persons as should join in the crusades, to liberate the sepulchre of Christ from the hands of the infidels. Hence it became customary to grant them also to such, as without adventuring in their own persons, should provide a soldier for these expeditions; and from this origin, the transition was easy to any purpose any other which the Roman church had in view. A. D. 1517. A. Et. 42. In admitting, however, that Leo did not in (a) Felice Contelori, who wrote an express treatise on this subject, cited by Pallavicini, Istoria del Concilio di Trento. lib. i. cap. iii. p. 54. Ed. Rom. 1664. 4o. A. Et. 42. A. Pont. V. in this instance exceed the acknowledged limits of his authority, there is good reason to suppose that he did not sufficiently provide A. D. 1517. against the enormities and abuses to which the distribution of these indulgences was likely to give rise; and that his commissaries Arcimboldo and Tetzel, who under the authority of Albert of Brandenburg elector of Mentz, were intrusted with this critical employ, not only converted it to their own emolument, but by employing ignorant monks of loose lives and abandoned manners, brought the dispensations and indulgences of the church, and even the church itself and the supreme pontiff, into discredit and disgrace.(a) It must also be allowed that if the measures thus adopted by Leo, intrinsically (a) Pudet referre," says Fabroni, speaking of Tetzel, "quæ ipse et dixit, et fecit, quasi Legatus e cælo misB6 sus fuisset ad quod libet piaculum expiandum atque pur"gandum." Leonis x. vita, p. 132, The reformed writers accuse Leo X. of having exceeded all his predecessors in his rapacity upon this occasion. "On ne peut pas dire que Jules II. qu' Alexandre VI. ou qu'aucun autre de ses "predecesseurs fût allé plus loin à cet égard; et je ne sai "si les Quêteurs, qui sous l' inspection de son Nonce "furent employés au recouvrement des déniers, n' effacerent pas, par leur excès, tous les desordres de ceux qui avoient "fait avant eux le même métier." v. Cha. Chais, Lettres historiques sur les Jubilés et les Indulgences, tom. iii. p. 707. Ed. La Haye, 1751. 66 CHAP. XV. Impolicy of this mea sure. XV. CHAP. trinsically considered, afford no very serious imputation on his public or private character, the time at which he resorted to such an expedient is no additional proof of that prudence and that sagacity which all parties have so liberally conceded to him. After the efforts which had been made towards the improvement of the human mind, and to which Leo had himself so powerfully contributed, he ought to have been aware, that those gross pretensions to the exercise of divine powers which had imposed on the credulity of the middle ages, were no longer likely to be tolerated. It is, indeed, very remarkable that Luther himself, who was an excellent scholar and well acquainted with the writings of the ancient philosophers, was a warm advocate of those very doctrines which Leo and his progenitors had introduced and encouraged, and that he publicly supported the opinions of Plato as opposed to those of Aristotle (a) but probably Leo did not suspect, that the inhabitants of a remote part of Saxo ny A. D. 1517. A. Et. 42. A. Pont. V. (a)" Esercitò (Lutero) allo stesso tempo la sua intem"peranza di contradire ciò che gli altri più riveriscono nella "Filosofia; ponendo molte conclusioni, sì generali, come. "particulari, in sommo dispregio d' Aristotile; ed antepo"nendo alle sue dottrine quelle d' Anassagora, di Pitagora, " e di Platone." Pallav. Concil. di Trento, p. 69. |