XV. A. D. 1517. ny had attained a degree of illumination, which CHAP. the dulgences. The first measures adopted by Luther,(a) Luther op who was then a young doctor of theology and poses a preacher in the city of Wittemberg, in op- sale of inposing the sale, or, as it was more decently called, the promulgation of indulgences, was the cautioning his hearers against the imposition attempted to be practised on their credulity; in which he professes that so far from thinking that he should incur reproof, he expected to have found himself warmly patro nised (a) He was born at Isleben, in the county of Mansfeld, on the tenth day of November, 1483. His name, in his native language, was Lutter, which afforded some one of his numerous adversaries a subject for the following lines, more remarkable for their scurrility than their wit. "Germanis Lutter Scurra est, est Latro Bohemis, XV. CHAP. nised by the pope, who had in his decretals explicitly condemned the indecent rapacity of the collectors. On the same subject he addressed a letter to Albert of Brandenburg elector of Mentz,(a) apprizing him of the consequences likely to result from the scandalous sale of indulgences, and requesting his interference in preventing them.(b) These remonstrances were, however, disregarded; nor was it likely that they would produce on the elector the effect intended, as he had stipulated with the pope, that he should retain one half of the income derived from indulgences for his own use; a circumstance with which Luther was not at that time acquainted.(c) Finding these A. D. 1517. A. Et. 42. (a)" Igitur cum anno 1517, indulgentiæ in his regioni"bus venderentur (promulgarentur volui dicere) turpissimo (6 questu, ego tum eram Concionator, juvenis (ut dicitur) "Doctor Theologiæ, & cœpi dissuadere populis, & eos de"hortari ne indulgentiariorum clamoribus aurem præbe"rent, habere eos meliora quæ facerent, et in iis certus "mihi videbar me habiturum patronum Papam, cujus fidue "cia tum fortiter nitebar, qui in suis Decretis clarissimè "damnat quæstorum, (ita vocat Indulgentiarios prædicatores) "immodestiam." Lutheri, præf. ad Op. Lat. tom. i. Ed. Jenæ, 1612. (b) v. Appendix, No. CXLVIII. (c) "Nesciebam tamen cujus usibus cederet pecunia, "sed XV. these measures ineffectual, he immediately CHAP. published ninety-five brief propositions, which he had read in the great church at Wittemberg, on the eve of All Saints, in the year 1517,(a) the chief object of which was to shew, that the pope hath power to remit no other penalties than such as he hath power to impose, (b) and that every truly penitent Christian is released from his offences without the formality of an absolution. (c) Adverting to the pretext that 4 ❝sed interim libellus edebatur sub insignibus Magdebur"gensis Episcopi, quo quæstoribus predicatio illa demanda"batur." Lutheri, contra Henricum Ducem Brunsvicensem, Apologia. ap. Seckend. Comment, lib. i. sec. vii. p. 15. (a) To these propositions he gave the following title: "AMORE ET STUDIO ELUCIDANDE VERITATIS, Hæc sub"scripta Themata disputabuntur Willemberga, Præsidente "R. P. Martino Luthero, Eremitano Augustiniano, Artium "Theologia Magistro, ejusdem ibidem ordinario Lectore. "Quare pelit ut qui non possunt verbis præsentes, nobiscum "disceptare, agant id literis absentes. In nomine Domini "nostri Jesu Christi. Amen. M.D.XVII." (b) Prop. 5. "Papa non vult nec potest ullas pœnas "remittere, præter eas quas arbitrio vel suo, vel canonum, "imposuit." (c) Prop. 37. "Quilibet verus Christianus, sive vi"vus, sive mortuus, habet participationem omnium bonorum Christi et Ecclesiæ, etiam sine literis veniarum à "Deo sibi datam." 86 A. D. 1517. A. Et. 42. A. Pont. V. CHAP. that the monies received were intended for the A. Et. 42. A. Pont. V. out of his unbounded wealth, might if he chose finish it himself; and that he ought rather to sell the church to succour the distresses of those who were called upon to contribute, than to erect it with the flesh and blood of those committed to his charge.(a) These bold opinions were, however, rendered less offensive by the form in which they were expressed, as subjects of doubt rather than of positive assertion, as well as by the express avowal of the author, that he was ready on all occasions to submit himself and his opinions to the decision of the holy church; but at the same time he not only printed and dispersed his propositions throughout all Germany, but continued to enforce by his preaching the same sentiments which he had expressed by his pen. They are defended by Tetzel. No sooner had the propositions of Luther found their way to Franckfort, than John Tetzel, the dominican monk who had been intrusted (a) Prop. 86. "Cur papa, cujus opes hodie sunt opulentissimis Crassis crassiores, non de suis pecuniis ma"gis, quàm pauperum fidelium, struit unam tantummodo "Basilicam S. Petri?"&v. Prop. p. 50. 51. XV. A. D. 1517. A. Et. 42. trusted by the elector of Mentz as his princi- CHAP. pal agent in the promulgation of indulgences, and who then executed the office of inquisitor in that place, endeavoured to counteract their A. Pont. V. effects; first, by publishing a set of counter propositions by way of reply,(a) and next, by burning those of Luther in public. These violent proceedings only served to excite an equal degree of violence in the friends of Luther at Wittemberg, who having collected together the publication of Tetzel, committed to the flames eight hundred copies in the public square of that city; a circumstance which Luther had the moderation to regret, and which he asserts occurred without his knowledge, or even that of the duke and the magistrates of the place.(b) The brief animadversions of Johannes Ec- By Eccius. cius (a) Entitled as follows: " QUO VERITAS PATEAT, ER66 RORESQUE SUPPRIMANTUR, Redditaque ratione, contra Ca"tholicam veritatem objecta solvantur, Frater Johannes "Tetzel, ordinis Prædicatorum, Sacræ Theologiæ Bacca"laureus, ac hæretica pravitatis Inquisitor, subscriptas "Positiones sustinebit in florentissimo studio Franckfor"densi, cis Oderam. Ad laudem Dei, pro fidei Catholica "defensione, obque sancla Sedis Apostolica honorem." (b) Maimb. Sect. xii. ap. Seckend. et addit. lib. i. sec. xii. pp. 24. 25. |