the principle. You may issue your orders of synods, convocations, conferences, and acts of uniformity-you may enlarge or curtail your Thirty-nine Articles-you may even pronounce sentences of "God's wrath and everlasting damnation," against heretics and schismatics; so long as you admit that ground-work of the Reformation, the right of private judgment, though you spend your strength in fulminations, and your skill in devising new terms of salvation, you will only be laughed at by the discerning Christian as inconsistent and intolerant.

VI. The ill use which Tetzel and others made of the sale of Indulgences is a cause of the Reformation, which has been repeated by every writer on the subject since the days of Luther. This is not the place to enter into the nature and merits of this branch of the Catholic religion. The splendour and magnificence of the papal see have already been the subject of our consideration; but we deferred to notice the enormous expenses to which the Roman government was subjected in the completion of that astonishing fabric, begun during the pontificate of Julius II., the church of St. Peter at Rome. To accomplish this stupendous undertaking, large supplies were become indispensably needful; and Leo X., as almost a last source, resorted to a measure which had been applied as early as A. D. 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 from the hands of the infidels.* In thus reviving an ancient practice, Leo X. was not introducing any new mode of taxation; but he took no pains to secure the Church from the disgrace which she subsequently sustained by the improper use of this extraordinary species of traffic.

Neither the interests of truth nor the credit of this history require that any thing should be concealed from the reader, on this or any other topic connected with the subject. But neither is it necessary to repeat all the lying calumnies which have been retailed out to the public in every petty sixpenny Preservative against Popery since the era of the Reformation. What I have at present to say on this subject relates entirely to the abuse which was practised with respect to this mode of raising money for the papal exigencies.

An indulgence, according to the genuine faith of the Catholic Church, may be correctly understood from what the celebrated Bossuet has written on the subject:† "When the Church imposes upon sinners painful and laborious works,

Roscoe's Leo X. iii. 212.

+ Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholic Church in matters of Controversy, Paris ed. 1729, pp. 175, 176.

and they undergo them with humility, this is called satisfaction; and when, regarding the favour of the penitents, or some other good works she has prescribed them, she pardons some part of that pain which is due to them, this is called indulgence." This learned prelate thus remarks, that "The Council of Trent* proposes nothing else to be believed concerning indulgences, but that the power to grant them has been given to the Church by Jesus Christ, and that the use of them is beneficial to salvation: to which this Council adds, That this power ought to be retained; yet nevertheless used with moderation, lest Ecclesiastical discipline should be weakened by an over great facility." This is one of the most important points of dispute against Catholics. It shall have an appropriate share of attention paid to it in another place.

Though Leo X. thought proper to resort to this expedient to raise money, it does not appear that he was warranted in this proceeding by any Catholic or universal doctrine of the Church, though he had the example of Urban II. before

* Contin. Sess. 25, Dec. de Indulg.

+ It is unaccountable how such a writer as Dr. Robertson could so grossly mistake the real doctrine of Indulgences, as taught by the Catholic Church; and blunder so egregiously between the power of granting an Indulgence, and that which is called, emphatically, the power of the Keys. Vide Hist. of Charles V. vol. i.

him. This was one of the abuses of which the faithful had cause to complain; and they did complain, loudly and bitterly. But the mere act of vending remittances of holy discipline was not all. The commissioners in this ignoble traffic were not chosen from among the ranks of wise, prudent, and honest men. John Tetzel, a Dominican friar, of the most depraved habits and vicious principles, was appointed by Albert, archbishop of Mentz, to dispose of these dishonourable wares to the credulous and deluded people. Being determined to extend the benefit of his commerce as much as possible, he scrupled not to exceed the bounds of his commission, nor to extol his merchandise as abounding with every virtue that the most meritorious sacrifice or service could confer. To such an impious length did this minister of iniquity extend his blasphemies, as to declare, that these indulgences would atone for every vice, past, present, or to come; and remit every punishment, both in this life and the next, to which the most profligate wretch could be exposed.* A copy of one of these profitable instruments of pardon has been translated from Seckendorf,† and copied from Dr. Robertson into almost every account

* It should not be overlooked that Miltitz, the Pope's legate, warmly opposed the conduct of Tetzel, who died soon after, bitterly lamenting the depravity of his manners, and the baseness of his designs.

+ Comment. lib. i. p. 14.

of popery which has hitherto issued from the protestant press; and yet it is notorious, that the genuineness of this instrument is extremely doubtful. As a matter of curiosity, however, and because some would, otherwise, charge the author with disingenuousness, this nonsensical imposition shall be inserted here also. It is in form and substance as follows:

"May our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon thee, and absolve thee by the merits of his most holy passion! And I, by the authority of his blessed 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, and then from all thy sins, transgressions, and excesses, how enormous soever they be, even from such as are reserved for the cognizance of the holy see; and, as far as the keys of the holy church extend, I remit to thee all punishment which thou dost deserve in purgatory on their account; and I restore thee to the holy sacraments of the church, to the unity of the faithful, and to that innocence and purity which thou didst possess at baptism; so that when thou dost die, the gates of punishment shall be shut, and the gates of the paradise of delight shall be opened; and if thou shalt not die at present, this grace shall remain in full force when thou art at the point of death!