at once, from a principle of sacred charity, and because of the great misery of these souls, since he delivers so many for the sake of the money that perishes, and for St. Peter's cathedral? Why is there a continual celebration of feasts and anniversaries for the dead? Why does the pope not restore, or allow to be taken back, the church livings and prebends that have been founded for the dead, since it is now useless, and even reprehensible, to pray for those who have been delivered for all time. coming by the indulgences? What, then, is this new holiness of God and the pope, bestowed for the sake of money on a man who is impious and God's enemy, so that he delivers from purgatory a soul that is pious and beloved of the Lord, instead of themselves delivering such a soul gratuitously, from love, and because of its great misery.

1

Stories were told of the gross and immoral conduct of those who conducted the trade in indulgences. It was said that in paying the postmasters who conveyed them and their wares, the innkeepers at whose houses they lodged, in short, all who rendered them any service, they gave a letter of indulgence for four souls, five souls, or so many more souls, as the case might be. Thus certificates of salvation began to circulate in the hostelries and at markets, like bank notes or like paper money. "Bring, bring," said the common people, "such is the head, belly, tail, and entire contents of their sermons." 2

A Schneeberg miner happened to meet with one of the sellers of indulgences. "Are we to put faith," said he, " in what you have so often told us of the efficacy of indulgences and of the authority of the pope, and to believe that by throwing a penny into the chest, we may rescue a soul from purgatory?" The indulgence-monger said that such was the case. "Ah," replied the miner, "what a pitiless man must the pope then be, in that for the sake of a wretched penny, he should suffer a poor soul to lament so long in the flames! If he have no ready money, let him collect some hundred thousand crowns and deliver all the

souls at once. We poor people will willingly pay both interest and capital."

Thus Germany was tired of the shameless traffic that was 1 Luther theses on the indulgences. Th. 82, 83, and 84.

: L. Opp. (Leipz. xvii. 79.

LEO TENTH.

1

231

going on in its territories, and people could no longer tolerate the impostures of these adepts in knavery from Rome, as Luther says. Nevertheless, no bishop, no theologian, dared to oppose their knavery and their frauds. Men's minds remained in suspense, wondering if God would raise up any man of sufficient might for the work that he had to accomplish; but no such person was to be seen.

III. The pontiff's throne was now filled, not by a Borgia, but by Leo X., of the illustrious family of the Medicis. As a man, Leo was able, candid, remarkably good natured, and of a mild disposition. In his intercourse with other men he was affable, in his liberality unbounded; but his private morals, though superior to those of his court, are admitted by Pallavicini to have been not altogether without reproach. To this amiable character he added several of the qualities of a great prince. He was the friend of the sciences and arts; he had the earliest Italian comedies acted in his presence; and, indeed, there were few in existence at that time which he had not seen acted. He was passionately fond of music also, so that his palace daily resounded with the playing of instruments, and he was often heard humming over tunes that had been performed in his presence. He was fond of magnificence, and spared no expense when required for festivities, games, theatricals, and rewards, and presents. The supreme pontiff's court was exceeded by none, either in splendour or in pleasure. Nay, on its being understood that Julian Medicis thought of establishing his residence at Rome with his young wife: "praise be to God," exclaimed Cardinal Bibliona, Leo X's. most influential counsellor, "for we were in want of nothing but a court of ladies." 2 The court of the pope was not considered as complete, until one in which. ladies could appear was superadded. To religious feelings Leo X. was an utter stranger. Sarpi says of him, that his manners were so pleasing that he would have been quite an accomplished person, had he but possessed some knowledge of religious matters 1 Fessi erant Germani omnes, ferendis explicationibus, nundinationibus, et infinitis imposturis Romanensium nebulonum. (L. Opp. lat. in præf.) 2 Ranke Romische Pæbste, i. 71.

3 Concile de Trente, p. 4. Pallavicini, while pretending to refute Sarpi, confirms and even aggravates his testimony. Suo plane officio defuit. (Leo). venationes, facetias, pompas adeo frequentes.

i. p. 8, 9.)

(Concil. Trid. Hist.

and a little more inclination to piety, about which he never much troubled himself.

Leo required a great deal of money. He had to provide for his vast ordinary expenditure, to find means for indulging all his liberalities, to fill the purse of golden pieces which he daily threw among the people, to keep up the licentious shows of the Vatican, to satisfy the many calls of his relations and of his courtiers, persons devoted to voluptuousness, to endow his sister, who had been married to prince Cibo, natural son of Pope Innocent VIII., and to meet the expenses occasioned by his taste for literature, the arts, and other personal gratifications. His cousin, Cardinal Pulchi, who was no less expert in amassing wealth than Leo was in lavishing it away, recommended him to avail himself of the resource to be found in indulgences. The pope, accordingly, published a bull announcing a general indulgence, the produce of which was destined, he said, to the building of that monument of priestly magnificence, (St. Peter's church.) In a letter given at Rome, under the fisherman's ring, in Nov., 1517, Leo requires 147 golden ducats from his commissioner for indulgences, this sum being to pay for a manuscript of the thirty-third book of Livy. No doubt, of all the purposes to which he applied the money he obtained from the Germans, this was the best; still it was strange that souls should be rescued from purgatory, in order that a purchase might be made of the history of the Roman people's wars.

There was at that time in Germany a young prince who in many respects was the living image of Leo X. This was Albert, a younger brother of the elector Joachim of Brandenburg, and who first, at the age of four and twenty, had been created archbishop and elector of Maintz and Magdeburg, and, two years after, was appointed a cardinal. Albert had neither the virtues nor the vices often met with among the high dignitaries of the Church. Young, volatile, and worldly, but not without some generous feelings, he very clearly perceived several of the abuses of catholicity, and cared little for the fanatical monks that surrounded him. His candour led him to acknowledge, in part at least, the justice of the claims made by the friends of the Gospel. In his own secret heart he was not very much opposed to Luther. One of the most distinguished among