father; and are you so ungrateful that you will not rescue your parent from torment? If you had but one coat, you ought to strip yourself instantly, in order to purchase such benefits."

Conduct so shameless excited great indignation, and gave rise to many complaints on the part of the princes, whose subjects were deluded and impoverished by the unprincipled monk. Their irritation was sometimes exhibited in a ludicrous manner.

On one occasion, while Tetzel

was carrying on his trade at Leipsic, a certain nobleman asked "if he could grant absolution for a sin which a man intended to commit.” "Certainly," replied the monk, "if the money be paid down." This was done, and the applicant received a diploma, duly signed and sealed, absolving him from the unknown crime. A short time afterward, as Tetzel was departing from the city, he was waylaid, robbed, and well beaten by the nobleman, who left him with this remark: "This is the sin I intended to commit, and for which I have your absolution in my pocket."

Tetzel soon came in contact with Luther. Some of the citizens of Wittemberg, who came to the Reformer to make the confessions required by the Church, refused to perform the penances he imposed, alleging in justification of themselves, that they had already purchased, forgiveness for their sins.

This occurrence at once

alarmed Luther, and called forth his indignation. He intimated from the pulpit the danger of trusting to the diplomas of Tetzel for salvation. Afterward, ignorant probably of his participation in the affair, he wrote to the Archbishop of Mentz, urging him to put a stop to the nefarious traffic: and finally, he posted up on one of the churches a paper containing ninety-five propositions against indulgences, and, as was then the custom, challenged any one to prove their falsehood, either in writing or in a public disputation. In this paper he did not absolutely deny the power to grant indulgences, but contented himself with pointing out its gross abuse. It is worthy of observation also, that he closed with expressions of reverence for the Pope and of entire submission to his authority; so little suspicion did he then have of the consequences to which the step he had taken would lead, and of the important part he was about to act, in diminishing the power of the Roman Church.

But the hour for reform had arrived. The people. were, in some measure, prepared for a change, and the public ear was open to the reception of truth. Men had begun to think and reflect; they felt the tyranny of the Pope; they saw the profligate character of the clergy; they thirsted for a purer faith; and they only waited for the appearance of a fit leader, to wage war

against their spiritual oppressors. That leader had now arisen; his sentiments were spread abroad, and his note of alarm was echoed from every side.

CHAPTER II.

PROGRESS OF THE CONTROVERSY CONCERNING INDULGENCES CONDUCT OF THE POPE — LUTHER'S INTERVIEWS WITH CAJETAN, AND MILTITZ — DISPUTE AT LEIPSIC-LUTHER EXCOMMUNICATED - BURNS THE PAPAL BULL-1517-1520.

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THE bold conduct of Luther greatly incensed Tetzel. He denounced the fearless monk as a heretic answered his attack in a publication containing one hundred and six propositions : and publicly burnt his challenge at Frankfort. Some of the zealous students of the university resented this last action, and, by way of retaliation, committed to the flames the writings of Tetzel. But their conduct on this occasion was severely censured by Luther; "he knew better," he said, "the rules of ecclesiastical subordination, and had more regard to his own character, than to stigmatize in such a manner a person so high in office." He did not, however, retreat from the position he had taken, but continued to write, and preach, and to expose with great plainness the growing abuse. Wherever he went he bore strong and faithful testimony against a corruption, so injurious to the souls of men and the good of the Church. This courageous deportment

led to the belief, that he was even thus early secretly encouraged by the Elector of Saxony. This impression he took care to contradict; "he desired to stand alone the shock of the contest, and protested that property, reputation, and honors were of no estimation with him, compared with the defence of the truth."

The Dominican monks felt that their whole order had been insulted in the person of their brother Tetzel, and they began to pour out their rage upon Luther, and to urge the Pope to crush him. At first, Leo resisted their importunities; "brother Martin," was the reply he made," is a man of very fine genius, and these squabbles are the mere effusions of monastic envy." But his Holiness soon found it necessary to abandon his wit and tone of indifference. The matter was found to be serious. Not only the venders of indulgences cried out against the man who had interrupted their traffic, but even the Emperor, Maximilian I, represented the heresy as dangerous and popular. Decided measures were loudly called for; and the Pontiff, with a rashness equal to his previous apathy, summoned Luther to appear at Rome within sixty days, and answer to the charges brought against him. He also wrote to the Elector of Saxony to obtain his assistance in securing the person of the heretic. Frederic was a man of much caution, and not prepared as