pression in money-money being always the brief and convenient representative of all mere external work. In so far as there was anything distinct in the character of indulgences, they were worse than even the general system of which they formed a part. While penance and priestly absolution, corrupted as they had become, confessedly rested upon the merits of Christ, and were held to imply contrition in the offender; indulgences were rested upon the special doctrine of the treasure of the Church or the overflowing merits of the saints, and were in some of their forms confessedly dispensed irrespective of the moral condition of the recipient. Regular ordination, moreover, was a requirement of the one system, whereas indulgence was arrogated by the Pope as his peculiar privilege, and could be exercised at will by any one nominated by him.*

It may be easily imagined what a system this was in the hands of an unscrupulous and low-minded agent; and such an agent, of the worst description, it was the misfortune of Rome to send abroad at this time through Germany. At Jüterbock, a few miles from Wittenberg and the borders of Saxony, which the Elector had refused him permission to enter, John Tetzel, a Dominican friar, established himself for the

* The alleged object of the plenary indulgence was to contribute to the completion of the Vatican Basilica, and its vaunted effect was to restore the possessor to the grace of God, and completely exempt him from the punishment of purgatory. There were, however, lesser forms of the papal blessing capable of procuring lesser favours. For the plenary indulgence, the necessity of confession and contrition was acknowledged; "the others could be obtained, without contrition or confession, by money alone."-RANKE, vol. i. p. 335.

sale of the papal indulgences. A shameless traffic had fallen into the hands of a man conspicuous for shamelessness of tongue, and who scrupled not at any blasphemy to exalt the value of his wares. As the dispenser of the treasure of the Church, he claimed to be on a level with St Peter, and even to have saved more souls than the apostle. Distinguished by an unblushing countenance and stentorian voice, with the papal red cross borne aloft, the papal brief prominently displayed to view, and the money-counter before him, he proclaimed aloud the merits of his paper pardons; while his companion, Friar Bartholomew, shouted always as he closed, "Come and buy! come and buy!" His mingled impudence and impiety almost baffle belief. He even went the length of saying, that "when one dropped a penny into the box for a soul | in purgatory, so soon as the money chinked in the chest the soul flew up to heaven."

When Luther heard what was going on in his neighbourhood, we can understand how his spirit was stirred in him. At first, indeed, and before the full enormities of the system became manifest, he seems to have taken it somewhat quietly. "He began," he himself says, "to preach with great moderation, that they might do something better and more certain than buying pardons." But when he saw the practical influence of the traffic on the members of his own flock, and heard of Tetzel's blasphemies, his whole soul was roused, and he exclaimed, "God willing, I will beat a hole in his drum." He felt the necessity of taking some decided step, as no one else seemed disposed to interfere. He took counsel with God and his own heart,

E

with none besides; and on the eve of All Saints, when the relics, collected with great pains by Frederick for his favourite church, were exposed to view, and multitudes thronged to gaze on them, Luther appeared among the crowd, and nailed on the gate of the church his ninety-five theses on the doctrine of Indulgences, which he offered to maintain in the university against all opponents, by word of mouth or in writing. These famous propositions generally asserted the necessity of spiritual repentance, and limited the dispensing power of the Pope to those penalties imposed by himself. They did not absolutely deny the doctrine of the treasure of the Church, but only the sole authority of the Pope over this treasure, and altogether denied that this treasure had any power to absolve the sinner without contrition and amendment on his part. "If the sinner had true contrition he received complete forgiveness; if he had it not, no brief of indulgence could avail him; for the Pope's absolution had no value in and for itself, but only in so far as it was a mark of divine favour."

The publication of these theses is commonly considered the starting-point of the Reformation. The excitement produced by them was intense and widespread. Luther's diocesan, the Bishop of Brandenburg, a good easy man, expressed sympathy, but counselled silence for peace's sake. Silence, however, was now no longer possible. Everywhere the excited popular feeling caught up the bold note of defiance. It seemed, in the words of Myconius, "as if angels themselves had carried them to the ears of all men." The excitement grew and strengthened, and sympathetic voices

were heard through all Germany.

Tetzel retreated

to Frankfort-on-the-Oder, and, with the assistance of Dr Wimpina, drew out a set of counter-theses, while he publicly committed those of Luther to the flames. But this was a game easily played at; and the students at Wittenberg retaliated, by seizing the messenger bearing the counter-theses, and burning them in the market-place. Frederick of Saxony refused to interfere. He did not encourage, he did not even promise to protect; but, what was the very best thing he could do, he let things take their course. Yet if the story of his dream be true, he must have had his own thoughts about the matter. It is told that on the night of All Saints, just after the theses were posted on the church doors, he lay at his castle of Scheinitz, six leagues distant, and as he was pondering how to keep the festival, he fell asleep, and dreamed that he saw the monk writing certain propositions on the chapel of the castle at Wittenberg, in so large a hand that it could be read at Scheinitz; the pen began to expand as he looked, and gradually grew longer and longer, till at last it reached to Rome, touched the Pope's triple crown, and made it totter. He inquired of the monk where he had got such a pen, and was answered that it once belonged to the wing of a goose in Bohemia. Presently other pens sprang out of the great pen, and seemed all busy writing; a loud noise was heard, and Frederick awoke. The dream, mythical or not, foreshadowed the great crisis at hand. The hundred years had revolved, and Huss's saying had come true. "To-day } you burn a goose; a hundred years hence a swan

*

* The meaning of the Bohemian name "Huss."

shall arise whom you will not be able to burn." The movement, long going on beneath the surface, and breaking out here and there ineffectually, had at length found a worthy champion; and all these forming impulses of the time gathered to Luther, welcomed him and helped him. The Humanists, Reuchlin, Erasmus, and others, expressed their sympathy; the war-party, Hutten and Seckingen, uttered their joy; above all, the great heart of the German people responded; and while the monk of Wittenberg seemed, as he said afterwards, to stand solitary in the breach, he was in reality encompassed by a cloud of witnesses, a great army of truth-seekers, at whose head he was destined to win for the world once more the triumph of truth and righteousness.

When the reality of the excitement produced by the theses became apparent, opposition as well as sympathy was of course awakened. Tetzel continued to rave at Frankfort-on-the-Oder; Hochstratten, professor at Cologne (the great seat of the anti-humanist reaction) and head inquisitor of Germany, clamoured for the heretic to be committed to the flames; Sylvester Prierias, the general of the Dominicans and censor of the press at Rome, published a reply in dialogue, in which, after the manner of dialogues, he complacently refuted the propositions of Luther, and consigned him to the ministers of the inquisition; and, last and most formidable of all, Dr Eck, a theological professor at Ingoldstadt, entered the lists against the reformer. Eck was an able man, well versed in the scholastic theology; and a warm friendship, founded apparently on genuine respect on either side, had hitherto existed