Luther and the Diet of Worms [pp. 145-161]

i6o LUTIrER A2VD TJIE DIET OF WORMs. [Nov.,
was there not a certain sum of money also required? This is a
question of some interest, and we would like to know what the
Roman pontiff did with the money thus obtained. This is no
mystery. It was devoted to pious uses. "Pious uses!" Sup.
pose you be ~ little more specific? Well, some was spent in the
erection of public hospitals, some was spent in building bridges,
some was spent in building churches, and some was spent in
wa~ against the Turks. Is that all? No, there is something
more it would be well for you to learn. Why, what is that?
It is that you owe it in all probability to the money spent in defence' of Christendom against the threatening Turks that you are
not to-day a follower of the false prophet Mohammed. What!
it is due to indulgences that I am not a Turk? In all sober truth,
yes!
But after this episode let us proceed with our narrative.
Tetzel, the Dominican, was the promulgator in Germany of the
indulgence proclaimed by Leo X., which owed its origin, it is
said, to his great desire to complete the magnificent church of
St. Peter's at Rome. Would to God that Leo X. would be the
last to wreck his reputation upon increasing too exclusively the
material grandeur of the church of God! Tetzel is charged
with having employed extravagant language in his harangues,
for which, it was said, his ecclesiastical superiors rebuked him,
and poor Tetzel died of a broken heart.
Germany at this moment was in an uneasy state. This in.
dulgence proclaimed by Leo X. was looked upon as an abuse,
particularly so by the secular princes, who, with their gaunt
purses, saw with fbelings of reluctance money taken from the
pockets of their German subjects and employed in building
churches in Italy. Luther's voice was now heard in attacking
indulgences and crying out for reform! Reform was undoubtedly needed. All the sincere and earnest Christians of that day
were in sympathy with this cry. Luther's position at that juncture of affairs was the right one. Listen to the letter which he
wrote in 1519 to the then reigning pontiff, Leo X.:
"That the Roman Church," he says, "is more honored by
God than all others is not to be doubted. St. Peter and St. Paul,
forty. six popes, some hundreds of thousands of martyrs, have
laid down their lives in its communion, having overcome hell
and the world; so that the eyes of God re~t on the Roman
Church with special favor. Though nowadays everything is in
a wretched state, it is no ground for separating from the church.
On the contrary, the worse things are going, the more should