[95] Certificates entitling the holder to choose his own confessor and authorizing the confessor to absolve him from certain classes of "reserved" sins; referred to in the XCV Theses as _confessionalia_. Cf. Vol. I, p. 22.
[96] Certificates granting their possessor permission to eat milk, eggs, butter and cheese on fast days.
[97] The word is used here in the broad sense, and means dispensations of all sorts, including those just mentioned, relating to penance.
[98] Equivalent to "carrying coals to Newcastle."
[99] The _Campo di Fiore_, a Roman market-place, restored and adorned at great expense by Eugenius IV (1431-1447), and his successors.
[100] A part of the Vatican palace notorious as the banqueting-hall of Alexander VI (1402-1503), turned by Julius II (1503-1513) into a museum for the housing of his wonderful and expensive collection of ancient works of art. Luther is hinting that the indulgence money has been spent on these objects rather than on the maintenance of the Church. Cf. Clemen, I, 384, note 15.
[101] i. e., The offices and positions in Rome which were for sale. See Benrath, p. 88, note 18; p. 95, note 36.
[103] The passage is chapter 31, _Filiis vel nepotibus_. It provides that in case the income of endowments bequeathed to the Church is misused, and appeals to the bishop and archbishop fail to correct the misuse, the heirs of the testator may appeal to the royal courts. Luther wishes this principle applied to the annates.
[104] See above, pp. 91 f.
[107] i. e.. Promises to bestow on certain persons livings not yet vacant. Complaint of the evils arising out of the practice was continually heard from the year 1416. For the complaints made at Worms (1521), see Wrede, _op. cit._, II, 710.
[108] See above, pp. 86 f.
[109] See above, pp. 92 f.
[112] Rules for the transaction of papal business, including such matters as appointments and the like. At Worms (1521) the Estates complain that these rules are made to the advantage of the "courtesans" and the disadvantage of the Germans. (Wrede, _op. cit._, II, pp. 675 f.)
[113] The local Church authorities, here equivalent to "the bishops." On use of term see _Realencyk._, XIV, 424.
[114] The sign of the episcopal office; as regards archbishops, the _pallium_; see above, p. 8q, and note.
[116] The first of the ecumenical councils (A. D. 325). The decree to which Luther here refers is canon IV of that Council. Cf. Köhler, _L. und die Kg._, pp. 139 ff.
[117] The primate is the ranking archbishop of a country.
[118] "Exemption" was the practice by which monastic houses were withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the bishops and made directly subject to the pope. The practice seems to have originated in the X Century with the famous monastery of Cluny (918), but it was almost universal in the case of the houses of the mendicant orders. The bishops made it a constant subject of complaint, and the Lateran Council (Dec. 19, 1516) passed a decree abolishing all monastic exemptions, though the decree does not seem to have been effective. See _Creighton_, History of the Papacy, V, 266.
[120] The papal interference in the conduct of the local Church courts was as flagrant as in the appointments, of which Luther has heretofore spoken. At Worms (1521) it was complained that cases were cited to Rome as a court of first instance, and the demand was made that a regular course of appeals should be re-established. Wrede, _op. cit._, II, 672, 718.
[121] The reference is Canon V of the Council of Sardica (A. D. 343), incorporated in the canon law as a canon of Nicaea (_Pt. II, qu. 6, c. 5_). See Köhler, _L. und die Kg._, 151.
[122] i. e., Appealed to Rome for decision. This is the subject of the first of the 102 _Gravamina_ of 1521 (Wrede, _op. cit._, II, 672).
[123] The judges in the bishops' courts. The complaint is that they interfere with the administration of justice by citing into their courts cases which properly belong in the lay courts, and enforce their verdicts (usually fines) by means of ecclesiastical censures. The charges against these courts are specified in the _Gravamina_ of 1521, Nos. 73-100 (Wrede, _op. cit._, II, 694-703).
[124] The _signatura gratiae_ and the _signatura justitiae_ were the bureaus through which the pope regulated those matters of administration which belonged to his own special prerogative.
[125] See above, pp. 88 f.
[128] i. e., The cases in which a priest was forbidden to give absolution. The reference here is to cases in which only the pope could absolve. Cf. _The XCV Theses_, Vol. I, p. 30.
[129] A papal bull published annually at Rome on Holy Thursday. It was directed against heretics, but to the condemnation of the heretics and their heresies was added a list of offences which could receive absolution only from the pope, or by his authorisation. In 1522 Luther translated this bull into German as a New Year present for the pope (_Weimar Ed._, VIII, 691). On Luther's earlier utterances concerning it, see Kohler, _L. u. die Kg._, pp. 59 2.
[130] The breve is a papal decree, of equal authority with the bull, but differing from it in form, and usually dealing with matters of smaller importance.
[131] Cf. Luther's earlier statement to the same effect in _A Discussion of Confession_, Vol. I, pp. 96 f.
[133] The Fifth Lateran Council (1512-17).
[135] In the canon law, _Decretal. Greg. lib. i, tit. 6, cap. 4_. The decretal forbids the bestowing of the pallium (see above, p. 89, note 3) on an archbishop elect, until he shall first have sworn allegiance to the Holy See.
[136] The induction of Church officials into office. The term was used particularly of the greater offices--those of bishop and abbot. These offices carried with them the enjoyment of certain incomes, and the possession of certain temporal powers. For this reason the right of investiture was a bone of contention between popes and emperors during the Middle Ages.
[137] Especially in the time of the Emperors Henry IV and V (1056-1125).
[138] The German Empire was regarded during the Middle Ages as a continuation of the Roman Empire. (See below, p. 153.) The right to crown an emperor was held to be the prerogative of the pope; until the pope bestowed the imperial crown, the emperor bore the title, "King of the Romans."
[139] In the canon law, _Decretal. Greg. lib. i, tit. 33, cap. 6._ [140] In the treatise, _Resolutio Lutheriana super propositione XIII, de potestate papae_ (1520). _Weimar Ed._, II, pp. 217 ff.; _Erl. Ed., op. var. arg._, Ill, pp. 293 ff.
[141] See p. 70.
[143] A decree of Pope Clement V of 1313, incorporated subsequently in the canon law, _Clement, lib. ii, tit. 11, cap. 2._ [144] A forged document of the VIII Century, professing to come from the hand of the Emperor Constantine (306-337). The Donation conveyed to the pope title to the city of Rome (the capital had been removed to Constantinople), certain lands in Italy and "the islands of the sea." It was used by the popes of the Middle Ages to support their claims to worldly power, and its genuineness was not disputed. In 1440, however, Laurentius Valla, an Italian humanist, published a work in which he proved that the Donation was a forgery. This work was republished in Germany by Ulrich von Hutten in 1517, and seems to have come to Luther's attention in the early part of 1520, just before the composition of the present treatise (C. Enders II, 332). Luther subsequently (1537) issued an annotated translation of the text of the Donation (_Erl. Ed._, XXV, pp. 176 ff.).
[145] The papal claim to temporal sovereignty over this little kingdom, which comprised the island of Sicily and certain territories in Southern Italy, goes back to the XI Century, and was steadily asserted during the whole of the later Middle Ages. It was one of the questions at issue in the conflict between the Emperor Frederick II (1200-1260) and the popes, and played an important part in the history of the stormy times which followed the all of the Hohenstaufen. The popes claimed the right to award the kingdom to a ruler who would swear allegiance to the Holy See. The right to the kingdom was at this time contested between the royal houses of France and of Spain, of which latter house the Emperor Charles V was the head.
[146] The popes claimed temporal sovereignty over a strip of territory in Italy, beginning at Rome and stretching in a northeasterly direction across the peninsula to a point on the Adriatic south of Venice, including the cities and lands which Luther mentions. This formed the so-called "States of the Church." The attempt to consolidate the States and make the papal sovereignty effective involved Popes Alexander VI (1492-1503) and Julius II (1503-1513) in war and entangled them in political alliances with the European powers and petty Italian states. It resulted at last in actual war between Pope Clement VII and the Emperor Charles V (1526-1527). See Cambridge _Modern History_, I, 104-143; 219-252, and literature cited pp. 706-713; 727 f.
[147] A free translation of the Vulgate, _Nemo militans Deo_.
[148] The kissing of the pope's feet was a part of the "adoration" which he claimed as his right. See above, p. 108.
[149] The three paragraphs enclosed in brackets were added by Luther to the 2d edition; see Introduction, p. 59.
[150] The holy places of Rome had long been favorite objects of pilgrimage, and the practice had been zealously fostered by the popes through the institution of the "golden" or "jubilee years." Cf. Vol. I, p. 18, and below, p. 114.
[151] Cf. the Italian proverb, "God is everywhere except at Rome; there He has a vicar."
[152] Cf. Hutten's saying in _Vadiscus_: "Three things there are which those who go to Rome usually bring home with them, a bad conscience, a ruined stomach and an empty purse." (Ed. Böcking, IV, p. 169.)
[153] The "golden" or "jubilee years" were the years when special rewards were attached to worship at the shrines of Rome. The custom was instituted by Boniface VIII in 1300, and it was the intention to make every hundredth year a jubilee. In 1343 the interval between jubilees was fixed at fifty, in 1389 at thirty-three, in 1473 at twenty-five years. Cf. Vol. I, p. 18.
[154] Cf. the statements in the _Treatise on Baptism_ and the _Discussion of Confession_, Vol. I, pp. 68 ff., 98.
[155] The houses, or monasteries, of the mendicant or "begging" orders--the "friars." The members of these orders were sworn to support themselves on the alms of the faithful.
[156] The three leading mendicant orders were the Franciscan (the Minorites, or "little brothers"), founded by St. Francis of Assisi (died 1226), the Dominican (the "preaching brothers"), founded by St. Dominic (died 1221), and the Augustinian Hermits, to which Luther himself belonged, and which claimed foundation by St. Augustine (died 430).
[157] The interference of the friars in the duties of the parish clergy was a continual subject of complaint through this period.
[158] By the middle of the XV Century there were eight distinct sects within the Franciscan order alone (See _Realencyk._, VI, pp. 212 ff.), and Luther had himself taken part in a vigorous dispute between two parties in the Augustinian order.
[159] St. Agnes the Martyr, put to death in the beginning of the IV Century, one of the favorite saints of the Middle Ages. See Schäfer, _L. als Kirchenhistoriker_, p. 235.
[160] One of the most famous of the German convents, founded in 936.
[161] The celebrated Church Father (died 420). The passages referred to are in _Migne_, XXII, 656, and XXVI, 562.
[162] Or "community" (_Gemeine_). Cf. _The Papacy at Rome_, Vol. I. p. 345, note 4. See also _Dass eine christl. Gemeine Recht und Macht habe_, etc. _Weimar Ed._ XI, pp. 408 ff.
[163] Or "congregation." See note 2.
[164] i. e.. At a time later than that of the Apostles.
[165] The first absolute prohibition of marriage to the clergy is contained in a decree of Pope Siricius and dated 385. See H. C. Lea, _History of Sacerdotal Celibacy_, 3d ed. (1907), I, pp. 59 ff.
[166] The priests of the Greek Church are required to marry, and the controversy over celibacy was involved in the division between the Greek and Roman Churches.
[168] i. e., Lie in Roman appointment.
[169] i. e., The ministry in the congregation. See above, p. 119.
[170] _Quantum ragilitas humana permittit_. A qualification of the vow.
[172] _Fragilitas humana non permittit caste vivere_.
[173] _Angelica fortitudo at coelestis virtus_.
[174] The court-jester was allowed unusual freedom of speech. See Prefatory Letter above, p. 62.
[175] The laws governing marriage were entirely the laws of the Church. The canon law prohibited marriage of blood-relatives as far as the seventh degree of consanguinity. In 1204 the prohibition was restricted to the first our degrees; lawful marriage within these degrees was possible only by dispensation, which was not all too difficult to secure, especially by those who were willing to pay for it (see above, p. 96). The relation of god-parents to god-children was also held to establish a "spiritual consanguinity" which might serve as a bar to lawful marriage. See Benrath, p. 103, note 74, and in the Babylonian Captivity, below, p. 265.
[176] This Luther actually did. When he burned the papal bull of excommunication (Dec. 10, 1520) a copy of the canon law was also given to the flames.
[177] i. e., The marriage of the clergy.
[178] On this sort of reserved cases see Discussion of Confession, Vol. I, pp. 96 ff.
[179] "Irregularity" is the condition of any member of a monastic order who has violated the prescriptions of the order and been deprived, in consequence, of the benefits enjoyed by those who live under the _regula_, viz., the rule of the order.
[180] The three kinds of masses are really but one thing, viz., masses for the dead, celebrated on certain fixed days in each year, in consideration of the enjoyment of certain incomes, received either out of bequeathed endowments or from the heirs of the supposed beneficiaries.
[181] i. e., Even when the mass is decently said.
[185] The _Treatise concerning the Ban_, above, pp. 33 ff.
[186] i. e., To those who teach and enforce the canon law.
[187] Luther means the saint's-days and minor religious holidays. See also the _Discourse on Good Works_, Vol. I, pp. 240 f.
[188] Or "congregation."
[190] _Kirchweihen_, i. e., the anniversary celebration of the consecration of a church. These days had become feast days for the parish, and were observed in anything but a spiritual fashion.
[191] i. e., Occasions for drunkenness, gain and gambling.
[192] See above, pp. 96 f.
[194] Letters entitling their holder to the benefits of the masses founded by the sodalities or confraternities. See Benrath, p. 103.
[196] The pun is untranslatable,--_Netz, Gesetz solt ich sagen_.
[197] What the pope sold was release from the "snares" and "nets," viz., dispensation.
[198] i. e., Even into the law of the church.
[199] _Die wilden Kapellen und Feldkirchen_, i. e., churches which are built in the country, where there are no congregations.
[200] A little town in East Prussia, where was displayed a sacramental wafer, said to have been miraculously preserved from a fire which destroyed the church in 1383. It was alleged that at certain times this wafer exuded drops of blood, reverenced as the blood of Christ, and many miracles were said to have been performed by it. Wilsnack early became a favorite resort for pilgrims. In 1412 the archbishop of Prague, at the instigation of John Hus, forbade the Bohemians to go there. Despite the protests of the Universities of Leipzig and Erfurt, Pope Eugenius IV in 1446 granted special indulgences for this pilgrimage, and the popularity of the shrine was undiminished until the time of the Reformation. Cf. _Realencyk_, xxi, pp. 347 ff.
[201] In Mecklenburg, where another relic of "the Holy Blood" was displayed after 1491. C. Benrath, pp. 104 f.
[202] The "Holy Coat of Trier" was believed by the credulous to be the seamless coat of Christ, which the soldiers did not rend. It was first exhibited in 1512, but was said to have been presented to the cathedral church of Trier by the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great.
[203] Pilgrimage to the Grimmenthal in Meiningen began in 1499. An image of the Virgin, declared to have been miraculously created, was displayed there, and was alleged to work wonderful cures, especially of syphilis.
[204] The "Fair Virgin (_die schöne Maria_) of Regensburg" was an image of the Virgin similar to that exhibited in the Grimmenthal. The shrine was opened March 25, 1519, and within a month 50,000 pilgrims are said to have worshipped there. (_Weimar Ed._, VI, 447, note 1). For another explanation see Benrath, p. 105.
[205] The pilgrimages were a source of large revenue, derived from the sale of medals which were worn as amulets, the fees for masses at the shrines, and the free-will offerings of the pilgrims. A large part of this revenue accrued to the bishop of the diocese, though the popes never overlooked the profits which the sale of indulgences or worship at these shrines could produce. In the _Gravamina_ of 1521 complaint is made that the bishops demand at least 25 to 33 per cent, of the offerings made at shrines of pilgrimage (Wrede, _op. cit._, II, 687).
[207] The possession of a saint gave a church a certain reputation and distinction, which was sufficiently coveted to make local Church authorities willing to pay roundly for the canonisation of a departed bishop or other local dignitary. Cf. Hutten's _Vadiscus_ (Böcking, IV, 232).
[208] Archbishop of Florence (died 1450). He was canonised, May 31, 1523, by Pope Hadrian VI. When Luther wrote this the process of canonisation had already begun.
[209] _Indulta_, i. e., grants of special privilege.
[210] "Lead," the leaden seal attached to the bull; "hide", the parchment on which it is written; "the string," the ribbon or silken cord from which the seals depend; "wax," the seal holding the cord to the parchment.
[211] Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, Carmelites and Servites.
[212] _Botschaten_, interpreted by _Benrath_ (p. 105), Clemen (I, 406, note) and Weimar Ed. (VI, 406, note 1) as a reference to the _stationarii_. They were wandering beggars who, for an alms, would enroll the contributor in the list of beneficiaries of their patron saint, an alleged insurance against disease, accident, etc. They were classified according to the names of their patron saints, St. Anthony, St. Hubert, St. Valentine, etc. Protests against their operations were raised at the Diets of Worms (1521) and Nürnberg (1523). Included in these protests are the _terminarii_, i.e., the collectors of alms sent out by the mendicant orders. See Wrede, _op. cit._, II, 678, 688, III, 651, and Benrath, loc. cit.
[213] _Wallbrüder_, the professional pilgrims who spent their lives in wandering from one place of pilgrimage to another and subsisted on the alms of the faithful.
[214] i. e., If the plan above proposed were adopted.
[216] See _Treatise on the New Testament_, Vol. I, pp. 308 ff.
[217] In the _Babylonian Captivity_ (below, pp. 291 f.) Luther definitely excludes penance from the number of sacraments, but see also p. 177.
[218] The sodalities ("fraternities," "confraternities"), still an important institution in the Roman Church, flourished especially in the XVI Century. They are associations for devotional purposes. The members of the sodalities are obligated to the recitation of certain prayers and the attendance upon certain masses at stipulated times. By virtue of membership in the association each member is believed to participate in the benefits accruing from these "good works" of all the members. In the case of most of the sodalities membership entitled the member to the enjoyment of certain indulgences. In 1520 Wittenberg boasted of 20 such fraternities, Cologne of 80, Hamburg of more than 100 (Realencyk., Ill, 437). In 1519 Degenhard Peffinger, of Wittenberg, was a member of 8 such fraternities in his home city, and of 27 in other places. For Luther's view of the sodalities see above, pp. 8, 26 ff. On the whole subject see Benrath, pp. 106 f.; Kolde in _Realencyk._, III, pp. 434 ff.; Lea, _Hist. of Conf. and Indulg_, III, pp. 470 ff.
[221] The excesses committed at the feasts of the religious societies were often a public scandal. See Lea, _Hist, of Conf. and Indulg_, III, pp. 437 ff.
[222] "Faculties" were extraordinary powers, usually for the granting of indulgences and of absolution in "reserved cases" (see above, p. 105, note 3). They were bestowed by the pope and could be revoked by him at any time. Sometimes they were given to local Church officials, but were usually held by the legates or commissaries sent from Rome. Complaints were made at the Diets of Worms (1520) and Nürnberg (1523) that the papal commissaries and legates interfered with the ordinary methods of ecclesiastical jurisdiction and appointment. See Weede, _op. cit._, II, 673, III, 653.
[223] Wladislav I forced the Sultan to sue for peace in 1443. At the instigation of the papal legate, Cardinal Caesarini, who represented that the treaty had not been approved by the pope, and absolved the king from the fulfilment of its conditions, he renewed the war in 1444. At the battle of Varna, Nov. 10th, 1444, the Hungarians were decisively defeated, and Wladislav and Caesarini both killed. See Creighton, _Hist. of the Papacy_, III, 67.
[224] John Hus and Jerome of Prague were convicted of heresy by the Council of Constance and burned at the stake, the former July 6th, 1415, the latter May 30th, 1416. Hus had come to Constance under the safe-conduct of the Emperor Sigismund. Luther is in error when he assumes that Jerome had a similar safe-conduct. In September, 1415, the Council passed a decree which asserted that "neither by natural, divine or human law was any promise to be observed to the prejudice of the catholic faith." On the whole matter of the safe-conduct and its violation see Lea, _Hist. of the Inquisition in the M.A._, II, pp. 453 ff.
[225] The League of Cambray, negotiated in 1508 for war against Venice. In 1510 Venice made terms with the pope and detached him from the alliance, and the result was war between the pope and the King of France. See Cambridge _Modern History_, I, pp. 130 ii., and literature there cited.
[226] i. e. The Hussites. After the martyrdom of Hus his followers maintained for a time a strong organisation in Bohemia, and resisted with arms all attempts to force them into conformity with the Roman Church. The Council of Basel succeeded (1434) in reconciling the more moderate party among the Bohemians (the Calixtines) by allowing the administration of the cup to the laity. The more extreme party, however, refused to subscribe the _Compactata_ of Basel. Though they soon ceased to be a actor in the political situation, they remained outside the Church and perpetuated the teachings of Hus in sectarian organisations. The most important of these, the so-called Bohemian Brethren, had extended into Poland and Prussia before Luther's time. See _Realencyk._, Ill, 465-467.
[229] The Archbishop of Prague was primate of the Church in Bohemia.
[230] The dioceses of these bishops were contiguous to that of the Archbishop of Prague.
[232] _Lass man ihn ein gut jar ha ben_, literally, "Bid him good-day."
[233] One of the chief points of controversy between the Roman Church and the Hussites. The Roman Church administered to the laity only the bread, the Hussites used both elements. See below, pp. 178 f.
[234] Luther had not yet reached the conviction that the administration of the cup to the laity was a necessity, but see the argument in _the Babylonian Captivity_, below, pp. 178 ff.
[235] The Bohemian Brethren, who are here distinguished from the Hussites, Cf. _Realencyk._, Ill, 452, 49.
[236] St. Thomas Aquinas, the great Dominican theologian of the XIII. Century (1225-74), whose influence is still dominant in Roman theology.
[237] The view of the sacramental presence adopted by William of Occam. For Luther's own view at this time, see below, pp. 187 ff.
[238] i. e., If they did not believe in the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Lord's Supper.
[239] Places for training youths in Greek glory.
[240] The philosophy of Aristotle dominated the mediæval universities. It not only provided the forms in which theological and religious truth came to expression, but it was the basis of all scientific study in every department. The man who did not know Aristotle was an ignoramus.
[241] Or, "I have read him." Luther's _lesen_ allows of either interpretation.
[242] Duns Scotus, died 1308. In the XV and XVI Centuries he was regarded as the rival of Thomas Aquinas for first place among the theological teachers of the Church.
[243] i. e., In the universities.
[244] See above, pp. 94 f.
[245] i. e., "The chamber of his heart." Boniface VIII (1294-1303) had decreed, _Romanus pontiex jura omnia in scrinio pectoris sui censetur habere_, "the Roman pontiff has all laws in the chamber of his heart." This decree was received into the canon law (_c._ I, de const. In VIto (I, 2)).
[246] _Doctores decretorum_, "Doctor of Decrees," an academic degree occasionally given to professors of Canon Law; _doctor scrinii papalis_, "Doctor of the Papal Heart."
[247] The introduction of Roman law into Germany, as the accepted law of the empire, had begun in the XII Century. With the decay of the feudal system and the increasing desire of the rulers to provide their government with some effective legal system, its application became more widespread, until by the end of the XV Century it was the accepted system of the empire. The attempt to apply this ancient law to conditions utterly different from those of the time when it was formulated, and the continual conflict between the Roman law, the feudal customs and the remnants of Germanic legal ideas, naturally gave rise to a state of affairs which Luther could justly speak of as "a wilderness."
[248] "Sentences" (_Sententiae, libri sententiarum_) was the title of the text-books in theology. Theological instruction was largely by way of comment on the most famous book of Sentences, that of Peter Lombard.
[251] The head-dress of the doctors.
[253] i. e., The monasteries and nunneries.
[254] i. e.. The name of Christian.
[255] This section did not appear in the first edition; see Introduction, p. 59.
[256] Charles the Great, King of the Franks, was crowned Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III in the year 800 A. D. He was a German, but regarded himself successor to the line of emperors who had ruled at Rome. The fiction was fostered by the popes, and the German kings, after receiving the papal coronation, were called Roman Emperors. From this came the name of the German Empire of the Middle Ages, "the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation." The popes of the later Middle Ages claimed that the bestowal of the imperial dignity lay in the power of the pope, and Pope Clement V (1313) even claimed that in the event of a vacancy the pope was the possessor of the imperial power (cf. above, p. 109). On the whole subject see Bryce, _Holy Roman Empire_, 2d ed. (1904), and literature there cited.
[257] The city of Rome was sacked by the Visigoths in 410.
[258] Luther is characteristically careless about his chronology. By the "Turkish Empire" he means the Mohammedan power.
[259] _So sol man die Deutschen teuschen und mit teuschen teuschenn_, i.e., made Germans (_Deutsche_) by cheating (_teuschen_) them.
[261] Such a law as Luther here suggests was proposed to the Diet of Worms (1521). Text in Wrede, _Reischstagsakten_, II, 335-341.
[263] Spices were one of the chief articles of foreign commerce in the XVI Century. The discovery of the cape-route to India had given the Portuguese a practical monopoly of this trade. A comparative statement of the cost of spices for a period of years was reported to the Diet of Nürnberg (1523). See Wrede, _op. cit._, III, 576.
[264] The _Zinskauf_ or _Rentenkauf_ was a means or evading the prohibition of usury. The buyer purchased an annuity, but the purchase price was not regarded as a loan, or it could not be recalled, and the annual payments could not therefore be called interest.
[265] The practice was legalised by the Lateran Council, 1512.
[266] The XVI Century was the hey-day of the great trading-companies, among which the Fuggers of Augsburg (see above, p. 97, note 5) easily took first place. The effort of these companies was directed toward securing monopolies in the staple articles of commerce, and their ability to finance large enterprises made it possible for them to gain practical control of the home markets. The sharp rise in the cost of living which took place on the first half of the XVI Century was laid at their door. The Diet of Cologne (1512) had passed a stringent law against monopolies which had, however, failed to suppress them. The Diet of Worms (1521) debated the subject (Wrede, _Reichstagsakten_ II, pp. 355 iff.) "in somewhat heated language" (_ibid._, 842), but failed to agree upon methods of suppression. The subject was discussed again at the Diet of Nürnberg (1523) and various remedies were proposed (ibid., Ill, 556-599).
[267] The profits of the trading-companies were enormous. The 9 per cent, annually of the Welser (Ehrenberg, _Zeitalter der Fugger_, I, 195), pales into insignificance beside the 1634 per cent, by which the fortune of the Fuggers grew in twenty-one years (Schulte, _Die Fugger in Rom_, I, 3). In 1511 a certain Bartholomew Rem invested 900 gulden in the Hochstetter company of Augsburg; by 1517 he claimed 33,000 gulden profit. The company was willing to settle at 26,000, and the resulting litigation caused the figures to become public (Wrede, _op. cit._, II, 842, note 4; III, pp. 574 ff.). On Luther's view of capitalism see Eck, _Introduction to the Sermon von Kaushandlungund Wucher_, in _Berl. Ed._, VII, 494-513.
[268] The Diets of Augsburg (1500) and Cologne (1512) had passed edicts against drunkenness. A committee of the Diet of Worms (1521) recommended that these earlier edicts be reaffirmed (Wrede, _op. cit._, II, pp. 343 f.), but the Diet adjourned without acting on the recommendation (ibid., 737) [269] _Sie wollen ausbuben, so sich's vielmehr hineinbubt_.
[271] In the _Confitendi Ratio_ Luther had set the age for men at eighteen to twenty, or women at fifteen to sixteen years. See Vol. I, p. 100.
[272] Translated in this edition, Vol. I, pp. 184 ff; see especially pp. 266 ff.
[273] These sentences did not appear in the first edition.
[275] This "little song" is the _Prelude on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church_. See below, pp. 170 ff.
A PRELUDE ON THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY OF THE CHURCH 1520 INTRODUCTION In the _Open Letter to the Christian Nobility_ Luther overthrew the three walls behind which Rome sat entrenched in her spiritual-temporal power; in the _Babylonian Captivity of the Church_ he enters and takes her central stronghold and sanctuary--the sacramental system by which she accompanied and controlled her members from the cradle to the grave; only then could he set forth, in language of almost lyrical rapture, the _Liberty of a Christian Man_.
The first of these three great reformatory treatises of the year 1520, as they have been called, closed with the words: "I know another little song about Rome, and if their ears itch to hear it I will sing it for them, and pitch it in a high key. Dost thou take my meaning, beloved Rome?" (See above, p. 164.) That some ears were itching to hear his little song was brought home to Luther especially by two writings, the one appearing in the summer of 1520, the other published in the previous autumn, but not reaching Wittenberg until some months later.
The former came from the pen of Augustin Alveld, that "celebrated Romanist of Leipzig," against whom Luther had culminated in _The Papacy at Rome_, promising further disclosures if Alveld "came again." (See Vol. I, p. 393.) He came again, this time with a _Tractatus de communione sub utraque specie_,--date of dedication, June 23, 1520. "The Leipzig ass has set up a fresh braying against me, full of blasphemies"; thus Luther describes it in a letter to Spalatin, July 22, 1520. (Enders, _Luther's Briewechsel_, II, no. 328.)
The other work was the anonymous tract of a "certain Italian friar of Cremona," who has only recently been identified as Isidore Isolani, a Dominican hailing from Milan, who taught theology in various Italian cities, wrote a number of controversial works and died in 1528. (See Fr. Lauchert, _Die italienischen literarischen Gegner Luthers_, Freiburg, 1912.) The title of his tract is, _Revocatio Martini Lutheri Augustiniani ad sanctam Sedem_; its date, Cremona, November 20, 1520, according to Enders, which is a mistake for November 22,1519. Its beginning and close, which have epistolary character, are printed in Enders, II, no. 366, and one paragraph from each is translated in Smith, _Luther's Correspondence_, I, no. 199.