THE monastic orders were long among the chief props of Rome, but it is likely that they did more for the Reformation than they did against it: and this was especially true of the Augustinians. Almost all godly men of liberal and elevated minds, then residing in cloisters, turned towards the Gospel. Nothing was known in the world at large of the views held by Luther, but they had become the chief topic of conversation in the chapters and monasteries, and more than one cloister became a nursery of the Reformation, and when the powerful blows were struck by Luther men came forth, exchanging the retirement of monastic life, to be active ministers of the Word of God. During his tour of inspection, in 1516, Luther’s appeals aroused many slumbering souls: hence that year has been called “The morning star of the Reformation.”
When the year 1517 dawned upon the world, Pope Julius II. had gone to his account, and Leo X. occupied the Vatican. He was of the family of the Medici, a lover of the fine arts, of all sorts of amusements, refined in manners, but sensual and voluptuous in mind. He was not burdened with religious beliefs and convictions. He is credited with the well-known sneer, “What a profitable affair this fable of Christ has been to us!”
War and the neglect of former popes had caused the Church of St. Peter’s to fall into decay. Leo determined to restore or rebuild it in a more magnificent style, to exceed all other cathedrals in splendor. But it would cost millions: how was the money to be raised? Lavish expenditure on entertainments and other excesses had emptied his exchequer. But if the earthly treasury was empty, he had the spiritual or ecclesiastical to fall back upon. It was resolved to open a special sale of indulgences in all the countries of Europe. The license to sell in the different countries of Europe was disposed of to the highest bidders. The indulgences in Germany were farmed out to Albert, Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg. The bargain was struck, and the Archbishop sought out a man suited to his purpose. This was a Dominican monk, named John Tetzel. He had been an inquisitor, and had done some little huckstering with indulgences on his own account. This man, a son of a goldsmith at Leipsic, was a man of base character. He had been convicted of an unmentionable crime at Innspruck, and was condemned to be put into a sack and drowned, but intercession was made for him and he was reprieved. This man lived, unconsciously and unwillingly, to bring about the overthrow of the system that had nourished him.