# Of The Matters To Be Considered In The Councils

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> Of The Matters To Be Considered In The Councils
> Martin Luther Index  Previous: The Three Walls Of The Romanists  Next: Respecting The Reformation Of The Christian Estate (Part I)  
> 
> Of The Matters To Be Considered In The Councils
> 
>      Let us now consider the matters which should be treated in the councils,
> and with which popes, cardinals, bishops, and all learned men should occupy
> themselves day and night, if they love Christ and His Church. But if they do
> not do so, the people at large and the temporal powers must do so, without
> considering the thunders of their excommunications. For an unjust
> excommunication is better than ten just absolutions, and an unjust absolution
> is worse than ten just excommunications. Therefore let us rouse ourselves,
> fellow-Germans, and fear God more than man, that we be not answerable for all
> the poor souls that are so miserably lost through the wicked, devilish
> government of the Romanists, and that the dominion of the devil should not
> grow day by day, if indeed this hellish government can grow any worse, which,
> for my part, I can neither conceive nor believe.
> 
>      1. It is a distressing and terrible thing to see that the head of
> Christendom, who boasts of being the vicar of Christ and the successor of St.
> Peter, lives in a worldly pomp that no king or emperor can equal, so that in
> him that calls himself most holy and most spiritual there is more worldliness
> than in the world itself. He wears a triple crown, whereas the mightiest kings
> only wear one crown. If this resembles the poverty of Christ and St. Peter, it
> is a new sort of resemblance. They prate of its being heretical to object to
> this; nay, they will not even hear how unchristian and ungodly it is. But I
> think that if he should have to pray to God with tears, he would have to lay
> down his crowns; for God will not endure any arrogance. His office should be
> nothing else than to weep and pray constantly for Christendom and to be an
> example of all humility.
> 
>      However this may be, this pomp is a stumbling-block, and the Pope, for
> the very salvation of his soul, ought to put if off, for St. Paul says,
> "Abstain from all appearance of evil" (1 Thess. v. 21), and again, "Provide
> things honest in the sight of all men" (2 Cor. viii. 21). A simple mitre would
> be enough for the pope: wisdom and sanctity should raise him above the rest;
> the crown of pride he should leave to antichrist, as his predecessors did some
> hundreds of years ago. They say, He is the ruler of the world. This is false;
> for Christ, whose vicegerent and vicar he claims to be, said to Pilate, "My
> kingdom is not of this world" (John xviii. 36). But no vicegerent can have a
> wider dominion than this Lord, nor is he a vicegerent of Christ in His glory,
> but of Christ crucified, as St. Paul says, "For I determined not to know
> anything among you save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified" (2 Cor. ii. 2), and
> "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who made Himself of
> no reputation, and took upon Himself the form of a servant" (Phil. ii. 5, 7).
> Again, "We preach Christ crucified" (1 Cor. i.). Now they make the Pope a
> vicegerent of Christ exalted in heaven, and some have let the devil rule them
> so thoroughly that they have maintained that the Pope is above the angels in
> heaven and has power over them, which is precisely the true work of the true
> antichrist.
> 
>      2. What is the use in Christendom of the people called "cardinals"? I
> will tell you. In Italy and Germany there are many rich convents, endowments,
> fiefs, and benefices, and as the best way of getting these into the hands of
> rRome, they created cardinals, and gave them the sees, convents, and
> prelacies, and thus destroyed the service of God. That is why Italy is almost
> a desert now: the convents are destroyed, the sees consumed, the revenues of
> the prelacies and of all the churches drawn to Rome; towns are decayed, the
> country and the people ruined, because there is no more any worship of God or
> preaching; why? Because the cardinals must have all the wealth. No Turk could
> have thus desolated Italy and overthrown the worship of God.
> 
>      Now that Italy is sucked dry, they come to Germany and begin very
> quietly; but if we look on quietly Germany will soon be brought into the same
> state as Italy. We have a few cardinals already. What the Romanists mean
> thereby the drunken Germans [4] are not to see until they have lost everything
> - bishoprics, convents, benefices, fiefs, even to their last farthing.
> Antichrist must take the riches of the earth, as it is written (Dan. xi. 8,
> 39, 43). They begin by taking off the cream of the bishoprics, convents and
> fiefs; and as they do not dare to destroy everything as they have done in
> Italy, they employ such holy cunning to join together ten or twenty prelacies,
> and take such a portion of each annually that the total amounts to a
> considerable sum. The priory of Wurzburg gives one thousand guilders; those of
> Bamberg, Mayence, Treves, and others also contribute. In this way they collect
> one thousand or ten thousand guilders, in order that a cardinal may live at
> Rome in a state like that of a wealthy monarch.
> 
> [4: The epithet "drunken" was formerly often applied by the Italians
> to the Germans.]
> 
>      After we have gained this, we will create thirty or forty cardinals on
> one day, and give one St. Michael's Mount, [5] near Bamberg, and likewise the
> see of Wurzburg, to which belong some rich benefices, until the churches and
> the cities are desolated; and then we shall say, We are the vicars of Christ,
> the shepherds of Christ's flocks; those mad, drunken Germans must submit to
> it. I advise, however, that there be made fewer cardinals, or that the Pope
> should have to support them out of his own purse. It would be amply sufficient
> if there were twelve, and if each of them had an annual income of one thousand
> guilders.
> 
> [5: Luther alludes here to the Benedictine convent standing on the
> Monchberg, or St. Michael's Mount.]
> 
>      What has brought us Germans to such a pass that we have to suffer this
> robbery and this destruction of our property by the Pope? If the kingdom of
> France has resisted it, why do we Germans suffer ourselves to be fooled and
> deceived? It would be more endurable if they did nothing but rob us of our
> property; but they destroy the Church and deprive Christ's flock of their good
> shepherds, and overthrow the service and word of God. Even if there were no
> cardinals at all, the Church would not perish, for they do nothing for the
> good of Christendom; all they do is to traffic in and quarrel about prelacies
> and bishoprics, which any robber could do as well.
> 
>      3. If we took away ninety-nine parts of the Pope's Court and only left
> one hundredth, it would still be large enough to answer questions on matters
> of belief. Now there is such a swarm of vermin at Rome, all called papal, that
> Babylon itself never saw the like. There are more than three thousand papal
> secretaries alone; but who shall count the other office-bearers, since there
> are so many offices that we can scarcely count them, and all waiting for
> German benefices, as wolves wait for a flock of sheep? I think Germany now
> pays more to the Pope than it formerly paid the emperors; nay, some think more
> than three hundred thousand guilders are sent from Germany to Rome every year,
> for nothing whatever; and in return we are scoffed at and put to shame. Do we
> still wonder why princes, noblemen, cities, foundations, convents, and people
> grow poor? We should rather wonder that we have anything left to eat.
> 
>      Now that we have got well into our game, let us pause a while and show
> that the Germans are not such fools as not to perceive or understand this
> Romish trickery. I do not here complain that God's commandments and Christian
> justice are despised at Rome; for the state of things in Christendom,
> especially at Rome, is too bad for us to complain of such high matters. Nor do
> I even complain that no account is taken of natural or secular justice and
> reason. The mischief lies still deeper. I complain that they do not observe
> their own fabricated canon law, though this is in itself rather mere tyranny,
> avarice, and worldly pomp, than a law. This we shall now show.
> 
>      Long ago the emperors and princes of Germany allowed the Pope to claim
> the annates [6] from all German benefices; that is, half of the first year's
> income from every benefice. The object of this concession was that the Pope
> should collect a fund with all this money to fight against the Turks and
> infidels, and to protect Christendom, so that the nobility should not have to
> bear the burden of the struggle alone, and that the priests should also
> contribute. The popes have made such use of this good simple piety of the
> Germans that they have taken this money for more than one hundred years, and
> have now made of it a regular tax and duty; and not only have they accumulated
> nothing, but they have founded out of it many posts and offices at Rome, which
> are paid by it yearly, as out of a ground-rent.
> 
> [6: The duty of paying annates to the Pope was established by John
> XXII. in 1319.]
> 
>      Whenever there is any pretence of fighting the Turks, they send out some
> commission for collecting money, and often send out indulgences under the
> same pretext of fighting the Turks. They think we Germans will always remain
> such great and inveterate fools that we will go on giving money to satisfy
> their unspeakable greed, though we see plainly that neither annates, nor
> absolution money, nor any other-not one farthing-goes against the Turks, but
> all goes into the bottomless sack. They lie and deceive, form and make
> covenants with us, of which they do not mean to keep one jot. And all this is
> done in the holy name of Christ and St. Peter.
> 
>      This being so, the German nation, the bishops and princes, should
> remember that they are Christians, and should defend the people, who are
> committed to their government and protection in temporal and spiritual
> affairs, from these ravenous wolves in sheep's clothing that profess to be
> shepherds and rulers; and since the annates are so shamefully abused, and the
> covenants concerning them not carried out, they should not suffer their lands
> and people to be so piteously and unrighteously flayed and ruined; but by an
> imperial or a national law they should either retain the annates in the
> country, or abolish them altogether. For since they do not keep to the
> covenants, they have no right to the annates; therefore bishops and princes
> are bound to punish this thievery and robbery, or prevent it, as justice
> demands. And herein should they assist and strengthen the Pope, who is
> perchance too weak to prevent this scandal by himself, or, if he wishes to
> protect or support it, restrain and oppose him as a wolf and tyrant; for he
> has no authority to do evil or to protect evil-doers. Even if it were proposed
> to collect any such treasure for use against the Turks, we should be wise in
> future, and remember that the German nation is more fitted to take charge of
> it than the Pope, seeing that the German nation by itself is able to provide
> men enough, if the money is forthcoming. This matter of the annates is like
> many other Romish pretexts.
> 
>      Moreover, the year has been divided among the Pope and the ruling bishops
> and foundations in such wise that the Pope has taken every other month-six in
> all-to give away the benefices that fall in his month; in this way almost all
> the benefices are drawn into the hands of Rome, and especially the best
> livings and dignities. And those that once fall into the hands of Rome never
> come out again, even if they never again fall vacant in the Pope's month. In
> this way the foundations come very short of their rights, and it is a
> downright robbery, the object of which is not to give up anything again.
> Therefore it is now high time to abolish the Pope's months and to take back
> again all that has thereby fallen into the hands of Rome. For all the princes
> and nobles should insist that the stolen property shall be returned, the
> thieves punished, and that those who abuse their powers shall be deprived of
> them. If the Pope can make a law on the day after his election by which he
> takes our benefices and livings to which he has no right, the Emperor Charles
> should so much the more have a right to issue a law for all Germany on the day
> after his coronation [7] that in future no livings and benefices are to fall to
> Rome by virtue of the Pope's month, but that those that have so fallen are to
> be freed and taken from the Romish robbers. This right he possesses
> authoritatively by virtue of his temporal sword.
> 
> [7: At the time when the above was written - June, 1520 - the Emperor
> Charles had been elected, but not yet crowned.]
> 
>      But the see of avarice and robbery at Rome is unwilling to wait for the
> benefices to fall in one after another by means of the Pope's month; and in
> order to get them into its insatiable maw as speedily as possible, they have
> devised the plan of taking livings and benefices in three other ways:-
> 
>      First, if the incumbent of a free living dies at Rome or on his way
> thither, his living remains for ever the property of the see of Rome, or I
> rather should say, the see of robbers, though they will not let us call them
> robbers, although no one has ever heard or read of such robbery.
> 
>      Secondly, if a "servant" of the Pope or of one of the cardinals takes a
> living, or if, having a living, he becomes a "servant" of the Pope or of a
> cardinal, the living remains with Rome. But who can count the "servants" of
> the Pope and his cardinals, seeing that if he goes out riding, he is attended
> by three or four thousand mule-riders, more than any king or emperor? For
> Christ and St. Peter went on foot, in order that their vicegerents might
> indulge the better in all manner of pomp. Besides, their avarice has devised
> and invented this: that in foreign countries also there are many called "papal
> servants", as at Rome; so that in all parts this single crafty little word
> "papal servant" brings all benefices to the chair at Rome, and they are kept
> there for ever. Are not these mischievous, devilish devices? Let us only wait
> a while, Mayence, Magdeburg, and Halberstadt will fall very nicely to Rome,
> and we shall have to pay dearly for our cardinal. [8] Hereafter all the German
> bishops will be made cardinals, so that there shall remain nothing to
> ourselves.
> 
> [8: Luther alludes here to the Archbishop Albert of Mayence, who was,
> besides, Archbishop of Magdeburg and administrator of the bishopric of
> Halberstadt. In order to be able to defray the expense of the archiepiscopal
> tax due to Rome, amounting to thirty thousand guilders, he had farmed the sale
> of the Pope's indulgences, employing the notorious Tetzel as his agent and
> sharing the profits with the Pope. In 1518 Albert was appointed cardinal. See
> Ranke, Deutsche Geschichte, etc., vol. i., p. 309, etc.]
> 
>      Thirdly, whenever there is any dispute about a benefice; and this is, I
> think, well-nigh the broadest and commonest road by which benefices are
> brought to Rome. For where there is no dispute numberless knaves can be found
> at Rome who are ready to scrape up disputes, and attack livings wherever they
> like. In this way many a good priest loses his living, or has to buy off the
> dispute for a time with a sum of money. These benefices, confiscated by right
> or wrong of dispute, are to be for ever the property of the see of Rome. It
> would be no wonder, if God were to rain sulphur and fire from heaven and cast
> Rome down into the pit, as He did formerly to Sodom and Gomorrah. What is the
> use of a pope in Christendom, if the only use made of his power is to commit
> these supreme villainies under his protection and assistance? Oh noble princes
> and sirs, how long will you suffer your lands and your people to be the prey
> of these ravening wolves?
> 
>      But these tricks did not suffice, and bishoprics were too slow in falling
> into the power of Roman avarice. Accordingly our good friend Avarice made the
> discovery that all bishoprics are abroad in name only, but that their land and
> soil is at Rome; from this it follows that no bishop may be confirmed until he
> has bought the "Pall" [9] for a large sum, and has with a terrible oath bound
> himself a servant of the Pope. That is why no bishop dare oppose the Pope.
> This was the object of the oath, and this is how the wealthiest bishoprics
> have come to debt and ruin. Mayence, I am told, pays twenty thousand guilders.
> These are true Roman tricks, it seems to me. It is true that they once decreed
> in the canon law that the Pall should be given free, the number of the Pope's
> servants diminished, disputes made less frequent, that foundations and bishops
> should enjoy their liberty; but all this brought them no money. They have
> therefore reversed all this: bishops and foundations have lost all their
> power; they are mere ciphers, without office, authority, or function; all
> things are regulated by the chief knaves at Rome, even the offices of sextons
> and bell-ringers in all churches. All disputes are transferred to Rome; each
> one does what he will, strong through the Pope's power.
> 
> [9: The Pallium was since the fourth century the symbol of
> archiepiscopal power, and had to be redeemed from the Pope by means of a large
> sum of money and a solemn oath of obedience.]
> 
>      What has happened in this very year? The Bishop of Strasburg, wishing to
> regulate his see in a proper way and reform it in the matter of Divine
> service, published some Divine and Christian ordinances for that purpose. But
> our worthy Pope and the holy chair at Rome overturn altogether this holy and
> spiritual order on the requisition of the priests. This is what they call
> being the shepherd of Christ's sheep-supporting priests against their own
> bishops and protecting their disobedience by Divine decrees. Antichrist, I
> hope, will not insult God in this open way. There you have the Pope, as you
> have chosen to have him; and why? Why, because if the Church were to be
> reformed, there would be danger that it would spread further, so that it might
> also reach Rome. Therefore it is better to prevent priests from being at one
> with each other; they should rather, as they have done hitherto, sow discord
> among kings and princes, and flood the world with Christian blood, lest
> Christian unity should trouble the holy Roman see with reforms.
> 
>      So far we have seen what they do with the livings that fall vacant. Now
> there are not enough vacancies for this delicate greed; therefore it has also
> taken prudent account of the benefices that are still held by their
> incumbents, so that they may become vacant, though they are in fact not
> vacant, and this they effect in many ways.
> 
>      First, they lie in wait for fat livings or sees which are held by an old
> or sick man, or even by one afflicted by an imaginary incompetence; him the
> Roman see gives a coadjutor, that is an assistant without his asking or
> wishing it, for the benefit of the coadjutor, because he is a papal servant,
> or pays for the office, or has otherwise earned it by some menial service
> rendered to Rome. Thus there is an end of free election on the part of the
> chapter, or of the right of him who had presented to the living; and all goes
> to Rome.
> 
>      Secondly, there is a little word: commendam, that is, when the Pope gives
> a rich and fat convent or church into the charge of a cardinal or any other of
> his servants, just as I might command you to take charge of one hundred
> guilders for me. In this way the convent is neither given, nor lent, nor
> destroyed, nor is its Divine service abolished, but only entrusted to a man's
> charge, not, however, for him to protect and improve it, but to drive out the
> one he finds there, to take the property and revenue, and to install some
> apostate [10] runaway monk, who is paid five or six guilders a year, and sits
> in the church all day and sells symbols and pictures to the pilgrims; so that
> neither chanting nor reading in the church goes on there any more. Now if we
> were to call this the destruction of convents and abolition of Divine service
> we should be obliged to accuse the Pope of destroying Christianity and
> abolishing Divine service-for truly he is doing this effectually-but this
> would be thought harsh language at Rome; therefore it is called a commendam,
> or an order to take charge of the convent. In this way the Pope can make
> commendams of four or more convents a year, any one of which produces a
> revenue of more than six thousand guilders. This is the way Divine service is
> advanced and convents kept up at Rome. This will be introduced into Germany as
> well.
> 
> [10: Monks who forsook their order without any legal dispensation
> were called "apostates."]
> 
>      Thirdly, there are certain benefices that are said to be incompatible;
> that is, they may not be held together according to the canon law, such as two
> cures, two sees, and the like. Now the Holy See and avarice twists itself out
> of the canon law by making "glosses," or interpretations, called Unio, or
> Incorporatio; that is, several incompatible benefices are incorporated, so
> that one is a member of the other, and the whole is held to be one benefice:
> then they are no longer incompatible, and we have got rid of the holy canon
> law, so that it is no longer binding, except on those who do not buy those
> glosses of the Pope and his Datarius. [11] Unio is of the same kind: a number
> of benefices are tied together like a bundle of faggots, and on account of
> this coupling together they are held to be one benefice. Thus there may be
> found many a "courtling" at Rome who alone holds twenty-two cures, seven
> priories, and forty-four prebends, all which is done in virtue of this
> masterly gloss, so as not to be contrary to law. Any one can imagine what
> cardinals and other prelates may hold. In this way the Germans are to have
> their purses emptied and their conceit taken out of them.
> 
> [11: The papal office for the issue and registration of certain
> documents was called Dataria, from the phrase appended to them, Datum apud S.
> Petrum. The chief of that office, usually a cardinal, bore the title of
> Datarius, or Prodatarius.]
> 
>      There is another gloss called Administratio; that is, that besides his
> see a man holds an abbey or other high benefice, and possesses all the
> property of it, without any other title but administrator. For at Rome it is
> enough that words should change, and not deeds, just as if I said, a procuress
> was to be called a mayoress, yet may remain as good as she is now. Such Romish
> rule was foretold by St. Peter, when he said, "There shall be false teachers
> among you, . . . and through covetousness shall they with feigned words make
> merchandise of you" (2 Peter ii. 1, 3).
> 
>      This precious Roman avarice has also invented the practice of selling and
> lending prebends and benefices on condition that the seller or lender has the
> reversion, so that if the incumbent dies, the benefice falls to him that has
> sold it, lent it, or abandoned it; in this way they have made benefices
> heritable property, so that none can come to hold them unless the seller sells
> them to him, or leaves them to him at his death. Then there are many that give
> a benefice to another in name only, and on condition that he shall not receive
> a farthing. It is now, too, an old practice for a man to give another a
> benefice and to receive a certain annual sum, which proceeding was formerly
> called simony. And there are many other such little things which I cannot
> recount; and so they deal worse with the benefices than the heathens by the
> cross dealt with Christ's clothes.
> 
>      But all this that I have spoken of is old and common at Rome. Their
> avarice has invented other device, which I hope will be the last and choke it.
> The Pope has made a noble discovery, called Pectoralis Reservatio, that is,
> "mental reservation"-et proprius motus, that is, "and his own will and power."
> The matter is managed in this way: Suppose a man obtains a benefice at Rome,
> which is confirmed to him in due form; then comes another, who brings money,
> or who has done some other service of which the less said the better, and
> requests the Pope to give him the same benefice: then the Pope will take it
> from the first and give it him. If you say, that is wrong, the Most Holy
> Father must then excuse himself, that he may not be openly blamed for having
> violated justice; and he says "that in his heart and mind he reserved his
> authority over the said benefice," whilst he never had heard or thought of the
> same in all his life. Thus he has devised a gloss which allows him in his
> proper person to lie and cheat and fool us all, and all this impudently and in
> open daylight, and nevertheless he claims to be the head of Christendom,
> letting the evil spirit rule him with manifest lies.
> 
>      This wantonness and lying reservation of the popes has brought about an
> unutterable state of things at Rome. There is a buying and a selling, a
> changing, blustering and bargaining, cheating and lying, robbing and stealing,
> debauchery and villainy, and all kinds of contempt of God, that antichrist
> himself could not rule worse. Venice, Antwerp, Cairo, are nothing to this fair
> and market at Rome, except that there things are done with some reason and
> justice, whilst here things are done as the devil himself could wish. And out
> of this ocean a like virtue overflows all the world. Is it not natural that
> such people should dread a reformation and a free council, and should rather
> embroil all kings and princes, than that their unity should bring about a
> council? Who would like his villainy to be exposed?
> 
>      Finally, the Pope has built a special house for this fine traffic-that
> is, the house of the Datarius at Rome. Thither all must come that bargain in
> this way, for prebends and benefices; from him they must buy the glosses and
> obtain the right to practise such prime villainy. In former days it was fairly
> well at Rome, when justice had to be bought, or could only be put down by
> money; but now she has become so fastidious that she does not allow any one
> to commit villainies unless he has first bought the right to do it with great
> sums. If this is not a house of prostitution, worse than all houses of
> prostitution that can be conceived, I do not know what houses of prostitution
> really are.
> 
>      If you bring money to this house, you can arrive at all that I have
> mentioned; and more than this, any sort of usury is made legitimate for money;
> property got by theft or robbery is here made legal. Here vows are annulled;
> here a monk obtains leave to quit his order; here priests can enter married
> life for money; here bastards can become legitimate; and dishonour and shame
> may arrive at high honours; all evil repute and disgrace is knighted and
> ennobled; here a marriage is suffered that is in a forbidden degree, or has
> some other defect. Oh, what a trafficking and plundering is there! one would
> think that the canon laws were only so many money-snares, from which he must
> free himself who would become a Christian man. Nay, here the devil becomes a
> saint, and a god besides. What heaven and earth might not do may be done by
> this house. Their ordinances are called compositions - compositions, forsooth!
> confusions rather. [12] Oh, what a poor treasury is the toll on the Rhine [13]
> compared with this holy house!
> 
> [12: Luther uses here the expressions compositiones and confusiones
> as a kind of pun.]
> 
> [13: Tolls were levied at many places along the Rhine.]
> 
>      Let no one think that I say too much. It is all notorious, so that even
> at Rome they are forced to own that it is more terrible and worse than one can
> say. I have said and will say nothing of the infernal dregs of private vices.
> I only speak of well-known public matters, and yet my words do not suffice.
> Bishops, priests, and especially the doctors of the universities, who are paid
> to do it, ought to have unanimously written and exclaimed against it. Yea, if
> you will turn the leaf you will discover the truth.
> 
>      I have still to give a farewell greeting. These treasures, that would
> have satisfied three mighty kings, were not enough for this unspeakable greed,
> and so they have made over and sold their traffic to Fugger [14] at Augsburg,
> so that the lending and buying and selling sees and benefices, and all this
> traffic in ecclesiastical property, has in the end come into the right hands,
> and spiritual and temporal matters have now become one business. Now I should
> like to know what the most cunning would devise for Romish greed to do that it
> has not done, except that Fugger might sell or pledge his two trades, that
> have now become one. I think they must have come to the end of their devices.
> For what they have stolen and yet steal in all countries by bulls of
> indulgences, letters of confession, letters of dispensation, [15] and other
> confessionalia, all this I think mere bungling work, and much like playing
> toss with a devil in hell. Not that they produce little, for a mighty king
> could support himself by them; but they are as nothing compared to the other
> streams of revenue mentioned above. I will not now consider what has become of
> that indulgence money; I shall inquire into this another time, for Campofiore
> [16] and Belvedere [17] and some other places probably know something about it.
> 
> [14: The commercial house of Fugger was in those days the wealthiest
> in Europe.]
> 
> [15: Luther uses the word Butterbriefe, i. e., letters of indulgence
> allowing the enjoyment of butter, cheese, milk, etc., during Lent. They formed
> part only of the confessionalia, which granted various other indulgences.]
> 
> [16: A public place at Rome.]
> 
> [17: Part of the Vatican.]
> 
>      Meanwhile, since this devilish state of things is not only an open
> robbery, deceit, and tyranny of the gates of hell, but also destroys
> Christianity body and soul, we are bound to use all our diligence to
> prevent this misery and destruction of Christendom. If we wish to fight the
> Turk, let us begin here, where they are worst. If we justly hang thieves and
> behead robbers, why do we leave the greed of Rome so unpunished, that is the
> greatest thief and robber that has appeared or can appear on earth, and does
> all this in the holy name of Christ and St. Peter? Who can suffer this and be
> silent about it? Almost everything that they possess has been stolen or got
> by robbery, as we learn from all histories. Why, the Pope never bought those
> great possessions, so as to be able to raise well-nigh ten hundred thousand
> ducats from his ecclesiastical offices, without counting his gold mines
> described above and his land. He did not inherit it from Christ and St. Peter;
> no one gave it or lent it him; he has not acquired it by prescription. Tell
> me, where can he have got it? You can learn from this what their object is
> when they send out legates to collect money to be used against the Turk.
>
> — *Of The Matters To Be Considered In The Councils*