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Saints and Heroes Since the Middle Ages
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SAINTS AND HEROES Since the Middle Ages BY GEORGE JH. ODGES Author of Saints and Heroes to the End of the Middle Ages, etc. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1912 ILLUSTRATIONS THE EMBARKATION OF THE PILGRIMS Frontispiece PAGE MARTIN LUTHER .... 3 SIR THOMAS MORE . . . . 29 ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA . . . . 53 THOMAS CRANMER .... 74 JOHN CALVIN 9 8 JOHN KNOX 122 GASPARD DE COLIGNY .... 145 WILLIAM THE SILENT . . . .168 WILLIAM LAUD 211 OLIVER CROMWELL . . . . 233 JOHN BUNYAN 257 GEORGE Fox 77 JOHN WESLEY 296 SAINTS AND HEROES SINCE THE MIDDLE AGES MARTJNT LUTIIKK From a Print in the Possession of the New York Public Library LUTHER 1483-1546 ON the last day of October, in the year 1517, a perman monk posted a paper on a church door in Wittenberg. It was written in Latin, and was addressed to theologians. It contained a series of state ments concerning the doctrine and practice of indulgences. The writer desired to have the matter discussed. It seemed to him that there was something wrong about it, and he would be glad to hear what wiser men might say. Here, he said, are indulgences preached and sold through out the Church is it right is it in accord ance with the gospel and the truth The paper was a question. Now the meaning of an indulgence was this. Every sin deserves the punish ment of God. The sure consequence of 3 4 LUTHER sin is eternal suffering in hell. But by the grace of God, and the cross of Christ, and the ministry of the Church, there is a way of escape. Every sin may be for given, if the sinner is truly sorry and repents. In order, however, to obtain this forgiveness, the repentant sinner, they said, must confess his sin to a priest, and be, by him, assured ofthe pardon of God, and in addition must do what the priest tells him as a penance. The priest, in the old time, told him to fast, or to give money to the poor, or to go on a pilgrim age. In the days of the crusades, sinners were told that, in the place of the former penances, they might enlist as soldiers in the armies which were going to the Holy Land to take Jerusalem from the Turks. By-and-by, they were told that they might be assured of forgiveness if they paid the expenses of somebody else who was 1 willing to go in their place. Then they were told they might gain LUTHER 5 the same blessing by giving money for some other good purpose for example, for the building of a church. These sub stitutes for the old penances were called indulgences. Gradually and naturally, this doctrine gave rise to grave errors and evils. One of the errors was that simple and ignorant people easily believed that the forgiveness of God was gained, not by repentance, but by indulgence. If they sinned, they could make it right, they thought, and escape punishment, by the payment of money. And this payment, they imagined, would affect them, not only in this world, but in the world to come and would obtain pardon not only for themselves, but for others who had gone already into that other world. One of the evils was that this error was made a means of raising money for the Church. People gladly paid for the building of cathedrals and monasteries in the belief that they were 6 LUTHER thereby gaining forgiveness for their sins, and salvation for their souls and for the souls of their friends. So when Pope Leo X wished to raise a great sum of money for the rebuilding of St Peters Church at Rome, he under took todo it by the sale of indulgences. It seemed as right in those days to build a church by means of indulgences as it seemed right in this country a hundred years ago to build a church by means of lotteries. The raising of this money in Germany was put into the hands of a man named Tetzel. He was a frank, straightforward person, with a better head for business than for religion, but with a great ability to appeal to the people. He knew how to speak to crowds Tetzel took the doctrine of indulgences as he found it, and used it, as the phrase is, for all it was worth... |
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