Works of Martin Luther Part 14

[88] The Church law forbade the taking of interest on loans of money.

[89] During the Middle Ages all questions touching marriage and divorce, including, therefore, the question of the legitimacy of children, were governed by the laws of the Church, on the theory that marriage was a sacrament.

[90] i. e., By buying dispensations.

[91] The sums paid or special dispensations were so called.

[92] The toll which the "robber-barons" of the Rhine levied upon merchants pa.s.sing through their domains.

[93] _Ja wend das blat umb szo indistu es_--The translators have adopted the interpretation of O. Clemen, _L's. Werke_, I, 383.

[94] The Fuggers of Augsburg were the greatest of the German capitalists in the XVI Century. They were international bankers, "the Rothschilds of the XVI Century." Their control of large capital enabled them to advance large sums of money to the territorial rulers, who were in a chronic state of need. In return for these favors they received monopolistic concessions by which their capital was further increased. The spiritual, as well as the temporal lords, availed themselves regularly of the services of this accommodating firm. They were the pope's financial representatives in Germany. On their connection with the indulgence against which Luther protested, see Vol. I, p. 21; on their relations with the papacy, see Schulte, _Die Fugger in Rom_, 2 Vols., Leipzig, 1904.

[95] Certificates ent.i.tling the holder to choose his own confessor and authorizing the confessor to absolve him from certain cla.s.ses 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, b.u.t.ter 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.

[102] See above, p. 84, note 1.

[103] The pa.s.sage 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.

[105] See above, p. 91.

[106] See above, p. 94.

[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.

[110] See above, p. 93.

[111] See above, p. 89.

[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.

[115] See above, p. 87, note 1.

[116] The first of the ec.u.menical councils (A. D. 325). The decree to which Luther here refers is canon IV of that Council. Cf. Kohler, _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) pa.s.sed a decree abolishing all monastic exemptions, though the decree does not seem to have been effective.

See _Creighton_, History of the Papacy, V, 266.

[119] i. e., Antichrist. See above, p. 73, note 2.

[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 Kohler, _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 just.i.tiae_ 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.

[126] See above, p. 88, note 3.

[127] See above, p. 94.

[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.

[132] See above, p. 99.

[133] The Fifth Lateran Council (1512-17).