The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1879, Page 27

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

274

no bounds. She and the Jews that assembled
around her fell upon the poor helpless child,
and so ill-treated her that she sank and fainted.
But, in the midst of much bitter persecution,
she proved faithful to the truth contained in
her New Testament. All at once the maiden
was gone. Her mother said she had been sent
to distant relatives to be cured of her foolish
notions. Six weeks later, however, the girl
turned up in the public streets — but in what
a state! Her clothes torn and filthy, her hair
hanging down wildly over her face and should-
ers, her hands and fect bleeding, she ran
through the streets crying for help. A crowd
soon gathered. The poor girl said she had
been locked up in a cellar all the time, and
her mother having now, in a fit of passion,
threatened to murder her, she had, after a fear-
ful struggle, made her escape. The police now
shielded her from further assault. She was
taken to Warsaw, a large city of Poland, and,
after a course of instruction, made a public pro-
fession of Christ and was baptized. May our
faithful God keep her in true faith unto life
everlasting.

+> o-oo

The Life of Dr. Martin Luther.

VIL.
T’sTzEL—THE Pope's IMPUDENT SALESMAN.

Soon after Luther’s return from Rome, Leo X.
was chosen pope. He was an infidel, leading a
most immoral life and ridiculing the doctrines
of the Bible. He once uttered the shocking
words: ‘‘Ah, what money has the fable about
Christ ever brought us.’’ When he wished to
amuse himself, he would call two clowns, who

disputed before his table on the immortality of

the soul. The pope, at the close of the debate,
agreed with the clown who denied the immor-
tality of the soul, because the belief that we die
like brutes brings gayety and good spirits to a
man. ‘This pope needed a great deal of money
for his scandalous living. Under the pretence

of needing the money only for the building of

St. Peter’s church in Rome, he began the sale
of what were called ‘Indulgences’. And in-
dulgence was a written certificate which prom-
ised to the holder, who had paid in money the
price asked for it, the forgiveness of sins, and
freedom from all punishment in this life and in
purgatory. John Tetzel, a most impudent fel-
low, was employed as salesman to sell these in-
dulgences in Germany. He was a shameless
creature whom, on account of adultery, the
Emperor had formerly sentenced to be put into
asack and drowned. He had, however, escaped,
and he now travelled through Germany as the
pope’s salesman, cheating the poor people out
of their money. He was a bold, reckless fellow,
and could surely beat any patent medicine man
of our day in selling. When he entered a
town the papal bull was borne before him upon
velvet or gilt cloth, and all the priests, monks,
teachers, pupils, men, women, and virgins went
out in procession, with banners, tapers, and

songs, to meet him.
and-the organ played, and he was taken into
the church, in the middle of which a red cross

Then the sale of the indulgences commenced.
piece of money to buy indulgences for the pur-
pose of delivering the souls of their friends from
purgatory. At a little town Tetzel told the

people that if they would speedily buy in-
dulgences all the mountains around the place

games in connection with his sale, such as shoot-

The man paid this sum, and when Tetzel soon

All the bells were tolled | purgatory, rings in the box, the soul leaps up

to heaven; sorrow and repentance on account
of sin is not necessary, if a letter of indulgence
is bought.

Luther soon heard of all this. He warned
his congregation against trusting in such in-
dulgences. He told them that he who repents
receives forgiveness of sins, which Christ has
secured by His own sacrifice and blood, and
offers by grace in the Gospel freely and with-
out money. But Luther with horror found out
the terrible consequences of that indulgence
business. Many of his people, coming to con-
fession, declared that they would not leave off
sinning, and appealed to their letters of in-
dulgence. To these Luther paid no regard,
but told them in the words of our Lord: ‘Ex-
cept ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.’’
(Luke 18, 3.) The people told Tetzel that
Luther despised the letters of indulgence. Tetzel
raved and cursed fearfully from the pulpit, and
threatened vengeance upon Luther. He several
times had a fire kindled in the market-place in
order to let the people know that he had author-
ity from the pope to burn every heretic. But
Luther feared nothing. The battle-alarm was
sounded ; and Luther, the great hero, was ready
for the battle. It was now God’s appointed
time for the Reformation to begin.

was set up, decorated with the pope’s arms.

Widows and beggars often brought their last

would become pure silver. When he was in
the city of Leipzig, he brought the country-
people into the city by instituting all kinds of

ing matches, pole climbing, playing at ten pins
for an ox, &c. In this city he was very nicely
fooled. When he had gathered a large sum of
money, 2 nobleman came to him and asked him
whether he could forgive the sin that he in-
tended to commit at some future time. Tetzel
asked thirty dollars for such an indulgence.

afterwards left the city, he lay in wait for him,
robbed him of his money, and then told him
that this was the sin for which he had bought
the indulgence.

To show by what devilish lies this impudent
fellow cheated the people out of their money,
we add the following incident. After he had
offered his indulgences for sale many days at
the city of Zwickau and was prepared to leave
the town, the priests asked him for some money.
He told them that the indulgence money was
all packed up, but still he would get some
money for them. On the next day he ordered
the great bell to be tolled, upon which the
people flocked to the church in crowds. He
then told them that he had intended to leave
that morning, but in the past night a poor soul
had moaned so pitifully in the church-yard and
cried for help, that he could not help remaining
this day. He would now say mass for the soul,
and they should in the mean time bring their
money, that the poor soul might be freed from
torture. Ifany man did not bring the money,
he must be an adulterer, and if any woman
would refuse to bring the money, she must be
an adulteress. Now, no one wished to be con-
sidered an adulterer or adulteress, and so the
‘pennies of the poor’ came rolling in. With
this money he afterwards had a gay time with
the clergy of the town.

In the year 1516 this man Tetzel came also
to Juterbock, near the city of Wittenberg where
Luther resided. Tetzel here preached the fol-
lowing horrible doctrines: The pope has more
power than all the apostles, than all the angels
and saints; Christ after his ascension no longer
governs the Church, but has given all govern-
ment to the pope; the red cross of indulgences
with the pope’s arms, erected in the church, has
as much power as the cross of Christ; he would
not exchange his power for that of St. Peter,
for he had saved more souls by his indulgences
than Peter by his sermons; as soon as the
money, paid for the deliverance of a soul from

——s~-o<P eo oo

The Outlook from the Editor’s Window.

The pope’s people in New York lately dedi-
eated a large temple to be used for saying mass.
The sermon was preached by a priest from
St. Louis by the name of Ryan. He said the
cathedral had been built by the pennies of the
poor. He cried out: ‘‘Pennies of the poor!
Most appropriate offering to Him whose first
temple on earth was the crib.” Now, we know
by what dark ways the pope gets the pennies of
the poor. Mr. Ryan must have read in the
papers last winter about that fair held in that
same cathedral. Raffling, and gambling, and
the selling of beer, ale, wine, whisky, gin, and
all kinds of liquors were carried on in such a
scandalous manner that even the secular papers
cried out against it. The “pennies of the poor”
gained by the lies and tricks of the Romish
church may be an appropriate offering to the
pope, the great Anti-Christ, but they are surely
no appropriate offering to Him who “went into
the temple, and began to cast out them that sold
therein, and them that bought, saying unto
them, It is written, My house is the house of
prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.”
(Luke 19, 45. 46.)

Mr. Porcett, the bankrupt Archbishop of
Cincinnati, was present and heard that sermon.
He surely. did not feel very well when he heard
the eloquent Ryan suddenly cry out: ‘Pennies
of the poor!”’ It must have been like a voice
of thunder reminding him of those four million
of dollars which the poor people of Cincinnati
have lost through his sinful, reckless way of