les of the awakening world."

49 The Kiss of the Virgin, in the Archaologia published by the
Antiquaries of London, vol. xxviii.

CHAPTER III.

MODERN DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE.

THE folly and paganism of some of the Church dogmas, the rapacious
haughtiness of its spirit, the tyranny of its rule, and the
immoral character of many of its practices, had often awakened the
indignant protests and the determined opposition of men of
enlightened minds, vigorous consciences, and generous hearts, both
in its bosom and out of it. Many such men, vainly struggling to
purify the Church from its iniquitous errors or to relieve mankind
from its outrageous burdens, had been silenced and crushed by its
relentless might. Arnold, Wickliffe, Wessel, Savonarola, and a
host of others, are to be gratefully remembered forever as the
heroic though unsuccessful forerunners of the mighty monk of
Wittenberg.1 The corruption of the mediaval Church grew worse, and
became so great as to stir a very extensive disgust and revulsion.
Wholesale pardons for all their sins were granted indiscriminately
to those who accepted the terms of the papal officials; while
every independent thinker, however evangelical his faith and
exemplary his character, was hopelessly doomed to hell. Especially
were these pardons given to pilgrims and to the Crusaders. Bernard
of Clairvaux, exhorting the people to undertake a new Crusade,
tells them that "God condescends to invite into his service
murderers, robbers, adulterers, perjurers, and those sunk in other
crimes; and whosoever falls in this cause shall secure pardon for
the sins which he has never confessed with contrite heart."2 At
the opening of "Piers the Ploughman's Crede" a person is
introduced saying, "I saw a company of pilgrims on their way to
Rome, who came home with leave to lie all the rest of their
lives!" Nash, in his "Lenten Stuff," speaks of a proclamation
which caused "three hundred thousand people to roam to Rome for
purgatorie pills." Ecclesiasticism devoured ethics. Allegiance to
morality was lowered into devotion to a ritual. The sale of
indulgences at length became too impudent and blasphemous to be
any longer endured, when John Tetzel, a Dominican monk, travelled
over Europe, and, setting up his auction block in the churches,
offered for sale those famous indulgences of Leo X. which
promised, to every one rich enough to pay the requisite price,
remission of all sins, however enormous, and