The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1914-02-19

ant, license for SHINING to the
wicked, and more than a dozen gold
mines to the Papal throne. These
indulgences are either plenary-
"Indulgentia Plenaria Or they are
partial-"Indulge Minus plena. /"
The wickedness of the sale of in
dulgences, and the draining Of Ger
many of it's money to glorify the
Vatican Court and to build St. Pc
ter's at Rome, and to gid Rome with
stirred Martin Luther to rebel
against the Papacy. Tetzel preach
ing his indulgences stirred Luther S
righteous Indignation because of it's
unscripturalness, and it stirred some
of the German Princes because their
country was being Impoverished by
the stream Of money which flowed
from their realms into the Vatican
treasury at Rome. ST. Peters
church, Rome, adjoining the Vatican,
the most magnificent ecclesiastical
building in the world, which has be-
come largely the gilded mausoleum
of Popes, was built almost wholly
out Of the sale Of indulgences, and it,
and many other shrines of the POM
pous dead are now kept up by the
sale of indulgences. Luther uncov-
cred the whole iniquity Of this thing,
and set over against it the Scriptu-
raj doctrine Of Justification by
faith" and tried to save the Roman
church from ruin by getting it to
turn back to the word of God. Mark
you, Luther was a great priest of
the Roman Catholic church and a
reader of the Vulgate, the Roman
Catholic Bible. In that Roman
Catholic Bible he did not find any
teaching Of the forgiveness of sins
by indulgences. Hence, he tried to
call his church back to the Bible.
So, the Roman Catholic church
called the Council Of Trent to go
over the whole question of Catholic
dogma and practice. Indulgences
had become a gold mine to the
church. The Popes could not de-
eide against it because previous
Popes had decided in favor of it.
To have decided against indulgences
in the Council of Trent would have
reflected on the "Infallibility" of
previous Popes, and, also, have cut
off millions of dollars from the treas
ury of the Vatican. So, Trent con-
firmed the institution of the "InduI-
gentia."
Though without one line of au-
thority to back it, even in the Ro-
man Catholic version of the Bible,
the system has become co-eXtensive
with the Roman church, and remains
in vogue with mighty power over
the time, consciences and purses OF
the communicates Of that church
Truth is, it has increased under the
power of the Popes until it's results
sound stranger than any book OF
fiction yer written.
l shall quote TO you at length from
the Letters to His Holiness, Pope
Plus X" by a distinguished living
priest, who withholds his name be-
cause of the fear of persecution
He is a "Modernist" who believes in
his Bible, who does not believe in
the alteration Of saints, the efficacy
of relics, holy water, the comics
siOnal, penances, indulgences, pur
gatory, and a long list Of other
things taught and practiced by his
church. Intellectually, he shows
more learning than the Pope, ant
has arraigned the Papal system will
a plainess beyond any of the anti
Catholic periodicals of our day. His
voice, then, is a voice from within
that church, pleading against it's I'm
scriptural teachings and practices
AS to indulgences he says: "Tht
members of the Roman church are