The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1915-04-22
PAGE EIGHT
Were PardOns For Sin Ever Sold
by the Roman Catholic
Church? Are They
Sold. Now?
CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE. J

money, partly to build st. Peters Church.
and partly TO give a rich doeOer to a female
Tel0taOe.
The widows mite is a good precedent, when
rightly followed, but it seems a shameful
thing for Sharkey to compare the widows
mite to the millions of ducats that Leo
received from the sale of those pieces Of paper
which purported to be full pardon for sins,
IN this acorzd and the meut
The full text of Pope Leo's blasphemous
lndulgences is given In many standard his
tories.
Louis Marie de Cormenin was as good
Catholic as L. T. Sharkey, but he was not
blind paplst nor aOaS he an at7ascrupotzoas Liar
Therefore, in writing his mastery ''History
of the Popes," the Frenchman tells the truth
about Pope Leo X. and the Indulgences
On page 1870, Book H., of De Cormenin's
work, you may read
LEO x discovered that he must hit upon
some new expedient, en- order to bring IN
money, which was becoming very necessary,
as his creditors threatened to make grand
explosion.
Then it was, that he organized on vast
scale the speculation IN i1ecatzgemces, in every
province he appointed farmers general, who
kept their offices in churches or monasteries,
and sold imduZgen,ces for the living and the
dead: and in order that no village or hamlet
should escape his rapacity, he sent Iegions of
Dominican Monks, who traversed town and
country, armed uith bulls (the Pope's own
DEGREES offering the indulgences for sale), and
who levied contributions on the inhabitants"
After quoting the Pope's own language,
remitting the sins of those who bought the
indulgences, and after stating that Tetzel
merely "outdid his colleagues in obtaining
dupes," De Cormenin says
.1FTha DOminicanS the neddlare Of the amos
tolic bulls,---announced to the faithful that
it was better for them to die of famine in this
world, than lose the chance Of purchasing
tAeir eternal safety in the next"
A devout. honest Catholic of that period,
Father Thomas, is quoted by another Cath
olc author (Florimond de Raymond as say
ing in sermon:
"Behold these robbers, sent out By the Pope,
see how they decoy the poor people, they
travel over hill ana plain, despoiling the sim
pie Of their last penny, and in order to rob at
their ease, they make a bargain with the
(local priests"
"These Infamous priests, these concu6ine-
keeping, drunken, and mlerce7oa7y car0tes, in
order to better fill their bellies and Keep their
c0ncu6ines, enter into a compact with these
sellers (porters) of bulls, extort, pillage, and
rob the idiots aohO open their purses TO de-
Iver their souls from purgatOry."
This honest Catholic of Luthers time ex-
claimed:
90 my God who can recount the horrid
acts these Dominlcans commit in this shame
full traffic IN indMgencesn'
The sale of pardons for sin was one of the
earliest evils that crept into the Roman
Church, after the Bishop of Rome had
usurped the papacy. AS to the scandals arts
ing out of Pope Leo's extravagances in that
respect, all historians agree.
That very thing, the sale of inda1zgemces,
started the dispute between Luther and the
De-. e L.