Works of Martin Luther, with Introductions and Notes (Volume II). Martin Luther

192

Certificates granting their possessor permission to eat milk, eggs, butter and cheese on fast days.

193

The word is used here in the broad sense, and means dispensations of all sorts, including those just mentioned, relating to penance.

194

Equivalent to "carrying coals to Newcastle."

195

The Campo di Fiore, a Roman market-place, restored and adorned at great expense by Eugenius IV (1431-1447), and his successors.

196

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.

197

i. e., The offices and positions in Rome which were for sale. See Benrath, p. 88, note 18; p. 95, note 36.

198

See above, p. 84, note 1.

199

The passage 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.

200

See above, pp. 91 f.

201

See above, p. 91.

202

See above, p. 94.

203

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.

204

See above, pp. 86 f.

205

See above, pp. 92 f.

206

See above, p. 93.

207

See above, p. 89.

208

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.)

209

The local Church authorities, here equivalent to "the bishops." On use of term see Realencyk., XIV, 424.

210

The sign of the episcopal office; as regards archbishops, the pallium; see above, p. 8q, and note.

211

See above, p. 87, note 1.

212

The first of the ecumenical councils (A. D. 325). The decree to which Luther here refers is canon IV of that Council. Cf. Köhler, L. und die Kg., pp. 139 ff.

213

The primate is the ranking archbishop of a country.

214

"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) passed a decree abolishing all monastic exemptions, though the decree does not seem to have been effective. See Creighton, History of the Papacy, V, 266.

215

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.

216

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 Köhler, L. und die Kg., 151.

217

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).

218

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).

219

The signatura gratiae and the signatura justitiae were the bureaus through which the pope regulated those matters of administration which belonged to his own special prerogative.

220

See above, pp. 88 f.

221

See above, p. 88, note 3.

222

See above, p. 94.

223

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.

224

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.

225

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.

226

Cf. Luther's earlier statement to the same effect in A Discussion of Confession, Vol. I, pp. 96 f.

227

See above, p. 99.

228

The Fifth Lateran Council (1512-17).

229

See above, p. 90, note 1.

230

In the canon law, Decretal. Greg. lib. i, tit. 6, cap. 4. The decretal forbids the bestowing of the pallium (see above, p. 89, note 3) on an archbishop elect, until he shall first have sworn allegiance to the Holy See.

231

The induction of Church officials into office. The term was used particularly of the greater offices—those of bishop and abbot. These offices carried with them the enjoyment of certain incomes, and the possession of certain temporal powers. For this reason the right of investiture was a bone of contention between popes and emperors during the Middle Ages.

232

Especially in the time of the Emperors Henry IV and V (1056-1125).

233

The German Empire was regarded during the Middle Ages as a continuation of the Roman Empire. (See below, p. 153.) The right to crown an emperor was held to be the prerogative of the pope; until the pope bestowed the imperial crown, the emperor bore the title, "King of the Romans."

234

In the canon law, Decretal. Greg. lib. i, tit. 33, cap. 6.

235

In the treatise, Resolutio Lutheriana super propositione XIII, de potestate papae (1520). Weimar Ed., II, pp. 217 ff.; Erl. Ed., op. var. arg., Ill, pp. 293 ff.

236

cf. The Papacy at Rome, Vol. I, pp. 357 f.

237

A