[4] In the famous Bull of Gregory IX., published in 1234, that pope
exhorts and commands all good Christians to take up the cross and join
the expedition to recover the Holy Land. The language is: "The service
to which mankind are now invited is an effectual atonement for the
miscarriages of a negligent life. The discipline of a regular penance
would have discouraged many offenders so much that they would have had
no heart to venture upon it; but the holy war is a compendious method
of discharging men from guilt and restoring them to the divine favor.
Even if they die on their march, the intention will be taken for the
deed, and many in this way may be crowned without fighting."--Given in
Collier's _Eccl._, vol. i.
[5] The Roman Chancery once put forth a book, which went through many
editions, giving the exact prices for the pardon of each particular
sin. A deacon guilty of murder was absolved for twenty pounds. A
bishop or abbot might assassinate for three hundred livres. Any
ecclesiastic might violate his vows of chastity for the third part of
that sum, etc., etc.--See Robertson's _Charles V._
[6] The pallium, or pall, was a narrow band of white wool to go over
the shoulders in the form of a circle, from which hung bands of
similar size before and behind, finished at the ends with pieces of
sheet lead and embroidered with crosses. It was the mark of the
dignity and rank of archbishops. Albert owed Pope Leo X. forty-five
thousand thalers for his right and appointment to wear the
archbishop's pallium.
It was in this way that the Roman Church was accustomed to sell out
benefices as a divine right. Even _expectative graces_, or mandates
nominating a person to succeed to a benefice upon the first vacancy,
were thus sold. Companies existed in Germany which made a business of
buying up the benefices of particular sections and districts and
retailing them at advanced rates. The selling of pardons was simply a
lower kind of simoniacal bartering which pervaded the whole
hierarchical establishment.