We shall now look at the matters which should be discussed in the
councils, and with which popes, cardinals, bishops and all the
scholars ought properly to be occupied day and night if they loved
Christ and His Church. But if they neglect this duty, then let the
laity[42] and the temporal authorities see to it, regardless of bans
and thunders; for an unjust ban is better than ten just releases, and
an unjust release worse than ten just bans. Let us, therefore, awake,
dear Germans, and fear God rather than men [Acts 5:29], that we may
not share the fate of all the poor souls who are so lamentably lost
through the shameful and devilish rule of the Romans, in which the
devil daily takes a larger and larger place,--if, indeed, it were
possible that such a hellish rule could grow worse, a thing I can
neither conceive nor believe.
[Sidenote: Worldliness of the pope]
1. It is a horrible and frightful thing that the ruler of Christendom,
who boasts himself vicar of Christ and successor of St. Peter, lives
in such worldly splendor that in this regard no king nor emperor can
equal or approach him, and that he who claims the title of "most holy"
and "most spiritual" is more worldly than the world itself. He wears a
triple crown, when the greatest kings wear but a single crown[43]; if
that is like the poverty of Christ and of St. Peter, then it is a new
kind of likeness. When a word is said against it, they cry out
"Heresy!" but that is because they do not wish to hear how unchristian
and ungodly such a practice is. I think, however, that if the pope
were with tears to pray to God, he would have to lay aside these
crowns, for our God can suffer no pride; and his office is nothing
else than this,--daily to weep and pray or Christendom, and to set an
example of all humility.
However that may be, this splendor of his is an offence, and the pope
is bound on his soul's salvation to lay it aside, because St. Paul
says, "Abstain from all outward shows, which give offence," [1 Thess.
5:21] and in Rom. xii, "We should provide good, not only in the sight
of God, but also in the sight of all men." [Rom. 12:17] An ordinary
bishop's crown would be enough for the pope; he should be greater than
others in wisdom and holiness, and leave the crown of pride to
Antichrist, as did his predecessors several centuries ago. They say he
is a lord of the world; that is a lie; for Christ, Whose vicar and
officer he boasts himself to be, said before Pilate, "My kingdom is
not of this world," [John 17:36] and no vicar's rule can go beyond his
lord's. Moreover he is not the vicar of the glorified, but of the
crucified Christ, as Paul says, "I was willing to know nothing among
you save Christ, and Him only as the Crucified" [1 Cor. 2:2]; and in
Philippians ii, "So think of yourselves as ye see in Christ, Who
emptied Himself and took upon Him the appearance of a servant" [Phil.
2:5]; and again in I Corinthians i, "We preach Christ, the Crucified."
[1 Cor. 1:23] Now they make the pope a vicar of the glorified Christ
in heaven, and some of them have allowed the devil to rule them so
completely that they have maintained that the pope is above the angels
in heaven and has authority over them[44]. These are indeed the very
works of the very Antichrist.
[Sidenote: The Cardinals]
2. What is the use in Christendom of those people who are called the
cardinals? I shall tell you. Italy and Germany have many rich
monasteries, foundations, benefices, and livings. No better way has
been discovered to bring all these to Rome than by creating cardinals
and giving them the bishoprics, monasteries and prelacies, and so
overthrowing the worship of God. For this reason we now see Italy a
very wilderness--monasteries in ruins, bishoprics devoured, the
prelacies and the revenues of all the churches drawn to Rome, cities
decayed, land and people laid waste, because there is no more worship
or preaching. Why? The cardinals must have the income[45]. No Turk
could have so devastated Italy and suppressed the worship of God.
Now that Italy is sucked dry, they come into Germany[46], and begin
oh, so gently. But let us beware, for Germany will soon become like
Italy. Already we have some cardinals; what the Romans seek by that
the "drunken Germans" are not to understand until we have not a
bishopric, a monastery, a living, a benefice, a _heller_ or a
_pfennig_ left. Antichrist must take the treasures of the earth, as it
was prophesied [Dan. 11:39, 43]. So it goes on. They skim the cream of
the bishoprics, monasteries and benefices, and because they do not yet
venture to turn them all to shameful use, as they have done in Italy,
they only practise for the present the sacred trickery of coupling
together ten or twenty prelacies and taking a yearly portion from each
of them, so as to make a tidy sum after all. The priory of Wurzburg
yields a thousand _gulden_; that of Bamberg, something; Mainz, Trier
and the others, something more; and so from one to ten thousand gulden
might be got together, in order that a cardinal might live at Rome
like a rich king.
"After they are used to this, we will create thirty or forty cardinals
in a day[47], and give to one Mount St. Michael at Bamberg[48] and the
bishopric of Wurzburg to boot, hang on to these a few rich livings,
until churches and cities are waste, and after that we will say, 'We
are Christ's vicars and shepherds of Christ's sheep; the mad, drunken
Germans must put up with it.'"
I advise, however, that the number of the cardinals be reduced, or
that the pope be made to keep them at his own expense. Twelve of them
would be more than enough, and each of them might have an income of a
thousand gulden a year[49]. How comes it that we Germans must put up
with such robbery and such extortion of our property, at the hands of
the pope? If the Kingdom of France has prevented it[50], why do we
Germans let them make such fools and apes of us? It would all be more
bearable if in this way they only stole our property; but they lay
waste the churches and rob Christ's sheep of their pious shepherds,
and destroy the worship and the Word of God. Even if there were not a
single cardinal, the Church would not go under. As it is they do
nothing for the good of Christendom; they only wrangle about the
incomes of bishoprics and prelacies, and that any robber could do.
[Sidenote: The Curia]
3. If ninety-nine parts of the papal court[51] were done away and only
the hundredth part allowed to remain, it would still be large enough
to give decisions in matters of faith. Now, however, there is such a
swarm of vermin yonder in Rome, all boasting that they are "papal,"
that there was nothing like it in Babylon. There are more than three
thousand papal secretaries alone; who will count the other offices,
when they are so many that they scarcely can be counted? And they all
lie in wait for the prebends and benefices of Germany as wolves lie in
wait for the sheep. I believe that Germany now gives much more to the
pope at Rome than it gave in former times to the emperors. Indeed,
some estimate that every year more than three hundred thousand gulden
find their way from Germany to Rome, quite uselessly and fruitlessly;
we get nothing for it but scorn and contempt. And yet we wonder that
princes, nobles, cities, endowments, land and people are impoverished!
We should rather wonder that we still have anything to eat!
Since we here come to the heart of the matter, we will pause a little,
and let it be seen that the Germans are not quite such gross fools as
not to note or understand the sharp practices of the Romans. I do not
now complain that at Rome God's command and Christian law are
despised; for such is the state of Christendom, and particularly of
Rome, that we may not now complain of such high matters. Nor do I
complain that natural or temporal law and reason count for nothing.
The case is worse even than that. I complain that they do not keep
their own self-devised canon law, though it is, to be sure, mere
tyranny, avarice and temporal splendor, rather than law. Let us see!
[Sidenote: The Annates]
In former times German emperors and princes permitted the pope to
receive the _annates_ from all the benefices of the German nation, i.
e., the half of the first year's revenues from each benefice[52]. This
permission was given, however, in order that by means of these large
sums of money, the pope might accumulate a treasure for fighting
against the Turks and infidels in defence of Christendom, so that the
burden of the war might not rest too heavily upon the nobility, but
that the clergy also should contribute something toward it. This
single-hearted devotion of the German nation the popes have so used,
that they have received this money for more than a hundred years, have
now made of it a binding tax and tribute, and have not only
accumulated no treasure, but have used the money to endow many orders
and offices at Rome, and to provide these offices with salaries, as
though the annates were a fixed rent.
[Sidenote: Saracen-tax]
When they pretend that they are about to fight against the Turks, they
send out emissaries to gather money. Ofttimes they issue an indulgence
on this same pretext of fighting the Turks[53], for they think the mad
Germans are forever to remain utter and arrant fools, give them money
without end, and satisfy their unspeakable greed; though we clearly
see that not a _heller_ of the annates or of the indulgence-money or
of all the rest, is used against the Turks, but all of it goes into
the bottomless bag. They lie and deceive, make laws and make
agreements with us, and they do not intend to keep any of them. All
this must be counted the work of Christ and St. Peter!
Now, in this matter the German nation, bishops and princes, should
consider that they too are Christians, and should protect the people,
whom they are set to rule and guard in things temporal and spiritual,
against these ravening wolves who, in sheep's clothing, pretend to be
shepherds and rulers; and, since the annates are so shamefully abused
and the stipulated conditions are not fulfilled, they should not
permit their land and people to be so sadly robbed and ruined, against
all justice; but by a law of the emperor or of the whole nation, they
should either keep the annates at home or else abolish them again[54].
For since the Romans do not keep the terms of the agreement, they have
no right to the annates. Therefore the bishops and princes are bound
to punish or prevent such thievery and robbery, as the law requires.
In this they should aid the pope and support him, or he is perchance
too weak to prevent such an abuse all by himself; or if he were to
undertake to defend and maintain this practice, they ought resist him
and fight against him as against a wolf and a tyrant, for he has no
authority to do or to defend evil. Moreover, if it were ever desired
to accumulate such a treasure against the Turks, we ought in the
future to have sense enough to see that the German nation would be a
better custodian or it than the pope; for the German nation has people
enough or the fighting, if only the money is forthcoming. It is with
the annates as it has been with many another Roman pretence.
[Sidenote: Papal Months]
Again, the year has been so divided between the pope and the ruling
bishops and canons[55], that the pope has six months in the
year--every other month--in which to bestow the benefices which all
vacant in his months[56]. In this way almost all the benefices are
absorbed by Rome, especially the very best livings and dignities[57],
and when once they fall into the hands of Rome, they never come out of
them again, though a vacancy may never again occur in the pope's
month. Thus the canons are cheated. This is a genuine robbery, which
intends to let nothing escape. Therefore it is high time that the
"papal months" be altogether abolished, and that everything which they
have brought to Rome be taken back again. For the princes and nobles
should take measures that the stolen goods be returned, the thieves
punished, and those who have abused privilege be deprived of
privilege. If it is binding and valid when the pope on the day after
his election makes, in his chancery, rules and laws whereby our
foundations and livings are robbed,--a thing which he has no right to
do; then it should be still more valid if the Emperor Charles on the
day after his coronation[58] were to make rules and laws that not
another benefice or living in all Germany shall be allowed to come
into the hands of Rome by means of the "papal months," and that the
livings which have already fallen into its hands shall be released,
and redeemed from the Roman robbers; for he has this right by virtue
of his office and his sword.
But now the Roman See of Avarice and Robbery has not been able to
await the time when all the benefices, one after another, would, by
the "papal months," come into its power, but hastens, with insatiable
appetite, to get possession of them all as speedily as possible; and
so besides the annates and the "months" it has hit upon a device by
which benefices and livings all to Rome in three ways:
_First_, If any one who holds a free[59] living dies at Rome or on the
way to Rome, his living must forever belong to the Roman--I should
rather say the robbing--See[60]; and yet they will not be called
robbers, though they are guilty of such robbery as no one has ever
heard or read about.
_Second_, In case any one who belongs to the household of the pope or
of the cardinals[61] holds or takes over a benefice, or in case one
who already holds a benefice afterwards enters the "household" of the
pope or of a cardinal. But who can count the "household" of the pope
and of the cardinals, when the pope, if he only goes on a
pleasure-ride, takes with him three or our thousand mule-riders,
eclipsing all emperors and kings? Christ and St. Peter went on foot in
order that their vicars might have the more pomp and splendor. Now
avarice has cleverly thought out another scheme, and brings it to pass
that even here many have the name of "papal servant," just as though
they were in Rome; all in order that in every place the mere rascally
little word "papal servant" may bring all benefices to Rome and tie
them fast there forever. Are not these vexatious and devilish
inventions? Let us beware! Soon Mainz, Madgeburg and Halberstadt will
gently pass into the hands of Rome, and the cardinalate will be paid
for dearly enough[62]. "Afterwards we will make all the German bishops
cardinals so that there will be nothing let outside."
_Third_, When a contest has started at Rome over a benefice[63]. This
I hold to be almost the commonest and widest road or bringing livings
to Rome. For when there is no contest at home, unnumbered knaves will
be found at Rome to dig up contests out of the earth and assail
livings at their will. Thus many a good priest has to lose his living,
or settle the contest for a time by the payment of a sum of money[64].
Such a living rightly or wrongly contested must also belong forever to
the Roman See. It would be no wonder if God were to rain from heaven
fire and brimstone and to sink Rome in the abyss, as He did Sodom and
Gomorrah of old [Gen. 19:24]. Why should there be a pope in
Christendom, if his power is used or nothing else than such
archknavery, and if he protects and practices it? O noble princes and
lords, how long will ye leave your lands and people naked to these
ravening wolves!
[Sidenote: The Pallium]
Since even these practices were not enough, and Avarice grew impatient
at the long time it took to get hold of all the bishoprics, therefore
my Lord Avarice devised the fiction that the bishoprics should be
nominally abroad, but that their land and soil should be at Rome, and
no bishop can be confirmed unless with a great sum of money he buy the
_pallium_[65], and bind himself with terrible oaths to be the pope's
servant[66]. This is the reason that no bishop ventures to act against
the pope. That, too, is what the Romans were seeking when they imposed
the oath, and thus the very richest bishoprics have fallen into debt
and ruin. Mainz pays, as I hear, 20,000 gulden. These be your Romans!
To be sure they decreed of old in the canon law that the _pallium_
should be bestowed gratis, the number of papal servants diminished,
the contests lessened, the chapters[67] and bishops allowed their
liberty. But this did not bring in money, and so they turned over a
new leaf, and all authority was taken from the bishops and chapters;
they are made ciphers, and have no office nor authority nor work, but
everything is ruled by the archknaves at Rome; soon they will have in
hand even the office of sexton and bell-ringer in all the churches.
All contests are brought to Rome, and by authority of the pope
everyone does as he likes.
What happened this very year? The Bishop of Strassburg[68] wished to
govern his chapter properly and to institute reforms in worship, and
with this end in view made certain godly and Christian regulations.
But my dear Lord Pope and the Holy Roman See, at the instigation of
the priests, overthrew and altogether condemned this holy and
spiritual ordinance. This is called "feeding the sheep of Christ!"
[John 20:15-17] Thus priests are to be encouraged against their own
bishop, and their disobedience to divine law is to be protected!
Antichrist himself, I hope, will not dare to put God to such open
shame! There you have your pope after your own heart! Why did he do
this? Ah! if one church were reformed, it would be a dangerous
departure; Rome's turn too might come! Therefore it were better that
no priest should be let at peace with another, that kings and princes
should be set at odds, as has been the custom heretofore, and the
world filled with the blood of Christians, only so the concord of
Christians should not trouble the Holy Roman See with a reformation.
So far we have been getting an idea of how they deal with livings
which become vacant. But for tender-hearted Avarice the vacancies are
too few, and so he brings his foresight to bear upon the benefices
which are still occupied by their incumbents, so that they must be
unfilled, even though they are not unfilled[69]. And this he does in
many ways, as follows:
[Sidenote: Coadjutorships]
_First_, He lies in wait for fat prebends or bishoprics which are held
by an old or a sick man, or by one with an alleged disability. To such
an incumbent, without his desire or consent, the Holy See gives a
coadjutor, i. e., an "assistant," or the coadjutor's benefit, because
he is a "papal servant," or has paid for the position, or has earned
it by some other ignoble service to Rome. In this case the rights of
the chapter or the rights of him who has the bestowal of the
living[70] must be surrendered, and the whole thing all into the hands
of Rome.
[Sidenote: Commendations]
_Second_, There is a little word _commend_[71], by which the pope
entrusts the keeping of a rich, fat monastery or church to a cardinal
or to another of his people, just as though I were to give you a
hundred gulden to keep. This is not called the giving or bestowing of
the monastery nor even its destruction, or the abolition of the
worship of God, but only "giving it into keeping"; not that he to whom
it is entrusted is to care or it, or build it up, but he is to drive
out the incumbent, to receive the goods and revenues, and to install
some apostate, renegade monk[72], who accepts five or six gulden a
year and sits in the church all day selling pictures and images to the
pilgrims, so that henceforth neither prayers nor masses are said
there. If this were to be called destroying monasteries and abolishing
the worship of God, then the pope would have to be called a destroyer
of Christendom and an abolisher of God's worship, because this is his
constant practice. That would be a hard saying at Rome, and so we must
call it a commend or a "command to take charge" of the monastery. The
pope can every year make commends out of our or more of these
monasteries, a single one of which may have an income of more than six
thousand gulden. This is the way the Romans increase the worship of
God and preserve the monasteries. The Germans also are beginning to
find it out.
[Sidenote: Incorporation]
[Sidenote: Union]
_Third_, There are some benefices which they call
_incompatibilia_[73], and which, according to the ordinances of the
canon law, cannot be held by one man at the same time, as for
instance, two parishes, two bishoprics and the like. In these cases
the Holy Roman See of Avarice evades the canon law by making
"glosses,"[74] called _unio_ and _incorporatio_, i. e., by
"incorporating" many _incompatibilia_, so that each becomes a part of
every other and all of them together are looked upon as though they
were one living. They are then no longer "incompatible," and the holy
canon law is satisfied, in that it is no longer binding, except upon
those who do not buy these "glosses"[75] from the pope or his
_datarius_[76]. The _unio_, i. e., "uniting," is of the same nature.
The pope binds many such benefices together like a bundle of sticks,
and by virtue of this bond they are all regarded as one benefice. So
there is at Rome one courtesan[77] who holds, for himself alone, 22
parishes, 7 priories and 44 canonries besides,--all by the help of
that masterly "gloss," which holds that this is not illegal. What
cardinals and other prelates have, everyone may imagine or himself. In
this way the Germans are to have their purses eased and their itch
cured.
[Sidenote: Administration]
Another of the "glosses" is the _administratio_, i. e., a man may have
beside his bishopric, an abbacy or a dignity[78], and possess all the
property which goes with it, only he has no other title than that of
"administrator."[79] For at Rome it is sufficient that words are
changed and not the things they stand for; as though I were to teach
that a bawdy-house keeper should have the name of "burgomaster's
wife," and yet continue to ply her trade. This kind of Roman rule St.
Peter foretold when he said, in II Peter ii: "There shall come false
teachers, who in covetousness, with feigned words, shall make
merchandise of you, to get their gains." [2 Pet. 2:3]
[Sidenote: Regression]
Again, dear Roman Avarice has invented the custom of selling and
bestowing livings to such advantage that the seller or disposer
retains reversionary rights[80] upon them: to wit, if the incumbent
dies, the benefice freely reverts to him who previously sold, bestowed
or surrendered it. In this way they have made livings hereditary
property, so that henceforth no one can come into possession of them,
except the man to whom the seller is willing to dispose of them, or to
whom he bequeaths his rights at death. Besides, there are many who
transfer to others the mere title to a benefice from which those who
get the title derive not a _heller_ of income. It is now an old
custom, too, to give another man a benefice and to reserve a certain
part out of the annual revenue[81]. In olden times this was
simony[82]. Of these things there are so many more that they cannot
all be counted. They treat livings more shamefully than the heathen
beneath the cross treated the garments of Christ. [Matt. 27:35]
[Sidenote: Reservation in pectore]
Yet all that has hitherto been said is ancient history and an
every-day occurrence at Rome. Avarice has devised one thing more,
which may, I hope, be his last morsel, and choke him. The pope has a
noble little device called _pectoralis reservatio_, i. e., his "mental
reservation," and _proprius motus_, i. e., the "arbitrary will of his
authority."[83] It goes like this. When one man has gotten a benefice
at Rome, and the appointment has been regularly signed and sealed,
according to custom, and there comes another, who brings money, or has
laid the pope under obligation in some other way, of which we will not
speak, and desires of the pope the same benefice, then the pope takes
it from the first man and gives it to the second[84]. If it is said
that this is unjust, then the Most Holy Father must make some excuse,
that he may not be reproved or doing such open violence to the law,
and says that in his mind and heart he had reserved that benefice to
himself and his own plenary disposal, although he had never before in
his whole life either thought or heard of it. Thus he has now found a
little "gloss" by which he can, in his own person, lie and deceive,
and make a fool and an ape of anybody--all this he does brazenly and
openly, and yet he wishes to be the head of Christendom, though with
his open lies he lets the Evil Spirit rule him.
This arbitrary will and lying "reservation" of the pope creates in
Rome a state of affairs which is unspeakable. There is buying,
selling, bartering, trading, trafficking, lying, deceiving, robbing,
stealing, luxury, harlotry, knavery, and every sort of contempt of
God, and even the rule of Antichrist could not be more scandalous.
Venice, Antwerp, Cairo[85] are nothing compared to this fair which is
held at Rome and the business which is done there, except that in
those other places they still observe right and reason. At Rome
everything goes as the devil wills, and out of this ocean like virtue
flows into all the world. Is it a wonder that such people fear a
reformation and a free council, and prefer to set all kings and
princes at enmity rather than have them unite and bring about a
council? Who could bear to have such knavery exposed if it were his
own?
[Sidenote: The Dataria]
Finally, for all this noble commerce the pope has built a warehouse,
namely, the house of the datarius[86], in Rome. Thither all must come
who deal after this fashion in benefices and livings. From him they
must buy their "glosses"[87] and get the power to practice such
archknavery. In former times Rome was generous, and then justice had
either to be bought or else suppressed with money, but now she has
become exorbitant, and no one dare be a knave unless with a great sum
he has first bought the right. If that is not a brothel above all the
brothels one can imagine, then I do not know what brothel means.
If you have money in this house, then you can come by all the things I
have said; and not only these, but all sorts of usury[88] are here
made honest, Phil. 2:5 for a consideration, and the possession of all
property acquired by theft or robbery is legalised. Here vows are
dissolved; here monks are granted liberty to leave their orders; here
marriage is on sale to the clergy; here bastards can become
legitimate; here all dishonor and shame can come to honor; all
ill-repute and stigma of evil are here knighted and ennobled; here is
permitted the marriage which is within the forbidden degrees or has
some other defect[89]. Oh! what a taxing and a robbing rules there!
It looks as though all the laws of the Church were made for one
purpose only--to be nothing but so many money-snares, from which a man
must extricate himself[90] if he would be a Christian. Yea, here the
devil becomes a saint, and a god to boot. What heaven and earth
cannot, that this house can do! They call them _compositiones_[91]!
"Compositions" indeed! rather "confusions"! Oh, what a modest tax is
the Rhine-toll[92], compared with the tribute taken by this holy
house!
Let no one accuse me of exaggeration! It is all so open that even at
Rome they must confess the evil to be greater and more terrible than
any one can say. I have not yet stirred up the hell-broth of personal
vices, nor do I intend to do so. I speak of things which are common
talk, and yet I have not words to tell them all. The bishops, the
priests and, above all, the doctors in the universities, who draw
their salaries or this purpose, should have done their duty and with
common consent have written and cried out against these things; but
they have done the very opposite[93].
[Sidenote: The Fuggers]
There remains one last word, and I must say that too. Since boundless
Avarice has not been satisfied with all these treasures, which three
great kings might well think sufficient, he now begins to transfer
this trade and sell it to Fugger of Augsburg[94], so that the lending
and trading and buying of bishoprics and benefices, and the driving of
bargains in spiritual goods has now come to the right place, and
spiritual and temporal goods have become one business. And now I would
fain hear of a mind so lofty that it could imagine what this Roman
Avarice might yet be able to do and has not already done; unless
Fugger were to transfer or sell this combination of two lines of
business to somebody else. I believe we have reached the limit.
As for what they have stolen in all lands and still steal and extort,
by means of indulgences, bulls, letters of confession[95],
"butter-letters"[96] and other _confessionalia_[97],--all this I
consider mere patch-work, and like casting a single devil more into
hell[98]. Not that they bring in little, for a mighty king could well
support himself on their returns, but they are not to be compared with
the streams of treasure above mentioned. I shall also say nothing at
present of how this indulgence money has been applied. Another time I
shall inquire about that, for Campoflore[99] and Belvidere[100] and
certain other places probably know something about it.
Since, then, such devilish rule is not only open robbery and deceit,
and the tyranny of the gates of hell, but also ruins Christendom in
body and soul, it is our duty to use all diligence in protecting
Christendom against such misery and destruction. If we would fight the
Turks, let us make a beginning here, where they are at their worst. If
we justly hang thieves and behead robbers, why should we let Roman
Avarice go free? For he is the greatest thief and robber that has come
or can come into the world, and all in the holy Name of Christ and of
St. Peter! Who can longer endure it or keep silence? Almost everything
he owns has been gotten by theft and robbery; that is the truth, and
all history shows it. The pope never got by purchase such great
properties that from his _officia_[101] alone he can raise about a
million ducats, not to mention the mines of treasure named above and
the income of his lands. Nor did it come to him by inheritance from
Christ or from St. Peter; no one ever loaned it or gave it to him; it
has not become his by virtue of immemorial use and enjoyment. Tell me,
then, whence he can have it? Learn from this what they have in mind
when they send out legates to collect money or use against the Turks.