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The Great Controversy
the battle which shook the papal throne and jostled the triple crown
upon the pontiff’s head.
The official appointed to conduct the sale of indulgences in
Germany—Tetzel by name—had been convicted of the basest offenses
against society and against the law of God; but having escaped the
punishment due for his crimes, he was employed to further the mer-
cenary and unscrupulous projects of the pope. With great effrontery
he repeated the most glaring falsehoods and related marvelous tales
to deceive an ignorant, credulous, and superstitious people. Had they
possessed the word of God they would not have been thus deceived.
It was to keep them under the control of the papacy, in order to swell
the power and wealth of her ambitious leaders, that the Bible had been
withheld from them. (See John C. L. Gieseler, A Compendium of
Ecclesiastical History, per. 4, sec. 1, par. 5.)
As Tetzel entered a town, a messenger went before him, announc-
ing: “The grace of God and of the holy father is at your gates.”—
D’Aubigne, b. 3, ch. 1. And the people welcomed the blasphemous
pretender as if he were God Himself come down from heaven to them.
The infamous traffic was set up in the church, and Tetzel, ascending the
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pulpit, extolled the indulgences as the most precious gift of God. He
declared that by virtue of his certificates of pardon all the sins which
the purchaser should afterward desire to commit would be forgiven
him, and that “not even repentance is necessary.”—Ibid., b. 3, ch. 1.
More than this, he assured his hearers that the indulgences had power
to save not only the living but the dead; that the very moment the
money should clink against the bottom of his chest, the soul in whose
behalf it had been paid would escape from purgatory and make its way
to heaven. (See K. R. Hagenbach, History of the Reformation, vol. 1,
p. 96.)
When Simon Magus offered to purchase of the apostles the power
to work miracles, Peter answered him: “Thy money perish with thee,
because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with
money.”
Acts 8:20
. But Tetzel’s offer was grasped by eager thousands.
Gold and silver flowed into his treasury. A salvation that could be
bought with money was more easily obtained than that which requires
repentance, faith, and diligent effort to resist and overcome sin. (See
Appendix note for page 59.)