se to whom you gave. If you helped
rebuild Saint Peter's, you participated in all the masses said there for
the repose of the dead. This would apply to all your kinsmen now in
Purgatory. If you gave, you could get them out, and also insure yourself
against the danger of getting in. Repent and show your gratitude.

Tetzel had half a dozen Secretaries in purple robes, who made out
receipts. These receipts were printed in red and gold and had a big seal
and ribbon attached. The size of the receipt and seal was proportioned
according to the amount paid--if you had a son or a daughter in
Purgatory, it was wise to pay a large amount. The certificates were in
Latin and certified in diffuse and mystical language many things, and
they gave great joy to the owners.

The money flowed in on the Secretaries in heaps. Women often took their
jewelry and turned it over with their purses to Tetzel; and the
Secretaries worked far into the night issuing receipts--or what some
called, "Letters of Indulgence."

That many who secured these receipts regarded them as a license to do
wrong and still escape punishment, there is no doubt. Before Tetzel left
a town his Secretaries issued, for a sum equal to twenty-five cents, a
little certificate called a "Butterbriefe," which allowed the owner to
eat butter on his bread on fast-days.

Then in the night Tetzel and his cavalcade would silently steal away, to
continue their good work in the next town. This program was gone through
in hundreds of places, and the amount of money gathered no one knew, and
what became of it all, no one could guess.

Pope, Electors, Bishops, Priests and Tetzel all shared in the benefits.

To a great degree the same plans are still carried on. In Protestant
churches we have the professional Debt-Raiser, and the Evangelist who
recruits by hypnotic Tetzel methods.

In the Catholic Church receipts are still given for money paid, vouching
that the holder shall participate in masses and prayers, his name be put
in a window, or engrossed on a parchment to be placed beneath a
cornerstone. Trinkets are sold to be worn upon the person as a
protection against this and that.

The Church does not teach that the Pope can forgive sin, or that by mere
giving you can escape punishment for sin. Christ alone forgives.

However, the Pope does decide on what constitutes sin and what not; and
this being true, I, for myself, do not see why he can not decide that
under certain conditi