s
felt as a special abuse in the church and was branded by the name of
simony. Leo X made no less than 500,000 ducats[1] annually from the sale
of more than 2000 offices, most of which, being sinecures, eventually
came to be regarded as annuities, with a salary amounting to about 10 per
cent. of the purchase price.

Justice was also venal, in the church no less than in the state. Pardon
was obtainable for all crimes for, as a papal vice-chamberlain phrased
it, "The Lord wishes not the death of a sinner but that he should pay and
live." Dispensations from the laws against marriage within the
prohibited degrees were sold. Thus an ordinary man had to pay 16
grossi[2] for dispensation to marry a woman who stood in "spiritual
relationship" [3] to him; a noble had to pay 20 grossi for the same
privilege, and a prince or duke 30 grossi. First cousins might marry for
the payment of 27 grossi; an uncle and niece for from three to four
ducats, though this was later raised to as much as sixty ducats, at least
for nobles. Marriage within the first degree of affinity (a deceased
wife's mother or daughter by another husband) was at one time sold for
about ten ducats; marriage within the second degree[4] was {23} permitted
for from 300 to 600 grossi. Hardly necessary to add, as was done: "Note
well, that dispensations or graces of this sort are not given to poor
people." [5] Dispensations from vows and from the requirements of
ecclesiastical law, as for example those relating to fasting, were also
to be obtained at a price.

[Sidenote: Indulgences]

One of the richest sources of ecclesiastical revenue was the sale of
indulgences, or the remission by the pope of the temporal penalties of
sin, both penance in this life and the pains of purgatory. The practice
of giving these pardons first arose as a means of assuring heaven to
those warriors who fell fighting the infidel. In 1300 Boniface VIII
granted a plenary indulgence to all who made the pilgrimage to the
jubilee at Rome, and the golden harvest reaped on this occasion induced
his successors to take the same means of imparting spiritual graces to
the faithful at frequent intervals. In the fourteenth century the
pardons were extended to all who contributed a sum of money to a pious
purpose, whether they came to Rome or not, and, as the agents who were
sent out to distribute these pardons were also given power to confess and
absolve, the papal letters were naturally regar