intend to thunder against those who use the
pretext of pardons to contrive the injury of holy love and truth.

75. To think the papal pardons so great that they could absolve a man
even if he had committed an impossible sin and violated the Mother of
God--this is madness.

76. We say, on the contrary, that the papal pardons are not able to
remove the very least of venial sins, so far as its guilt is concerned.

77. It is said that even St. Peter, if he were now Pope, could not
bestow greater graces; this is blasphemy against St. Peter and against
the pope.

78. We say, on the contrary, that even the present pope, and any pope
at all, has greater graces at his disposal; to wit, the Gospel, powers,
gifts of healing, etc., as it is written in I. Corinthians xii.

79. To say that the cross, emblazoned with the papal arms, which is set
up [by the preachers of indulgences], is of equal worth with the Cross
of Christ, is blasphemy.

80. The bishops, curates and theologians who allow such talk to be
spread among the people, will have an account to render. 81. This
unbridled preaching of pardons makes it no easy matter, even for
learned men, to rescue the reverence due to the pope from slander, or
even from the shrewd questionings of the laity.

82. To wit:--"Why does not the pope empty purgatory, for the sake of
holy love and of the dire need of the souls that are there, if he
redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake of miserable money
with which to build a Church? The former reasons would be most just;
the latter is most trivial."

83. Again:--"Why are mortuary and anniversary masses for the dead
continued, and why does he not return or permit the withdrawal of the
endowments founded on their behalf, since it is wrong to pray for the
redeemed?"

84. Again:--"What is this new piety of God and the pope, that for money
they allow a man who is impious and their enemy to buy out of purgatory
the pious soul of a friend of God, and do not rather, because of that
pious and beloved soul's own need, free it for pure love's sake?"

85. Again:--"Why are the penitential canons long since in actual fact
and through disuse abrogated and dead, now satisfied by the granting of
indulgences, as though they were still alive and in force?"

86. Again:--"Why does not the pope, whose wealth is to-day greater than
the riches of the richest, build just this one church of St. Peter with
his own money, rather than with the money of