less efficacious because they were less
often used.

The first he employed was to spread a report that the Turks were
threatening an invasion of Christendom, and that he knew for a
positive fact that before the end of the summer Bajazet would land two
considerable armies, one in Romagna, the other in Calabria; he therefore
published two bulls, one to levy tithes of all ecclesiastical revenues
in Europe of whatever nature they might be, the other to force the
Jews into paying an equivalent sum: both bulls contained the severest
sentences of excommunication against those who refused to submit, or
attempted opposition.

The second plan was the selling of indulgences, a thing which had never
been done before: these indulgences affected the people who had been
prevented by reasons of health or business from coming to Rome for the
Jubilee; the journey by this expedient was rendered unnecessary, and
sins were pardoned for a third of what it would have cost, and just
as completely as if the faithful had fulfilled every condition of the
pilgrimage. For gathering in this tax a veritable army of collectors was
instituted, a certain Ludovico delta Torre at their head. The sum that
Alexander brought into the pontifical treasury is incalculable, and same
idea of it may be gathered from the fact that 799,000 livres in gold was
paid in from the territory of Venice alone.

But as the Turks did as a fact make some sort of demonstration from
the Hungarian side, and the Venetians began to fear that they might be
coming in their direction, they asked for help from the pope, who gave
orders that at twelve o'clock in the day in all his States an Ave Maria
should be said, to pray God to avert the danger which was threatening
the most serene republic. This was the only help the Venetians got from
His Holiness in exchange for the 799,000 livres in gold that he had got
from them.

But it seemed as though God wished to show His strange vicar on earth
that He was angered by the mockery of sacred things, and on the Eve of
St. Peter's Day, just as the pope was passing the Capanile on his way to
the tribune of benedictions, a enormous piece of iron broke off and fell
at his feet; and then, as though one warning had not been enough, on the
next day, St. Peter's, when the pope happened to be in one of the rooms
of his ordinary dwelling with Cardinal Capuano and Monsignare Poto, his
private chamberlain, he saw through the open windows that a very bl