The Clergy as Exhibited in the Vernacular Literature before the Reformation.
The clergy of the Middle Ages and previous to the Reformation were secularized. To the spiritual wants of the masses they gave little heed, but spent the large portion of their time in riotous living, in ambitious schemes, and in devising means by which to retain their hold on the superstitions of the common people. The monks, whose chief vow was that of personal poverty, had become so wealthy in the aggregate, that the monasteries were seats of the most comfortable living to be found. They were composed of several different orders, the chief of which were the Franciscan and the Dominican, who hated each other so bitterly that Luther’s crusade against Tetzel was regarded by the Pope as merely one of the common quarrels between the two orders of monks. The fairest buildings, the best filled larders, the most fertile fields, the enormous revenue which poured into their coffers, and the patronage of the mighty hierarchy of Rome, all conspired to make pleasant the lives of the members of these powerful corporations.
The larger part of the expenses of these great establishments had to be borne by the lower classes of the people, to whom the monastic orders were supposed to minister. This was oppressive everywhere, but was complained of most bitterly in Germany. Here the extortions of the Romish Church left scarcely the means of sustenance and the poor peasant was continually harassed by demands for more money. No religious ceremony could be performed, nothing could be done for his benefit, nor even a Christian burial, without the dropping of gold into the hand of the priest, so that, in the language of a contemporary writer from among the people, it seemed indeed that Heaven itself was closed to those that had no money.
In other countries, also, these evils were great, more especially in Italy, where the Papal court was held. Here the supreme rulers of the Catholic Church, who should by their virtues have set the example of a consistent Christian life to those under them, devoted themselves, sometimes to political intrigues for the aggrandizement of themselves and their own house, sometimes in carousing and wild dissipation, in which under pontiffs like Alexander VI., the excess of their wickedness disgraced Christendom. Revenues extorted from all sides were squandered as freely as water on magnificent palaces and costly works of art. The monasteries, with all their abuses in the worst period of their existence never attained the height of wickedness which was developed at different periods by the highest dignitaries of the court of Rome.