years, "because human life is so short." The
second jubilee under Clement the Sixth had a still
greater success than the first. The crowd in the
church was so great that there were many of the
pilgrims crushed to death. Ten thousand of
them died of plague; but their loss was not
perceived, for the whole number amounted to one
million and several hundreds of thousands.
The revenue of this jubilee is estimated at
more than twenty-two millions of ducats. In
the jubilee under Nicholas the Fifth, the
bridge over the Tiber could not resist the
weight of the crowd; it gave way, and two
hundred persons at once, said the priests, fell
into Paradise.

The Reformation spoiled the jubilee. At the
jubilee of thirty years ago there were not more
foreigners in Rome than in other years, and the
Italians who went did not give much. The
princes also learnt to keep money in their own
countries, and put difficulties in the way of
pilgrims. The Austrian government even forbade
its Italian subjects to go into Rome without a
passport from Vienna.

Another good entry in the ledger of the
popes came under the head of Annates, that is,
the revenue of his first year, payable by every
bishop to the pontifical see. The tax for
dispensation from fasting, or other stipulations of
the Church, was also very productive. That
paid by the people who could not marry because
of relationship was valuable when marriages
between relatives were prohibited to the fourteenth
degree. Some one took the trouble to calculate
how many such relatives one person might on
the average be said to have, and fixed the
number at one million forty-eight thousand five
hundred and seventy-six.

There was a tariff according to which
indulgence for any sin was to be had at a fixed price.
This list contained, in forty-two chapters, about
five hundred items. If, for example, a clergyman
committed wilful murder, he had to pay for
absolution about one pound thirteen and seven-
pence. The murder of a father, mother,
brother, or sister was cheaper, and might be
forgiven for some twelve shillings less. A heretic,
willing to return to the bosom of the Roman
Church, might be absolved and admitted for
less than a guinea and a half. A mass at a
house in an excommunicated town cost three or
four pounds. By such traffic several popes
scraped large sums together, and John the
Twenty-Second, the son of a cobbler, left
sixteen millions in gold and seventeen millions in
bullion.

The revenue of the pontifical see, large as it
was, did, however, not satisfy the luxurious Leo
the Tenth, of the House of the Medicis. His
children, relations, actors, singers, musicians,
and artists absorbed enormous sums, and the
"holy father" was very much at a loss for
money. To get out of this disagreeable position,
he pretended to want money for carrying
on war against the Turks, as well as to finish
the Cathedral of St. Peter. But the Turk-tax
would not work; it was a worn-out device, and
even Cardinal Ximenes, the wise Spanish
minister, forbade the collections, saying "he had
very reliable intelligence that there was now
nothing at all to be apprehended from the
Turks." The pope, therefore, issued a bull, by
which indulgence was given to all who would
contribute to the building of St. Peter's. The
whole Christian world was divided into districts,
and travellers were sent out, called papal legates
or commissioners.

In their price current all manner of crimes
were quoted at the lowest figure. Infamous as
the document is in itself, the concluding
sentence crowns it worthily. Poor people cannot
participate in such a comfort, for they, having
no money, must do without. For half a ducat
even clergymen were free to commit the basest
of all crimes. The speculation answered so
well, that the sums realised are beyond calculation.
Leo the Tenth farmed out his indulgences
to eminent persons, by whom they were underlet.
One of the chief tenants of indulgences was
the Margrave Albrecht of Brandenburg, who
was at the same time Bishop of Halberstadt,
Archbishop of Madgeburg, and Archbishop and
Prince Elector of Mayence, and Cardinal. He
owed thirty thousand ducats for pall-money,
and hoped, as a dealer in indulgences, to make
enough money to pay his debt. Some people
bought indulgence for several hundreds of years,
although they were old and had but a few years
to live. Time to be passed in purgatory was
included in these bargains. For such and such
a sin, it was said, the penalty is twenty years of
purgatory, and for another even thirty; an
experienced sinner would thus easily be able to tot
up the account against him, and by paying his
score to the pope in cash value before he died,
go straight to heaven. He who kissed a relic
and paid for it, also obtained indulgence for a
certain number of years. Archbishop Albrecht
had such a treasure in relics, that indulgence
was to be had through them for about eight
billions of years.

Our own tribute to Rome of Peter's pence
was instituted in the year 740 by Offa, King of
Mercia, and was a tax payable from every house
in England. It ceased when Henry the Eighth
renounced the Pope, after having brought large
treasure to the papal see.

A new Serial Tale, entitled
A DAY'S RIDE: A LIFE'S ROMANCE,
BY CHARLES LEVER,
Will be commenced on the 18th August (in No. 69),
and continued from week to week until completed.