ministers but for money; at baptism money, at bishoping money, at marriage
money, for confession money—no, not extreme unction without money! They
will ring no bells without money, no burial in the church without money;
so that it seemeth that Paradise is shut up from them that have no money.
The rich is buried in the church, the poor in the churchyard. The rich man
may marry with his nearest kin, but the poor not so, albeit he be ready to
die for love of her. The rich may eat flesh in Lent, but the poor may not,
albeit fish perhaps be much dearer. The rich man may readily get large
Indulgences, but the poor none, because he wanteth money to pay for
them.”(58)
In spite of this hatred of the priests, it will be found that almost every
insurrectionary movement was impregnated by some sentiment of enthusiastic
religion, with which was blended some confused dream that the kingdom of
God might be set up on earth, if only the priests were driven out of the
land. This religious element drew some of its strength from the Lollard
movement in England and from the Taborite in Bohemia, but after 1476 it
had a distinctly German character. Its connection with what may almost be
called the epidemic of pilgrimages, the strongly increased veneration for
the Blessed Virgin, and the injunctions laid upon the confederates in some
of the revolutionary movements to repeat so many _Pater Nosters_ and _Ave
Marias_, seem to lead to the conclusion that much of that revival of an
enthusiastic and superstitious religion which marked the last half of the
fifteenth century may be regarded as an attempt to create a popular
religion apart from priests and clergy of all kinds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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