At these sales one personage in particular drew the attention of the spectators. It was he who carried the great red cross, and played the principal character. He was clothed in the dress of a Dominican, and had an arrogant air. His voice was Stentorian, and though in his sixty-third year,[295] he seemed still in full vigour. This man, the son of one Diez, a jeweller of Leipsic, was called John Diezel, or Tezel. He had studied in his native town, became bachelor in 1487, and two years after entered the Dominican order. Numerous honours had accumulated on his head. Bachelor in theology, prior of the dominicans, apostolic commissary, inquisitor, _hæreticæ pravitatis inquisitor_, he had discharged the office of commissary of indulgences, without intermission, from 1502. The skill which he had acquired as subaltern soon raised him to the office of commissary-in-chief. He had eighty florins a month, and all his expences paid, together with a carriage and three horses; but his perquisites (it is easy to comprehend what they were) far exceeded his salary. In 1507 at Freiberg he gained two thousand florins in two days. If he discharged the functions, he had also the manners of a quack. Convicted of adultery and shameful misconduct at Inspruck, his vices had almost cost him his life. The Emperor Maximilian had ordered him to be put into a sack and thrown into the river; but the Elector Frederick happening to arrive, obtained his pardon.[296] The lesson which he thus received had not given him more modesty; for he had two of his children along with him. [295] "Ingenio ferox, et corpore robustus." (Cochl. 5.) In mind fierce, and in body robust. [296] "Welchen Churfürst Freiderich vom Sack, zu Inspruck erbeten hatte." (Mathes. 10.) Miltitz, the pope's legate, mentions the fact in one of his letters.[297] It would have been difficult to find in all the cloisters of Germany a man better fitted for the traffic with which he was entrusted. To the theology of a monk, to the zeal and temper of an inquisitor, he united the greatest effrontery; but the thing which, above all, made the task easy to him, was his skill in inventing extraordinary stories to captivate the minds of the people. To him all means were good that filled his coffers. Raising his voice, and giving free vent to his vulgar eloquence, he offered his indulgences to every comer, and knew better than any dealer at a fair how to set off his merchandise.[298] [297] Luth. Op. (W.) xv, 862. [298] "Circumferuntur venales indulgentiæ in his regionibus a Tecelio Dominicano impudentissimo sycophanta." (Melancth. Vita Luth.) Indulgences for sale are carried about by the Dominican Tezel, a most impudent sycophant.