The indulgence merchants had fixed their station at Hagenau in 1517. A shoemaker's wife, taking advantage of the authority of the instruction of the commissary-general, had, contrary to the will of her husband, procured a letter of indulgence, and paid a gold florin for it. She died shortly after. The husband not having caused mass to be said for the repose of her soul, the curate charged him with contempt of religion, and the judge of Hagenau summoned him to appear. The shoemaker put his wife's indulgence in his pocket and repaired to the court. "Is your wife dead?" asked the judge. "Yes," replied he. "What have you done for her?" "I have buried her body, and commended her soul to God." "But have you caused a mass to be said for the salvation of her soul?" I have not; it was unnecessary. She entered heaven the moment of her death." "How do you know that?" "Here is the proof." So saying, he takes the indulgence out of his pocket, and the judge, in presence of the curate, reads in as many words that the woman who received it would not enter purgatory, but go straight to heaven. "If the reverend curate maintains that a mass is still necessary, my wife has been cheated by our most holy father the pope. If she was not cheated, then it is the reverend curate who is cheating me." This was unanswerable, and the accused was acquitted. Thus the good sense of the people did justice to these pious frauds.[326] [326] Musculi Loci Communes, p. 362. One day when Tezel was preaching at Leipsic, and introducing into his sermons some of those stories of which we have given a sample, two students feeling quite indignant, rose up and left the church, exclaiming, "It is impossible for us to listen longer to the drolleries and puerilities of this monk."[327] One of them, it is said, was young Camerarius, afterwards the intimate friend of Melancthon, and his biographer. [327] Hoffman's Reformationsgesch, v, Leipz., p. 32. But of all the young men of the period, he on whom Tezel made the strongest impression unquestionably was Myconius, afterwards celebrated as a Reformer, and historian of the Reformation. He had received a Christian education. His father, a pious man of Franconia, was wont to say to him, "My son, pray frequently, for all things are freely given to us by God alone. The blood of Christ," added he, "is the only ransom for the sins of the whole world. O, my son! were there only three men that could be saved by the blood of Christ, believe, and believe with confidence, that thou art one of the three. It is an insult to the blood of the Saviour to doubt if it saves."[328] Then cautioning his son against the traffic which was beginning to be established in Germany--"The Roman indulgences," said he to him, "are nets which fish for money, and deceive the simple. The forgiveness of sins and of eternal life are not things for sale."