All the church-bells would be set ringing for joy: the whole population would be thrown into the greatest excitement to receive the brilliant pageant. At the annotated hour the cavalcade entered, bedizened with all the gorgeous finery of a modern menagerie display. Tetzel carried, in the capacious box of his peddler’s cart, the parchment certificates of pardon for every imaginary sin. Murder, adultery, theft, sacrilege, blasphemy,――every crime had its specified price. One could purchase pardon or absolution for any crime which had already been committed, or he could purchase permission to commit the crime if it were one he wished to perpetrate. With music and banners the procession advanced to the public square. Here Tetzel, mounted upon his box, with all the volubility of a modern mountebank palmed off his wares upon the eager crowd. “My brothers,” said this prince of impostors, “God has sent me to you with his last and greatest gift. The Church is in need of money. I am empowered by the pope, God’s vicegerent, to absolve you from any and every crime you may have committed, no matter what it may be. The moment the money tinkles in the bottom of the box, your soul shall be as pure as that of the babe unborn. “I can also grant you indulgence; so that any sins you may commit hereafter shall all be blotted out. More than this: if you have any friends now in purgatory suffering in those awful flames, I am empowered, in consideration of the money you grant the Church in this its hour of need, to cause that soul to be immediately released from purgatory, and to be borne on angel-wings to heaven.” Enlightened as the masses of the people are at the present day, we can hardly imagine the effect these representations produced upon an ignorant and superstitious people who had ever been trained to the belief that the pope was equal in power to God. These peddlings of indulgences for sin were carried on all over Europe, and enormous sums of money were thus raised. The certificates, which were issued like government-bonds, ran in this form:―― “I, by the authority of Jesus Christ, his blessed apostles Peter and Paul, and the most holy pope, absolve thee from all thy sins, transgressions, and excesses, how enormous soever they may be. I remit to thee all punishment which thou dost deserve in purgatory on their account, and restore thee to the innocence and purity thou didst possess at baptism; so that, when thou diest, the gates of punishment shall be shut against thee, and the gates of paradise shall be thrown wide open.”