[266] The XVI Century was the hey-day of the great trading-companies, among which the Fuggers of Augsburg (see above, p. 97, note 5) easily took first place. The effort of these companies was directed toward securing monopolies in the staple articles of commerce, and their ability to finance large enterprises made it possible for them to gain practical control of the home markets. The sharp rise in the cost of living which took place on the first half of the XVI Century was laid at their door. The Diet of Cologne (1512) had passed a stringent law against monopolies which had, however, failed to suppress them. The Diet of Worms (1521) debated the subject (Wrede, _Reichstagsakten_ II, pp. 355 iff.) "in somewhat heated language" (_ibid._, 842), but failed to agree upon methods of suppression. The subject was discussed again at the Diet of Nürnberg (1523) and various remedies were proposed (ibid., Ill, 556-599). [267] The profits of the trading-companies were enormous. The 9 per cent, annually of the Welser (Ehrenberg, _Zeitalter der Fugger_, I, 195), pales into insignificance beside the 1634 per cent, by which the fortune of the Fuggers grew in twenty-one years (Schulte, _Die Fugger in Rom_, I, 3). In 1511 a certain Bartholomew Rem invested 900 gulden in the Hochstetter company of Augsburg; by 1517 he claimed 33,000 gulden profit. The company was willing to settle at 26,000, and the resulting litigation caused the figures to become public (Wrede, _op. cit._, II, 842, note 4; III, pp. 574 ff.). On Luther's view of capitalism see Eck, _Introduction to the Sermon von Kaushandlungund Wucher_, in _Berl. Ed._, VII, 494-513. [268] The Diets of Augsburg (1500) and Cologne (1512) had passed edicts against drunkenness. A committee of the Diet of Worms (1521) recommended that these earlier edicts be reaffirmed (Wrede, _op. cit._, II, pp. 343 f.), but the Diet adjourned without acting on the recommendation (ibid., 737) [269] _Sie wollen ausbuben, so sich's vielmehr hineinbubt_. [270] Cf. Müller, _Luther's theol. Quellen_, 1912, ch. I. [271] In the _Confitendi Ratio_ Luther had set the age for men at eighteen to twenty, or women at fifteen to sixteen years. See Vol. I, p. 100. [272] Translated in this edition, Vol. I, pp. 184 ff; see especially pp. 266 ff. [273] These sentences did not appear in the first edition. [274] See _Letter to Staupitz_, Vol. I, p. 43. [275] This "little song" is the _Prelude on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church_. See below, pp. 170 ff. A PRELUDE ON THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY OF THE CHURCH 1520 INTRODUCTION