CEN T. and pious men, in encroaching upon the rights XVI. and properties of others to augment their posses SECT. I. sions, all the secrets of his life and thoughts, which the impostors had learned from his confessor. In this and some subsequent scenes (the detail of whose enormities, for the sake of brevity, we shall here omit) the impostor talked much to Jetzer of the Dominican order, which he said was peculiarly dear to the blessed Virgin; he added, that the Virgin knew herself to be conceived in original sin; that the doctors who taught the contrary were in purgatory; that the blessed Virgin abhorred the Franciscans for making her equal with her son; and that the town of Bern would be destroyed for harbouring such plagues within her walls. In one of these apparitions, Jetzer imagined that the voice of the spectre resembled that of the prior of the convent, and he was not mistaken; but, not suspecting a fraud, he gave little attention to this. The prior appeared in various forms, sometimes in that of St Barbara, at others in that of St Bernard; at length he assumed that of the Virgin Mary, and, for that purpose, clothed himself in the habits that were employed to adorn the statue of the Virgin in the great festivals; the little images, that on these days are set on the altars, were made use of for angels, which being tied to a cord that passed through a pulley over Jetzer's head, rose up and down, and danced about the pretended virgin to increase the delusion. The Virgin thus equipped, addressed a long discourse to Jetzer, in which, among other things, she told him that she was conceived in original sin, though she had remained but a short time under that blemish. She gave him as a miraculous proof of her presence, a bost, or consecrated wafer, which turned from white to red in a moment; and after various visits, in which the greatest enormities were transacted, the Virgin-prior told Jetzer, that she would give him the most affecting and undoubted marks of her Son's love, by imprinting on him the five wounds that pierced Jesus on the cross, as she had done before to St Lucia and St Catharine. Accordingly, she took his hand by force, and struck a large nail through it, which threw the poor dupe into the greatest torment. The next night this masculine virgin, brought, as he pretended, some of the linen, in which Christ had been buried, to soften the wound, and gave Jetzer a soporific draught, which had in it the blood of an unbaptized child, some grains of incense and of consecrated salt, some quicksilver, the hairs of the eye brows of a child, all which, with some stupifying and poisonous ingredients, were mingled together by the prior with magic ceremonies, and a solemn dedication of himself to the devil in hope of his succour. This draught threw the poor wretch into a sort of lethargy, during XVI. sions, and in laying the most iniquitous snares and C E N T. stratagems for the destruction of their adversa-szer. I. ries. which the monks imprinted on his body the other four wounds of Christ in such a manner that he felt no pain. When he awakened, he found to his unspeakable joy, these impressions on his body, and came at last to fancy himself a representative of Christ in the various parts of his passion. He was, in this state, exposed to the admiring multitude on the principal altar of the convent, to the great mortification of the Franciscans. The Dominicans gave him some other draughts, that threw him into convulsions, which were followed by a voice conveyed thro' a pipe into the mouths of two images, one of Mary and another of the child Jesus; the former of which had tears painted upon its cheeks in a lively manner. The little Jesus asked his mother, by means of this voice, (which was that of the prior's) why she wept? and she answered, that her tears were owing to the impious manner in which the Franciscans attributed to ber the honour that was due to him, in saying that she was conceived and born without sin. The apparitions, false prodigies, and abominable stratagems of these Dominicans were repeated every night, and the matter was at length so grossly over-acted, that, simple as Jetzer was, he at last discovered it, and had almost killed the prior, who appeared to him one night in the form of the Virgin with a crown on her head. The Dominicans fearing, by this discovery, to lose the fruits of their imposture, thought the best method would be to own the whole matter to Jetzer, and to engage him by the most seducing promises of opulence and glory, to carry on the cheat. Jetzer was persuaded, or at least appeared to be so. But the Dominicans, suspecting that he was not entirely gained over, resolved to poison him; but his constitution was so vigorous, that, though they gave him poison five several times, he was not destroyed by it. One day they sent him a loaf prepared with some spices, which, growing green in a day or two, he threw a piece of it to a wolf's whelps that were in the monastery, and it killed them immediately. At another time they poisoned the bost, or consecrated wafer, but as he vomited it up soon after he swallowed it, he escaped once more. In short, there were no means of securing him, which the most detestible impiety and barbarity could invent, that they did not put in practice, till, finding at last an opportunity of getting out of the convent, he threw himself into the hands of the magistrates, to whom he made a full discovery of this infernal plot. The affair being brought to Rome, commissaries were sent from thence to examine the matter; and the whole cheat being fully proved, the four friars were solemnly C 3 SECT. I. CENT.ries [1]. And they were the principal counsellors, XVI. by whose instigation and advice Leo X. was determined to that most rash and imprudent measure, even the public condemnation of Luther. The state of learning and of the public schools. XIII. The principal places in the public schools of learning were filled very frequently by monks of the Mendicant orders. This unhappy circumstance prevented their emerging from that ignorance and darkness which had so long enveloped them; and it also rendered them inaccessible to that auspicious light of improved science, whose salutary beams had already been felt in several of the European provinces. The instructors of youth, dignified with the venerable titles of Artists, Grammarians, Physicians, and Dialecticians, loaded the memories of their laborious pupils with a certain quantity of barbarous terms, arid and senseless distinctions, and scholastic precepts delivered in the most inelegant style; and all such as could repeat this jargon with a certain readiness and rapidity, were considered as men of uncommon eloquence and erudition. The whole body of the philosophers extolled Aristotle beyond all measure; while scarcely any studied him, and none understood him. For what was now exhibited, as the philosophy of that famous Grecian sage, solemnly degraded from their priesthood, and were burnt alive on the last day of May, 1509. Jetzer died some time after at Constance, having poisoned himself, as was believed by some. Had his life been taken away before he had found an opportu nity of making the discovery already mentioned, this execrable and horrid plot, which, in many of its circumstances was conducted with art, would have been handed down to posterity as a stupendous miracle. This is a very brief account of the matter; such as are desirous of a more circumstantial relation of this famous imposture, may consult the authors mentioned in the beginning of this note. [] See Bilib. Pirkheimeri Eristola ad Hadrianum Pontif. Maxim. de Dominicanorum flagitiis, in opp. ejus, p. 372. This letter is also to be found in Gerdesii Introd. ad Histor. Reng vati Evangelii, tom. i. p. 175. Append. XVI. sage, was really nothing more than a confused c R N T. and motley heap of obscure notions, sentences, SECT. I. and divisions, which even the public doctors and heads of schools were unable to comprehend. And if, among these thorns of scholastic wisdom, there was any thing that had the appearance of fruit, it was crushed and blasted by the furious wranglings and disputes of the Scotists and Thomists, the Realists and Nominalists, whose clamours and contentions were unhappily heard in all the European academies. The state of XIV. The wretched and senseless manner of teaching theology in this century, may be learn-theology. ed from many books yet extant, which were wrote by the divines it produced, and which, in reality, have no other merit than their enormous bulk. The expositors of the holy scriptures were very few in number, during this century; and there were scarcely any of the Christian doctors that had a critical knowledge of the sacred oracles. This kind of knowledge was so rare, that, when LUTHER arose, there could not be found, even in the university of Paris, which was considered as the first and most famous of all the public schools of learning, a single person qualified to dispute with him, or oppose his doctrine, upon a scripture foundation. Any commentators, that were at this time to be found, were such, as, laying aside all attention to the true meaning and force of the words of scripture, which their profound ignorance of the original languages and of the rules of criticism rendered them incapable of investigating, gave a loose to their vain and irregular fancies, in the pursuit of mysterious significations. The greatest part of the public teachers belonged to these classes of divines, which we have formerly mentioned under the titles of Positivi and Sententiarii, who were extremely fond, the former of loading their accounts, both of the truths CEN T.truths and precepts of religion, with multiplied XVI. quotations and authorities from the writings of the I. ancient doctors; the latter of explaining the doc SECT. The liberty subjects. trines of the gospel by the rules of a subtile and intricate philosophy. XV. It must at the same time be observed, of debating that the divines of this century disputed with a religious good deal of freedom upon religious subjects, and even upon those that were looked upon as most essential to salvation. There were several points of doctrine, which had not been as yet fixed and determined by the authority of the church; nor did the pontifs, without some very urgent reason, restrain the right of private judgment, or force the consciences of men, except in those cases where doctrines were adopted that seemed detrimental to the supremacy of the apostolic see, or to the temporal interests of the sacerdotal and monastic orders. Hence it is, that we could mention many Christian doctors before LUTher, who inculcated not only with impunity, but even with applause, the very same tenets that afterwards drew upon him such heavy accusations and such bitter reproaches. And it is beyond all doubt, that this great reformer might have propagated these opinions without any danger of molestation, had he not pointed his warm remonstrances against the opulence of Rome, the overgrown fortunes of the bishops, the majesty of the pontifs, and the towering ambition of the Dominicans. The nature XVI. The public worship of the Deity was now of religious no more than a pompous round of external cereworship as it was cele- monies, the greatest part of which were insignibrated at ficant and senseless, and much more adapted to this time. dazzle the eyes than to touch the heart. The number of those, who were at all qualified to administer public instruction to the people, was not very considerable; and their discourses, which contained |