editions, giving the exact prices for the pardon of each particular
sin. A deacon guilty of murder was absolved for twenty pounds. A
bishop or abbot might assassinate for three hundred livres. Any
ecclesiastic might violate his vows of chastity for the third part of
that sum, etc., etc.--See Robertson's _Charles V._

[6] The pallium, or pall, was a narrow band of white wool to go over
the shoulders in the form of a circle, from which hung bands of
similar size before and behind, finished at the ends with pieces of
sheet lead and embroidered with crosses. It was the mark of the
dignity and rank of archbishops. Albert owed Pope Leo X. forty-five
thousand thalers for his right and appointment to wear the
archbishop's pallium.

It was in this way that the Roman Church was accustomed to sell out
benefices as a divine right. Even _expectative graces_, or mandates
nominating a person to succeed to a benefice upon the first vacancy,
were thus sold. Companies existed in Germany which made a business of
buying up the benefices of particular sections and districts and
retailing them at advanced rates. The selling of pardons was simply a
lower kind of simoniacal bartering which pervaded the whole
hierarchical establishment.


TETZEL'S PERFORMANCES.

Tetzel entered the towns with noise and pomp, amid waving of flags,
singing, and the ringing of bells. Clergy, choristers, monks, and nuns
moved in procession before and after him. He himself sat in a gilded
chariot, with the Bull of his authority spread out on a velvet cushion