been alleged against him by his enemies concerning his manner of
carrying out the office entrusted to him by the archbishop, and in
regard to his own private life serious crimes have been laid to his
charge; but as a matter of history it is now admitted that Tetzel was
a much maligned man, that his own conduct can bear the fullest
scrutiny, and that in his preaching the worst that can be said against
him is that he put forward as certainties, especially in regard to
gaining indulgences for the souls of the faithful departed, what were
merely the opinions of certain schools of theologians. Nor is it true
to say that as the result of his activity vast sums of money made
their way into the papal treasury. The accounts of the monies received
during the greater portion of the time are now available, and it can
be seen that when all expenses were paid comparatively little remained
for either the Archbishop of Mainz or the building fund of St.
Peter's.[9]

Tetzel preached with considerable success in Halberstadt, Magdeburg
and Leipzig, and in May 1517 he found himself in the neighbourhood of
Wittenberg, whence many people flocked to see him, and to gain the
Indulgence. This was not calculated to please Luther or his patron the
Elector, Frederick of Saxony, and provided Luther with an occasion of
giving vent to his own views on good works, Grace, and Justification.
Years before, both in his sermons attacking the Augustinians of the
strict observance for their over confidence in the merits of good
works and penance, and in his commentaries on the Epistles of St. Paul
to the Romans and to the Galatians, he had indicated already that his
views on man's power to do anything good, and on the means and nature
of justification differed widely from those put forward by Catholic
theologians. At last, after careful consideration, following the bent
of his own inclination and the advice of his friends, he determined to