The testimony of Edward Gibbon, the skeptical historian, exactly accords with that of Saint Cyprian, Chrysostom, Jerome and Bernard.
The memorable investigation which Duke Leopold of Tuscany caused to be made of the cloistered convents of Italy revealed identically the same cess-pools of vice that came to light in England when Henry VII. uncovered the monasteries.
All the literature of the Renaissance, after men's minds and pens freed themselves from the ignoble fear of popery, bear witness to the same universal everlasting truth—Men and women were made for each other, and no so-called religion can annul the laws of Nature.
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When a "religion" sets up the claim that it can pardon sins, educate the children to believe it, destroys those who deny it, and fixes a scale of money-payments for the pardon of sins, what sort of fruit is that kind of tree likely to bear?
If penance and payment rids me of sin, my conscience, like an unused muscle, becomes enfeebled, and my proneness to sin is encouraged.
Pope Leo X. was the Vicar of Christ who ordered lists of sin to be drawn up, with the price of the pardon opposite each sin.
(See History of Auricular Confession, by Count C. P. De Lasteyrie, Vol. II., p. 132.)
I will quote only a few of these tariff rates established by this Infallible Pope.
For allowing a ship to sail to convey merchandise to infidels, 100 d.