duly recorded by the Bohemian historians. The only precedent for the public sale of indulgences had occurred in the year 1393. “In Bohemia,” Professor Tomek writes, “the unhappy recollection of the sale of indulgences in the year of grace 1393 was still vivid, and the archiepiscopal consistory thought it necessary to publish special regulations to prevent the repetition of the more crying abuses that had then occurred.” Archbishop Albik also strictly prohibited the taxing of the people in the confessional, that is to say, their being told during confession how much they would, according to their rank and fortune, have to pay for an indulgence—a custom that had been general in 1393.
The orders given by Archbishop Albik and the consistory certainly tended to avoid all scandal as far as possible. This was naturally to be feared in a city where the teaching of Hus and his forerunners had developed a somewhat puritanic spirit. The papal representative, however, who now arrived at Prague, Venceslas Tiem, Dean of Passau, was utterly unfit for the difficult task which he had undertaken. His behaviour, like that of Texel a century later, was bound to cause trouble. Tiem took little notice of the restrictions that had been imposed on him. He carried on his traffic in divine indulgences in the manner which he believed would give him the largest profit and enable him to send the largest sums to Italy. To simplify matters, he began to farm out archdeaconries, deaconries, and even single churches to priests who, acting as contractors, had to consign to him a fixed sum, while they were at liberty to obtain as great a profit as they could by the sale of the indulgences. “Naturally, worthy priests were not suitable for such an unholy trade, and the business thus fell into the hands of priests who were misers or gamblers, lived in concubinage, or practised other vices of the period. These men bargained shamelessly with the faithful in the confessionals and committed infamous actions of every description.”[1]
- ↑ Tomek, History of the Town of Prague, vol. iii. pp. 508–509.
