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types. The illustration on the previous page shows that although the matrices were fitted with closeness, each type was founded on a square body.

The circumstances connected with the publication of the Letters require more than a passing notice, for they present the first specific indication of a demand for printing. These circumstances give us a glimmer of the corruption of some of the men who sold the indulgences—a corruption which, in the next century, brought down upon the sellers and the system the scorn of Holbein and the wrath of Luther.

Fac-simile of Holbein's Satire on the Sale of Indulgences.
[From Woltmann.]

The canon at the right absolves the kneeling young man, but points significantly to the huge money-chest into which the widow puts her mite. Three Dominicans, seated at the table, are preparing and selling indulgences: one of them, holding back the letter, greedily counts the money as it is paid down; another pauses in his writing, to repulse the penitent but penniless cripple; another is leering at the woman whose letter he delays. The pope, enthroned in the nave, and surrounded by cardinals, is giving a commission for the sale of the letters.

On the twelfth day of April, 1451, a plenary indulgence of three years was accorded by Pope Nicholas v to all who, from May 1, 1452, to May 1, 1455, should properly contribute with money to the aid of the alarmed king of Cyprus, then threatened by the Turks. Paul Zappe, an ambassador of the king of Cyprus, selected John de Castro as chief commissioner for the sale of the indulgences in Germany. Theodoric, archbishop of Mentz, gave him full permission to sell them, but