“Then I began to deal with the deputies of this indulgence-peddler; but, in truth, I was impelled and urged to do so by the Holy Ghost, although I myself did not understand at the time what I was doing.

“My dear father had taught me in my childhood the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Christian Creed, and compelled me always to pray.  For, he said, we had everything from God alone, gratis, for nothing, and He would also govern and lead us if we prayed with diligence.  Of the indulgences and Roman remission of sins he said that they were only snares with which one tricked the simple out of their money and took it from their purses, that the forgiveness of sins and eternal life could certainly not be purchased and acquired with money.  But the priests or preachers became angry and enraged when one said such things.  Because I heard then nothing else in the sermons every day but the greatest praise of the remission of sins, I was filled with doubt as to whom I was to believe more, my father or the priests as teachers of the Church.  I was in doubt, but still I believed the priests more than the instruction of my father.  But one thing I did not grant, that the forgiveness of sins could not be acquired unless it was purchased with money, above all by the poor.  On this account I was wonderfully well pleased with the little clause at the end of the Pope’s letter, ’Pauperibus gratis dentur propter Deum.’

“And as they, in three days, intended to lay down the cross with special magnificence and cut off the steps and ladders to heaven, I was impelled by my spirit to go to the commissioners and ask for the letters of the forgiveness of sins ‘out of mercy for the poor.’  I declared also that I was a sinner and poor and in need of the forgiveness of sins, which was granted through divine grace.  On the second day, around evening, I entered Hans Pflock’s house where Tetzel was assembled with the father-confessors and crowds of priests, and I addressed them in Latin and requested that they might allow me, poor man, to ask, according to the command in the Pope’s letter, for the absolution of all my sins for nothing and for the sake of God, ’etiam nullo casu reservato,’ without reserving a single case, and in regard to the same they should give me the Pope’s ’literas testimoniales,’ or written testimony.  Then the priests were astonished at my Latin speech, for that was a rare thing at this time, especially in the case of young boys; and they soon went out of the room into the small chamber which I was alongside, to the commissioner Tetzel.  They made my desire known to him, and also asked in my behalf that he might give me the letters of indulgence for nothing.  Finally, after long counsel, they returned and brought this answer:  ’Dear son, we have put your petition before the commissioner with all diligence, and he confesses that he would gladly grant your request, but that he could not; and although he might wish to do so, the concession