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Cl)e Ikfteusonian Vol. 14, No. 16 What was the Quarrel Between Martin Luther and the Pope ? HR HIS year is the 400th, since a venereally diseased Pope, whose dissipations had ex hausted the Vatican treasury, sent out monk ish peddlers into sundry parts of Europe to Sell, at public outcry, the papal pardons for sin, known 7 as “Indulgences.” Originally, an Indulgence was a financial <fleal, by which the Roman Catholic violator of church rules could square himself with his ecclesiastical lords; just as the peasants, under the Feudal System, could pay money to the landlord and escape menial service, or mili tary conscription. But as the Papal usurpation grew in power, it naturally grew also in greed. Euch successful aggression encouraged the popes to attempt another; and so it was, that the Bishops of Rome finally became Gods-on earth, in the eyes of devout, superstitious Catholics. It logically follows that, if we have a God on earth, this God can forgive sins. Inasmuch as the popes had, in the course of a thousand years, reached that monstrous height of self-assertion, they changed the original doctrine of Indulgence. What had formerly been nothing more than the remission of church penalties (similar to the remission of a fine by one of our courts) became a pardon for sin. This preposterous usurpation of God's power was carried to such extreme lengths, that the popes sold Indulgences which wiped but all crimes past, present, and future; and the price to be paid was set against each crime, TA OWN with the autocrats and their autoc racies! “So say we all —Daniel Dennis, Foreman.' 1 But which autocrat shall we commence jwith ? Whose autocracy must we first swat? If we kick the wrong one, it’s apt to go hard with us. Suppose we had a President who was the Whole Cheese, and whose constant attitude reminded us of old Commodore Vanderbilt, .would it be safe to call him an autocrat? No sir, it wouldn’t. Two misguided Ameri cans were put in jail, because they in advertently forgot that this was no longer a land of free speech. One of the in-jails, is my Baptist brother, Bev. J. R. Phillips, who was seized by some maniacs at Douglas, Georgia. The other is a man in New York, of whose sad fate you may read in this news-item: New York, April 5. —Henry Yager, a Moy wood, N. J., real estate dealer, was sentencced to six months in the workhouse here today for having attacked President Wilson in a public speech. “This man is the type of character who has taken advantage of free speech,” said the magis trate in sentencing Yager. “It is better that this type be subdued.” Ask Your Pastor to Preach on the Protestant Reformation. WHICH “AUTOCRACY” IS YOURS? Thomson, Ga,, Thursday, April 26, 1917 in a regular scale, just as you would list the trices of a number of books, of horses, of Back to the Old Price! The responses to the S. O. S. were many and were sincerely appreciated, but they were not sufficient to meet our necessities. I have decided to restore the old price of one dollar a year for the paper, and the same for the magazine, with the clubbing arrangement the same as before—to-wit: clubs of ten at $5.00 for the club. The paper will carry about the same amount of editorial matter, but will have less room for letters and contributed articles. It will be eight pages instead of twelve—as much as the average man can spare time to read, between war whoops and war news. The magazine will also carry the same quantity of my stuff, but less of other medicine. With these economies in space and paper, and the same amount of T. E. W. labor, we hope to wade through the Armageddon. Those who re newed at the advanced rate will either be moved up on their subscription or may take their choice in our literature Yes, we must subdue “this type.” The American who speaks his own mind is going out of fashion, and will soon be obso lete. He must be “subdued,” and universal mili tary compulsion, under Catholic chaplains, is the shortest cut to the desired goal. But how dpes the penalizing of honest, out spoken opinion, in Amterica, consist with the raising of huge armies to combat “autocrats,” in Europe? Must we begin our Avar upon European autocracy, by creating one, here at home? If fundamental democracy does not rest upon the foundations of honest opinion and free expression, what does it rest on ? Don't abuse me— answer me! If the fight against foreign autocracies begins by costing us our mental freedom and personal liberties, what will the end be? Reflect upon it, my countrymen. You saw the Government drifted into the Armageddon: what else is it being drifted into? Last November, when you hurrahed for the Democratic Party and voted for Woodrow Wilson, did you dream that, in less than a goods in a store, or of saleable articles at a church fair. V hen Pope Leo X. found his Vatican duc ats running low. and sent out his peddlers, loaded with Indulgences, it so happened that monks, of a peculiarly bold and brazen type, were selected as papal auctioneers. These peddling monks used language which would almost convince us that they them selves despised the business in which they were compelled to engage. * For instance, when Tetzel would “cry' 5 his goods at auction, in the market-place, he would harangue the assembled rustics in words like these: “Lo! the heavens are open: if you enter not now. when will you enter? For 12 pence you may redeem the soul of your father out of purgatory. If you had but one coat, you ought to strip yourself of it instantly, and sell it, in order to purchase such benefits. As soon as the money tinkles in the box, the soids in purgatory instantly escape tor ment and ascend to heaven.” » (See Robertson's “Charles V.” Vol. 1. p. 462.) This Tetzel chanced to be peddling his par don-papers in the neighborhood of a pious monk, named Martin Luther, who had found a copy of the Bible, among the musty manu scripts of the monastery, and he had been stimulated by the Bible to study Christianity for himself. (continued on page two.) month after his second inauguration, he would be landing you in the European War, and de manding that your sons be conscripted for service beyond seas? No! You never dreamed of such a thing. If an angel from Above had told you so, you would not have believed. • Are you being deceived in any other re spect? Are words being used noir, as they were then, to disguise the true intentions of the Powers-that-be? I do not say so, but I advise you to keep your eyes open. This Government is under going a revolution. » IE ESPIONAGE BILL. Thomas Jclf< rson defeated John Adams for the Presidency, at the beginning of the 19th century, because Adams and the Federalists had made the Alien and Sedition laws. The most oppressive acts of the Federalists, under the Sedition law, were exactly equal to the imprisonment of Phillips and Yager. For “abusing” President Adams, men were sent to jail. (continued on page five.) Price, Five 6ents