Excerpt from Union Theological Seminary Bulletin, Vol. 1: Three Addresses in Commemoration of the Four Hundredth Anniversary of the Reformation

Four hundred years ago today Martin Luther began public agitation for the reform Of the Latin Church. On the eve of All Saints' Day, 1517, he tacked up on a church door in Witten berg a long set Of propositions on which he challenged all comers to debate. N 0 one took up the challenge, so the debate never cam. It might have remained one of those fizzles of which academic history is full, had not pirating publishers seized On Luther's utterances and scattered them broadcast in different parts of Germany to the dismay Of the prudent. They provoked a tich attracted great attention. Men usually like to watch a fight and many Of Luther's fellow countrymen were particularly pleased to see the thick-set little professor of Witten berg start single-handed to attack the Italian exploiters of the German Church; for most Germans, and particularly the leading merchants and bankers, had beheld with disapproval many a mule team heavily laden with silver going across the Alps to fill the bottomless coffers Of the Pope.

The constant export Of coin to Italy was a handicap to trade which the'new Saxon silver mines, productive as they were, could not wholly counterbalance. This export was connected with transactions of a peculiar nature, suspected by keen-witted con temporaries, but fully exposed only in recent years.1 The proceeds Of the sale Of the indulgences which called forth Luther's criticism were supposed2 to go entirely for the construction of what is still the largest and the most expensive church in the world, St. Peter's in Rome; but actually, by a secret agreement,3 half of the net proceeds were to be paid to a Hohenzollern prince, Albrecht, Archbishop Of brandenburg-mainz. Prior to this deduction, the South German banking house whose agents marketed the issue Charged great sums for expenses.

Here in America we have just triumphantly completed the Second Liberty Loan, handsomely oversubscribed. Last Satur day night Our banks and trust companies, working overtime.

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