And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:
Ver. 11. And the merchants of the earth] The pope's indulgencers, and other officers of his exchequer. What huge sums of money did Tecelius and his companions rake together out of Germany. The pope had yearly out of England above nine tons of gold; Polydore Virgil was his collector of the Peter's pence here. Otto (one of the pope's muscipulatores, mice catchers, as the story calls him) departing hence, left not so much money in the whole kingdom as he either carried with him or sent to Rome before him. (Job. Manl., loc. com., p. 492.) It was truly and trimly said by Pope Innocent IV, Vere enim hortus deliciarum Papis fuit tum Anglia, et puteus inexhaustus, England was then a gallant garden to the pope, and a wellspring of wealth that could not be drawn dry. (Speed, 1027.) Cardinal Wolsey emptied the land of two hundred and forty thousand pounds, to relieve and ransom Pope Clement VII, imprisoned by the Duke of Bourbon. And being himseff sent ambassador beyond sea for the pope's release, and coming through Canterbury toward Dover, he was seen to weep tenderly at mass for the pope's calamity.
For no man buyeth their merchandise] Men shall see further into their fopperies and knaveries than to endure to be any longer gulled and cheated. William of Malmesbury began to groan long since under the grievance. Romani hodie (saith he) auro trutinant iustitiam, pretio venditant canonum regulam: The Romans today sell justice, sacraments, masses, dispensations, benefices, all. Mantuan comes after, and cries out,
--" venalia nobis
Templa, sacerdotes, altaria, sacra, coronae,
Ignis, thura, preces, caelum est venale, Deusque. "
"Temples, priests, altars, rites (I tell no tale),
Crowns, sacrifices, heaven, and God, are set to sale."
The leaguers here for the liberty of the kingdom in the days of King John, drove Martin, the pope's publican, out of the land; the king also cursed him grievously at parting, with Diabolus te ad inferos ducat et perducat. (Jac. Revius, lib. iii., de Pont. Rom., cap. xxi.) But now much more than ever these merchants want chapmen, a as Bellarmine sadly complains; their markets are well fallen, their Euphrates much dried up.
a A man whose business is buying and selling; a merchant, trader, dealer. Obs. or arch. ŒD