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What is an indulgence? -

According to the current Canon Code of Law, in the Roman Catholic Church an indulgence is the remission of a temporal punishment brought about by sin. The word written in Latin is indulgentia, from indulgeo, which translates to "permit."

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What is a temporal punishment? -

"Temporal punishment" means that, even though all your sins are forgiven in confession and the threat of eternal punishment has been removed, temporal consequences of the sin still remain. It is these temporal consequences that send us to Purgatory before we can enter Heaven.

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Signed and sealed -

Typically, a sealed letter or writ of indulgence is issued by the Church and handed to an individual who has demonstrated some sort of penance, or good work.

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An indulgent bribe -

Indulgences emerged in the 11th and 12th centuries when the idea of purgatory took widespread hold. They served as inducements to participation in the Crusades—the militant reclamation of once-Christian lands—with "full remission of sins" guaranteed while doing so.

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Filling the treasury coffers -

Indulgences were based on the concept of the treasury of the Church, which held that the good works of Jesus Christ, the saints, and others who led exemplary lives could be drawn upon to liberate souls from purgatory.

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First use of plenary indulgences -

These writs could be granted only by popes or, to a lesser extent, archbishops and bishops (the first known use of plenary indulgences was in 1095 when Pope Urban II remitted all penance of persons who participated in the aforementioned crusades and who confessed their sins). 

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Paying for your sins -

The debt of forgiven sin could be reduced through the performance of charitable work and pilgrimage. But in order to claim an indulgence, a modest fee had to be met.

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The cost of indulgence -

The price to pay in avoiding purgatory varied. Royalty and the nobility were asked to part with up to 25 gold florins for a sealed writ. Three florins was the priced levied on merchants, and just one quarter florin for the poorest of believers.

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Money for good causes -

For the most part, the money raised by the sale of indulgences was used to support charities for the public good, including the building of hospitals and shrines.

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Penance for sale -

But it was always assumed that the sale of an indulgence carried with it the expectation that the buyer would perform penitential acts.

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Fraudulent funding -

However, by the Middle Ages it became apparent to many that paying money for the writ was frequently considered enough, with no guarantee of deliverance. Furthermore, not all funds raised appeared to be destined for charitable causes.

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Profit and gain -

In other words, the Catholic Church had effectively turned a blind eye towards the temporal consequences of sin and the expectation that the buyer would perform penitential acts. But it was still happy to pocket the proceeds from indulgence.

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The first flames of dissent -

An early protestor of indulgence was the Czech theologian and philosopher Jan Hus. The inspiration of Hussitism, a key predecessor to Protestantism, and a seminal figure in the Bohemian Reformation, Hus soundly objected to the way the Catholic Church authorized indulgences to raise money for war. His views and criticism of the Catholic Church cost him dear. He was burned at the stake on July 6, 1415.

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Johannes Tetzel (c.1465–1519) -

One man who shamelessly promoted the fraudulent sale of indulgences was the German Dominican friar and preacher Johannes Tetzel.

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A scandal that provoked reforms -

Tetzel, who later became Grand Commissioner for indulgences in Germany, was accused in the court of public opinion of selling full forgiveness for sins not yet committed. The allegations caused a scandal throughout the Church and provoked the ire of Martin Luther.

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Martin Luther (1483-1546) -

German priest and theologian Martin Luther was the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation. Indulgences were, from the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, a target of attacks by Martin Luther and other Protestant theologians. And it is against Johannes Tetzel that Luther posted his famous Ninety-five Theses.

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The Ninety-five Theses -

The Ninety-five Theses, or Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences, was written by Martin Luther in 1517.

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Sold under false pretenses -

In it he put forward a list of propositions he felt could reform the Church. More specifically, he highlighted the Roman Catholic Church's abuse and corruption by Catholic clergy, who he alleged were selling plenary indulgences under false pretenses.

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Birth of the Protestant Reformation -

Martin Luther posted this remarkable  document on the door of All Saints' Church, in Wittenberg. The Ninety-five Theses have since come to represent the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.

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The "indulgence peddler" -

The movement quickly rounded on Johannes Tetzel, who by now was also an inquisitor of Poland. Pictured is a 1517 German reformist leaflet that belittles Tetzel as the "indulgence peddler." By the time of his death two years later, Tetzel had largely fallen into disrepute and was shunned by the public.

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The papacy satirized -

Meanwhile and not surprisingly, the Ninety-five Theses were received negatively by the Catholic Church. The Lutheran response was to further denounce and even satirize the sale of indulgences by the papacy.

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The backlash -

Catholic leaders including the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor were mortified. The backlash led to Luther being accused of heresy and excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Pictured here is an allegorical depiction of Martin Luther holding a torch set alight by God's word against the papacy, depicted as a devil trying to put out the flame with water from its mouth. To the left, a priest is seen wearing a jester's hat selling indulgences.

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Selling Satan -

This 16th-century illustration depicts Satan selling indulgences.

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The Counter-Reformation -

The Catholic Church eventually responded fully with the Counter-Reformation, beginning in 1545 with the Council of Trent, which issued a slew of condemnations of what it defined to be heresies committed by proponents of Protestantism. Otherwise, indulgencies continued to be sold, at least in the short term.

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Sales resume -

The sale of indulgences in Germany initially remained unaffected by Luther's 1517 inflammatory publication. In fact, many Catholics deliberately purchased a writ in direct opposition to the doctrine preached by Luther in his Ninety-five Theses.

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The indulgence of saints -

This indulgence letter features an image of St. Peter watching over two pilgrims.

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The Council of Trent -

The Council of Trent convened for a second time, in 1563. While reasserting the place of indulgences in the salvific (salvation) process, it's members condemned "all base gain for securing indulgences." In 1567, Pope Pius V abolished the sale of indulgences, though the system and its underlying theology otherwise remained intact, so long as no money was exchanged.

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The Indulgentarium Doctrina -

And that might have been the end of the story, except that in 1967 Pope Paul VI issued the Indulgentarium Doctrina, an apostolic constitution about indulgences that shifted the stress away from the satisfaction of punishment to the inducement of good works.

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Indulging today -

The Indulgentarium Doctrina greatly reduced the number of plenary indulgences, and today there are just four general grants of indulgence, which are meant to encourage the faithful to infuse a Christian spirit into the actions of their daily lives while striving for the perfection of charity.

Sources: (Britannica) (The Conversation) (World History Encyclopedia) (The Holy See) 

See also: Scandals that the Catholic Church doesn't want you to know about

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