Indulgences have been the epitome of corruption in the Catholic Church and rightly so. When the Catholic Church created the indulgence system they began do collect money without honesty and began to act truly like a state over a group of Christians. It is abhorrent; however, it was not purposeless and there was a reason the Church needed the ill-obtained money. The idea of indulgences was not created with ill intent, but they allowed it to become more than just ceremony to the point of altering the idea of death and salvation, and eventually letting the corruption pull the entire system into its orbit.
Clement VI was the acting Pope who legitimized indulgences and began