Indulgences Controversy

The controversy over indulgences surrounded the issue of whether or not they should be sold in exchange for money. Originally, indulgences were based off of two concepts which were purgatory and the treasury of merits. The concept of purgatory was pushed by Pope Gregory, and he explained it as a way of removing people’s postbaptismal sins which had not been forgiven before their death. According to Pope Gregory, along with acts of penance, additional penance could be received if it was given to them by a priest. This additional assigned penance would allow that individual to work off time that would otherwise be spent in purgatory. This concept, with the help of Pope Urban II, soon evolved into the exchange of good works for penance. This …show more content…
This form of exchange evolved into allowing members of the Church to buy indulgences for souls that were already in purgatory in order to set them free. This also made it easy for certain people to take advantage of members of the Church because they could prey on their emotional attachment to the deceased and on their good will. This type of abuse can clearly be seen in the case of both Archbishop Albrecht and Archbishop Leo as they used their authorization to sell indulgences to fulfill their own secret agendas. Leo wanted to raise money to pay for the completion of Saint Peter’s basilica in Rome, while Albrecht wanted to raise money in order to pay off his debt. Any profits made by selling these indulgences was split equally by the two men. Another example of this would be the monk John Tetzel’s abuse of selling indulgences for money. He scammed members of the Church out of their money by using catchy slogans, and playing into the emotional attachment these people had to their deceased relatives. The corruption was so bad that monk Martin Luther wrote ninety-five theses on the practice of indulgences and how it needed