The sinister history of Catholic indulgences

According to Catholic teaching, an indulgence reduced the temporal punishment for sins that had already been forgiven through confession.

The Church taught that absolution erased guilt but did not remove all consequences.

That meant that souls who died in a 'state of grace' remained liable to further purification in a place called Purgatory, where they would suffer until their debts had been satisfied.

The doctrine of Purgatory had been formally approved by the Second Council of Lyon in 1274 and confirmed by the Council of Florence in 1439, which is what provided indulgences with a clear theological foundation.

Over time, Church authorities claimed that they could reduce this suffering by drawing upon the "Treasury of Merit", which was a store of spiritual credit built up by Christ and the saints.

As a result, popes, who often claimed the authority to give out these merits as they chose, granted indulgences to those who met certain conditions.

Initially, this included acts such as fasting, pilgrimage, or acts of charity. Financial contributions were gradually introduced later, particularly from the thirteenth century onwards, as the Church expanded its influence.

Theologians such as Saint Thomas Aquinas generally supported indulgences by connecting them to the Church's authority to absolve sins, though his contributions primarily explained theological ideas rather than defending later abuses.

Soon after the First Crusade had begun in 1095, Pope Urban II had promised full indulgences to those who joined the campaign.

Later popes offered similar rewards for those who donated funds to support crusading armies.

So, by the thirteenth century, indulgences had become an established part of religious life in many areas, especially as papal power expanded and new opportunities arose to apply indulgences to public works, cathedral repairs, or devotional devotional acts.

Pope Urban II's crusade indulgence in 1095 is the earliest well-documented example, and later grants built upon this foundation.

The Church eventually grouped indulgences into two main types: partial and plenary.

A partial indulgence removed only part of the temporal punishment owed. It could be earned by performing certain prayers, visiting shrines, or supporting designated Church activities.

The periods assigned, such as "300 days" or "seven years", did not reflect actual time in Purgatory.

Instead, they referred to the equivalent worth of early Church penances.

Indulgences were often confirmed through official documents known as libelli indulgentiarum, which helped standardise the custom across Christendom.

A plenary indulgence removed all temporal punishment and stood in contrast to a partial indulgence.

It could be obtained on special occasions, such as jubilees, papal anniversaries, or pilgrimages to Rome, but only if the person had confessed, received Communion, and prayed for the intentions of the pope while being entirely completely free from sin.

Even a single moment of impure thought could disqualify the indulgence from being plenary.

The Jubilee Year of 1300 was proclaimed by Pope Boniface VIII and was among the earliest and most significant events to popularise plenary indulgences on a large scale.

Eventually, indulgences were tied to deathbed rituals, where priests could apply a plenary indulgence just before death, which offered hope of entering Heaven without any significant delay.

This attracted wide interest, particularly during outbreaks of plague or warfare, when death came swiftly and spiritual certainty seemed urgent.

By the fourteenth century, indulgences had become personal and could be applied to others, so People could sometimes earn them on behalf of the dead, which allowed prayers and donations to reduce the punishment of relatives who had been buried long ago.

By the late Middle Ages, indulgences had become a widely used source of revenue for the Catholic Church because fear of death and eternal suffering had grown among a population scarred by war and disease.

As such, clergy across Europe took this chance and issued indulgences to those who gave money toward Church construction, relics, or religious campaigns.

Under Pope Sixtus IV, indulgence revenues became a permanent line in the papal treasury, which eventually made their use for financial administration normal.

To manage this, bishops and popes commissioned special preachers who were known as quaestores to distribute indulgence letters and collect donations, and often these men used showy sermons filled with graphic images of souls in torment, which prompted crowds to donate whatever they could.

In some cases, indulgences were offered to entire communities in return for public works or donations toward major ecclesiastical projects.

A particularly notable example occurred under Pope Leo X. Faced with great costs for rebuilding St Peter's Basilica in Rome, he issued indulgences to raise funds.

In 1515, he authorised Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz to sell indulgences across German territories, and, to increase collections, Albrecht employed Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar whose dramatic preaching claimed that coins could instantly release souls from Purgatory.

His phrase "As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from Purgatory springs" captured both the promise and the corruption of the system.

Tetzel's campaign had reportedly raised over 100,000 florins, half of which had been set aside to repay Albrecht's debts to the Fugger banking house, who had financed his appointment.

This connection between indulgences, finance, and construction created anger, especially among those who saw little return for their contributions, as poor villagers gave away their savings while clerics expanded their palaces and cathedrals. 

Over time, critics began to challenge the moral and religious basis of indulgences.

Early warnings came from scholars such as Peter Abelard and Jean Gerson, who feared that the practice distracted from true repentance, while others, including Thomas Bradwardine, questioned whether the pope had the power to remit punishment for sin at all.

The Christian humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam, in his Praise of Folly (1511), mocked the idea that spiritual rewards could be bought and sold.

In Bohemia, Jan Hus condemned the sale of indulgences outright. During the early fifteenth century, he preached that no human authority could grant forgiveness without inner contrition.

His protests alarmed Church officials, who condemned him for heresy and executed him in 1415.

Still, his ideas continued to spread, especially among those who felt the Church had lost its integrity.

Broader efforts like the Conciliar Movement also called for checks on papal authority, including its ability to distribute indulgences.

By 1517, the scandal had reached a crisis point, and Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk and professor of theology at the University of Wittenberg, saw Tetzel's preaching as a violation of scripture and pastoral care.

On 31 October, he posted his Ninety-Five Theses, which criticised indulgences as a distraction from sincere repentance and questioned the pope's authority to release souls from Purgatory.

His attack spoke to widespread unhappiness across the German-speaking world and had quickly found support among princes and clergy.

Soon after, other reformers added their voices, such as Ulrich Zwingli in Switzerland and John Calvin in Geneva, who both denounced indulgences as dishonest and harmful to people's faith.

They argued that salvation depended on faith and the grace of God, not on financial contributions or papal documents.

Therefore, indulgences became the clearest evidence for reformers that the medieval Church had placed material interests above pastoral duty.

In fact, clerics sold spiritual assurances for money and banking houses took a share of the proceeds, which left ordinary believers with the impression that sacred rites had become commercial transactions. 

At first, Church leaders saw these challenges as serious threats, so Pope Leo X issued a bull in 1520 condemning Luther's views, and, after the Diet of Worms in 1521, Luther was declared an outlaw.

Nevertheless, the protest movement continued to grow, and whole regions began rejecting papal authority.

This meant that church officials could no longer ignore the demand for reform.

Eventually, the Council of Trent was called in 1545 and it confirmed the Church's teaching on indulgences but admitted abuses had happened.

Bishops were given new powers to oversee local campaigns, and unauthorised preachers were removed, under the decree Cum postquam which was issued during the Council that made these reforms official.

Although the practice had already been criticised for its financial abuses, Pope Pius V strengthened these reforms in 1567 by stating clearly that indulgences be granted only in connection with acts of genuine devotion or penance.

Afterward, the Church published even more clearer rules. Official prayer books listed specific indulgenced acts, and conditions became more more clearly defined, requiring confession, Communion, prayer for the pope's intentions, and being free from sin.

Although indulgences remained part of Catholic teaching, they no longer resembled the widespread fundraising tools they had once been.

In the twentieth century, Pope Paul VI replaced older lists with the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum in 1968, which simplified and updated approved indulgenced customs.

Even so, the damage had already been done because the abuse of indulgences had revealed the moral failings of Church authority and helped drive religious divisions that defined early modern Europe.

Perhaps, indulgences became a lesson in what happens when religious institutions chase money instead of acting honestly.