THE SALE OF INDULGENCES

A. The sacrament of penance is the second plank of justification in Roman Catholicism. Penance is comprised of contrition, confession and satisfaction.

B. Satisfaction for sin needed to be made through such things as prayer, fasting, alms giving.

1. In the 14^th century the idea of a Treasury of Merits is accepted in Roman Catholicism.

Indulgences granted for almsgiving or for devotional visits to churches, altars, etc. began in the 11th century — but still only a few — and became more common in the 12th century and later (Fr. Enrico dal Covolo, S.D.B. “The Historical Origin of Indulgences”).

2. The Papacy had the authority to dispense from this treasury of merits and they did so through pilgrimages and indulgences.

3. The sale of indulgences served to satisfy for sins committed and could be purchased to decrease one’s time in purgatory.

3. In 1476 Pope Sixtus IV extended the scope of an Indulgence to souls in purgatory.

4. In the 16^th century, Indulgences had become big business!

C. Wittenberg was a major center for relics.

1. Duke Frederick, Elector of Saxony, had nearly 18,000 relics including a twig from the burning bush and a tear Jesus shed while weeping over Jerusalem!

2. Money from relics provided the endowment for the University of Wittenberg where Luther taught.

3. Pilgrims traveled to Wittenberg to earn indulgences which would cancel out 1,902,202 years in purgatory. (quoted in Sproul, Faith Alone, 60).

D. Many had been calling for the reform of the church well before Luther. In fact, the Fifth Lateran Council was called in 1512 for this purpose but it was closed in March of 1517 without any substantial reform work accomplished.

E. Several months after the closing of the Fifth Lateran Council, Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses on the door of Wittenberg.

1. Luther’s theses seem to have been in response to the church’s failure to reform.

2. Luther’s theses were nailed on All Saints’ Day (10/31/1517) when pilgrims were going to Wittenberg for indulgences.

3. Luther’s theses were nailed in the context of Johann Tetzel’s preaching which was more pompous than a modern day televangelist asking for money.

a. indulgences make the sinner “cleaner than when coming out of baptism.”

b. indulgences make the sinner “cleaner than Adam before the Fall.”

c. “the cross of the seller of indulgences has as much power as the cross of Christ.”

d. “Listen to the voices of your dear dead relatives and friends beseeching you and saying, ‘Pity us, pity us. We are in dire torment from which you can redeem us for a pittance.’”

e. “as soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs”

f. Tetzel was so unpopular he had to hide in the Dominican convent at Leipzig for fear of popular violence. It was in this convent, during Luther’s debate in the city with Johann Eck on the subject of indulgences, that he died” (Who's Who p.667).

F. Several of Luther’s 95 theses had to do with indulgences (including the first two):

1. Thesis 1: “Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said Poenitentiam agite, willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance.”

2. Thesis 2: “This word cannot be understood to mean sacramental penance, i.e., confession and satisfaction, which is administered by the priests.”

3. Thesis 82: “To wit:—“Why does not the pope empty purgatory, for the sake of holy love and of the dire need of the souls that are there, if he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake of miserable money with which to build a Church? The former reasons would be most just; the latter is most trivial.”

“Indulgences in the last century of the Middle Ages were given for all sorts of benevolent purposes, crusades against the Turks, the building of churches and hospitals, in connection with relics, for the rebuilding of a town desolated by fire, as Bruex, for bridges and for the repair of dikes, such an indulgence being asked by Charles V. The benefits were received by the payment of money and a portion of the receipts, from 33% to 50%, was expected to go to Rome. The territory chiefly, we may say almost exclusively, worked for such enterprises was confined to the Germanic peoples of the Continent from Switzerland and Austria to Norway and Sweden. England, France and Spain were hardly touched by the traffic” (Schaff, History of the Christian Church).

G. For Rome, Luther’s theses were an economic argument. For Luther they were theological.

1. Rome was taking payments when Jesus had already made the payment.

2. Rome was charging for God’s free gift.

3. Rome was making people feel guilty for not doing enough when Jesus has already done it all for those who trust in Him.

“There is no reason to believe that he [Leo X] ever fully appreciated the moral dimensions of the crisis that exploded during his pontificate; he appears to have regarded it instead as a temporary interruption of his fund-raising strategy” (Idiots Guide to the Popes and the Papacy, 156).

H. Rome officially and infallibly anathematized the Gospel at the Council of Trent and Reformed Protestants were left with the task of setting the church back on biblical and historical tracks. They did this through various creeds, confessions and catechisms: The Lutheran Book of Concord (1580); Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles (1572); Belgic Confession (1618); The Heidelberg Catechism (1619); The Westminster Confession and Catechisms (1649).