The Theological Basis of Indulgences
In Roman Catholic theology you can be forgiven for your sins, but that doesn't allow you to go straight to Heaven: only those who are without sin can do that, after being judged at the gates. Good Catholics who sinned in life but have been forgiven, are sent to sit it out in Purgatory for a while and be punished for their sins by having their journey into Heaven postponed. So you can think of Purgatory as a bit like the airport departure lounge on the journey to Heaven: it's not exactly Hell -- but it's not somewhere you want to spend several years either.
So what actually are indulgences? Assuming you committed a sin but were forgiven for it, an indulgence for the sin allows you to skip the corresponding punishment of sitting in Purgatory. So if the forgiven sin was worth three days in Purgatory, an indulgence for the sin would let you skip those three days of punishment and get to Heaven that bit earlier.
Indulgences were a masterpiece of marketing. They allowed the Catholic church to sell people the right to escape punishment for their sins -- but they didn't reduce the believer's need for regular church attendance and sessions in the Confessional. Suddenly, a whole new category of lucrative religious merchandise was created, without damaging existing business.
The church originally portrayed indulgences as a means by which society could at least derive some social benefit from sin -- rather like the modern idea of state lotteries. But by the Middle Ages, indulgences were an important source of revenue. By the fifteenth century, indulgences, absolutions and dispensations were sold to:
- Relatives wishing to marry each other
- Priests born out of wedlock
- Kings wishing to legitimize their illegitimate children
- Converted Jews wishing to visit their parents
- Catholics wishing to choose their preferred confessor
- Cemeteries wishing to divide up a dead body and bury it in two graves
- Nuns wishing to have maidservants
- Catholics wanting freedom from the requirement for fasting
- Businessmen wanting permission to deal in stolen goods (the fee amounting to around 5% of the value of the stolen items)
- Merchants wishing to trade with Moslems, Egyptians or other unbelievers
(These examples are from a list in "The Decline of the Medieval Church" by A.C. Flick, published by Burt Franklin, NY.)
A conversion to the priesthood via indulgences was the preferred way for nobles to dispose of illegitimate children. Not only could they be legitimized that way, but it could also be arranged that they be appointed to a region a convenient distance away, or sent on a pilgrimage.
Pope John XXII in 1331 had issued a bull explaining that the money did not buy the favor; rather, it was a clerical fee (no pun intended) to cover the cost of paperwork. However, fees seemed to vary according to the social class of the expected buyer and the magnitude of the sin, and were out of all proportion to the actual administrative costs associated with preparing the documentation. The privilege to marry your sister, for example, would cost more than twice as much as privilege to marry your cousin; and nobles wishing to marry relatives were required to pay twice as much again. Fees were often collected by bankers, who were permitted to keep part of the fee for themselves.
There was much complaint about the corruption in the church; however, it was financially difficult for any Pope to do anything about it. Pope Urban V was succeeded by Gregory XI, who finally completed the work of returning the Papacy to Rome; however, after his death there was dissent. The Italians wanted an Italian Pope, and chose Urban VI. However, he ruled in such a high-handed manner that he alienated most of the Cardinals, some of whom questioned his sanity. The French Cardinals returned to Avignon, declared Urban deposed, and elected Clement VII as Pope.
Both Urban VI and Clement VII claimed to be the real Pope, and both proceeded to try to out-spend each other in a kind of medieval Cold War. Urban VI even proclaimed a crusade against Clement VII, and granted special indulgences to those who supported it. The practice of supporting religious war with the granting of indulgences continued under later Popes.
By 1409, the Pope in Rome was Gregory XII, and the Pope in Avignon was Benedict XIII. Benedict XIII pointed out that he was the only surviving Cardinal from before the schism, and that his was therefore the only valid vote -- and that he voted for himself as the one true Pope. Gregory XII was similarly obstructive, so the Cardinals summoned the Council of Pisa, declared both Benedict and Gregory deposed, and elected a third Pope, Alexander V. It wasn't until 1417 that a single generally-recognized Pope, Martin V, was elected.
>> Criticism and Attempts at Reform >>
Past Features
Click here for an index of past features.