Indulgences
Topic: Renaissance, Reformation and the Scientific Revolution · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 5 "Changing Cultural Traditions"
Meaning
Indulgences were documents sold by the Catholic Church. The Church said that buying one would free the buyer from punishment for their sins. In the early 16th century, humanists saw their sale as the worst example of the Church's greed. Once Bibles were printed in people's own languages, Christians could see for themselves that their religion did not allow such a practice. Anger over indulgences helped spark the Reformation.
Example
In 1517 the German monk Martin Luther began his campaign against the Church with the Ninety-Five Theses. They attacked the sale of indulgences and argued that faith alone, not payments, leads a person to heaven.
Don't confuse with
- Donation of Constantine: This was a document the clergy used to claim legal and tax powers, and humanist scholars proved it was a later forgery. Indulgences were pardons for sins that the Church sold for money.
Related concepts
- Christian humanism
- Thomas More
- Erasmus
- Donation of Constantine
- Martin Luther
- Ninety-Five Theses
- Protestant Reformation
- John Calvin
- English Reformation
- Anglican Church