Indulgence was an aspect of the penitential system that allowed full or partial remission as regards the punishment of sin. It was applicable in Western medieval and the Roman Catholic church.
Let me try to explain. When one sins, one damages the Body of Christ, as, by our Baptism, we are all members of the Body of Christ, and everything we do, for good or ill, affects everyone.
Say you are in the street in your neighborhood playing softball. You hit one and it goes flying across the street and through Mrs. Neighbor's front window. You put the bat down, walk across the street, knock on the door, and apologize to Mrs. Neighbor. She forgives you, since you were nice, and owned up to your fault. Up until now we have the basic scenario of someone going into confession and confessing their sins. But wait, notice that in my example, the window is still broken. You have to go home and confess to your father and mother that you broke the window, they, in turn, take your allowance for the next several years and pay to have the window fixed. The broken window is the example of how we damage the Body of Christ. The allowance that you have to fork over for the next several years is your penance. Now, an indulgence is based on the fact that when Jesus was a man living on the earth, his mother, and the other saints down through the centuries, have done more good works than they need to do their penances (in the case of Our Blessed Lord, and His mother, they had no need of penances, so all their good works are surplus), so, the Church, through Her power of the keys, can apply the merits of those good works to your penance. So in the example above, the indulgence is your parents fixing the window for you, and you are still going to get your allowance. You might have to fork over some of it to help, but they are not going to impoverish you for the next several years.
That is what an indulgence is: it is the application of the good works of the saints to make up for your penances. Please note that they are only applicable to someone in a state of grace who has already been forgiven. They have NOTHING to do with the remission of sin. Without prior remission of sin, there can be no indulgence.
Martin Luther apparently never understood indulgences, and certainly did not understand Christianity. When he protested and posted his 95 Theses, he should have waited for the answer which everyone was trying to give him, but he clung to his ignorance and started his own religion.
An Indulgence is the remission in whole or in part of the temporal punishment due to sin.
That would be Martin Luther
latin
Martin Luther
Pope Leo X was accused by Martin Luther of selling indulgences or allowing the sale of indulgences.
Pope Leo X was accussed by Martin Luther of selling indulgences.
Martin Luther
Martin Luther saw the sale of indulgences as a form of simony, which was supposedly foreign to Catholic teaching. He also recognised the potential and fact of their sale leading to widespread corruption in the Church.
Martin Luther was the reformer who challenged the Catholic Church over Indulgences.
The "Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences" .
He is a protestant because he protested the belief of the Catholic church about indulgences.
Martin Luther
disagreed with the sale of indulgences