How did the practice of indulgences contribute to the Protestant Reformation?

Answer 1

They led people to believe that the Catholic Church was too concerned with material wealth.

Answer 2

In layman's terms, Martin Luther accused the Church of "selling" indulgences, this was never so, indulgences could always be had (and still may) for any of the works of penance: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Due to the greed of some Church officials at that time, they were pushing the almsgiving, and some bishops were getting a "kickback" of part of the profits.

By the 16th century, the immense wealth that the church derived from its great political power had begun to corrupt some individuals in it. Many began joining the clergy for less than purely religious reasons and many members of the clergy, popes included, succumbed to greed and immorality. The Catholic church of the 15th and 16th centuries was marked by excess, extravagance, and corruption. One of the most obvious signs of this corruption was the Indulgence Controversy which was blamed as responsible for the Protestant Reformation.

Although most people equate indulgences with the Indulgence Controversy of the 16th century, they are still in use by the Church today. Thankfully, indulgences do not necessarily involve the corruption with which their sell is often associated. Contrary to popular belief, an indulgence is not some kind of "get-out-of-Hell-free Card." It is based upon a complex theological teaching that involves both the doctrine and dogma of the Catholic Church. Essentially, it is a way to avoid some time in Purgatory for the sins one commits on earth. To understand how an indulgence supposedly does this, however, one must understand abstract theological concepts like Purgatory, penance, and the Treasury of Merits...

According to the Catholic church, salvation is really the free gift of God. Although God saves us through his grace, we must still make up for the damage we have done to the Body of Christ through the sins we commit. Usually, this is done through penance. When a good Catholic knows he has sinned, he will usually goes to his priest and confesses. His priest will then assign him some kind of penance. Penance can be just about anything, but one requirement might be to say a certain number of "Our Fathers" or "Hail Mary's" is common. If a Catholic does not fully atone for their sins by performing the required penance for their sins during their life, they will be required to spend time in Purgatory to atone for those sins. Here, the sinner will suffer until he has paid for his sins and is ready to enter the paradise of Heaven.

Although virtually all people will have to spend at least some time in Purgatory, the amount of time they will have to spend there will depend on how many sins they must do penance for in Purgatory. Since spending time in Purgatory is harder than doing penance on the earth, Catholics have an incentive to do their penance before they die. Instead of doing penance, Catholics may, on certain occasions, obtain an indulgence from the Pope. This indulgence will take the place of a certain number of days of penance, which will reduce the amount of pain that the sinner must suffer in purgatory.

Indulgences tap into something called the "Treasury of Merits." Supposedly, all the good deeds that Jesus did and those extra good deeds done by the saints beyond what they needed to go straight to heaven are stored in a "Treasury of Merits" which the Pope has the authority to access at will. If he chooses, the Pope can take some of those extra good deeds out of the "Treasury of Merits" and give them to sinners who perform a certain "work". These good deeds can take the place of penance which means that an indulgence can shorten the amount of time one must spend in Purgatory without requiring additional penance.

Obviously, this doctrine can be easily abused as was the case in the 16th century. Although Pope Pius V decreed in 1567 that indulgences should not be given in exchange for offerings, that prohibition was not put into place in 1517 when Pope Leo X authorized the sell of indulgences to pay for Saint Peter's Basilica. When Martin Luther recognized this indulgence sell as a thinly veiled attempt to profit from sin, Luther protested by nailing 95 objections to indulgences to the door or the church in Wittenberg. This event marked the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.

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Catholic AnswerIndulgences: "The remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins forgiven as far as their guilt is concerned, which the follower of Christ with the proper dispositions and under certain determined conditions acquires through the intervention of the Church, which, as minister of the redemption, authoritatively dispenses and applies the treasury of the satisfaction won by Christ and the saints." (Pope Paul VI, Apostolic Constitution on Indulgences.

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They were exactly the same thing that they are now. They really did not "start" the protestant revolt, they were used more as an excuse for people like Martin Luther who wanted God to approve of him regardless of his sin. So he used the abuse of indulgences as an excuse. You can read the 95 Theses for yourself, although they are mostly Catholic dogma, a few of them are just weird, Martin Luther really wasn't very well educated for an Augustinian.

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To understand indulgences you must first understand sin and its consequences.

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.

Answer 3

Selling of pardons by the Catholic Church in order to finance the completion of the St Peter's Basilica and other church gains; brought ire to Martin Luther who championed the protestant revolt.

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Catholic AnswerThe sale of indulgences, which incidentally is, and was always a sin, since Biblical times (it is known as the sin of simony) was one of the excuses used by Martin Luther for his apostasy from the Church of Christ, and the subsequent revolt from the Catholic Church by various rulers leading thousands away from salvation.

Answer 4

When the selling of indulgences was going on there was only the Catholic Church and no Protestant churches yet.