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Early Indulgences In The Roman Catholic Church

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How did Indulgences grow from prayers,“In the Roman Catholic Church, a declaration by church authorities that those who say certain prayers or do good deeds will have some or all of their punishment in purgatory remitted.” into money, “If anyone put money into the coffer for a soul in purgatory, the soul would leave purgatory for heaven in the moment one could hear the penny hit the bottom.” during the Middle Ages? From the 5th century to the 15th century, Indulgences grew and changed and right along side of it, Purgatory. From Dante’s time in the late 1200s, through Pope Boniface VIII’s papacy to Pope Leo X’s in Luther’s time in the 1500s. The desire to avoid any temporal pain or discomfort, for sins after death, was one of the only things that remained unchanged over the Middle Ages. …show more content…
Where did they come from? “The origins of the indulgence appear to go back to the 9th century, when the popes were strongly concerned with the fight against Islam.” This war with Islam unknowingly started the creation, and began the downward spiral, of Indulgences. The Popes of the time were afraid of Islam’s growing numbers and needed their soldiers to fight without fear. However, the idea that they needed to do penance for all of their sins before they died held strong in all Catholic believers. Therefore, to encourage them to fight without fear, the popes of the day created indulgences. "To allay these doubts, John VIII, in 877[A.D.], promised absolution for their sins to crusaders who should be killed in battle." Once these war time indulgences became popular and common they soon became available to anyone who wanted one, not just to soldiers for their military service, but now for

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