Could You Really Buy Your Way Out of Purgatory? The Truth About Indulgences

Indulgences and purgatory: could you really buy your way out of purgatory? The Catholic Church never claimed to sell forgiveness — but for nearly two centuries it sold something it had never officially defined, and the clause that made the sale impossible was buried in the pope's own paperwork. This video traces the indulgence trade from the crusade remissions of the eleventh century to its abolition by Rome itself, using almost entirely Catholic sources. ▸ What an indulgence actually was — guilt (culpa) versus punishment (poena), and why no coin ever touched the first ▸ Salvator Noster, 1476 — the first papal indulgence applied to souls in purgatory, and the scandal that forced a correction one year later ▸ Why Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas both taught that the pope has no jurisdiction over the dead ▸ The treasury of merit — invented roughly a century after the practice it was built to justify ▸ "A poena et a culpa" — the official Latin phrase that meant the opposite of official doctrine ▸ Thomas Gascoigne, Chancellor of Oxford, 1450: pardon bought for fourpence, or for a game of tennis ▸ The Instructio Summaria price list — kings at twenty-five guilders, artisans at one, and the advice given to wives ▸ Cardinal Cajetan at Augsburg in 1518, discovering mid-trial that no authoritative definition of an indulgence existed ▸ How the Council of Trent and Pope Pius V shut the trade down themselves Every disputed claim in this video is flagged as disputed. The case against the sale of indulgences is made from ecumenical councils, papal bulls, and canonised doctors of the Church. Which side do you think has the better of this argument — the doctrine or the practice? Catholic viewers especially, if you think Bonaventure or Cum Postquam has been read badly here, quote the text in the comments. If church history explained without villains or tidy endings is the kind of thing you want more of, this channel publishes it regularly. Sources: Primary: Fourth Lateran Council (1215), Canon 62 — on excessive indulgences and deceitful quaestores Clement VI, Unigenitus Dei Filius (27 January 1343) — first solemn papal affirmation of the treasury of merit Sixtus IV, Salvator Noster (3 August 1476) — indulgence for the church of Saint Peter at Saintes Sixtus IV, Romani Pontificis Provida (27 November 1477) — per modum suffragii et deprecationis Bonaventure, Commentaria in IV libros Sententiarum, Bk. 4, dist. 20 Thomas Aquinas, Quaestiones Quodlibetales 2.7.2 Durand of Saint-Pourçain, In Sententias, Bk. 4, dist. 20, art. 3 Instructio Summaria ad Subcommissarios (Albrecht of Mainz, c. 1516) — price tiers, in Köhler, Dokumente zum Ablassstreit Martin Luther, Ninety-five Theses (1517), esp. 27, 35, 71, 82 Leo X, Cum Postquam (9 November 1518) Council of Trent, Session 21 (1562) ch. 9; Session 25, Decree on Indulgences (4 December 1563) Paul VI, Indulgentiarum Doctrina (1967) Secondary: Robert W. Shaffern, The Penitents' Treasury: Indulgences in Latin Christendom, 1175–1375 Robert W. Shaffern, "Learned Discussions of Indulgences for the Dead in the Middle Ages," Church History 61:4 (1992) Ludwig von Pastor, The History of the Popes, vol. 7 — on the Sorbonne condemnations of 1482 and 1518 Nikolaus Paulus, Geschichte des Ablasses im Mittelalter Henry Charles Lea, A History of Auricular Confession and Indulgences in the Middle Ages Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 6 Thomas Gascoigne, Liber Veritatum (c. 1450), pp. 123, 126 Disputed or uncertain, flagged in the script: The Callistus III bull of 1457 for Castile — limited circulation; accepted by Paulus, treated cautiously elsewhere Attribution of the treasury argument to Hugh of Saint-Cher (c. 1230) versus the Summa Halensis (c. 1236–45) The defence of a poena et a culpa as shorthand for a broader confessional faculty — a scholarly reconstruction, with no surviving longer formula The size of Albrecht's Fugger loan (c. twenty thousand guilders; figures vary) The coffer rhyme, attributed to Tetzel by opponents rather than attested in his own words Lea's count of thirty-six protesting councils, contested by Paulus The Myconius account of Luther's parishioners — a Lutheran source with an interest in the story #Indulgences #Purgatory #ChurchHistory