Confession For Money back in the day

[yinekka]

Timidity, you wrote:

"Martin Luther was a priest who wanted to marry a nun, so he started the reformation."

I think that your teacher is insulting your intelligence to make so generalised a statement. Martin Luther did, in fact, marry an ex Cistercian nun but had he lusted after her while still an Augustinian priest he could have simply become laicised. Luther suffered from scrupulosity and , in hindsight, should not have been accepted as a candidate for the priesthood. Having said that, he was quite right in wanting a reform of some dubious practises in the Church. It is a pity that the Pope didn’t handle the matter better; the Church practises could have been corrected without the need for the Reformation.

 

[JimG]

With regard to Pope Leo X, he appears to have been a good person but a poor administrator. His authorizing of the sale of indulgences left him in a poor position to combat further abuses. This at a time when the reformation was just beginning.

He was good-natured and liberal and never refused a favour either to his relatives and fellow Florentines, who flooded Rome and seized upon all official positions, or to the numerous other petitioners, artists and poets. His generosity was boundless, nor was his pleasure in giving a pose, or a desire for vainglory; it came from the heart. He never was ostentatious and attached no importance to ceremonial. He was lavish in works of charity; convents, hospitals, discharged soldiers, poor students, pilgrims, exiles, cripples, the blind, the sick, the unfortunate of every description were generously remembered, and more than 6000 ducats were annually distributed in alms.

   Under such circumstances, it is not surprising that the large treasure left by Julius II was entirely dissipated in two years. In the spring of 1515 the exchequer was empty and Leo never after recovered from his financial embarrassment. Various doubtful and reprehensible methods were resorted to for raising money. He created new offices and dignities, and the most exalted places were put up for sale. Jubilees and indulgences were degraded almost entirely into financial transactions, yet without avail, as the treasury was ruined.

(from the article at NewAdvent.com)

Here are links to information about Pope Leo X
bartleby.com/65/le/Leo10.html
catholic-forum.com/saints/pope0217.htm
newadvent.org/cathen/09162a.htm

 

[AlanFromWichita]

yinekka:

Metal 1633, you wrote:

The Pope himself (Leo X) authorized the selling of an Indulgence to raise money for the building of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Source for this comment please.

When you use other people’s comments please source them.

Dear yinekka,

I don’t know where Metal1633 got that quote, but you might be interested in reading a paragraph in the Catholic Encyclopedia article about Leo X. This quote is from the article available at
newadvent.org/cathen/09162a.htm

The most important occurrence of Leo’s pontificate and that of gravest consequence to the Church was the Reformation, which began in 1517. We cannot enter into a minute account of this movement, the remote cause of which lay in the religious, political, and social conditions of Germany. It is certain, however, that the seeds of discontent amid which Luther threw his firebrand had been germinating for centuries. The immediate cause was bound up with the odious greed for money displayed by the Roman Curia, and shows how far short all efforts at reform had hitherto fallen. Albert of Brandenburg, already Archbishop of Magdeburg, received in addition the Archbishopric of Mainz and the Bishopric of Hallerstadt, but in return was obliged to collect 10,000 ducats, which he was taxed over and above the usual confirmation fees. To indemnify hiim, and to make it possible to discharge these obligations Rome permitted him to have preached in his territory the plenary indulgence promised all those who contributed to the new St. Peter’s; he was allowed to keep one half the returns, a transaction which brought dishonour on all concerned in it. Added to this, abuses occurred during the preaching of the Indulgence. The money contributions, a mere accessory, were frequently the chief object, and the “Indulgences for the Dead” became a vehicle of inadmissible teachings. That Leo X, in the most serious of all the crises which threatened the Church, should fail to prove the proper guide for her, is clear enough from what has been related above. He recognized neither the gravity of the situation nor the underlying causes of the revolt. Vigorous measures of reform might have proved an efficacious antidote, but the pope was deeply entangled in political affairs and allowed the imperial election to overshadow the revolt of Luther; moreover, he gave himself up unrestrainedly to his pleasures and failed to grasp fully the duties of his high office.

You might also be interested in reading in the encyclopedia about “simony,” a thoroughly evil practice (including the selling of indulgenes) which was rampant. Pope Julius II, who was predicessor to Leo X, tried to eliminate the practices of simony but evidently it didn’t work for Leo X!

Check out this clip from the encyclopedia article about simony, at newadvent.org/cathen/14001a.htm

To uproot the evil of simony so prevalent during the Middle Ages, the Church decreed the severest penalties against its perpetrators. Pope Julius II declared simoniacal papal elections invalid, an enactment which has since been rescinded, however, by Pope Pius X (Constitution “Vacante Sede”, 25 Dec., 1904, tit. II, cap. Vi, in “Canoniste Contemp.”, XXXII, 1909, 291).

I’m fairly new to the board, but I guess I had assumed that the Church selling indulgences was common knowledge. A few years ago when I heard that John Paul II had apologized for past wrongs, but had not said exactly what they were, “simony” and “Inquisition” came to mind because we learned about that in a Church history session at our parish.

Although the teacher may have been mistaken about selling confession, it would be another form of simony – which was undeniably alive and well in the Church in the middle ages.

Alan