Just read any reputable historian on the Protestant Reformation. The Pope authorized the selling of indulgences, call it alms giving, call it whatever you want. The Catholic Church sanctioned the selling of indulgences. I don’t like talking to Mormons when they try to rewrite history, I dislike it even more when Catholics do it. We sold indulgences, it was wrong, and we don’t do it anymore.
"Sale of Indulgences. The RC hierarchy also claimed to have access to a repository of “excess good deeds” performed by the saints which could be used to liberate souls from Purgatory before the expiration of their appointed sentence there. The good deeds which saints of the Church had performed in excess of those that were required of them to enter Heaven, went into a sort of bank account which could be drawn upon by the Church to make up for the lack of good deeds by those who were less virtuous than saints, and who, therefore, found themselves in Purgatory.
When the Church found itself in need of funds to complete the building of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome, it sent out salesmen to regional fairs and pilgrimage sites to sell indulgences. Indulgences were printed up by intinerant printers using the newly invented printing presses of the time. It is said, even, that the first advertising jingle of modern times comes from this period. Roughly translated it reads: “When a coin into the coinbox rings, a soul from Purgatory soon will spring.” Such excesses constituted the spark that ignited the Reformation. "
humboldt.edu/~wh1/466.Reformation/466.RCDoctrine.html#indulgences
I know indulgences weren’t the ‘only’ reason for the reformation, but it was the major reason. Without indulgences the reformation never happens.
If we didn’t sell indulgences, there’s no need to address the issue and stop sanctioning the practice during the Council or Trent and Counter-Reformmation.
I don’t like arguing counter to the Catholic position, so I won’t, but I think spinning and denial just muddies the waters, and is disingenuous.
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