Churchfails by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion/Biblical Studies/History & Culture
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
Published: 2016-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

Johann Tetzel

Tetzel

Dates: 1465–1519

Synopsis: In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, snake oil salesmen hawked concoctions of uncertain origin as cures for anything that was ailing. In the early sixteenth century, Tetzel was the same kind of person—peddling pardon from perdition for all one’s peccadilloes for a particular price.

Biography: Johann Tetzel was a Dominican monk who served as inquisitor for a time in Poland and Saxony. In 1503 he entered the profitable world of selling indulgences.

An indulgence promised God’s forgiveness apart from the seven official sacraments. The practice of selling indulgences arose during the Crusades and became very lucrative. The Church based the franchise on the idea that Mary and the saints lived such holy lives that their good deeds outweighed their sinful ones. These extra good works were stored in heaven in a “Treasury of Merit.” Since the pope has Peter’s keys to the kingdom, he alone can open this treasury and transfer these unused merits to average Christians who finish their lives with a deficit. All it takes is the appropriate “contribution” to the church and the transaction can be made, reducing the tab that must be settled up in the afterlife.

Indulgences could be earned by going on pilgrimage to certain locations—such as Rome or Jerusalem—by fighting in the Crusades, or through observing certain objects, such as a rosary or relics. An entire accounting system was established to determine how much time in purgatory could be reduced by each action. Viewing relics on certain days, such as All Saints’ Day (November 1, not when the New Orleans football team is playing) magnified the impact. The collection of relics in Wittenberg, home of Martin Luther, numbered 5,005 pieces in 1509, the viewing of which—accompanied by the appropriate donation—brought a reduction of 1,443 years in purgatory. By 1520 the collection had grown to 19,013 items, including a twig from Moses’s burning bush and a piece of bread from the Last Supper. (The sale of “antiquities” was a booming business.) Viewing the entire collection could preserve the person, or his deceased dears, from up to 1,902,202 years and 270 days of pain in purgatory!

Johann Tetzel was one of the best in the business. “Do you love your Mama? Then don’t leave her suffering in purgatory. Act today! For whenever a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs!” Only the pope could authorize the transfer of merit from saint to sinner. What a monopoly! It was a wonderful life selling indulgences. I can see Zuzu Bailey now as she drops pennies in the plate: “Look, Daddy! I’m freeing people from purgatory!”

Partial indulgences pulled a percentage of sin’s penalty. A plenary indulgence was the Golden Ticket. It extricated the purchaser from the entire punishment due to sin. Go directly to heaven, do not stop in purgatory. Tetzel sold plenary indulgences. The cost was on a sliding scale—the more a customer could afford, the more Tetzel charged.

While the merits were stored in heaven, the money to access them had more temporal uses on earth.

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