R. A. Scotti by Basilica: The Splendor;the Scandal: Building St. Peter's

Author:Basilica: The Splendor;the Scandal: Building St. Peter's
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Europe, Basilica Di San Pietro in Vaticano - History, Buildings, Vatican City - Buildings, Art, Etc, Subjects & Themes, Religious, Italy, General, Religion, Architecture, Renaissance, Christianity, Structures, Vatican City - History, History
ISBN: 9780452288607
Publisher: Plume
Published: 2007-05-29T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

SALVATION FOR SALE

For my intent is only pence to win,

And not at all for punishment of sin.

When they are dead, for all I think thereon

Their souls may well black-berrying have gone!

—Geoffrey Chaucer,

“Pardoner’s Prologue,”

The Canterbury Tales

In the theology of the Church, only confession and contrition can bring about the forgiveness of sins. A contrite sinner admits his errors, receives absolution through the sacrament of penance, and is given prayers to say or a task to perform in reparation. An indulgence doesn’t buy forgiveness. It only lessens the penance imposed.

The process is roughly analogous to a civil court proceeding. A person turns himself in, admits his crime, is granted a hearing, and receives a sentence or penalty. The judge can suspend the sentence or order community service in lieu of prison time. Granting an indulgence is comparable to commuting a sentence. From the Latin indulgeo—“to be kind or tender”—it derives from Roman law and from the Old Testament book of Isaiah (61:1). The prophet says, “The Lord hath anointed me…to heal the contrite of heart.”

Indulgences are a quid pro quo. A confessed sinner performs good works or makes a charitable offering in exchange for a reduced penance now, or a shortened purgatory in the next life. When motives are pure, both sides benefit. The Church raises revenue for its capital expenses. The contrite Christian feels good, because he has a direct route to heaven with no detour to purgatory, and he is helping his neighbor and supporting his Church.

As early as the eighth or ninth century, “redemptions” were given for good works: feeding the hungry, tending the sick, any of the corporal works of mercy. In the free-and-easy years before the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation, the Church also dispensed redemptions for making a pilgrimage, giving alms, joining a crusade, or endowing a hospital—all eminently worthy causes, it was thought.

Even if the intention were as pure as a shriven soul, misuse was endemic. As always, the abuse came when money changed hands.* Julius had issued a redemption in 1513, offering an indulgence with a contribution to the Basilica fund. Leo renewed and expanded it. As his money troubles worsened through poor management and personal extravagance, the sale of indulgences became a way of keeping the papacy solvent.

Mass runs of indulgences rolled off ecclesiastical printing presses. The man behind the marketing blitz was the pope’s friend and fellow Florentine Lorenzo Pucci—the same Pucci who would mishandle Henry VIII’s divorce appeal and lose the English Church. Pucci’s preachers crossed the Alps and spread throughout Europe. Many of them were as corrupt as Chaucer’s Pardoner, and they peddled the indulgences like eternal annuities, speculations against the Day of Judgment. Absolution was bartered for building funds, and a wholesale fleecing of the faithful ensued.

To a young Augustinian monk in Saxony, the trafficking in indulgences to finance an enormous new Basilica was the tipping point. Martin Luther had been profoundly shaken by the decadent behavior he saw when he visited Rome in the summer of 1511.

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