opponents
had grasped far more completely than he himself the true
significance of his "purely academic protest."

2. Penance and Indulgence.--The purpose of the disputation which
Luther proposed to hold was to clear up the subject of the virtue
of "indulgences," and the indulgences were the most striking and
characteristic feature of the religious life of the Church in the
last three Centuries of the Middle Ages.[12] We meet them
everywhere--indulgences for the adoration of relics, indulgences
for worship at certain shrines, indulgences for pilgrimages here
or there, indulgences for contributions to this or that special
object of charity. Luther roundly charges the indulgence-vendors
with teaching the people that the indulgences as a means to the
remission of sins. What are these indulgences?

Their history is connected, on the one hand, with the history of
the Sacrament of Penance, on the other with the history of the
development of papal power. The Sacrament of Penance developed
out of the administration of Church discipline. In the earliest
days of the Church, the Christian who fell into sin was punished
by exclusion from the communion of the Church. This
excommunication was not, however, permanent, and the sinner could
be restored to the privileges of Church-fellowship after he had
confessed his sin, professed penitence, and performed certain
penitential acts, chief among which were alms-giving, fasting and
prayer, and, somewhat later, pilgrimage. These acts of penitence
came to have the name of "satisfactions," and were a condition
precedent to the reception of absolution. They varied in
duration and severity, according to the enormity of the offence,
end for the guidance of those who administered the discipline of
the Church, sets of rules were formulated by which the
"satisfactions" or "penances" were imposed. These codes are the
"Penitential Canons." [13] The first step in the development of
the indulgences may be found in the practice which gradually
arose, of remitting some part of the enjoined "penances" on
consideration of the performance of certain acts which could be
regarded as meritorious.

The indulgences received a new form, however, and became a part
of the regular Church administration, when the popes discovered
the possibilities which lay in this institution for the
advancement of their own power and the furtherance of their own
interests. This discovery seems to date from the time of the
Cr