he Roman teaching on indulgences is not such an innocent affair as
Catholics would have us believe. The practise of substituting for
penances some good work or contribution to a pious purpose had arisen in
the Church at a very early time. "This," says Preserved Smith, who has
well condensed the history of indulgences, "was the seed of indulgence
which would never have grown to its later enormous proportions had it
not been for the crusades. Mohammed promised his followers paradise if
they fell in battle against unbelievers, but Christian warriors were at
first without this comforting assurance. Their faith was not long left
in doubt, however, for as early as 855 Leo IV promised heaven to the
Franks who died fighting against the Moslems. A quarter of a century
later John VIII proclaimed absolution for all sins and remission of all
penalties to soldiers in the holy war, and from this time on the
'crusade indulgence' became a regular means of recruiting, used, for
example, by Leo IX in 1052 and by Urban II in 1095. By this time the
practise had grown up of regarding an indulgence as a remission not only
of penance, but of the pains of purgatory. The means which had proved
successful in getting soldiers for the crusade were first used in 1145
or 1146 to get money for the same end, pardon being assured to those who
gave enough to fit out one soldier on the same terms as if they had gone
themselves.

"When the crusades ceased, in the thirteenth century, indulgences did
not fall into desuetude. At the jubilee of Pope Boniface VIII, in 1300,
a plenary indulgence was granted to all who made a pilgrimage to Rome.
The Pope reaped such an enormous harvest from the gifts of these
pilgrims that he saw fit to employ similar means at frequent intervals,
and soon extended the same privileges as were granted to pilgrims to all
who contributed for some pious purpose at their own homes. Agents were
sent out to sell these pardons, and were given power to confess and
absolve, so that in 1393 Boniface IX was able to announce complete
remission of both guilt and penalty to the purchasers of his letters.

"Having assumed the right to free living men from future punishment, it
was but a step for the Popes to proclaim that they had the power to
deliver the souls of the dead from purgatory. The existence of this
power was an open question until decided by Calixtus III in 1457, but
full use of the faculty was not made until twenty years later, afte