Selling forgiveness
In the early 1500s a Christian in Europe could hand over money to a churchman and receive a document that promised to lift the burden of their sins. To a growing number of critics, this trade summed up what had gone wrong with the Catholic Church. Within a few decades the quarrel it started had led whole regions of Europe to break away from the Pope.
A document sold by the Catholic Church that was said to free the buyer from the burden of his or her sins.
The break is called the Reformation, and it happened in stages. Scholars inside the Church raised criticisms first. Martin Luther then launched an open challenge to the Church in 1517, more radical reformers pushed further than he wanted, and the Catholic Church finally answered with reforms of its own. Throughout, Bibles printed in the languages people actually spoke allowed ordinary believers to test the Church's claims against scripture for themselves.
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