You’ve got it. Acts of charity can merit an indulgence, but the claims that one could purchase one’s way out of Purgatory or Hell, or be forgiven of a sin without being sorry for ones failing was contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church, and remains to.[/quote:1t2yo2el]
[quote:1t2yo2el]In the same year in which Erasmus published [i:1t2yo2el]Julius Exclusus[/i:1t2yo2el], in whch the Lateran council ended, and in which Pope Leo packed the college of cardinals with thirty-one new creations, an unknown theology professor in Wittenberg, an obscure new German university, proposed an academic debate on the subject of indulgences. His name was Martin Luther, and he was reacting against the indulgences which Pope Julius and after him Pope Leo had issued to help the fund the rebuilding of St. Peter’s.
[u:1t2yo2el]Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes[/u:1t2yo2el] By Eamon Duffy.[/quote:1t2yo2el]
I understand that the Church is still in dept and has been for the longest time.

[quote:1t2yo2el]Archbishop Albert of Mainz was a prince aged twenty-seven, brother of the Elector of Brandenburg. he was also Archbishop of Magdeburg (in which diocese lay Wittenberg) and administrator of the see of Halberstadt. To combine these high offices he needed dispensations from Rome. The fees for dispensation of this gargantuan scale being vast, Albert borrowed money from the great banking house of Germany, the Fugger of Augsburg. As security for the dept, he undertook to arrange the proclamation through Germany of the Indulgence which the Pope had recently declared for the purpose of buliding St. Peter’s at Rome.
[u:1t2yo2el]The Reformation[/u:1t2yo2el] By Owen Chadwick[/quote:1t2yo2el]
In my opinion, the Church used Tetzel to help out with these sales of indulgences for the rendition of the Basilica.