What was the main problem Luther had with indulgences?

Answer 1

Roman Catholic AnswerIn all seriousness the main problem that Martin Luther had with indulgences was his complete and absolute lack of understanding. I have attached a link to an English translations of Luther's 95 theses. If you read through all of them, and compare them with actual history and belief of the Catholic church you realize how little Martin Luther actually understood them, which is very bad, as he had been ordained a priest and should have been better educated. In many of his writings he refers to St. Augustine's writings completely wrongly and he was an Augustian friar. Nevertheless he protested that the Vatican was "selling" forgiveness. As indulgences have nothing to do with forgiving anyone anything but presuppose that forgiveness and applies the merits of Jesus and the saints to the penalty remaining, there was definite misunderstanding and, no doubt, real scandal caused among the laity with the "sale of indulgences". Due to the whole unfortunate misunderstanding, the Council of Trent did correct many of the mistakes which led to these errors including the fact that one can never request money for an indulgence.

An indulgence is the remission before God of the temporal punishment due to those sins of which the guilt has been forgiven, either in the sacrament of Penance or because of an act of perfect contrition, granted by the competent ecclesiastical authority our of the Treasury of the Church to the living by way of absolution, to the dead by way of suffrage.

An indulgence *usually* involves the performance of a prayer or an act of charity. In Luther's time, the act of charity consisted of a donation of money for the building of St. Peter's Basilica.