Indulgence

• indulgence: in the Catholic Church, a papal indulgence is the remission granted by the Church of the temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven by God, thus reducing the amount of time a deceased person's soul must suffer in Purgatory; the abuse of indulgences in the 15th and 16th Centuries (viz. selling them to raise money) was one of the main grievances that triggered the Protestant Reformation
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