“Luther was outraged when the pope sent emissaries up north to raise money for St. Peter’s Basilica by selling ‘indulgences,’ essentially coupons a buyer could use to pay off the pope to erase sins from the Judgment Day ledger. Luther’s point was that, according to Scripture, salvation is not a bake sale.”
– Sarah Vowell in The Wordy Shipmates (2008); indulgence from Pope Leo X, 1516, from the ELCA Archives.
