Here's how it worked:   A person gave The Roman Catholic Pope money and God forgave him of his sins.   It was a money-back-guaranteed, ticket to heaven.

Indulgences had their hay day with  the sixteenth-century, gay Pope, Pope Leo X.**2   He became Pope in 1513 and is famous for his zeal at selling indulgences.   In those days the governments were ruled by what was  called the "established church."   It ruled every aspect of European life.    People had to obey the laws of the church and pay taxes that went to the church.   Whether or not they followers of the faith was irrelevant.

The church leaders peddled the story that without the church's blessing, God would not let you into heaven.   Most of the people,  being uneducated and having no other source of information, believed the story.   Thousands of people purchased indulgences.   Leo was such a good salesman that he even gave the purchaser a piece of paper acknowledging God's forgiveness.

Pope Leo X is also famous for sparking the wrath of Martin Luther   ` who, posted his  famous "95 Theses" on the church door on October 31, 1517.   Luther's theses attacked Pope Leo's practice of selling indulgences and triggered the European revolution know as the Reformation.