9.20
Indulgences
Medieval documents bearing the seal of the Pope or of a bishop and granting the recipient remission of punishment in the next world for sins committed in this. They were freely sold in the Middle Ages by licensed `Pardoners', and were an easy way for the Church (and also for the pardoners) to raise money. Reformers such as the Englishman Wycliffe and the German Luther were fiercely critical of them. Chaucer made grim comedy of them (Pardoner's Tale) and his contemporary Langland regarded them sceptically (Piers Plowman, Passus VII).
Bloomsbury Dictionary of English Literature, © Bloomsbury 1997
Medieval documents bearing the seal of the Pope or of a bishop and granting the recipient remission of punishment in the next world for sins committed in this. They were freely sold in the Middle Ages by licensed `Pardoners', and were an easy way for the Church (and also for the pardoners) to raise money. Reformers such as the Englishman Wycliffe and the German Luther were fiercely critical of them. Chaucer made grim comedy of them (Pardoner's Tale) and his contemporary Langland regarded them sceptically (Piers Plowman, Passus VII).
Bloomsbury Dictionary of English Literature, © Bloomsbury 1997
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