GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

Detailed explanation-1: -Martin Luther, a German priest, monk, and theologian, launched the Protestant Reformation. He did this in response to the Roman Catholic Church’s sale of indulgences, which he saw as the selling of salvation. In simple terms, an indulgence was an action that was believed to lessen one’s time spent in purgatory or hell.

Detailed explanation-2: -The Roman Catholic Church sold “letters of indulgence”. They were sold to people with the understanding that it would decrease the time one’s soul spends in purgatory. The higher the amount paid, the lesser the time spent in purgatory.

Detailed explanation-3: -One particularly well-known Catholic method of exploitation in the Middle Ages was the practice of selling indulgences, a monetary payment of penalty which, supposedly, absolved one of past sins and/or released one from purgatory after death.