What does Luther think about the indulgence? How did Luther talk about faith in the Church then and now? Why was he sent to study at Wittenberg?

"As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs."  --song created by an indulgence "agent"

Indulgence at the most basic level was buying forgiveness for your sins from the Roman Catholic Church. The practice commenced when the pope offered free penance to any member of the church that would fight for the Crusades. Many people were not able to fight for a number of reasons, so the pope decided that...

"As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs."  --song created by an indulgence "agent"

Indulgence at the most basic level was buying forgiveness for your sins from the Roman Catholic Church. The practice commenced when the pope offered free penance to any member of the church that would fight for the Crusades. Many people were not able to fight for a number of reasons, so the pope decided that those individuals could pay for their forgiveness. The policy of paying your penance became standard operating procedure for Catholics.

In 1517, the pope made a deal that established "middle men" that could collect indulgences and keep half of the proceeds while sending the other half to Rome. Furthermore, many of these "middle men" were making outrageous claims about saving relatives that were in purgatory or having all of your sins forgiven by paying the fees. This was during the time of Martin Luther. His main objection to the collection of indulgences is that man does not have the ability to forgive sin because they cannot gauge sorrow. Sin is only forgiven if the person who commits the sin truly regrets the action. Furthermore, Luther explains that the only one that can know whether a person is truly sorry is God. For these reasons, making payments as penance is not adequate to having your sins forgiven.