“Having assumed the right to free living men from future punishment, it was but a step for the Popes to proclaim that they had the power to deliver the souls of the dead from purgatory.  The existence of this power was an open question until decided by Calixtus III in 1457, but full use of the faculty was not made until twenty years later, after which it became of all branches of the indulgence trade the most profitable.”

The reader will note that the indulgence trade in its latest form had not become a general thing until about six years before Luther’s birth.  It was a comparatively new thing that Luther attacked.  In our remarks on monasticism in a previous chapter we alluded to the Roman teaching concerning the Treasure of the Merits of the Saints, or the Treasure of the Church.  This teaching greatly fructified the theory of indulgences.  It has never been shown, and never will be, how this Treasure originates.  In the work of our Redeemer there was nothing superabundant that the Scriptures name.  He fulfilled the entire Law for man, and His merits are of inestimable value.  But they were all needed for the work of satisfying divine justice.  Moreover, all these merits of Christ are freely given to each and every believer and cancel all his guilt, according to the statement of Paul:  “Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth.”  As regards the merits of the saints, which they accumulated by doing good works in excess of what they were required to do, this is a purely imaginary asset of the papal bank of Rome.  Every man, with all that he is and has and is able to do, owes himself wholly to God.  At the best he can only do his duty.  There is no chance for doing good works in excess of duty.  If he were really to do all, he would only do what it was his duty to do, Luke 17, 10, and would be told to regard himself, even in that most favorable case, as an unprofitable servant.

But supposing there were superabundant merits, supererogatory works of Christ and the saints, who has determined their quantity?  Who takes the inventory of this stock of the papal bank of Rome?  Is he the same party who determines the length of a person’s stay in purgatory and can tell how much he has been in arrears in the matter of goodness and virtuousness, and how much cash will purchase his release?  How is this intelligence conveyed to purgatory that Mr. So-and-so is free to proceed to heaven?  A multitude of such questions arising in all thinking minds that want to arrive at rock bottom facts in so serious a matter always baffle the theologians of Rome.  They owe the world an answer on these questions for four hundred years.  Is the world doing Rome an injustice when it regards the sale of indulgences a pure confidence game in holy disguise, the offer of a fictitious value for good cash, the boldest and baldest gold-bricking that mankind has heen [tr. note:  sic] subjected to?