Note 558 — Chapter VI · Attempts to Control Textbooks

“This much maligned priest [John Tetzel], personally of blameless character, undoubtedly went too far in his endeavors to procure financial success. He insisted indeed on the necessity of contrition and confession for all those who wished to obtain the remission of temporal punishment for themselves; but his teaching concerning the indulgence for the dead was not free from serious errors. To secure this benefit for a soul which has, of course, departed this life in the state of grace, nothing, according to him, is required but the alms. This doctrine, though at his time actually taught by some irresponsible preachers, has never been supported by ecclesiastical authority. Tetzel’s own brethren in religion openly reproached him for his ill-advised tactics, which soon became the talk of the whole country.” Betten and Kaufman, The Modern World, p. 376.