Indulgences like Margarethe’s were commonplace across Europe during the later Middle Ages. The purpose of an indulgence was, at root, simple. It was a cross between a spiritual hall pass and banknote, a letter issued or underwritten by the pope, which entitled the bearer to claim forgiveness for sins. The advantage to the sinner of buying such a document was straightforward: it reduced the time he or she was doomed to spend suffering the agonies of purgatory.
