Ever heard of martin luther?
You wrote:
“Ever heard of martin luther?”
Sure have. Went through ALL of his books too - all 50 some odd volumes in translation, and guess what?
The Church STILL never sold indulgences. If you look at the instruction letter to Luther’s opponent, Johann Tetzel, you’ll see that people were expected to go through the usual process of completing the indulgence. At the end they would DONATE according to their station in life for the certificate. It was clearly stipulated that those with no money to donate were to be given the certificate anyway. Thus, nothing that could be called a “sale” was to take place. That was all in accordance with Church law and practice. What Tetzel did was not.