Late medieval abuses
Indulgences became increasingly popular in the Middle Ages as a reward for displaying piety and doing good deeds, though, doctrinally speaking, the Church stated that the indulgence was only valid for temporal punishment for sins already forgiven in the Sacrament of Confession.
In the later Middle Ages, growth of considerable abuses occurred. Greedy commissaries sought to extract the maximum amount of money for each indulgence. Professional “pardoners”, who were sent to collect alms for a specific project, practiced the unrestricted sale of indulgences. Many of these quaestores exceeded official Church doctrine, whether in avarice or ignorant zeal, and promised rewards like salvation from eternal damnation in return for money.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indulgence
> Professional “pardoners”, who were sent to collect alms for a specific project... <
Good analogy there.