no one is defending selling of indulgences, that was just the hook luther hung his sinful hat on when he formed his own “church”
Wow, Bill Clinton Tetzl. Nice use of the verb tense. The fact is, and remains that the Catholic Church of the time did in fact not only defend the practice but promoted it. Of course when the papacy at the time was being bought and sold and those great Italian humanitarians the Borgias and de Medici were in the business of God, what are a few indulgences? Indulgences fit well with bribery and simony.
Luther had a cowl at the time, by all accounts earned. I doubt the same could be said of all the 'hats' his ecclesiastical opponents wore.