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.
It still defends it because the theology of indulgence is sound, notwithstanding the abuses and the objections of such eminent scholars as Alex Murphy.
And whether Luther earned his cowl I know not, but I do know that he made a vow to God and then broke it.