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An indulgence was a piece of paper given to a sinner stating that he had confessed, was sorry, and thereby forgiven of his sin. It was given by the church to a person who had paid a sum of money to the church for forgiveness of a sin. These became a major source of income for the church and were given out in large numbers.
Printing these indulgences would be a great benefit from having to painstakingly write them by hand and would result in more being given out and more money being taken in by the Church. By the sixteenth century, most were printed instead of hand-written and a scandal broke out at to how many were being "sold" by the church. This led to the separation of the Protestand and Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation.