is sins" (Sykes 30-31). The cost of these papal indulgences was, of course, dependent on the gravity of the sin and the amount of reparation one wished to make. Although the Church's justification of the practice was not quite so unsophisticated the climax of this practice was reached when people began to believe that "the payment of a few cents would rescue a soul from Purgatory" and preachers of indulgences began to market them by promising