Indulgences in late medieval England

by R. N. Swanson

"Indulgences played a major role in medieval 'strategies for eternity', easing the journey through Purgatory to Heaven after death. However, theological attacks during the Reformation and the subsequent Protestant rejection of indulgences have given them a poor reputation, compounding the effect of the fourteenth-century satires by Chaucer and Langland of the pardoners who ensured their widespread distribution. This book is the first study of indulgences in late medieval England and it offers a re-evaluation of their role in England's religious, social, and economic life between 1300 and the Reformation. R.N. Swanson traces their importance to devotional life, their contribution to charitable and economic structures and the complex tale of their disappearance under Henry VIII."--Jacket.