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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Disputation of the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences by Dr. Martin Luther: matter, even for learned men, to rescue the reverence due to
the pope from slander, or even from the shrewd questionings of
the laity.
82. To wit: -- "Why does not the pope empty purgatory, for the
sake of holy love and of the dire need of the souls that are
there, if he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake
of miserable money with which to build a Church? The former
reasons would be most just; the latter is most trivial."
83. Again: -- "Why are mortuary and anniversary masses for the
dead continued, and why does he not return or permit the
withdrawal of the endowments founded on their behalf, since it
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