Editing St. Peter's Basilica (section)

===Financing with indulgences===
One method employed to finance the building of St. Peter's Basilica was the granting of [[indulgences]] in return for contributions. A major promoter of this method of fund-raising was [[Albrecht of Mainz|Albrecht, Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg]], who had to clear debts owed to the [[Roman Curia]] by contributing to the rebuilding program. To facilitate this, he appointed the German [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] preacher [[Johann Tetzel]], whose salesmanship provoked a scandal and led to the [[Protestant Reformation]].<ref>"[[Johann Tetzel]]", ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2007: "Tetzel's experiences as a preacher of indulgences, especially between 1503 and 1510, led to his appointment as general commissioner by Albrecht, archbishop of Mainz, who, deeply in debt to pay for a large accumulation of benefices, had to contribute a considerable sum toward the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Albrecht obtained permission from Pope Leo X to conduct the sale of a special plenary indulgence (i.e., remission of the temporal punishment of sin), half of the proceeds of which Albrecht was to claim to pay the fees of his benefices. In effect, Tetzel became a salesman whose product was to cause a scandal in Germany that evolved into the greatest crisis (the Reformation) in the history of the Western church."</ref>