In the fifteenth century the claimed power to free living men from purgatory was extended to the {24} dead, and this soon became one of the most profitable branches of the "holy trade." The means of obtaining indulgences varied.

Sometimes they were granted to those who made a pilgrimage or who would read a pious book.

Sometimes they were used to raise money for some public work, a hospital or a bridge.

But more and more they became an ordinary means for raising revenue for the curia.

How thoroughly commercialized the business of selling grace and remission of the penalties of sin had become is shown by the fact that the agents of the pope were often bankers who organized the sales on purely business lines in return for a percentage of the net receipts plus the indirect profits accruing to those who handle large sums.