Goodbye, Benedict

Just round the corner is the Gillis Centre, the headquarters of the Catholic Diocese of Edinburgh and St Andrews - and a good place to hold a reasonably priced conference. Here are the offices of Cardinal O'Brien, who will be packing his bags in a couple of weeks to head off to the Sistine Chapel to elect a new Pope.

This grotto is in the gardens of the Gillis Centre. You'll see that a 40 days Indulgence is granted to anyone saying a Hail Mary. This was awarded by Leo XIII, who died in 1903.

I couldn't begin to define Indulgences - they seem very complicated. But I always find it fascinating that Rome scored a bit of an own goal over them. In the sixteenth century a Dominican called Johann Tetzel was commissioner of Indulgences for Germany, and went about preaching hell-fire in order to sell them, which helped to pay for the building of St Peter's Basilica in Rome.

He upset Martin Luther, who attacked Tetzel when he published his Ninety-Five Theses and pinned them (possibly) to the church door in Wittenberg! Numbers 27 and 28 read....

27. They preach only human doctrines who say that as soon as the money clinks into the money chest, the soul flies out of purgatory. 28. It is certain that when money clinks in the money chest, greed and avarice can be increased; but when the church intercedes, the result is in the hands of God alone.

Thus began the Reformation, and the creation of Protestantism.