Are you not willing, then, for the fourth part of a florin, to obtain these letters, by virtue of which you may bring, not your money, but your divine and immortal soul safe and sound into the land of Paradise?

Using the excerpt below, brainstorm a list of what you would know about that time and place, if that excerpt was all you had. You will need to read your chosen excerpt many times in order to do a thorough brainstorm.
When you have a long list (about a full page), read your list several times and see what the main theme of your brainstorm seems to be. It could be, for example; government, the economy, religion, the household, the military, the social hierarchy, or some other theme. There are many possibilities. When you have identified your theme, see what you think your message about that theme might be, regarding that time and place. That message is your working thesis. It will probably develop as you continue working on the paper, and you will adjust it in the process. But for this assignment, provide your working thesis so far, and a title that simply tells what the paper is about. (For example a working thesis might look something like this: “The evidence in this excerpt from __________ shows that the ___th century German economy __________.”)

Excerpt:
A. You may obtain letters of safe conduct from the vicar of our Lord Jesus Christ, by means of which you are able to liberate your soul from the hands of the enemy, and convey it by means of contrition and confession, safe and secure from all pains of Purgatory, into the happy kingdom. For know that in these letters are stamped and engraven all the merits of Christ’s passion there laid bare. Consider, that for each and every mortal sin it is necessary to undergo seven years of penitence after confession and contrition, either in this life or in Purgatory. …
But with these confessional letters you will be able at any time in life to obtain full indulgence for all penalties imposed upon you, in all cases except the four reserved to the apostolic see. Therefore throughout your whole life, whenever you wish to make confession, you may receive the same remission, except tin cases reserved to the Pope, and afterwards, at the hour of death, a full indulgence as to all penalties and sin, and your share of all spiritual blessings that exist in the church militant and all its members.
Do you not know that when it is necessary for anyone to go to Rome, or undertake any other dangerous journey, he takes his money to the broker and gives a certain per cent – five or six or ten – in order that at Rome or elsewhere he may receive again his funds intact, by means of the letters of this same broker? Are you not willing, then, for the fourth part of a florin, to obtain these letters, by virtue of which you may bring, not your money, but your divine and immortal soul safe and sound into the land of Paradise?

Last Completed Projects