And whoso fyndeth hym out of swich blame,
He wol come up and offre a Goddes name,
And I assoille him by the auctoritee
Which that by bulle ygraunted was to me.
– Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, The Pardoner’s Prologue. After telling the church congegration that no one guilty of serious sin can buy his fake relics, the Pardoner cleverly offers them an alternative. Buy one of his papal pardons, he suggests, and he will absolve them by the authority that has been granted to him by papal bull! The Pardoner is one shrewd salesman who doesn’t miss a trick.