In Roman Catholicism, a partial remission of temporal (non-eternal) punishment for sin after the guilt of sin has been forgiven through penance. The concept of indulgences grew out of the beliefs that (1) divine justice demanded the sinner pay for his or her misdeeds even though they have been forgiven, either in this life or in Purgatory; (2) giving alms to the church is a penitential work; and (3) the church possessed a treasury of merit earned by the saints that could be applied to sinners. By the late Middle Ages, the system of indulgences was rampantly abused, and greedy ecclesiastics and hired salesmen sold tickets to heaven in order to fund expensive building projects and line their own pockets. The abuses were stopped at the reforming Council of Trent in 1562, and today one must do good works, not pay money, to earn indulgences.