As an obvious contrast to the elimination of money’s corruption from the temple, Cranach shows the enthroned pope in his tiara, accompanied by clergy and sitting in a church, whose altar is visible in the right background. He presides on high while dispensing signed indulgences. His own comfort is underscored by the presence of a cushion at his elevated seat and another baldachin above his head. The pope holds an indulgence that he has just signed, while he passes another, with numerous attached seals (akin to the document on plate 8), which is transmitted in turn by a tonsured monk, who receives payment for it from a peasant woman in contemporary dress. Below the pope the remaining group of peasants stands behind a table piled high with further sheets, not yet affixed with seals or signatures; also on the table sit piles and rows of coins, to which the foremost peasant, in the lower right corner, adds from the sack that he carries. Here, then, the condemnation of contemporary indulgences by Luther is made explicit.