Pardonmonger

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A seller of (papal) indulgences. archaic, derogatory

    "I read of Tecelius, the Popes pardonmonger in Germany, that having by sale of indulgences scraped together a huge masse of money and returning for Rome, he was met and eased of his cash by an odde fellow; who being afterwards prosecuted for a felon, produced a pardon for future sinnes granted him by Tecelius himself, and being thereupon acquitted by the Judge, he roasted that which that other old fox had taken in hunting."

Example

More examples

"I read of Tecelius, the Popes pardonmonger in Germany, that having by sale of indulgences scraped together a huge masse of money and returning for Rome, he was met and eased of his cash by an odde fellow; who being afterwards prosecuted for a felon, produced a pardon for future sinnes granted him by Tecelius himself, and being thereupon acquitted by the Judge, he roasted that which that other old fox had taken in hunting."

Etymology

From pardon + monger.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.