<span>In the 16th century, the Catholic Church had a practice of selling indulgences. An indulgence was a payment to the church that paid for you to be exempted from certain sins. Sometimes they could pay for a loved one to spend less time in purgatory.
Luther’s thesis 82 was aimed at the Pope, asking why the Pope doesn’t deliver ALL souls at the same time out of purgatory to relieve their misery. Is he only saving a few souls at a time so that he can get more money for the Catholic Church, thus exposing evil practices of the Catholic Church at that time.</span>
Some of the elements which can be considered to be gothic in "the pit and the pendulum" are darkness, internal struggle, horror and terror experienced by the main character, lack of freedom, torture, etc.
It takes the place of a noun
"In the middle of Germany"
This sentence explains what is "in the middle of Germany" these phrases act as the subject of the sentence.
"The tallest mountain in the range"
In this sentence the tallest mountain in the range is named.
"The trees", "many"
This sentence describes the trees. The second half of the sentence uses the subject "many" to refer back to the trees.
"the trees"
In this sentence the trees are doing the creaking and groaning.
"the mountain"
The mountain is the subject because it is what is being described as haunted.
"This witch"
The sentence explains what the witch does that makes people think that the mountain is haunted.
"her spirit"
This sentence describes her spirit as rising once a month.
"Locals and tourists"
The locals and tourists are the ones doing the verbs of gather and drink.
"the Brocken"
The Brocken is described in this sentence.
