 By the 10th century some penances were not replaced by other penances but were simply reduced in connection with pious donations, pilgrimages and similar meritorious works.Then, in the 11th and 12th centuries, the recognition of the value of these works began to become associated not so much with canonical penance but with remission of the temporal punishment due to sin, giving on the way to indulgence in the precise sense of the term aside from such penance, which, although it continued to be spoken of in terms of remission of a certain number of days or years of canonical penance, is now expressed as the granting to someone who performs a pious action, "in addition to the remission of temporal punishment acquired by the action itself, an equal remission of punishment through the intervention of the Church".As grounds for this remission of temporal (not eternal) punishment due to sin, theologians looked to God's mercy and the prayers of the Church.