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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Indulgences</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07783a.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="A remission of the temporal punishment due to sin, the guilt of which has been forgiven"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="07783a.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/i.htm">I</a> > Indulgences</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Indulgences</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p>The word <em>indulgence</em> (<a href="../cathen/09019a.htm">Latin</a> <em>indulgentia</em>, from <em>indulgeo</em>, to be kind or tender) originally meant kindness or favor; in post-classic Latin it came to mean the remission of a tax or <a href="../cathen/04663b.htm">debt</a>. In <a href="../cathen/09079a.htm">Roman law</a> and in the <a href="../cathen/15515b.htm">Vulgate</a> of the <a href="../cathen/14526a.htm">Old Testament</a> (<a href="../bible/isa061.htm#vrs1">Isaiah 61:1</a>) it was used to express release from captivity or punishment. In <a href="../cathen/14580x.htm">theological</a> language also the word is sometimes employed in its primary sense to signify the kindness and mercy of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>. But in the special sense in which it is here considered, an indulgence is a remission of the temporal punishment due to <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a>, the guilt of which has been forgiven. Among the equivalent terms used in antiquity were <em>pax, remissio, donatio, condonatio</em>.</p> <h2>What an indulgence is not</h2> <p>To facilitate explanation, it may be well to state what an indulgence is not. It is not a permission to commit <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a>, nor a pardon of future <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a>; neither could be granted by any power. It is not the forgiveness of the guilt of <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a>; it supposes that the <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a> has already been forgiven. It is not an <a href="../cathen/05706a.htm">exemption</a> from any <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> or <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a>, and much less from the <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligation</a> consequent on certain kinds of <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a>, e.g., <a href="../cathen/12788a.htm">restitution</a>; on the contrary, it means a more complete payment of the <a href="../cathen/04663b.htm">debt</a> which the sinner owes to <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>. It does not confer immunity from <a href="../cathen/14504a.htm">temptation</a> or remove the possibility of subsequent lapses into <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a>. Least of all is an <a href="../cathen/07783a.htm">indulgence</a> the purchase of a pardon which secures the buyer's <a href="../cathen/13407a.htm">salvation</a> or releases the <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a> of another from <a href="../cathen/12575a.htm">Purgatory</a>. The absurdity of such notions must be obvious to any one who forms a correct <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of what the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> really teaches on this subject.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <h2>What an indulgence is</h2> <p>An <a href="../cathen/07783a.htm">indulgence</a> is the extra-sacramental remission of the temporal punishment due, in <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God's</a> <a href="../cathen/08571c.htm">justice</a>, to <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a> that has been forgiven, which remission is granted by the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> in the exercise of the <a href="../cathen/08631b.htm">power of the keys</a>, through the application of the superabundant <a href="../cathen/10202b.htm">merits</a> of Christ and of the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a>, and for some just and reasonable motive. Regarding this definition, the following points are to be noted:</p> <div class="bulletlist"><ul><li>In the <a href="../cathen/02258b.htm">Sacrament of Baptism</a> not only is the guilt of <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a> remitted, but also all the penalties attached to <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a>. In the <a href="../cathen/11618c.htm">Sacrament of Penance</a> the guilt of <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a> is removed, and with it the <a href="../cathen/05551b.htm">eternal punishment</a> due to mortal <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a>; but there still remains the temporal punishment required by Divine <a href="../cathen/08571c.htm">justice</a>, and this requirement must be fulfilled either in the present life or in the world to come, i.e., in <a href="../cathen/12575a.htm">Purgatory</a>. An indulgence offers the penitent sinner the means of discharging this <a href="../cathen/04663b.htm">debt</a> during his life on earth.</li><li>Some writs of <a href="../cathen/07783a.htm">indulgence</a>—none of them, however, issued by any <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> or council (<a href="../cathen/11739b.htm">Pesch</a>, Tr. Dogm., VII, 196, no. 464)—contain the expression, "indulgentia a culpa et a poena", i.e. release from guilt and from punishment; and this has occasioned considerable misunderstanding (cf. Lea, "History" etc. III, 54 sqq.). The real meaning of the formula is that, indulgences presupposing the <a href="../cathen/11618c.htm">Sacrament of Penance</a>, the penitent, after receiving <a href="../cathen/13295a.htm">sacramental</a> <a href="../cathen/01061a.htm">absolution</a> from the guilt of <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a>, is afterwards freed from the temporal penalty by the indulgence (<a href="../cathen/02411d.htm">Bellarmine</a>, "De Indulg"., I, 7). In other words, <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a> is fully pardoned, i.e. its effects entirely obliterated, only when complete <a href="../cathen/12775a.htm">reparation</a>, and consequently release from penalty as well as from guilt, has been made. Hence <a href="../cathen/04020a.htm">Clement V</a> (1305-1314) condemned the practice of those purveyors of indulgences who pretended to absolve "a culpa et a poena" (Clement, I. v, tit. 9, c. ii); the <a href="../cathen/04288a.htm">Council of Constance</a> (1418) <a href="../cathen/13007a.htm">revoked</a> (Sess. XLII, n. 14) all indulgences containing the said formula; <a href="../cathen/02432a.htm">Benedict XIV</a> (1740-1758) treats them as spurious indulgences granted in this form, which he ascribes to the illicit practices of the "quaestores" or purveyors (De Syn. dioeces., VIII, viii. 7).</li><li>The satisfaction, usually called the "penance", imposed by the confessor when he gives <a href="../cathen/01061a.htm">absolution</a> is an integral part of the <a href="../cathen/11618c.htm">Sacrament of Penance</a>; an indulgence is extra-sacramental; it presupposes the effects obtained by confession, <a href="../cathen/04337a.htm">contrition</a>, and <a href="../cathen/13295a.htm">sacramental</a> satisfaction. It differs also from the <a href="../cathen/11618b.htm">penitential</a> works undertaken of his own accord by the repentant sinner  <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a>, <a href="../cathen/05789c.htm">fasting</a>, alms-giving  in that these are personal and get their value from the <a href="../cathen/10202b.htm">merit</a> of him who performs them, whereas an indulgence places at the penitent's disposal the <a href="../cathen/10202b.htm">merits</a> of Christ and of the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a>, which form the "Treasury" of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>.</li><li>An indulgence is valid both in the tribunal of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> and in the tribunal of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>. This means that it not only releases the penitent from his <a href="../cathen/04663b.htm">indebtedness</a> to the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> or from the <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligation</a> of performing canonical penance, but also from the temporal punishment which he has incurred in the sight of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> and which, without the indulgence, he would have to undergo in order to satisfy Divine <a href="../cathen/08571c.htm">justice</a>. This, however, does not imply that the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> pretends to set aside the claim of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God's</a> <a href="../cathen/08571c.htm">justice</a> or that she allows the sinner to repudiate his <a href="../cathen/04663b.htm">debt</a>. As <a href="../cathen/14663b.htm">St. Thomas</a> says (<a href="../summa/5025.htm#article1">Supplement.25.1 ad 2um</a>), "He who gains indulgences is not thereby released outright from what he owes as penalty, but is provided with the means of paying it." The <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> therefore neither leaves the penitent helplessly in <a href="../cathen/04663b.htm">debt</a> nor acquits him of all further accounting; she enables him to meet his <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligations</a>.</li><li>In granting an indulgence, the grantor (<a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> or <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>) does not offer his personal <a href="../cathen/10202b.htm">merits</a> in lieu of what <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> demands from the sinner. He acts in his official capacity as having <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> in the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, from whose spiritual treasury he draws the means wherewith payment is to be made. The <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> herself is not the absolute owner, but simply the administratrix, of the superabundant <a href="../cathen/10202b.htm">merits</a> which that treasury contains. In applying them, she keeps in view both the design of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God's</a> mercy and the demands of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God's</a> <a href="../cathen/08571c.htm">justice</a>. She therefore determines the amount of each concession, as well as the <a href="../cathen/04211a.htm">conditions</a> which the penitent must fulfill if he would gain the indulgence. </li></ul></div> <h2>Various kinds of indulgences</h2> <p>An indulgence that may be gained in any part of the world is universal, while one that can be gained only in a specified place (Rome, <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a>, etc.) is local. A further distinction is that between perpetual <a href="../cathen/07783a.htm">indulgences</a>, which may be gained at any <a href="../cathen/14726a.htm">time</a>, and temporary, which are available on certain days only, or within certain periods. Real indulgences are attached to the use of certain objects (crucifix, <a href="../cathen/13184b.htm">rosary</a>, <a href="../cathen/10111b.htm">medal</a>); personal are those which do not require the use of any such material thing, or which are granted only to a certain class of <a href="../cathen/07762a.htm">individuals</a>, e.g. members of an order or confraternity. The most important distinction, however, is that between plenary indulgences and partial. By a plenary indulgence is meant the remission of the entire temporal punishment due to <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a> so that no further expiation is required in <a href="../cathen/12575a.htm">Purgatory</a>. A partial indulgence commutes only a certain portion of the penalty; and this portion is determined in accordance with the <a href="../cathen/11618b.htm">penitential</a> <a href="../cathen/05030a.htm">discipline</a> of the early <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>. To say that an indulgence of so many days or years is granted means that it cancels an amount of <a href="../cathen/12575a.htm">purgatorial</a> punishment equivalent to that which would have been remitted, in the sight of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>, by the performance of so many days or years of the ancient canonical penance. Here, evidently, the reckoning makes no claim to absolute exactness; it has only a relative value.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p><a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> alone knows what penalty remains to be paid and what its precise amount is in severity and duration. Finally, some indulgences are granted in behalf of the living only, while others may be applied in behalf of the <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a> departed. It should be noted, however, that the application has not the same significance in both cases. The <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> in granting an indulgence to the living exercises her <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a>; over the dead she has no <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a> and therefore makes the indulgence available for them by way of suffrage (<em>per modum suffragii</em>), i.e. she petitions <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> to accept these works of satisfaction and in consideration thereof to mitigate or shorten the sufferings of the <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a> in <a href="../cathen/12575a.htm">Purgatory</a>.</p> <h2>Who can grant indulgences</h2> <p>The distribution of the <a href="../cathen/10202b.htm">merits</a> contained in the treasury of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> is an exercise of authority (<em>potestas iurisdictionis</em>), not of the power conferred by <a href="../cathen/11279a.htm">Holy orders</a> (<em>potestas ordinis</em>). Hence the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a>, as supreme head of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> on earth, can grant all kinds of indulgences to any and all of the <a href="../cathen/05769a.htm">faithful</a>; and he alone can grant plenary indulgences. The power of the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>, previously unrestricted, was limited by <a href="../cathen/08013a.htm">Innocent III</a> (1215) to the granting of one year's indulgence at the <a href="../cathen/04673a.htm">dedication</a> of a church and of forty days on other occasions. <a href="../cathen/09169a.htm">Leo XIII</a> (Rescript of 4 July. 1899) authorized the <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">archbishops</a> of South America to grant eighty days (<a href="../cathen/01111c.htm">Acta S. Sedis</a>, XXXI, 758). <a href="../cathen/12137a.htm">Pius X</a> (28 August, 1903) allowed <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinals</a> in their titular churches and <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">dioceses</a> to grant 200 days; <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">archbishops</a>, 100; <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, 50. These indulgences are not applicable to the <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">souls</a> departed. They can be gained by <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a> not belonging to the <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocese</a>, but temporarily within its limits; and by the subjects of the granting <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>, whether these are within the <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocese</a> or outside--except when the indulgence is local. <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">Priests</a>, <a href="../cathen/15401a.htm">vicars general</a>, <a href="../cathen/01015c.htm">abbots</a>, and generals of <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious</a> orders cannot grant indulgences unless specially authorized to do so. On the other hand, the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> can empower a <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">cleric</a> who is not a <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> to give an indulgence (<a href="../cathen/14663b.htm">St. Thomas</a>, "Quodlib.", II, q. viii, a. 16).</p> <h2>Dispositions necessary to gain an indulgence</h2> <p>The mere fact that the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> proclaims an indulgence does not imply that it can be gained without effort on the part of the <a href="../cathen/05769a.htm">faithful</a>. From what has been said above, it is clear that the recipient must be free from the guilt of mortal <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a>. Furthermore, for plenary indulgences, confession and Communion are usually required, while for partial indulgences, though confession is not <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligatory</a>, the formula <em>corde saltem contrito</em>, i.e. "at least with a <a href="../cathen/04337a.htm">contrite</a> heart", is the customary <a href="../cathen/12396x.htm">prescription</a>. Regarding the question discussed by <a href="../cathen/14580a.htm">theologians</a> whether a <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">person</a> in mortal <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a> can gain an indulgence for the dead, see <a href="../cathen/12575a.htm">PURGATORY</a>. It is also <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessary</a> to have the <a href="../cathen/08069b.htm">intention</a>, at least habitual, of gaining the indulgence. Finally, from the <a href="../cathen/10715a.htm">nature</a> of the case, it is obvious that one must perform the good <a href="../cathen/01115a.htm">works</a>  <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a>, <a href="../cathen/01328f.htm">alms deeds</a>, visits to a church, etc.  which are prescribed in the granting of an indulgence. For details see <a href="../cathen/12620a.htm">"Raccolta"</a>.</p> <h2>Authoritative teaching of the Church</h2> <p>The <a href="../cathen/04288a.htm">Council of Constance</a> condemned among the <a href="../cathen/05525a.htm">errors</a> of <a href="../cathen/15722a.htm">Wyclif</a> the proposition: "It is foolish to <a href="../cathen/02408b.htm">believe</a> in the indulgences granted by the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> and the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>" (Sess. VIII, 4 May, 1415; see <a href="../cathen/04736b.htm">Denzinger-Bannwart</a>, "Enchiridion", 622). In the <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Bull</a> "Exsurge Domine", 15 June, 1520, <a href="../cathen/09162a.htm">Leo X</a> condemned <a href="../cathen/09438b.htm">Luther's</a> assertions that "Indulgences are <a href="../cathen/12748a.htm">pious</a> <a href="../cathen/06249a.htm">frauds</a> of the <a href="../cathen/05769a.htm">faithful</a>"; and that "Indulgences do not avail those who really gain them for the remission of the penalty due to actual <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a> in the sight of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God's</a> <a href="../cathen/08571c.htm">justice</a>" (Enchiridion, 75S, 759), The <a href="../cathen/15030c.htm">Council of Trent</a> (Sess, XXV, 3-4, Dec., 1563) declared: "Since the power of granting indulgences has been given to the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> by Christ, and since the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> from the earliest times has made use of this Divinely given power, the holy synod teaches and ordains that the use of indulgences, as most salutary to <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> and as approved by the authority of the councils, shall be retained in the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>; and it further pronounces <a href="../cathen/01455e.htm">anathema</a> against those who either declare that indulgences are useless or deny that the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> has the power to grant them (Enchridion, 989). It is therefore of <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a> (<em>de fide</em>)</p> <div class="bulletlist"><ul><li>that the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> has received from Christ the power to grant indulgences, and</li><li>that the use of indulgences is salutary for the <a href="../cathen/05769a.htm">faithful</a>.</li> </ul></div> <h2>Basis of the doctrine</h2> <p>An <a href="../cathen/05543b.htm">essential</a> element in indulgences is the application to one <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">person</a> of the satisfaction performed by others. This transfer is based on three things: the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">Communion of Saints</a>, the principle of vicarious satisfaction, and the Treasury of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>.</p> <h3 id="A">The communion of saints</h3> <p>"We being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another" (<a href="../bible/rom012.htm#vrs5">Romans 12:5</a>). As each organ shares in the life of the whole body, so does each of the <a href="../cathen/05769a.htm">faithful</a> profit by the <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a> and good <a href="../cathen/01115a.htm">works</a> of all the rest—a benefit which accrues, in the first instance, to those who are in the state of grace, but also, though less fully, to the <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sinful</a> members.</p> <h3 id="B">The principle of vicarious satisfaction</h3> <p>Each good action of the just man possesses a double value: that of <a href="../cathen/10202b.htm">merit</a> and that of satisfaction, or expiation. <a href="../cathen/10202b.htm">Merit</a> is personal, and therefore it cannot be transferred; but satisfaction can be applied to others, as <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a> writes to the <a href="../cathen/04131b.htm">Colossians</a> (<a href="../bible/col001.htm#vrs24">1:24</a>) of his own works: "Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the <a href="../cathen/11527b.htm">sufferings of Christ</a>, in my flesh, for his body, which is the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>."</p> <h3 id="C">The treasury of the Church</h3> <p>Christ, as St. John declares in his First Epistle (<a href="../bible/1jo002.htm#vrs2">2:2</a>), "is the propitiation for our <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sins</a>: and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world." Since the satisfaction of Christ is <a href="../cathen/08004a.htm">infinite</a>, it constitutes an inexhaustible fund which is more than sufficient to cover the <a href="../cathen/04663b.htm">indebtedness</a> contracted by <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a>, Besides, there are the satisfactory works of the <a href="../cathen/15464b.htm">Blessed Virgin Mary</a> undiminished by any penalty due to <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a>, and the <a href="../cathen/15472a.htm">virtues</a>, <a href="../cathen/11618b.htm">penances</a>, and sufferings of the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a> vastly exceeding any temporal punishment which these servants of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> might have incurred. These are added to the treasury of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> as a secondary deposit, not independent of, but rather acquired through, the <a href="../cathen/10202b.htm">merits</a> of Christ. The development of this <a href="../cathen/05075b.htm">doctrine</a> in explicit <a href="../cathen/06137b.htm">form</a> was the work of the great <a href="../cathen/13548a.htm">Schoolmen</a>, notably <a href="../cathen/01298a.htm">Alexander of Hales</a> (Summa, IV, Q. xxiii, m. 3, n. 6), <a href="../cathen/01264a.htm">Albertus Magnus</a> (In IV Sent., dist. xx, art. 16), and <a href="../cathen/14663b.htm">St. Thomas</a> (In IV Sent., dist. xx, q. i, art. 3, sol. 1). As <a href="../cathen/14663b.htm">Aquinas</a> declares (Quodlib., II, q. vii, art. 16): "All the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a> intended that whatever they did or suffered for <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God's</a> sake should be profitable not only to themselves but to the whole <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>." And he further points out (Contra Gent., III, 158) that what one endures for another being a work of <a href="../cathen/09397a.htm">love</a>, is more acceptable as satisfaction in <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God's</a> sight than what one suffers on one's own account, since this is a matter of <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessity</a>. The existence of an <a href="../cathen/08004a.htm">infinite</a> treasury of <a href="../cathen/10202b.htm">merits</a> in the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> is <a href="../cathen/05089a.htm">dogmatically</a> set forth in the <a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Bull</a> Unigenitus", published by <a href="../cathen/04023a.htm">Clement VI</a>, 27 Jan., 1343, and later inserted in the "Corpus Juris" (Extrav. Com., lib. V, tit. ix. c. ii): "Upon the <a href="../cathen/01362a.htm">altar</a> of the Cross", says the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a>, "Christ shed of His blood not merely a drop, though this would have sufficed, by reason of the union with the <a href="../cathen/09328a.htm">Word</a>, to <a href="../cathen/12677d.htm">redeem</a> the whole <a href="../cathen/12620b.htm">human race</a>, but a copious torrent. . . thereby laying up an <a href="../cathen/08004a.htm">infinite</a> treasure for <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">mankind</a>. This treasure He neither wrapped up in a napkin nor hid in a field, but entrusted to <a href="../cathen/11744a.htm">Blessed Peter</a>, the key-bearer, and his <a href="../cathen/01641a.htm">successors</a>, that they might, for just and reasonable causes, distribute it to the <a href="../cathen/05769a.htm">faithful</a> in full or in partial remission of the temporal punishment due to <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a>." Hence the condemnation by <a href="../cathen/09162a.htm">Leo X</a> of <a href="../cathen/09438b.htm">Luther's</a> assertion that "the treasures of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> from which the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> grants indulgences are not the <a href="../cathen/10202b.htm">merits</a> of Christ and the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a>" (Enchiridion, 757). For the same reason, <a href="../cathen/12131a.htm">Pius VI</a> (1794) branded as <a href="../cathen/05781a.htm">false</a>, temerarious, and injurious to the <a href="../cathen/10202b.htm">merits</a> of Christ and the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a>, the <a href="../cathen/05525a.htm">error</a> of the <a href="../cathen/14388a.htm">synod</a> of Pistoia that the treasury of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> was an invention of <a href="../cathen/13548a.htm">scholastic</a> subtlety (Enchiridion, 1541).</p> <p>According to <a href="../cathen/05075b.htm">Catholic doctrine</a>, therefore, the source of indulgences is constituted by the <a href="../cathen/10202b.htm">merits</a> of Christ and the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a>. This treasury is left to the keeping, not of the <a href="../cathen/07762a.htm">individual</a> <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a>, but of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>. Consequently, to make it available for the <a href="../cathen/05769a.htm">faithful</a>, there is required an exercise of authority, which alone can determine in what way, on what terms, and to what extent, indulgences may be granted.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <h2>The power to grant indulgences</h2> <p>Once it is admitted that Christ left the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> the power to forgive <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sins</a> (see PENANCE), the power of granting indulgences is <a href="../cathen/09324a.htm">logically</a> inferred. Since the <a href="../cathen/13295a.htm">sacramental</a> forgiveness of <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a> extends both to the guilt and to the <a href="../cathen/07207a.htm">eternal punishment</a>, it plainly follows that the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> can also free the penitent from the lesser or temporal penalty. This becomes clearer, however, when we consider the amplitude of the power granted to Peter (<a href="../bible/mat016.htm#vrs19">Matthew 16:19</a>): "I will give to thee the <a href="../cathen/08631b.htm">keys</a> of the <a href="../cathen/08646a.htm">kingdom of heaven</a>. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in <a href="../cathen/07170a.htm">heaven</a>: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in <a href="../cathen/07170a.htm">heaven</a>." (Cf. <a href="../bible/mat018.htm#vrs18">Matthew 18:18</a>, where like power is conferred on all the <a href="../cathen/01626c.htm">Apostles</a>.) No limit is placed upon this power of loosing, "the <a href="../cathen/08631b.htm">power of the keys</a>", as it is called; it must, therefore, extend to any and all bonds contracted by <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a>, including the penalty no less than the guilt. When the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, therefore, by an indulgence, remits this penalty, her action, according to the declaration of <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ</a>, is ratified in <a href="../cathen/07170a.htm">heaven</a>. That this power, as the <a href="../cathen/15030c.htm">Council of Trent</a> affirms, was exercised from the earliest times, is shown by <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul's</a> words (<a href="../bible/2co002.htm#vrs5">2 Corinthians 2:5-10</a>) in which he deals with the case of the <a href="../cathen/07717a.htm">incest</a> man of <a href="../cathen/04363b.htm">Corinth</a>. The sinner had been excluded by <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul's</a> order from the company of the <a href="../cathen/05769a.htm">faithful</a>, but had truly repented. Hence the <a href="../cathen/01626c.htm">Apostle</a> judges that to such a one "this rebuke is sufficient that is given by many" and adds: "To whom you have pardoned any thing, I also. For what I have pardoned, if I have pardoned anything, for your sakes have I done it in the <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">person</a> of <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ</a>." <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a> had bound the guilty one in the fetters of <a href="../cathen/05678a.htm">excommunication</a>; he now releases the penitent from this punishment by an exercise of his authority  "in the <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">person</a> of <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ</a>." Here we have all the <a href="../cathen/06319a.htm">essentials</a> of an indulgence.</p> <p>These <a href="../cathen/06319a.htm">essentials</a> persist in the subsequent practice of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, though the <a href="../cathen/01096c.htm">accidental</a> features vary according as new <a href="../cathen/04211a.htm">conditions</a> arise. During the <a href="../cathen/11703a.htm">persecutions</a>, those <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> who had fallen away but desired to be restored to the communion of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> often obtained from the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> a memorial (<em>libellus pacis</em>) to be presented to the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>, that he, in consideration of the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs'</a> sufferings, might admit the penitents to <a href="../cathen/01061a.htm">absolution</a>, thereby releasing them from the punishment they had incurred. <a href="../cathen/14520c.htm">Tertullian</a> refers to this when he says (<a href="../fathers/0323.htm"><em>To the Martyrs</em> 1</a>): "Which peace some, not having it in the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, are accustomed to beg from the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> in <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">prison</a>; and therefore you should possess and cherish and preserve it in you that so you perchance may be able to grant it to others." Additional light is thrown on this subject by the vigorous attack which the same <a href="../cathen/14520c.htm">Tertullian</a> made after he had become a <a href="../cathen/10521a.htm">Montanist</a>. In the first part of his treatise <a href="../fathers/0407.htm">"De pudicitia"</a>, he attacks the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> for his alleged laxity in admitting <a href="../cathen/01163a.htm">adulterers</a> to penance and pardon, and flouts the peremptory edict of the "pontifex maximus episcopus episcoporum". At the close he complains that the same power of remission is now allowed also to the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a>, and urges that it should be enough for them to purge their own <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sins</a>  sufficiat martyri propria delicta purgasse". And, again, "How can the oil of thy little lamp suffice both for thee and me?" (c. xxii). It is sufficient to note that many of his arguments would apply with as much and as little force to the indulgences of later ages.</p> <p>During <a href="../cathen/04583b.htm">St. Cyprian's</a> time (d. 258), the <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">heretic</a> <a href="../cathen/11138a.htm">Novatian</a> claimed that none of the <a href="../cathen/09001b.htm">lapsi</a> should be readmitted to the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>; others, like <a href="../cathen/06027c.htm">Felicissimus</a>, held that such sinners should be received without any penance. Between these extremes, <a href="../cathen/04583b.htm">St. Cyprian</a> holds the middle course, insisting that such penitents should be reconciled on the fulfillment of the proper <a href="../cathen/04211a.htm">conditions</a>. On the one hand, he condemns the abuses connected with the <em>libellus</em>, in particular the custom of having it made out in blank by the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> and filled in by any one who needed it. "To this you should diligently attend", he writes to the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> (<a href="../fathers/050615.htm">Epistle 15</a>), "that you designate by name those to whom you wish peace to be given." On the other hand, he recognizes the value of these memorials: "Those who have received a <em>libellus</em> from the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> and with their help can, before the Lord, get relief in their <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sins</a>, let such, if they be ill and in danger, after confession and the imposition of your hands, depart unto the Lord with the peace promised them by the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a>" (<a href="../fathers/050613.htm">Epistle 13</a>). <a href="../cathen/04583b.htm">St. Cyprian</a>, therefore, <a href="../cathen/02408b.htm">believed</a> that the <a href="../cathen/10202b.htm">merits</a> of the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> could be applied to less worthy <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> by way of vicarious satisfaction, and that such satisfaction was acceptable in the eyes of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> as well as of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>.</p> <p>After the <a href="../cathen/11703a.htm">persecutions</a> had ceased, the <a href="../cathen/11618b.htm">penitential</a> <a href="../cathen/05030a.htm">discipline</a> remained in force, but greater leniency was shown in applying it. <a href="../cathen/04583b.htm">St. Cyprian</a> himself was reproached for mitigating the "Evangelical severity" on which he at first insisted; to this he replied (<a href="../fathers/050652.htm">Epistle 52</a>) that such strictness was needful during the <a href="../cathen/14726a.htm">time</a> of <a href="../cathen/11703a.htm">persecution</a> not only to stimulate the <a href="../cathen/05769a.htm">faithful</a> in the performance of penance, but also to quicken them for the <a href="../cathen/06585a.htm">glory</a> of <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrdom</a>; when, on the contrary, peace was secured to the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, relaxation was <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessary</a> in order to prevent sinners from falling into <a href="../cathen/04755a.htm">despair</a> and leading the life of <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagans</a>. In 380 <a href="../cathen/07016a.htm">St. Gregory of Nyssa</a> (Ep. ad Letojum) declares that the penance should be shortened in the case of those who showed sincerity and <a href="../cathen/15753a.htm">zeal</a> in performing it  "ut spatium canonibus praestitum posset contrahere (can. xviii; cf. can. ix, vi, viii, xi, xiii, xix). In the same spirit, <a href="../cathen/02330b.htm">St. Basil</a> (379), after prescribing more lenient treatment for various crimes, lays down the general principle that in all such cases it is not merely the duration of the penance that must be considered, but the way in which it is performed (Ep. ad Amphilochium, c. lxxxiv). Similar leniency is shown by various <a href="../cathen/12164c.htm">Councils</a>--<a href="../cathen/01465a.htm">Ancyra</a> (314), <a href="../cathen/08794a.htm">Laodicea</a> (320), <a href="../cathen/11044a.htm">Nicaea</a> (325), <a href="../cathen/01727b.htm">Arles</a> (330). It became quite common during this period to favor those who were ill, and especially those who were in danger of death (see <a href="../cathen/01434a.htm">Amort</a>, "Historia", 28 sq.). The ancient penitentials of <a href="../cathen/08098b.htm">Ireland</a> and <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>, though exacting in regard to <a href="../cathen/05030a.htm">discipline</a>, provide for relaxation in certain cases. St. Cummian, e.g., in his Penitential (seventh century), treating (cap. v) of the <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a> of <a href="../cathen/14564b.htm">robbery</a>, prescribed that he who has often committed <a href="../cathen/14564b.htm">theft</a> shall do penance for seven years or for such <a href="../cathen/14726a.htm">time</a> as the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> may judge fit, must always be reconciled with him whom he has wronged, and make <a href="../cathen/12788a.htm">restitution</a> proportioned to the injury, and thereby his penance shall be considerably shortened (multum breviabit poenitentiam ejus). But should he be unwilling or unable (to comply with these <a href="../cathen/04211a.htm">conditions</a>), he must do penance for the whole <a href="../cathen/14726a.htm">time</a> prescribed and in all its details. (Cf. Moran, "Essays on the Early Irish Church", Dublin, 1864, p. 259.)</p> <p>Another practice which shows quite clearly the difference between <a href="../cathen/13295a.htm">sacramental</a> <a href="../cathen/01061a.htm">absolution</a> and the granting of indulgences was the <a href="../cathen/14133a.htm">solemn</a> reconciliation of penitents. These, at the beginning of <a href="../cathen/09152a.htm">Lent</a>, had received from the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> <a href="../cathen/01061a.htm">absolution</a> from their <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sins</a> and the penance enjoined by the canons; on <a href="../cathen/10068a.htm">Maundy Thursday</a> they presented themselves before the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>, who laid hands on them, reconciled them with the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, and admitted them to communion. This reconciliation was reserved to the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>, as is expressly declared in the Penitential of <a href="../cathen/14571a.htm">Theodore</a>, <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a>; though in case of <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessity</a> the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> could delegate a <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a> for the purpose (lib. I, xiii). Since the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> did not hear their confession, the "absolution" which he pronounced must have been a release from some penalty they had incurred. The effect, moreover, of this reconciliation was to restore the penitent to the state of <a href="../cathen/02258b.htm">baptismal</a> innocence and consequently of freedom from all penalties, as appears from the so-called <a href="../cathen/01636a.htm">Apostolic Constitutions</a> (lib, II, c. xli) where it is said: "Eritque in loco baptismi impositio manuum"--i.e. the <a href="../cathen/07698a.htm">imposition of hands</a> has the same effect as <a href="../cathen/02258b.htm">baptism</a> (cf. <a href="../cathen/11430c.htm">Palmieri</a>, "De Poenitentia", Rome, 1879, 459 sq.).</p> <p>In a later period (eighth century to twelfth) it became customary to permit the substitution of some lighter penance for that which the canons prescribed. Thus the Penitential of Egbert, <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/15733b.htm">York</a>, declares (XIII, 11): "For him who can comply with what the <a href="../cathen/11618b.htm">penitential</a> prescribes, well and good; for him who cannot, we give counsel of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God's</a> mercy. Instead of one day on bread and water let him sing fifty <a href="../cathen/12533a.htm">psalms</a> on his knees or seventy <a href="../cathen/12533a.htm">psalms</a> without <a href="../cathen/06423a.htm">genuflecting</a> .... But if he does not <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">know</a> the <a href="../cathen/12533a.htm">psalms</a> and cannot <a href="../cathen/05789c.htm">fast</a>, let him, instead of one year on bread and water, give twenty-six <em>solidi</em> in <a href="../cathen/01328f.htm">alms</a>, <a href="../cathen/05789c.htm">fast</a> till <a href="../cathen/11097a.htm">None</a> on one day of each week and till <a href="../cathen/15381a.htm">Vespers</a> on another, and in the three <a href="../cathen/09152a.htm">Lents</a> bestow in <a href="../cathen/01328f.htm">alms</a> half of what he receives." The practice of substituting the recitation of <a href="../cathen/12533a.htm">psalms</a> or the giving of <a href="../cathen/01328f.htm">alms</a> for a portion of the <a href="../cathen/05789c.htm">fast</a> is also sanctioned in the <a href="../cathen/08098b.htm">Irish</a> <a href="../cathen/14388a.htm">Synod</a> of 807, which says (c. xxiv) that the <a href="../cathen/05789c.htm">fast</a> of the second day of the week may be "redeemed" by singing one psalter or by giving one <em>denarius</em> to a <a href="../cathen/12327a.htm">poor</a> <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">person</a>. Here we have the beginning of the so-called "redemptions" which soon passed into general usage. Among other forms of commutation were <a href="../cathen/12085a.htm">pilgrimages</a> to well-known shrines such as that at <a href="../cathen/13329a.htm">St. Albans</a> in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> or at <a href="../cathen/04187b.htm">Compostela</a> in <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a>. But the most important place of <a href="../cathen/12085a.htm">pilgrimage</a> was <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>. According to <a href="../cathen/02384a.htm">Bede</a> (674-735) the "visitatio liminum", or visit to the <a href="../cathen/14773b.htm">tomb</a> of the <a href="../cathen/01626c.htm">Apostles</a>, was even then regarded as a good <a href="../cathen/01115a.htm">work</a> of great efficacy (Hist. Eccl., IV, 23). At first the <a href="../cathen/12085a.htm">pilgrims</a> came simply to <a href="../cathen/05188b.htm">venerate</a> the <a href="../cathen/12734a.htm">relics</a> of the <a href="../cathen/01626c.htm">Apostles</a> and <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a>; but in course of <a href="../cathen/14726a.htm">time</a> their chief purpose was to gain the indulgences granted by the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> and attached especially to the Stations. <a href="../cathen/08344a.htm">Jerusalem</a>, too, had long been the goal of these <a href="../cathen/12748a.htm">pious</a> journeys, and the reports which the <a href="../cathen/12085a.htm">pilgrims</a> gave of their treatment by the <a href="../cathen/08002b.htm">infidels</a> finally brought about the <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm">Crusades</a>. At the Council of <a href="../cathen/04053a.htm">Clermont</a> (1095) the <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm#section1">First Crusade</a> was organized, and it was <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decreed</a> (can. ii): "Whoever, out of pure devotion and not for the purpose of gaining <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honor</a> or money, shall go to Jerusalem to liberate the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church of God</a>, let that journey be counted in lieu of all penance". Similar indulgences were granted throughout the five centuries following (Amort, op. cit., 46 sq.), the object being to encourage these expeditions which involved so much hardship and yet were of such great importance for <a href="../cathen/03699b.htm">Christendom</a> and civilization. The spirit in which these grants were made is expressed by <a href="../cathen/02498d.htm">St. Bernard</a>, the preacher of the <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm#section2">Second Crusade</a> (1146): "Receive the sign of the Cross, and thou shalt likewise obtain the indulgence of all thou hast <a href="../cathen/11618c.htm">confessed</a> with a <a href="../cathen/04337a.htm">contrite</a> heart (ep. cccxxii; al., ccclxii).</p> <p>Similar concessions were frequently made on occasions, such as the <a href="../cathen/04673a.htm">dedication</a> of churches, e.g., that of the old Temple Church in <a href="../cathen/09341a.htm">London</a>, which was <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrated</a> in <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honor</a> of the <a href="../cathen/15464b.htm">Blessed Virgin Mary</a>, 10 February, 1185, by the Lord Heraclius, who to those yearly visiting it indulged sixty days of the penance enjoined them  as the <a href="../cathen/08042a.htm">inscription</a> over the main entrance attests. The <a href="../cathen/02364b.htm">canonization</a> of <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a> was often marked by the granting of an indulgence, e.g. in <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honor</a> of <a href="../cathen/09091b.htm">St. Laurence O'Toole</a> by <a href="../cathen/07457a.htm">Honorius III</a> (1226), in <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honor</a> of <a href="../cathen/05294a.htm">St. Edmund of Canterbury</a> by <a href="../cathen/08017a.htm">Innocent IV</a> (1248), and in <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honor</a> of <a href="../cathen/14694c.htm">St. Thomas of Hereford</a> by <a href="../cathen/08431a.htm">John XXII</a> (1320). A famous indulgence is that of the <a href="../cathen/12286a.htm">Portiuncula</a>, obtained by <a href="../cathen/06208a.htm">St. Francis</a> in 1221 from <a href="../cathen/07457a.htm">Honorius III</a>. But the most important largess during this period was the plenary indulgence granted in 1300 by <a href="../cathen/02662a.htm">Boniface VIII</a> to those who, being truly <a href="../cathen/04337a.htm">contrite</a> and having <a href="../cathen/11618c.htm">confessed</a> their <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sins</a>, should visit the <a href="../cathen/02325a.htm">basilicas</a> of Sts. <a href="../cathen/13369b.htm">Peter</a> and <a href="../cathen/13369a.htm">Paul</a> (see JUBILEE).</p> <p>Among the <a href="../cathen/03592a.htm">works of charity</a> which were furthered by indulgences, the <a href="../cathen/07480a.htm">hospital</a> held a prominent place. Lea in his "History of Confession and Indulgences" (III, 189) mentions only the <a href="../cathen/07480a.htm">hospital</a> of Santo Spirito in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, while another <a href="../cathen/12495a.htm">Protestant</a> writer, Uhlhorn (Gesch. d. Christliche Liebesthatigkeit, Stuttgart, 1884, II, 244) states that "one cannot go through the <a href="../cathen/01696a.htm">archives</a> of any <a href="../cathen/07480a.htm">hospital</a> without finding numerous letters of indulgence". The one at Halberstadt in 1284 had no less than fourteen such grants, each giving an indulgence of forty days. The <a href="../cathen/07480a.htm">hospitals</a> at <a href="../cathen/09406b.htm">Lucerne</a>, Rothenberg, <a href="../cathen/13205b.htm">Rostock</a>, and <a href="../cathen/02073b.htm">Augsburg</a> enjoyed similar <a href="../cathen/12436b.htm">privileges</a>.</p> <h2>Abuses</h2> <p>It may seem strange that the <a href="../cathen/05075b.htm">doctrine</a> of <a href="../cathen/07783a.htm">indulgences</a> should have <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proved</a> such a stumbling-block, and excited so much prejudice and opposition. But the explanation of this may be found in the abuses which unhappily have been associated with what is in itself a salutary practice. In this respect of course indulgences are not exceptional: no institution, however <a href="../cathen/07386a.htm">holy</a>, has entirely escaped abuse through the <a href="../cathen/07149b.htm">malice</a> or unworthiness of <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">man</a>. Even the Eucharist, as <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a> declares, means an eating and drinking of judgment to the recipient who discerns not the body of the Lord. (<a href="../bible/1co011.htm#vrs27">1 Corinthians 11:27-29</a>). And, as <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God's</a> forbearance is constantly abused by those who relapse into <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a>, it is not surprising that the offer of pardon in the form of an indulgence should have led to <a href="../cathen/05649a.htm">evil</a> practices. These again have been in a special way the object of attack because, doubtless, of their connection with <a href="../cathen/09438b.htm">Luther's</a> revolt (<em>see</em> <a href="../cathen/09438b.htm">LUTHER</a>). On the other hand, it should not be forgotten that the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, while holding fast to the principle and intrinsic value of indulgences, has repeatedly condemned their misuse: in fact, it is often from the severity of her condemnation that we learn how grave the abuses were.</p> <p>Even in the age of the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a>, as stated above there were practices which <a href="../cathen/04583b.htm">St. Cyprian</a> was <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obliged</a> to reprehend, yet he did not forbid the <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrs</a> to give the <em>libelli.</em> In later times abuses were met by repressive measures on the part of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>. Thus the <a href="../cathen/04068a.htm">Council of Clovesho</a> in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> (747) condemns those who imagine that they might atone for their crimes by substituting, in place of their own, the <a href="../cathen/10578b.htm">austerities</a> of mercenary penitents. Against the excessive indulgences granted by some <a href="../cathen/12386b.htm">prelates</a>, the <a href="../cathen/09018a.htm">Fourth Council of the Lateran</a> (1215) <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decreed</a> that at the <a href="../cathen/04673a.htm">dedication</a> of a church the indulgence should not be for more than year, and, for the anniversary of the <a href="../cathen/04673a.htm">dedication</a> or any other case, it should not exceed forty days, this being the limit observed by the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> himself on such occasions. The same restriction was enacted by the Council of <a href="../cathen/12662b.htm">Ravenna</a> in 1317. In answer to the complaint of the <a href="../cathen/12354c.htm">Dominicans</a> and <a href="../cathen/06217a.htm">Franciscans</a>, that certain <a href="../cathen/12386b.htm">prelates</a> had put their own construction on the indulgences granted to these Orders, <a href="../cathen/04019a.htm">Clement IV</a> in 1268 forbade any such interpretation, declaring that, when it was needed, it would be given by the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a>. In 1330 the brothers of the <a href="../cathen/07480a.htm">hospital</a> of Haut-Pas falsely asserted that the grants made in their favor were more extensive than what the documents allowed: <a href="../cathen/08431a.htm">John XXII</a> had all these brothers in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> seized and <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">imprisoned</a>. <a href="../cathen/02670a.htm">Boniface IX</a>, writing to the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/06046a.htm">Ferrara</a> in 1392, condemns the practice of certain religious who falsely claimed that they were authorized by the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> to forgive all sorts of <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sins</a>, and exacted money from the simple-minded among the <a href="../cathen/05769a.htm">faithful</a> by promising them perpetual <a href="../cathen/07131b.htm">happiness</a> in this world and eternal glory in the next. When Henry, <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/03299b.htm">Canterbury</a>, attempted in 1420 to give a plenary indulgence in the form of the <a href="../cathen/08531c.htm">Roman Jubilee</a>, he was severely reprimanded by <a href="../cathen/09725a.htm">Martin V</a>, who characterized his action as "unheard-of <a href="../cathen/12403a.htm">presumption</a> and <a href="../cathen/13321a.htm">sacrilegious</a> audacity". In 1450 <a href="../cathen/11060b.htm">Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa</a>, <a href="../cathen/09118a.htm">Apostolic Legate</a> to <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a>, found some preachers asserting that indulgences released from the guilt of <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a> as well as from the punishment. This <a href="../cathen/05525a.htm">error</a>, due to a misunderstanding of the words "a culpa et a poena", the <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinal</a> condemned at the Council of <a href="../cathen/09524b.htm">Magdeburg</a>. Finally, <a href="../cathen/14032b.htm">Sixtus IV</a> in 1478, lest the <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of gaining indulgences should prove an incentive to <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a>, reserved for the judgment of the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a> a large number of cases in which <a href="../cathen/05749a.htm">faculties</a> had formerly been granted to confessors (Extrav. Com., tit. de poen. et remiss.).</p> <h3>Traffic in indulgences</h3> <p>These measures show plainly that the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> long before the <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">Reformation</a>, not only recognized the existence of abuses, but also used her authority to correct them.</p> <p>In spite of all this, disorders continued and furnished the pretext for attacks directed against the <a href="../cathen/05075b.htm">doctrine</a> itself, no less than against the practice of indulgences. Here, as in so many other matters, the love of money was the chief root of the <a href="../cathen/05649a.htm">evil</a>: indulgences were employed by mercenary <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">ecclesiastics</a> as a means of pecuniary gain. Leaving the details concerning this traffic to a subsequent article (see <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">REFORMATION</a>), it may suffice for the present to note that the <a href="../cathen/05075b.htm">doctrine</a> itself has no natural or <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessary</a> connection with pecuniary profit, as is evident from the fact that the abundant indulgences of the present day are free from this <a href="../cathen/05649a.htm">evil</a> association: the only <a href="../cathen/04211a.htm">conditions</a> required are the saying of certain <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a> or the performance of some good <a href="../cathen/01115a.htm">work</a> or some practice of <a href="../cathen/12748a.htm">piety</a>. Again, it is easy to see how abuses crept in. Among the good <a href="../cathen/01115a.htm">works</a> which might be encouraged by being made the <a href="../cathen/04211a.htm">condition</a> of an indulgence, <a href="../cathen/01328f.htm">alms</a> giving would naturally hold a conspicuous place, while <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">men</a> would be induced by the same means to contribute to some <a href="../cathen/12748a.htm">pious</a> cause such as the building of churches, the <a href="../cathen/05421b.htm">endowment</a> of <a href="../cathen/07480a.htm">hospitals</a>, or the organization of a <a href="../cathen/04543c.htm">crusade</a>. It is well to observe that in these purposes there is nothing essentially <a href="../cathen/05649a.htm">evil</a>. To give money to <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> or to the <a href="../cathen/12327a.htm">poor</a> is a praiseworthy <a href="../cathen/01115a.htm">act</a>, and, when it is done from right motives, it will surely not go unrewarded. Looked at in this light, it might well seem a suitable <a href="../cathen/04211a.htm">condition</a> for gaining the spiritual benefit of an indulgence. Yet, however innocent in itself, this practice was fraught with grave danger, and soon became a fruitful source of <a href="../cathen/05649a.htm">evil</a>. On the one hand there was the danger that the payment might be regarded as the price of the indulgence, and that those who sought to gain it might lose sight of the more important <a href="../cathen/04211a.htm">conditions</a>. On the other hand, those who granted indulgences might be <a href="../cathen/14504a.htm">tempted</a> to make them a means of raising money: and, even where the rulers of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> were free from blame in this matter, there was room for corruption in their officials and agents, or among the popular preachers of indulgences. This class has happily disappeared, but the type has been preserved in <a href="../cathen/03642b.htm">Chaucer's</a> "Pardoner", with his bogus <a href="../cathen/12734a.htm">relics</a> and indulgences.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>While it cannot be denied that these abuses were widespread, it should also be noted that, even when corruption was at its worst, these spiritual grants were being properly used by sincere <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a>, who sought them in the right spirit, and by <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a> and preachers, who took care to insist on the need of <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> repentance. It is therefore not difficult to understand why the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, instead of abolishing the practice of indulgences, aimed rather at strengthening it by eliminating the <a href="../cathen/05649a.htm">evil</a> elements. The <a href="../cathen/15030c.htm">Council of Trent</a> in its <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decree</a> "On Indulgences" (Sess. XXV) declares: "In granting indulgences the Council desires that moderation be observed in accordance with the ancient approved <a href="../cathen/04576a.htm">custom</a> of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, lest through excessive ease <a href="../cathen/05030a.htm">ecclesiastical discipline</a> be weakened; and further, seeking to correct the abuses that have crept in . . . it <a href="../cathen/04670a.htm">decrees</a> that all criminal gain therewith connected shall be entirely done away with as a source of grievous abuse among the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> people; and as to other disorders arising from <a href="../cathen/14339a.htm">superstition</a>, <a href="../cathen/07648a.htm">ignorance</a>, irreverence, or any <a href="../cathen/03459a.htm">cause</a> whatsoever--since these, on account of the widespread corruption, cannot be removed by special prohibitions—the Council lays upon each <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> the <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a> of finding out such abuses as exist in his own <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocese</a>, of bringing them before the next <a href="../cathen/14388a.htm">provincial synod</a>, and of reporting them, with the assent of the other <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, to the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">Roman Pontiff</a>, by whose authority and <a href="../cathen/12517b.htm">prudence</a> measures will be taken for the welfare of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> at large, so that the benefit of indulgences may be bestowed on all the <a href="../cathen/05769a.htm">faithful</a> by means at once <a href="../cathen/12748a.htm">pious</a>, <a href="../cathen/07386a.htm">holy</a>, and free from corruption." After deploring the fact that, in spite of the remedies prescribed by earlier councils, the traders (<em>quaestores</em>) in indulgences continued their nefarious practice to the great <a href="../cathen/13506d.htm">scandal</a> of the <a href="../cathen/05769a.htm">faithful</a>, the council ordained that the name and method of these <em>quaestores</em> should be entirely abolished, and that indulgences and other spiritual favors of which the <a href="../cathen/05769a.htm">faithful</a> ought not to be deprived should be published by the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> and bestowed gratuitously, so that all might at length understand that these <a href="../cathen/07170a.htm">heavenly</a> treasures were dispensed for the sake of <a href="../cathen/12748a.htm">piety</a> and not of lucre (Sess. XXI, c. ix). In 1567 <a href="../cathen/12130a.htm">St. Pius V</a> canceled all grants of indulgences involving any fees or other financial transactions.</p> <h3>Apocryphal indulgences</h3> <p>One of the worst abuses was that of inventing or falsifying grants of indulgence. Previous to the <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">Reformation</a>, such practices abounded and called out severe pronouncements by <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> authority, especially by the <a href="../cathen/09018a.htm">Fourth Council of the Lateran</a> (1215) and that of <a href="../cathen/15423a.htm">Vienne</a> (1311). After the <a href="../cathen/15030c.htm">Council of Trent</a> the most important measure taken to prevent such <a href="../cathen/06249a.htm">frauds</a> was the establishment of the Congregation of Indulgences. A special commission of <a href="../cathen/03333b.htm">cardinals</a> served under <a href="../cathen/04027a.htm">Clement VIII</a> and <a href="../cathen/11581b.htm">Paul V</a>, regulating all matters pertaining to indulgences. The Congregation of Indulgences was definitively established by <a href="../cathen/04028a.htm">Clement IX</a> in 1669 and reorganized by <a href="../cathen/04029a.htm">Clement XI</a> in 1710. It has rendered efficient service by deciding various questions relative to the granting of indulgences and by its publications. The <a href="../cathen/12620a.htm">"Raccolta"</a> was first issued by one of its <a href="../cathen/04323a.htm">consultors</a>, Telesforo Galli, in 1807; the last three editions 1877, 1886, and 1898 were published by the Congregation. The other official publication is the "Decreta authentica", containing the decisions of the <a href="../cathen/13136a.htm">Congregation</a> from 1668 to 1882. This was published in 1883 by order of <a href="../cathen/09169a.htm">Leo XIII</a>. See also "Rescripta authentica" by Joseph Schneider (Ratisbon, 1885). By a <a href="../cathen/10602a.htm">Motu Proprio</a> of <a href="../cathen/12137a.htm">Pius X</a>, dated 28 January, 1904, the Congregation of Indulgences was united to the Congregation of Rites, without any diminution, however, of its prerogatives.</p> <h2>Salutary effects of indulgences</h2> <p>Lea (History, etc., III, 446) somewhat reluctantly acknowledges that "with the decline in the financial possibilities of the system, indulgences have greatly multiplied as an incentive to spiritual exercises, and they can thus be so easily obtained that there is no danger of the recurrence of the old abuses, even if the finer sense of fitness, characteristic of modern times, on the part of both <a href="../cathen/12386b.htm">prelates</a> and people, did not deter the attempt." The full significance, however, of this "multiplication" lies in the fact that the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, by rooting out abuses, has shown the rigor of her spiritual life. She has maintained the practice of indulgences, because, when these are used in accordance with what she prescribes, they strengthen the spiritual life by inducing the <a href="../cathen/05769a.htm">faithful</a> to approach the <a href="../cathen/13295a.htm">sacraments</a> and to purify their <a href="../cathen/04268a.htm">consciences</a> of <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a>. And further, they encourage the performance, in a truly religious spirit, of works that redound, not alone to the welfare of the <a href="../cathen/07762a.htm">individual</a>, but also to <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God's</a> <a href="../cathen/06585a.htm">glory</a> and to the service of the neighbor.</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes">BELLARMINE, <em>De indulgentiis</em> (Cologne, 1600); PASSERINI, <em>De indulgentiis</em> (Rome, 1672); AMORT, <em>De origine......indulgentiarum</em> (Venice, 1738); BOUVIER, <em>Traité dogmatique et pratique des indulgences</em> (Paris, 1855): SCHOOFS, <em>Die Lehre vom kirchl. Ablass</em> (Munster, 1857); GRONE, <em>Der Ablass, seine Gesch. u. Bedeutung</em> (Ratisbon, 1863).</p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Kent, W.</span> <span id="apayear">(1910).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Indulgences.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07783a.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Kent, William.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Indulgences."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 7.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1910.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07783a.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Charles Sweeney, S.J.</span> <span id="dedication"></span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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