Indulgences

A Roman Catholic indulgence, dated Dec. 19, 1521. The use of the printing press made possible the mass production of form documents offering indulgences.

An Indulgence, in Roman Catholic theology, is the full or partial remission of punishment for sins. The indulgence is granted by the Church after the sinner has confessed and received absolution. Indulgences occur when the Church applies existing merit from the Church’s spiritual treasury to an individual, who may be at that point be assigned to purgatory. The sinner gains the indulgence by participating in certain activities, most often the recitation of prayers. Indulgences may also be granted on behalf of a deceased loved one. and even to protect against sins that one might commit in the future.

Prior to the modern period, indulgences could be obtained by offering a certain amount of money as alms to the Church, and could also be used to gain forgiveness for sins not yet committed. These aspects of the tradition of indulgences were a major point of contention when Martin Luther initiated the Protestant Reformation, in reaction to the aggressive marketing of indulgences in Germany related to the rebuilding of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. Protestant and Eastern Orthodox traditions to not involve the tradition of indulgences.

Theology of Indulgences

In Roman Catholic theology, indulgences are granted for personal sins—specific sins committed by a person—as opposed to the inherited Original Sin or the evil that results from personal sin. Such sins are either mortal or venial ("light").

Punishments for sin can be temporal or eternal. Temporal punishments are temporary punishments—those that affect us in this life or in Purgatory. The more temporal punishments one incurs, the more punishment/suffering one must endure on earth or in Purgatory. Eternal punishment, on the other hand, is everlasting. Even though one may be forgiven of a mortal sin (through the sacrament of Reconciliation)—and relieved of any eternal punishment (hell)—temporal punishments may still remain.

An Indulgence is granted for the remission of the remaining temporal punishments due to sins that have already been forgiven. Plenary (full) indulgences are gained after the individual completes certain required tasks, which always includes the reception of the sacrament of Penance. Because the sacrament of Reconciliation removes the culpable element of sin, the penitent is restored to the state of grace. However temporal punishments may still remain. In other words, although God has mercy upon sinners who repent their sins, His justice still requires that the sinner be punished for the wrongdoing.

In Catholic theology when individuals who have been forgiven of sins die without having served any remain temporal punishments for their sins they are not yet qualified to enter heaven. Therefore, these individuals “enter” purgatory, and the punishment they owe is "purged."

Indulgences occur when the Church, acting by virtue of its authority, applies existing merit from the Church’s treasury to an individual. The individual gains the indulgence by participating in certain activities, most often the recitation of prayers.

Pius V declared that indulgences could no longer be related to fees or donations.

The Church changed its attitude toward some issues regarding indulgences of indulges after the Protestant Reformation. Following the Council of Trent, when Pope Pius V in 1567 issued a decreed declaring that it is forbidden to attach the receipt of an indulgence to any financial act, including the giving of alms. In addition, the only punishment remitted by an indulgence is existing punishment, that is, for sins already committed. Indulgences thus could no longer be issued that would remit punishment for future sins.

Indulgences can be either plenary or partial. Plenary indulgences remit all of the existing temporal punishment due for the individual’s sins. Partial indulgences remit only a part of the existing punishment.

Before the Second Vatican Council, partial indulgences were stated as a term of days, weeks, months, or years. This has resulted in Catholics and non-Catholics alike believing that indulgences remit a specific period of time equal to the length of the soul's stay in purgatory.

An individual may still perform the actions necessary to gain an indulgence with the intention of gaining the indulgence for a specific individual in purgatory. In doing so, the individual both gains the indulgence for the soul in purgatory, and performs a spiritual act of mercy.

To gain an indulgence, an individual must be “in communion” with the Church, and have the intention of performing the work for which the indulgence is granted. To be “in communion,” the individual must be a baptized Catholic without any un-reconciled mortal sins and must not be dissenting from the Church’s teaching.

Generally, a plenary indulgence requires the following conditions in order to be valid:

• reconciliation, which is required for all indulgences
• receiving the Eucharist
• All attachment to sin must be absent.
• prayer for the intentions of the pope.

Controversy

The doctrine of indulgences has historically been a controversial teaching in Western Christianity soteriology. The abuse of this doctrine, in part, led to the start of the Protestant Reformation.

The ability to grant full or partial pardons from the punishment of sins has been used by members of the Western Church's hierarchy throughout history. These indulgences were related to the removal of the temporal punishment of forgiven sinners. In 1294, Pope Celestine V issued a bull of pardon in L'Aquila, Italy, offering plenary indulgence to everybody sincerely contrite and confessed entering the basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio. In 1476, Pope Sixtus IV decreed that a person still living could obtain an indulgence for someone in purgatory. In 1517, Pope Leo X offered indulgences for those who gave alms to rebuild St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Martin Luther

The aggressive marketing practices of Johann Tetzel in promoting this cause provoked Martin Luther to write his 95 Theses, protesting what he saw as the purchase and crass sale of salvation.

In thesis 28, Luther objected to a saying attributed to Tetzel:

“

As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.

”

In thesis 82, he questioned the spiritual value of indulgences.

“

Why does not the pope empty purgatory, for the sake of holy love and of the dire need of the souls that are there, if he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake of miserable money with which to build a Church? The former reasons would be most just; the latter is most trivial.

”

The 95 Theses not only denounced such transactions as worldly but denied the pope's right to grant pardons on God's behalf in the first place. The only thing that indulgences-for-money guaranteed, Luther said, was an increase in profit and greed, because the pardon of the Church was in God's power alone.

While Luther did not deny the pope’s right to grant pardons for penance imposed by the Church, he made it clear that preachers who claimed indulgences absolved buyers from all punishments were in error. From this controversy the Protestant Reformation was launched.

Luther's critique of indulgences had a tremendous impact on his world. The 95 Theses gained enormous popularity over a very short period of time. Luther's ideas spoke to people from many different walks of life, transcending class, status, and wealth—at a time when such things were integral to social order.

Leo X demanded that Luther recant 41 purported errors, some from the 95 Theses and others from other writings and sayings Luther, which Luther famously refused to do before the Diet of Worms in 1521, thus symbolically initiating the ]]Protestant Reformation]].

Other traditions

An eighteenth-century certificate granted by the Patriarch of Jerusalem and reportedly sold by Greek monks in Wallachia

Orthodox Church

Because the underlying doctrine of salvation differs from the Catholic model, indulgences do not generally exist in Eastern Orthodoxy. However, some Eastern churches did have similar practice in the form of absolution certificates that were occasionally issued to individuals. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, for example, Dositheos Notaras (1641-1707), Patriarch of Jerusalem, stated that, "This practice was confirmed by ancient Tradition that was known to all, that the Most Holy Patriarchs would grant certificates for the remission of sins to the faithful people." Never as widespread a tradition as in the Catholic Church, absolution certificates ceased entirely in the eastern churches by the beginning of the twentieth century.

The practice of the clergy accepting money for the expiation of the sins of the dead appears in the deuterocanonical book 2 Maccabees (ca. 100 B.C.E.). This practice is seen nowhere else in the Roman Catholic Bible. The author praises the practice of donating money to the temple as a way of improving the standing of dead sinners on Judgment Day. These "indulgences" are associated with the Pharisees.

Protestantism

Protestant denominations today frequently cite indulgences as a prime Roman Catholic error. Generally, Protestants reject the distinction between temporal and eternal debt for sins and argue that Christ paid all debts in full by his sacrifice. To receive God's grace for the remission of sins is strictly a matter of faith in Jesus as the resurrected Lord and has nothing to do with indulgences. Any need of the sinner to merit remission of divinely imposed penalties, argued Luther, obscured the glory and merit of Christ and overthrew the Gospel of unmerited salvation for Christ's sake.

Luther in particular criticized the Catholic understanding of the "Office of the Keys," which the Roman Church believes were given by Christ to Saint Peter as the first pope. In this view the Office of the Keys is a legislative power given to the pope authorizing him to create conditions and means for salvation. Luther's understanding was that the Keys were to bestowed on the whole Church, administered publicly by all the clergy equally, and consisting in the command of Christ to forgive the sins of the penitent and retain the sins of the impenitent. Under the right use of the Keys as commanded by God, no bishop or pope could possibly have the authority to set up additional means of obtaining forgiveness, whether canonical satisfactions or indulgences. While Protestants continue to express a sense of a completed atonement similar to Luther's, the doctrine of the Keys is found almost exclusively among Lutherans today.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Corvin, Otto von. Scandals in the Roman Ctaholic Church, Merkur Publishing, 2003. ISBN 978-1885928160
• Lea, Henry Charles. A History of Auricular Confession and Indulgences in the Latin Church, Kessenger Publishing, 2004. ISBN 978-1417922321
• Paulus, Nikolaus. Indulgences As a Social Factor in the Middle Ages, University Press of the Pacific, 2001. ISBN 978-0898753332
• The Handbook of Indulgences, Catholic Book Publishing, 1992. ISBN 978-0899425856
• U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Apostolic Penetentiary of the Vatican. Manual of Indulgences, USCCB Publishing, 2006. ISBN 978-1574554748

External links

Retrieved October 24, 2007.

• Pope John Paul II's General Audience on Indulgences - 29 September 1999. www.vatican.va.
• The Apostolic Penitentiary publication on 'The Gift of the Indulgence'.
  • "Indulgences". www.vatican.va.
• "A Primer on Indulgences" by James Akin. www.catholic.com.

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