Indulgences — An Indulgence Defined

Section 2: The Remission of Temporal Punishments Outside the Sacrament of Penance, or the Catholic Doctrine of Indulgences

Though indulgences may be treated separately, we prefer to deal with them in connection with the Sacrament of Penance; first, because confession is the usual means of gaining a plenary indulgence, and secondly, because indulgences, being remissions of the temporal punishments due to sin, form the natural complement of sacramental satisfaction.

We will divide this section into three Articles, showing: (1) what an indulgence is; (2) that the Church has the power to grant indulgences; and (3) that there are indulgences for the dead as well as the living.

Article 1: An Indulgence Defined

1. Definition. An indulgence, in the theological sense, is a remission of temporal punishments due to sin.

a) A complete technical definition may be drawn from the writings of approved theologians, and, especially, from certain official documents in which the teaching of the Church on the subject of indulgences is expressly set forth. These documents are principally six, to wit: (1) the Constitution “Unigenitus” of Pope Clement VI, A.D. 1349; (2) articles 26–28 of the instructions issued in 1418 by Pope Martin V for the examination of those who were suspected of holding Wicliffite and Hussite errors; (3) the condemnation, by Pope Leo X, of articles 17–22 of Martin Luther, A.D. 1520; (4) the dogmatic definition contained in Session XXV of the Tridentine Council; (5) the censures pronounced by Pope Pius V (1567) against a certain proposition (number 60 in the collection of Propositiones damnatae) taught by Baius; and (6) the condemnation, by Pope Pius VI, in 1794, of certain theses¹ drawn up by the Jansenist Council of Pistoia.

α) In the primitive Church an indulgence was called relaxatio, donatio, or condonatio.² The term indulgentia, which originated in the Middle Ages, is based upon Holy Scripture³ and the Roman Law.

An indulgence has two essential characteristics or notes: (1) it is a remission of temporal punishments; (2) it is granted outside the Sacrament of Penance.

An indulgence, therefore, is not identical with the sacramental penance enjoined by the confessor, which blots out punishments ex opere operato.⁴ It is a remission of temporal punishments granted by the Church outside the Sacrament, by an exercise of the power of the keys entrusted to her by her Divine Founder. It follows that indulgences can be granted only by those who possess the power of the keys, i.e., the pope and the bishops. It follows further that, as the power of the keys is not limited to this world,⁵ an indulgence is more than a mere remission of canonical works of penance; it is a valid absolution, before God, from the punishments of sin which would otherwise have to be redeemed either by voluntary acts of penance here on earth or by compulsory suffering in purgatory. In other words, an indulgence is valid not only in the external forum of the Church, but likewise in foro divino, that is, before God.

This simple explanation incidentally removes the mistaken notion that indulgences neutralize the penal effects of sin (concupiscence, disease, death) or that they can free a person from secular obligations towards others.

β) Where does the Church get the merits by which she blots out the punishments of sin? She draws them from a thesaurus of which our Lord Jesus Christ has constituted her the dispenser, and out of which she grants to each individual beneficiary as much as is needed to satisfy the justice of God.

This thesaurus consists of the superabundant merits of Jesus Christ and His saints. In dispensing these merits to the faithful whenever there is a iusta causa, the Church acts in accordance with the justice as well as the mercy of God. He who gains an indulgence does not approach God empty-handed, but enriched with the merits of Christ and the saints, and thereby satisfies divine justice. God, on the other hand, in freely accepting these vicarious merits instead of the personal satisfaction due Him from the sinner, manifests His grace and mercy, i.e., His indulgence in a subjective sense.

The thesaurus Ecclesiae just mentioned is logically inseparable from indulgences for two reasons: (1) because an indulgence must have a real basis, and (2) because there are other forms of satisfaction, outside the Sacrament of Penance, which are not drawn from that thesaurus, e.g., voluntary acts of penance, the Sacraments, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

The remission of punishments called an indulgence is not an unconditional amnesty, but postulates in the recipient a moral disposition or worthiness, as well as the performance of certain prescribed acts. For this reason the moral worthiness of the recipient is not endangered by an indulgence, but rather partly taken for granted and partly effected. Charity or the love of God is the font and well-spring as well as the gauge and a necessary condition of the whole system of indulgences.

γ) We are now in a position to state briefly the essential characteristics of an indulgence. An indulgence is a remission of the temporal punishments which a penitent, whose sins are forgiven, has yet to undergo, either here or in purgatory; this remission is granted by the Church, through the power of the keys, from the treasury of the superabundant merits of Christ and His saints.

b) The objections made against indulgences spring partly from ignorance and partly from malice.

Chief among them is the charge that an indulgence is a forgiveness of past, or a permission to commit future, sins. The Church expressly teaches that indulgences presuppose the forgiveness of sins, either through the Sacrament of Penance or by an act of perfect contrition. An indulgence does not forgive sins but merely remits the punishments due to sins. A Catholic who would ask for permission to sin would be a monster, and the Church would refuse such a request with horror and indignation.

The phrase “indulgentia in remissionem omnium peccatorum,” which is found in some papal Bulls, has given rise to controversies among the learned, but the faithful have never been in doubt as to what the ecclesiastical authorities meant in employing these words. The term “peccatum” in these documents means “poena peccati,” not “culpa.”⁶ It is to be taken in its proper sense only when an indulgence is expressly granted in connection with confession as a necessary condition, or as an authorization to confessors to absolve penitents from reserved sins on the strength of a “letter of indulgences.” We will quote from a bull of Martin V to illustrate our meaning. “Utrum credat,” says the Pontiff, “quod omnibus Christianis vere contritis et confessis ex causa pia et iusta possit concedere indulgentias in remissionem peccatorum.”⁷

The ambiguous phrase “indulgentia a culpa et poena,” which occurs in ancient documents, is ascribed by Pope Benedict XIV⁸ to an abuse on the part of certain officials, whose conduct was not in conformity with the teaching and practice of the Church. This abuse was expressly condemned by Clement V,⁹ though it had never led to a real misunderstanding of the nature of indulgences on the part of the faithful.¹⁰

2. Division. Indulgences may be divided into various classes, according to different principles of division.

a) The most important distinction is that between plenary and partial indulgences, with which we shall deal later. Other divisions are the following:

(1) Universal and local. Universal indulgences (indulgentiae universales) can be gained everywhere; local indulgences (indulgentiae locales) in certain specified places only.

(2) Perpetual and temporary. Perpetual indulgences (indulgentiae perpetuae) can be gained at all times; temporary indulgences (indulgentiae temporariae) only within certain limited periods, e.g., on specified days of the week.

(3) Real and personal. Real indulgences (indulgentiae reales) are attached to material objects, e.g., a rosary, a medal, a crucifix. Personal indulgences (indulgentiae personales) are not attached to objects and can be gained either by certain privileged classes of persons only, e.g., the members of a religious community, or by all Catholics without exception.

(4) Solemn and plain. Solemn indulgences (indulgentiae solemnes) are granted for particular festive occasions, e.g., a triduum, a novena; plain indulgences (indulgentiae non-solemnes) are not thus limited.

b) The most important division of indulgences, to which we have already adverted, is that into plenary and partial. A plenary indulgence is the remission of the whole debt of temporal punishment due to sin; a partial indulgence remits only a part of that punishment.

To gain a plenary indulgence fully, one must be free from all affection for sin. There are many plenary indulgences. The ideal plenary indulgence is that known as the jubilee. A jubilee is a plenary indulgence granted by the Holy Father every twenty-fifth year, or upon extraordinary occasions, e.g., the accession of a new pope. In former times jubilee indulgences were granted only once every hundred years.

A partial indulgence is the remission of a part of the temporal punishments due to sin. Partial indulgences are gauged by the penitential canons of the ancient Church, being granted for forty days, seven years, etc. In this sense a partial indulgence is indeed in the first place a relaxatio de iniunctis poenitentiae before the external forum of the Church; but together with the canonical penalties there is remitted a corresponding quantity of punishment in the internal forum of conscience, and consequently before God, just as was the case in the early Church.¹¹ An indulgence of forty days or seven years, therefore, means a remission of so much of the temporal punishment due to one’s sins as one could have discharged by doing penance for forty days or seven years under the ancient canons.

c) There is still another division of indulgences deserving of mention, namely, indulgences for the living (indulgentiae pro vivis) and indulgences for the dead (indulgentiae pro mortuis).

In speaking of “the dead” we mean neither the elect in Heaven nor the reprobates in hell, but the poor souls in purgatory. They alone of all Christians who have passed away can profit by indulgences. The elect no longer require a remission of punishment, while the reprobates are incapable of receiving such a favor.

Indulgences for the living differ from indulgences for the dead in one essential respect: they produce their effect both per solutionem, i.e., by a grant from the treasury of the Church, and per absolutionem, i.e., by an act of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Indulgences for the dead, on the other hand, cannot benefit the poor souls per absolutionem because the poor souls are forever removed from the jurisdiction of the Church. Such indulgences, therefore, can be applied only through the instrumentality of the living, per modum suffragii, i.e., by means of intercession.¹²

Footnotes

1. Prop. Damnatae, 40–43. ↩

2. Cfr. 2 Cor. II, 7, 10. ↩

3. Cfr. Jac. II, 13. ↩

4. See above, Section 1, on Sacramental Satisfaction. ↩

5. Cfr. Matt. XVI, 19; XVIII, 18. ↩

6. Cfr. 2 Mach. XII, 46; 1 Pet. II, 24. ↩

7. Bull “Inter cunctas.” (Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 676). ↩

8. De Synodo Dioecesana, VIII, sect. 2. ↩

9. Clement., l. V, tit. 9, c. 2: “Quum aliqui ex ipsis [quaestoribus] eos a poena et a culpa, ut eorum verbis utamur, absolvant, nos abusus huiusmodi … omnimode abolere volentes,” etc. ↩

10. Cfr. A. Franz, “Wie man dem Volke im 15. Jahrhundert über den Ablass predigte,” in the Mayence Katholik, 1904, II, pp. 115 sqq. On the disfigurement of the Catholic doctrine of indulgences by Russian theologians, see A. Bukowski, Die Genugtuung für die Sünde nach der Auffassung der russischen Orthodoxie, pp. 115 sqq., Paderborn 1911. ↩

11. Cfr. St. Thomas, Summa Theol., Suppl., qu. 25, art. 1. ↩

12. See below, Article 2. ↩