An indulgence, in Roman Catholic theology, is the (full or partial) remission of temporal punishment due to sins which have already been
forgiven. The indulgence is granted by the church after the sinner has confessed and received
absolution.[1]
Indulgences were a major point of contention when Martin Luther initiated the
Protestant Reformation.
A Roman Catholic indulgence, dated Dec. 19, 1521. The use of the
printing press made
possible the mass production of form documents offering indulgences.
Roman Catholic theology
Sin
Personal sins, that is specific sins committed by a person instead of the inherited original
sin or evil resultant of personal sin, are either mortal or venial.
- Mortal sins destroy charity in the heart of man by a grave (serious) violation of God's
law. It turns man away from God, who is his ultimate end and his beatitude, by preferring an inferior good to him. It deprives us
of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life. For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must be met: The
act must be of grave (serious) matter, you must have full knowledge of the sinful character of the act, and you must deliberately
consent to committing the act (Catechism of the Catholic Church).
Venial sins are less serious sins. They allow charity to subsist, even though it offends and wounds it (CCC).
Punishments for sin can be temporal and eternal. Temporal punishments are temporary punishments - those that affect us in this
life or in Purgatory. The more temporal punishments you incur, the more punishment/suffering
you have to endure on earth or in Purgatory. Eternal punishment is everlasting. Basically, if you are suffering eternal
punishment, you are in hell. All sins entail some sort of temporal punishment. Mortal sins also carry an eternal punishment. Even
though you may be forgiven of a 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.
Penance
Plenary (full) indulgences are gained after the individual earning the indulgence completes the 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 by reconciliation to the state of grace. However, while the individual’s guilt and any eternal
punishment is removed by reconciliation, temporal punishments may still remain. God has mercy upon sinners who repent their sins,
but His justice still requires that the sinner be punished for the wrongdoing. In addition, even though the separation caused by
sin is removed, the repercussions for the sin have not been removed and still require punishment. E.g. if one steals a loaf of
bread, the baker still is missing and suffers the loss of the bread even if the thief makes amends. This punishment is called
"temporal punishment", both because it is a punishment of time, as opposed to eternal punishment, and because it relates to the
temporary world (Earth or Purgatory), rather than to the “final destination” (Heaven or
Hell).
Temporal punishment in Purgatory
Church teachings explain that individuals who experience trials and tribulations in this world by God's grace may have them
serve as their temporal punishment for forgiven sins (Catechism 1473); other individuals die without having served the full
temporal punishment for their sins. These individuals do not have guilt for sin, because it has been forgiven either through
reconciliation or perfect contrition before death, and therefore they will attain Heaven. However, they are not yet ready to
enter Heaven, as their punishment has yet to be served. Therefore, these individuals “enter” Purgatory, and the punishment they
owe is "purged." The Church teaches that the souls in Purgatory desire to be there because they have realized that they are not
yet ready to attain Heaven. Purgatory may be illustrated as a place of preparation for the deceased; they know they will enter
Heaven, and Purgatory is a place in which the deceased are cleansed for God.
Temporal punishment and indulgences
In Catholic theology, the salvation made possible by Jesus
allows the faithful sinner eventual admittance to Heaven. Baptism forgives all of the baptized person's existing sins; any sin committed after baptism incurs both guilt
and a penalty that must be addressed. These are the sins addressed in reconciliation. With the act of penance after
reconciliation, both the guilt and eternal punishment for the confessed sins are canceled, though not necessarily the entire
temporal punishment. Furthermore, human beings by nature commit many venial, "light" sins daily which are unconfessed and, though
they don't break communion with God, do damage one spiritually, and temporal punishment remains for these. This punishment may be
remitted in Purgatory, or by indulgence. The granting of an indulgence is the spiritual reassignment, as it were, of existing
merit to an individual requiring that merit.
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. By decree of Pope Pius V in
1567, following the Council of Trent, 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
do not remit punishment for future sins, as those sins have yet to be committed. Thus, indulgences are not a “license to sin” or
a “get-out-of-Hell-free” card; they are a means for the sinner to “pay” the “wages” of sin.
Indulgences are "plenary" or "partial”:
- "plenary" indulgences remit all of the existing temporal punishment due for the individual’s sins. An individual can
only earn one plenary indulgence per day.
- "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. This was not true, rather the stated length of time
actually indicated that the indulgence was equal to the amount of remission the individual would have earned by performing a
canonical penance for that period of time. For example, the amount of punishment remitted by a “forty day” indulgence would be
equal to the amount of punishment remitted by the individual performing forty days of penance.
The original reasoning for the "days" notation was, in the early days of the Church, a person's only means of returning to the
state of grace was performing penances equal to the actions he had committed. Because a person may not receive Eucharist while
not in a state of grace, he must perform these penances if he wished to be Catholic. However, because some people had been
professional thieves, prostitutes, or some other sinful individual, he would have to undergo hundreds of years of penance to get
remission for his sins. To alleviate this, the Church instituted certain actions or prayers which would cleanse him for the
amount of time noted.
In addition to remitting punishment for the individual's own existing sins, an individual may 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 the 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 (if there are any un-reconciled mortal sins, the individual has cut himself/herself off from God and cannot receive
the indulgence) and must not be dissenting from the Church’s teaching. The individual must also intend to receive the
indulgence.
Generally, a plenary indulgence requires the following conditions in order to be valid (in addition to the acts performed to
earn the indulgence).
- reconciliation, which is required for all indulgences
- receiving the Eucharist
- All attachment to sin must be absent.
- pray for the intentions of the Holy Father. An Our Father and a Hail Mary said for the intentions of the Pontiff is sufficient, although you are free to substitute other
prayers of your own choice.
It is recommended that the Communion be received at Mass on the same day that the indulgence is earned. Reconciliation may be
within a prudent period before or after the act (typically, one week, though during the Great
Jubilee, the Vatican specifically allowed confession within three weeks of the act).
Several indulgences may be earned under the same confession (reconciliation). If any of these additional conditions is missing,
the plenary indulgence will instead be partial.
Penitential redemptions were a milder form of indulgence that cut down the time of penance.[2]
Indulgenced acts
The following acts are examples of those which result in the award of an indulgence:
- An act of spiritual communion, expressed in any devout formula whatsoever, is endowed with a partial indulgence.
- A partial indulgence is granted the Christian faithful who devoutly spend time in mental prayer.
- A plenary indulgence is granted when the rosary is recited in a church or oratory or when it
is recited in a family, a religious community, or a pious association. A partial indulgence is granted for its recitation in all
other circumstances.
- A partial indulgence is granted the Christian faithful who read sacred Scripture with the veneration due God’s word and as a
form of spiritual reading. The indulgence will be a plenary one when such reading is done for at least one-half hour [provided
the other conditions are met].
- A partial indulgence is granted to the Christian faithful who devoutly sign themselves with the cross while saying the
customary formula: "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."
- A partial indulgence is granted for the recitation of the Angelus.
- A partial indulgence is granted to Christian faithful who on day of the liturgical feast of any saint recite in that Saint's
honor a prayer taken from the Missal or other prayer approved by legitimate authority.
- A partial indulgence is granted for reading the Holy Scripture at least 15 minutes per day.
Controversy
The doctrine of indulgences has historically been a controversial teaching in Western Christianity soteriology.[citation needed] 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 1517, Pope Leo X offered indulgences for those who gave
alms to rebuild St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. 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 sale of salvation. In thesis 28 Luther objected to a saying attributed to Tetzel: "As soon as a coin in the coffer
rings, a soul from purgatory springs".[3] 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 indulgences guaranteed, Luther said, was an increase in profit and greed, because the pardon of the Church was in
God's power alone.[4]
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 and granted them salvation
were in error.[5] From this controversy the
Protestant Reformation was launched.
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. The
only other Saint Door outside Vatican is opened annually by
a Cardinal between the evening of August 28
and the day after.
Other traditions
An 18th century indulgence granted by the Patriarch of Jerusalem and sold by Greek monks in
Wallachia
Because the underlying doctrine of salvation differs from the Latin Catholic model, indulgences do not exist in
Eastern Orthodoxy or Eastern
Catholicism, although the former had, in some places, a similar practice of Absolution
Certificates until the twentieth century, known as aphesis or συγχωροχαρτια - synchorochartia; at the
beginning of the 18th century Dositheos Notaras (1641-1707), Patriarch of Jerusalem, writes about Indulgences as something known to everyone in the ancient
tradition: "This practice was confirmed by ancient Tradition that was known to all, that the Most Holy Patriarchs would grant
certificates (συγχωροχαρτιόν - synchorochartion) for the remission of sins to the faithful people.".
Those traditions which reject a Latin Catholic concept of Purgatory (or alternatively, a
“condition of waiting”) also reject indulgences, as there is no need for remission of temporal punishment where no temporal
punishment exists.
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 BC). 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. The Sadducees did not
believe in Judgment Day and the Essenes were not part of the Temple power structure.
The Reformation from which most Protestant denominations came from arguably began with the posting of Martin Luther's 95 Theses, which were a harsh critique of the practice. Thus, Protestant denominations today frequently cite indulgences as a prime Roman Catholic error. Luther
rejected the distinction between temporal and eternal debt and argued that Christ paid all debts of all sinners in full by his
sacrifice. 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. In contrast the papal understanding of the Office of
the Keys as a legislative power given to the pope for creating conditions and means for salvation, Luther understood the Keys as
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. As he saw 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. Most Protestants continue to express a sense of a completed atonement similar to Luther's, although
Luther's doctrine of the Keys is found almost exclusively among Lutherans today.
Notes
- ^ Code of Canon Law, (Cann. 992-997) Indulgences
- ^ Boudinhon, A. (1913). "Penitential
Redemptions". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton
Company.
- ^ Bainton, 60; Brecht, 1:182; Kittelson, 104.
- ^ Certum est, nummo in cistam tinniente augeri questum et avariciam posse:
suffragium autem ecclesie est in arbitrio dei solius. (Thesis 28)
- ^ Errant itaque indulgentiarum predicatores ii, qui dicunt per pape
indulgentias hominem ab omni pena solvi et salvari. (Thesis 21)
External links
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