Indulgence

“As soon as the coin in the coffer rings

                                            The soul from purgatory springs”                                                         

Introduction

     During the early church, around the third century, the Church grants a confessor or a Christian who is awaiting martyrdom to intercede for another Christian. The first indulgences were meant to shorten the time of penance¹ but later on this practice took to the form of indulgence which became a common practice within the Catholic Church².

The sale of indulgences (A)

     An indulgence is the remission³ granted by the Church of the temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven. There are two kinds of indulgences, plenary and partial. A plenary indulgence is the remission of all the temporal punishment due to our sins while a partial indulgence is the remission of part of the temporal punishment due to our sins. Though we cannot do anything for other living persons, but we can “gain indulgences for the souls in Purgatory⁴ (Father McGuire, Baltimore Catechism No. 2, page 188).”⁵ The Catholic Church taught that Purgatory does not purge mortal sin (deadly sin). One who dies in a state of mortal sin goes to hell, not purgatory. The purpose of Purgatory is to purge any venial sins (less serious sins) that “'remain at the time of death, and the “remains of sin” or the temporal punishment due to sins previously confessed and forgiven'” so that a venial sinner “may be purified to meet God's satisfaction” by suffering.⁶ To receive remission from God the offender has to go through all the four processes of penance which consist of “contrition of heart, confession to the priest, works of satisfaction prescribed by the priest, and absolution by the priest.”⁷

History of Indulgences

     What happened in Luther's time or even to a man long before his time with regard to indulgences does not always mean the same thing today. Back then, indulgences were not always defamatory. In fact in the early Church, “lapse into sin” results in alienation from the fellowship and re-instatement was done publicly by confessing before the congregation and how a person repented was shown by certain “'satisfactions', a word found as early as Tertullian (d. 220) and Cyprian (d. 258).”⁸ The satisfactions are often in the form of fasting, alms-giving, or the freeing (manumission) of a slave. Its nature was always open to extenuation or sometimes even pardoned based on the penitent's heart condition and the expression of these extenuating grace were the “honourable beginning of the system which came to be known as indulgences and they must be reckoned as sound psychological and spiritual practice.”⁹

     

     As time went on, public confessions were replaced by private confession to the priest which leave the situation in the hands of the priest to impose the satisfaction to meet the sin which came to be known as “'doing penance'” and by the beginning of the seventh century, a new system of doing penances came by “which could take the form of a payment of money, or of a pilgrimage to a church or shrine with some payment towards its funds.”¹⁰

     

     It was Pope Urban II who “granted the first plenary, or absolute indulgence” for those participating in the First Crusade, and subsequently other popes began to offer indulgences during the later Crusades. By the turn of 13th century they became to be used even more extensively and “abuses became common as indulgences were put up for sale to earn money for the church or to enrich unscrupulous clerics.”¹¹ In 1030 several French bishops hatched the idea of promising to penitents some “partial remission of penance as a reward for some particularly pious work” which caught the wild imagination of the people by storm and opens a new way for the popes to introduce in 1063 a “total remission” which was proclaimed for the “good work of engaging in a war against Islam”.¹² By 1187, Pope Gregory VIII, changed this into a “full indulgence” whereby granting them the full benefits to those unable to go to the wars but are willing to pay the price of a soldier to do the work “vicariously.”¹³ Thus the concept of making money out of it slowly began and when the crusades to the Holy Land ended, the popes and their advisers began busy weaving another yarn to satiate their cravings for more riches and it was Boniface VIII who established the “jubilee indulgence” which promised a “full remission of penance to all who visited the graves of the Apostles in Rome once a day for fifteen days” during the jubilee year in 1300, which was an “indulgence decreed only possible once in a hundred years,” but Clement VI reduced it to fifty years (in 1343), and in 1389 Urban VI changed it into thirty-three, then finally, Paul II reduced to twenty-five years in 1470 (considering the brevity of human life).¹⁴ By 1490 the whole indulgence could be bought and secured with money. The power that was once held by the believers (congregation) had now passed on to the hands of ecclesiastical hierarchy until it landed in the hands of one man-the Pope and “in the transition a spiritual activity had been transmuted into a commercial transaction (merx sancta) and people now spoke of the whole business as a 'holy trade' (sacrum negotium) without so much as a blush.”¹⁵ But there was one problem to this and the popes saw it‒they were not available at all times which led to the issue of “confessional letters” in 1294 “where a soul of gentle birth might keep in reserve.”¹⁶ These letters authorized the holder “to procure complete absolution” from any priest of his choice once during his lifetime; later, they were even “parcelled out as favours,” then came Sixtus IV in 1476, who established an indulgence for the dead. ¹⁷ Thus, it was during his time that the indulgence was extended to both the living as well as the dead. But far greater problem was in the form of the idea of a “treasury of merits”¹⁸ which was first raised in the thirteenth century by Alexander of Hales (Hugo de St Cher) where these “merits were stored in heaven and could be dispensed by the Pope to the faithful.”¹⁹

     

     Pope Julius II in 1510 proclaimed a jubilee indulgence in order to raise funds for the construction of the new St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Later in 1517, Pope Leo X renewed by offering indulgences for those who donated towards the Cathedral.²⁰ The Pope hired a Dominican preacher by the name Johann Tetzel to promote this cause whose slogan has become the ringing melody of indulgence during the medieval history of the Church:

“As soon as the coin in the coffer rings
The soul from purgatory springs”²¹

The Pope signing and selling indulgences (B)

     And it was in retaliation to this that Luther counter back with his famous Ninety-Five Theses (1517) “condemning what he saw as the purchase and sale of salvation.”²² Luther not only denounced such acts “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.”²³ As it is, Luther was not all alone in fighting against the practice of indulgences but there were others too who had always been protesting against the whole idea. The Waldensians and the Cathari “would not touch indulgences” and among the theologians, “only Abelard rejected them until Wyclif” showed up and in the fifteenth century “eminent professors in the universities (Ruchrath of Basel, Martinez of Salamanca, Gansfort of Gröningen, Laillier of Paris and Vitrier of Tournay) declared firmly against them”²⁴ too.

     There is a “common misconception” in many people that the Catholic Church believes in the doctrine that “indulgences forgive sins” but on the contrary the Catholic Church teaches that “indulgences only relieve the temporal punishment due because of the sins,” hence, a person will still require to undergo penance in order to remit his sins to receive salvation.²⁵ On January 1st 1967, 
Pope Paul VI, by the bull of Indulgentiarum doctrina at the Second Vatican Council, revised and clarified “that the Church's aim was not merely to help the faithful make due satisfaction for their sins,” but its chief aim was “to bring them to greater fervour of charity.”²⁶ In that bull the Pope states that “Indulgences cannot be gained without a sincere conversion of outlook and unity with God.”²⁷ In 1562 by the Council of Trent the practice of abusing indulgences were put to an end but not to the doctrine itself.²⁸ However, on 4th December 1563, during the final session, ““the Council addressed the question of indulgences directly, declaring them “most salutary for the Christian people”, decreeing that “all evil gains for the obtaining of them be wholly abolished”, and instructing bishops to be on the watch for any abuses concerning them,”” and some years later, in 1567, Pope Pius V abolished “all grants of indulgences involving any fees or other financial transactions.”²⁹

Questions to Reflect:

1. Many Catholic writers would put the whole blame for this general situation (indulgence) on the greed, thirst for power, and lusts of the flesh of secular rulers who undermined every attempt at reform. While many Protestant writers would tend to blame the same faults in clergymen, from the pope down. Why is it so?

2. It would not be too much on my part on the extend of saying that many of the evangelists, missionaries, pastors and bishops in our churches today abused their power similar to the sale of indulgences in the distant past by the popes. Sometimes spiritual sin of simony or misuse of power for donation and fund raising for the sake of building Churches, ministry or buying new equipments driven my selfish motives could happen. Is this not the same sin of indulgence?

3.If the fulfillment of the so called penance and indulgence could earn one's merit to everlasting life, what significance does the death of Christ still holds for us-the sinners?  

Endnotes

¹ Penance is an act of contrition or punishments that one endures or performs to show regret of his/her sin.

² Catholic Church here refers to the universal church or one church over most of Christianity.

³ Remission is the pardon of or forgiveness of sins.

⁴ The Catholic Church defines Purgatory as “The state and place of punishment where the temporal punishment due to sins previously forgiven must be endured, and the guilt of unrepented venial sins is cleared away from the soul of the person dying in the state of grace.” (New Catholic Dictionary page 224). It comes from the Latin “purgare” which means “to cleanse, to purify, to purge.” Paul Juris, The Other Side of Purgatory (Nystrom Publishing Company, Maple Grove, Minnesota-55369) 1981, 8.

⁵ Paul Juris, The Other Side of Purgatory, 1981, 37-38.

       ⁶ Paul Juris, The Other Side of Purgatory, 1981, 8-9.

⁷ The Protestant Reformation and Its Influence:1517-1917 (Published by Order of the General Assembly, Philadelphia, The Wesminster Press) 1917, (these words appeared under the Historical Statement), 11.

⁸ James Atkinson, Martin Luther and the Birth of Protestantism, (Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England) 1968, 142.

⁹ Ibid.

¹⁰ James Atkinson, Martin Luther and the Birth of Protestantism, 1968, 142.

¹¹ http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/indulgence (Accessed on 29^th November, 2012)

¹² James Atkinson, Martin Luther and the Birth of Protestantism, 1968, 143.

¹³ Ibid.

¹⁴ Ibid.

¹⁵ Ibid.

¹⁶ Ibid.143-44.

¹⁷ Ibid.144.

¹⁸ The idea of the treasury of merits was that the good deeds of the saints had built up a great spiritual capital available to everybody, and that the sacrifice of Christ was sufficient to wipe out the debits of all.

¹⁹ James Atkinson, Martin Luther and the Birth of Protestantism, 1968, 145.

²⁰ Lewis W. Spitz, The Protestant Reformation: 1517-1559, (Concordia Publishing House, S. Jefferson Avenue, St. Louis, MO) 1985, reprinted in 2001, 76.

²¹ James Atkinson, Martin Luther and the Birth of Protestantism, 1968, 149.

²² http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indulgence (Accessed on 30^th November, 2012)

²³ Ibid.

²⁴ James Atkinson, Martin Luther and the Birth of Protestantism, 1968, 144-45.

²⁵ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indulgence (Accessed on 30^th November, 2012).

²⁶ Ibid.

²⁷ Ibid.

²⁸ http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/indulgence (Accessed on 29^th November, 2012)

²⁹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indulgence (Accessed on 30^th November, 2012)

       

Picture Credits

(A) The sale of indulgences shown in A Question to a Mintmaker, woodcut by Jörg Breu the Elder of Augsburg, circa 1530. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indulgence (Accessed on 30^th November, 2012)

      

     

(B) The Pope as the Antichrist, signing and selling indulgences, from Luther's 1521 Passional Christi und Antichristi, by Lucas Cranach the Elder.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indulgence (Accessed on 30^th November, 2012)