the Pope gives his solemn blessing, "is a mean, apt and useful, to set forth faith, respecting the head of the Church, and to the honour of the Apostolic See, which is the end of the Indulgence." (Bellarmine de Indulgentiis, Lib. I. c. 12.) The first General Lateran Council granted "remission of sins to whoever shall go to Jerusalem, and effectually help to oppose the infidels." (Can. XI.) The third and fourth Lateran Councils granted the same indulgence to those who set themselves to destroy heretics; or who shall take up arms against them, to subdue them, by fighting against them. (See Labbe, Vol. X. p. 1523.) Boniface VIII. granted, not only a full and larger, but the most full pardon of all sins, to all that visit Rome the first year in every century. Clement V. decreed, that they who should, at the Jubilee, visit such and such Churches, should obtain "a most full remission of all their sins;" and he not only granted a "plenary absolution of all sins, to all who died on the road to Rome," but "also commanded the angels of Paradise, to carry the soul direct to heaven." (4.)

"Sincere repentance," we are told, "is always enjoined, or implied, in the grant of an Indulgence, and is indispensibly necessary for every grace." (Milner's End of Controversy, p. 304.) But as the dead are removed from the possibility, so are they from the necessity, of repentance; "as the Pope," says Bellarmine," applies the satisfactions of Christ and the Saints to the dead, by means of works enjoined on the living, they are applied, not in the way of judicial absolution, but in the way of payment. (per modum solutionis.) For as when a person gives alms, or fasts, or makes a pilgrimage, on account of the dead, the effect is, not that he obtains absolutions for them, from their liability to punishment; but he presents to God, that particular satisfaction for them, in order that God, on

F

receiving it, may liberate the dead from the debt of punishment, which they had to pay. In like manner, the Pope does not absolve the deceased, but offers to God, out of the measure of satisfaction, as much as is necessary to free them." (Id.) Their object is "to afford succour, to such as have departed real penitents in the love of God, yet before they had duly satisfied, by fruits worthy of penance, for sins of commission and omission, and are now purifying in the fire of Purgatory; that an entrance may be opened for them, into that country, where nothing defiled is admitted." (Bull. Leo. XII.)

"As the power of granting Indulgences was given by Christ to the Church, and she has exercised it in the most ancient times, this holy Synod teaches, and commands, that the use of them, as being greatly salutary to the Christian people, and approved by the authority of Councils, shall be retained; and she anathematizes those who say they are useless, or deny to the Church, the power of granting them; but in this grant, the Synod wishes that moderation, agreeably to the ancient and approved practice of the Church, be exercised; lest by too great facility, ecclesiastical discipline be weakened." (Conc. Trid. Sess. XXV. De Indulg.)

"The chief Pontiffs, by virtue of the supreme authority given them in the Universal Church, have justly assumed the power of reserving some graver criminal causes to their own peculiar judgment." (Conc. Trid. Sess. XIV. cap.7.) "The more weighty criminal charges against Bishops, which deserve deposition and deprivation, may be judged and determined only by the Supreme Roman Pontiff." (Conc. Trid. Sess. XXIV. cap. 5.)

use.

The exact date of plenary Indulgences cannot be ascertained, but the Canons of the Council of Clermont, accelerated the practice. In the early ages of the Church, it was thought that sins against God ought to be followed by terrestrial, as well as celestial, justice. Scales of offences and punishments were, therefore, framed; which should be consulted by all those legislators, whose principle of penal law is retribution, and not the good of society. Fasts and prayers were the usual penalties. As the world grew older, vices multiplied, and neither certainty nor severity of punishment seemed to be of Offences were so numerous, that the longest life could not expiate them; and, whenever death came, there was always a long unsettled arrear. The Church now said, that retribution could be made by substitute, as well as in person; and a new scale of crimes and expiations was made. The people commuted their offences for gold, and the Priests acted as their deputies in saying the proper number of prayers. Kings and princes, for the good of their souls, gave lands unto the Church. Those unfortunate people, who could not pay, were obliged to submit to flagellation; and it became the option of a great man, whether he would give his money to the Church for prayers, or get some callous mercenary to bear his sins upon his back. From this statement of the practice respecting ecclesiastical censures, the importance of plenary indulgence is evident. The plenary Indulgence affected various descriptions of men.

The Barons of the eleventh

century, lived in the daily commission of crime, and the

Clergy often visited them churches, and of the poor. by these ruffians of quality, was the not being allowed to bear arms, or to appear on horseback. When, therefore, the Crusade was preached, it was joyfully received by the nobles.

severely for their plunder of the The punishment most deeply felt

They might pursue their usual course of life; and a repetition of crime would atone for former sins.

OBSERVATIONS.

(1.) "No testimony," says Clementius, " can be produced from any Father, or any ancient Church, that either this doctrine, or the practice of such Indulgences, was known, or used, for one thousand two hundred years." (Exam. Con. Trid. de Indulg. c. 4.) Many of these Indulgences can only be obtained from the supreme Pontiff; for obtaining which, an office is opened at Rome, and a table of fees, payable to the Chancery of Rome, published by authority. The pardon of a heretic is fixed at £36. 9s., whilst marrying one wife, after murdering another, may be commuted by the payment of £8. 2s. 9d. A pardon for perjury is charged at 9s.; simony, 10s. 6d. ; robbery, 12s. ; seduction, 9s.; incest, 7s. 6d. ; murder, 7s. 6d. Now, is not this taxation a virtual encouragement to the commission of the most shocking crimes, when absolution for them is granted and proffered on such easy terms? This seems to be, in fact, the establishing a complete traffic for sins, and must be accounted a great source of corruption and depravity.

"These pardons," says Silvester Prierias, " are not known to us by the authority of the Scriptures, but by the authority of the Church of Rome, and the Popes; which is greater than the authority of the Scriptures." (Con. Luth. pag. Indul.) They were first sanctioned by Urban II., as a reward for those who engaged in a Crusade against the Mahometans, for the recovery of Palestine. To these Urban promised the remission of all their sins, and to open to them the gates of heaven.

(2.) These superfluous good works have no existence. Before a person can furnish an overplus of merit, he must previously fulfil, in a perfect manner, the precepts of obligation: which he cannot do; since, as St. James says, "In many things we offend all." As we cannot compensate for our own transgressions, how much less then for those of others? The Scriptures direct us solely to trust in the divine mercy, and to depend on the mediation of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. They no where favor the notion of our satisfying one for another: on the contrary, the Psalmist tells us, "No man can by any means give a ransom for his brother's

soul." (Ps. xlix. 7.) And Christ says plainly, (Luke xvii. 10,) “ When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, we are unprofitable servants."

(3.) Boniface VIII. granted "a most full Indulgence, Remission, and Pardon of all sins;" and Bishop Burnet (Articles, p. 282,) states that he saw an Indulgence extending to ten hundred thousand years.

(4.) The Bull of the Crusades grants the same indulgences as were usually dispensed by the Popes to those, who went to make a conquest of the Holy Land, &c. The indulgences are seven.

The third is, that, visiting five altars, or five times one altar, and praying for a union among Christian Princes, with victory against the infidels, they shall obtain plenary indulgence for themselves, or for any of their departed friends, in whose favor they shall perform them.

The sixth is, that, visiting five altars, and praying as above, on the days specified in the Calendar, of which there are eleven, they may, by their prayers for each day, deliver a soul from purgatory.

The seventh is, that, paying for two copies of the Bull, a person may, twice in one year, enjoy all the indulgences, favors, and privileges mentioned in all the preceding indulgences, and gain double the benefit he might claim on having purchased one copy.

For this Bull the Nobles pay six shillings and twopence in Arragon, but something less in the kingdom of Castile. Even the servants purthey were reckoned to

chased these; and such is the demand, that produce more than £200,000. per annum. No Confessor will grant absolution to any one who has not this Bull.-(Townsend's Trav. V. II. p. 171—3.)

"Yea, and furthermore, the madness of all men professing the religion of Christ, even in so great a light as the Gospel, very many running on heaps by sea and land, to the great loss of their time, expense, and waste of their goods, destitution of their wives, children, and families, and danger of their own bodies and lives, to Compostella, Rome, Jerusalem, and other far countries, to visit dumb and dead stocks and stones, doth sufficiently prove the proneness of man's corrupt nature to the seeking of idols once set up, and the worshipping of them. And thus, as well by he origin and nature of idols and images themselves, as by the proneness and inclination of man's corrupt nature to idolatry, it is evident, that