Chapter I: On the Granting of Indulgences

— C. 911 defines an indulgence: "the remission before God of the temporal punishment due for sins already deleted as to guilt, which ecclesiastical authority from the treasury of the Church grants for the living by way of absolution, for the dead by way of suffrage."

Therefore an indulgence says remission before God, and not before the Church, for example of punishment due from a judicial sentence; remission of punishment, not of guilt itself. If sometimes, in the more ancient monuments, speech is made about pardoning sins, this has a suitable explanation, insofar as by the name of sin there is designated not only the guilt of fault but also the guilt of punishment; remission of temporal punishment, because eternal punishment is freely pardoned with grave guilt; due for sins already deleted as to guilt, for no punishment is remitted in the forum of God while guilt remains; which ecclesiastical authority, by force of the mission entrusted by Christ, "whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them"; from the treasury of the Church, that is, from the satisfactions chiefly of Christ, secondarily of the saints, entrusted to the Church; for the living, by way of absolution, or of true jurisdiction, which therefore confers an inviolate title of obtaining the indulgence; for the dead, by way of suffrage, that is, by praying, indeed with most efficacious prayer, yet subject to the laws of prayer.

Insofar as it is given by absolving the living, and is directed to the full extinguishing of sin, it is closely connected with the sacrament of Penance. How this bond is also historically confirmed we saw in n. 545, on sacramental Penance, and cf. the Appendix. Therefore the chapter on indulgences is aptly placed here. Moreover the same canon decrees that all the faithful should esteem indulgences highly.

Namely, the power of the keys handed over to the Church also has force for remitting the punishments of sins. But its dispensation must be reasonable. Now absolution from punishments becomes reasonable from the fact that at the same time payment is offered from the treasuries of the Church, and the good work, namely devotion, etc., which seems to ecclesiastical Superiors to be promoted for the end of the Church, is given or promoted by its own quasi-reward. Therefore, in present discipline, an indulgence granted to the living grows together, as it were, from three elements: absolution, full or partial, from punishments; payment of the debt, from the treasuries of the Church; and performance of a good work as a condition, which together with payment makes the absolution reasonable.

When application is made for the dead, the Church, after the prescribed work has been fulfilled by the faithful person, offers to God her intercession together with payment of the debt, that souls may be freed wholly or partly from purgatorial fire. For the most part she permits the option to the living person either of gaining the indulgence or of applying it to the dead. Sometimes, however, the indulgence is granted either for the living person alone or for the dead alone. The Church could permit application to another living person, but hitherto has not permitted it. That these things may be better understood, cf. the historical Appendix and also above, n. 545.

— Conditions of a valid concession. The power of the Church is demonstrated in the dogmatic school. But neither licitly nor validly is an indulgence granted without cause, since power has been given for dispensing, not for dissipating or squandering; but "whatever cause is present which tends to the utility of the Church and the honor of God, is a sufficient reason for granting indulgences" (St. Thomas, 4 Sent., d. 20, q. 1, art. 3, q. 2). Nor is strict proportion required between the work and the indulgence, since the work is the condition and not the cause of the remission. Yet some fittingness between the indulgence and its conditions is necessary, that is, the fittingness which makes the concession reasonable. This is to be measured not only from the difficulty of the work, but also from the intended end and the relation of the work to that end. Thus public protestations of faith in the primacy of the Roman Pontiff yield not a little to the glory of God, so that a very great indulgence can be offered to those voluntarily present.

— I. Variety of indulgences. 1. A plenary or total indulgence is distinguished from a partial indulgence. A plenary indulgence, obtained completely, takes away every temporal punishment due for sins. Such also is the indulgence of jubilee, which nevertheless differs accidentally from another plenary indulgence on account of the annexed privileges of dispensing in certain vows, absolving from censures and from reserved things, and the greater hope of truly obtaining the whole indulgence, on account of the greater works required as conditions, and on account of the common effort of Christian society (cf. Beringer-Steinen, Die Ablasse, I, 26 and II, 1008).

A partial indulgence is one of one or several years, or days, or quarantines. Here, however, there are not understood years, etc., which someone would have to remain in purgatorial fire, but years of canonical penance, with the efficacy of expiation of those years nevertheless preserved. That is, he who gains an indulgence of 100 days obtains the same remission of punishments to be paid to God which he would have obtained through one hundred days of canonical penance. But through certain Lenten times penitential discipline was more severe and more expiatory. Wherefore an indulgence of seven quarantines merits express mention.

Yet since the canonical discipline of penances was of various severity according to the variety of places and times, and no one has hitherto defined the times and places to which the concession refers, one must confess that partial indulgence labors under a certain uncertainty which could happily be removed.

Therefore it is clear that the estimation of a plenary indulgence formally differs from the estimation of a partial indulgence.

Yet a different signification is obtained by partial indulgence in c. 926, by which we are warned, according to the opinion already previously received, that a plenary indulgence has force as partial if the whole cannot be obtained.

For if, because of imperfect disposition of the subject, the fruit could not be anything except partial, we think that the punishments due for sins from which the penitent is alien in affection are entirely taken away, but that punishments remain for the sins, namely venial ones, toward which he has preserved an inordinate affection. Therefore partial indulgence signifies here complete expiation of certain sins, but not of all. How much is obtained when imperfect execution of the works has stood in the way of plenary fruit, we cannot define.

Formerly sometimes there was granted a plenary indulgence and so many years. Then, for him who did not gain the whole indulgence, there was available the partial indulgence of the customary form; or the plenary indulgence was converted into a partial one of the customary reckoning. Yet this kind of formula is explained differently by different authors (cf. Bellarmine, Controv., De indulg., c. 9).

2. According to its duration, an indulgence is distinguished as perpetual or temporary.

3. According to the object to which it is attached, it is either personal, which can be acquired only by certain persons, either simply or by means of enrollment in a religion, confraternity, etc.; local, which is obtained by all but only in a certain place; real, which is attached to possession or use of some thing. And it can also be mixed, so that some quality of the person and some possession or use of the thing are necessary. Such, before the last declaration of Benedict XV, were the so-called apostolic indulgences. For, after the first use of a thing enriched with these indulgences, this thing could not thereafter, with the possessor changed, benefit the new possessor.

4. There is an indulgence of ordinary form and a jubilee, or one in the form of a jubilee, which in some way imitates a jubilee in conditions and privileges.

The jubilee itself is ordinary or greater, and extraordinary or lesser. The ordinary, announced by Boniface VIII for individual centuries, by Clement VI for individual fifty-year periods, by Urban VIII for individual thirty-three-year periods, from Paul II, in 1475, was accustomed to be celebrated every twenty-fifth year. In the beginnings the jubilee was offered to be gained in the City alone; from the year 1500, under Pope Alexander VI, everywhere now opportunity is given of enjoying it, yet after the "holy" year celebrated at Rome. Yet in the year 1875, it was granted simply Urbi et Orbi.

An extraordinary jubilee is granted outside that time for some grave cause. For the end of a jubilee is not the indulgence, but the common good of the Church to be promoted by this reason.

How it differs accidentally, as to force and efficacy, from a plenary indulgence, we said in n. 619. In a jubilee the norms given by Benedict XIV in various Constitutions are to be observed, especially in the Constitutions Peregrinantes and Inter praeteritos, insofar as there is no derogation from them by the Bull of the jubilee. Confession and Communion distinct from annual and Paschal confession and Communion, and visits of churches, are accustomed to be prescribed. In an extraordinary jubilee, fasting with abstinence and alms are added. In the holy year itself, other indulgences, at least for the living, and faculties of absolving from reserved things and of dispensing, were accustomed to be suspended; yet again broad ones are conceded for those who intend to gain the jubilee. But suspensions of this kind are tempered more and more by exceptions.

5. Some indulgences are applicable to the dead; others profit only the one gaining them. They can never be acquired for others living in this life. But all indulgences granted by the Roman Pontiff, unless something else is established, are applicable to the dead (c. 930).

We judge that this holds equally of future indulgences and of past ones. The indulgence which has its name from a good death is not applicable to the dead.

But all indulgences acquired by him who has made the heroic vow in favor of the souls in purgatory become applicable to the dead; and he himself enjoys the daily personal privilege of the altar.

By the name of vow is indicated here a purpose, indeed perpetual but revocable without sin, by which someone renounces every satisfactory fruit of his works and the suffrages which after death will be offered for him, in favor of the souls in purgatory, whether of the souls which he himself defines in some way once or successively, or of the souls to which the Blessed Virgin wishes them to be applied. For this handing over into the hands of the Blessed Virgin Mary is not essential; nor by his heroic act is someone prohibited from offering prescribed or otherwise due suffrages for definite dead persons.

The plenary indulgence which on the Commemoration of all the dead is available to be gained as often as the work is done cannot be acquired by the living except for the dead.

— In the Church, "the Pope principally, but others insofar as they receive power from him, either ordinary or delegated," can grant indulgences. Thus already St. Thomas, Quodlibet 2, art. 16, because the treasury of the Church "is in the dispensation of him who presides over the general Church"; and from c. 912, others besides the Roman Pontiff cannot bestow indulgences by ordinary power unless this has been expressly granted to them by law.

But those inferior to the Roman Pontiff cannot: 1. commit to others the faculty of granting indulgences, unless this has been expressly granted to them by the Holy See; 2. grant indulgences applicable to the dead; 3. add other indulgences to the same thing or act of piety or sodality to which indulgences have already been granted by the Apostolic See or by another, unless new conditions to be fulfilled are prescribed (c. 913).

Therefore there is here a certain right of prevention, by which the first one granting inhibits the power of another who is inferior to the Supreme Pontiff. But when a new condition is added, the indulgence is now not granted simply to the sodality or thing, so that the prohibited cumulation is avoided. The exclusion of indulgences applicable to the dead from the power of those inferior to the Supreme Pontiff was not so established before the Code (cf. for example Lehmk., II, 669). If any such indulgences applicable to the dead were then validly granted, we do not judge that they have perished.

— Cardinals can grant an indulgence of 200 days, even as often as the work is done, simply "in places or institutes and for persons of their jurisdiction or protection"; but in other places only to be gained by those present, on individual occasions (c. 239, §1, n. 24).

A Metropolitan can grant 100 days in the dioceses of suffragans as in his own diocese (c. 271, 2°).

A residential bishop from possession taken can grant 50 days in places of his jurisdiction (c. 349, §2, 2°). This can also be done by Vicars Apostolic and Prefects Apostolic, within the limits of their territory and while the office lasts, even if they lack episcopal character (c. 294, §2).

When a church or altar is consecrated, the consecrating bishop, although he lacks jurisdiction in the territory, grants an indulgence of one year to those visiting the church or altar on that day; but on the anniversary day, 50 days if he is a bishop; 100 if an archbishop; 200 if a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church (c. 1166, §3).

Nuncios and Apostolic Delegates have obtained broad faculties for the places of their mission of granting indulgences, even applicable by way of suffrage to souls detained in Purgatory. For a catalogue of these, cf. Epitome Iuris canonici, I, n. 715, p. 362.

But in the article of death, the pastor or another priest who assists the sick person can grant him the Apostolic blessing with plenary indulgence according to the prescribed form (c. 468, §2).

Priests enrolled in the Eucharistic priestly league can communicate in the sacrament of Penance, to the faithful who are accustomed at least five times in the week to approach the sacred synaxis, a plenary indulgence to be gained once in the week, and which seems to demand no other condition besides use of quasi-daily Communion. A priest can grant this for several weeks, at least as long as they confess to him (cf. Per., t. 2, p. 69; t. 3, p. 113 ff., or t. 2 and 3, p. 297-301).

— The Supreme Pontiff is accustomed to grant indulgences through the Sacred Penitentiary, to which a section concerning indulgences is annexed.⁽¹⁾ But a concession is either contained in a simple rescript, which then, if the concession is perpetual, has this clause: "These presents to be valid in perpetuity without any expedition of a Brief"; or it is expedited through the Secretariat of Briefs.

⁽¹⁾ For a long time there existed the Sacred Congregation of Indulgences and Relics, established by Clement IX, Brief In ipsis, July 6, 1669. This was suppressed by Pius X, Constitution Sapienti Consilio, June 29, 1908; and administration of indulgences was committed to the special section of the Congregation of the Holy Office. Benedict XV transferred to the Sacred Penitentiary the things which regard the use and concession of indulgences, "saving the right of the Holy Office of seeing those things which regard dogmatic doctrine concerning the same indulgences or concerning new prayers and devotions" (c. 258, §2).

But those who have obtained concessions of indulgences from the Supreme Pontiff for all the faithful are held by obligation, under penalty of nullity of the grace obtained, to bring authentic exemplars of those concessions to the Sacred Penitentiary.

Authentic exemplars, that is, a written document either signed by the hand proper of the Supreme Pontiff, or subscribed by a Cardinal or by a competent Official who testifies to the oracle of the living voice.

The clause "for all the faithful" is understood strictly, so that it regards only those indulgences which all the faithful everywhere and at every time, without special use of a blessed thing, can gain, but not those which demand a visit to a definite church (cf. Beringer-Steinen, Die Ablasse, I, 199, 200).

— The interpretation of indulgences must be broad or wide, with the propriety of words nevertheless preserved, because they are graces. Wherefore those are judged perpetual which are granted without limitation of time; and as often as the work is repeated, when there is not added: once in the day. Yet a plenary indulgence cannot regularly be obtained several times in the day by repeating the work (c. 928, §2). Since they are graces made, indulgences do not cease by the death of the one granting.

— Publication of indulgences. "New indulgences granted to churches, even of regulars, which have not been promulgated at Rome, are not to be made public without consulting the Ordinary" (c. 919, §1).

Promulgation at Rome is made regularly by insertion in Acta Apostolicae Sedis. But contrary to what several, for example R. P. Fanfani, De Indulgentiis, p. 25, seem to think, that prescription does not affect all indulgences, but those which are not merely personal, but granted to some church, altar, or group (ex c. 712, §1); nor is it a condition of validity, unless perhaps it is a question of indulgences which are communicated to a sodality by an archsodality (cf. Beringer-Steinen, I, 195-197).

— I. An indulgence is defined: the remission before God of temporal punishment due for sins already deleted as to guilt, which ecclesiastical authority from the treasury of the Church grants for the living by way of absolution, for the dead by way of suffrage (c. 911).

The mode of absolution is the use of jurisdiction given for binding and loosing. The mode of suffrage is prayer.

II. Indulgences are granted by the Pope, principally; by others, insofar as they receive power from him, either ordinary or delegated.

Those inferior to the Pope cannot, without express indult, commit to others the faculty of granting indulgences, or grant indulgences applicable to the dead, or add indulgences to the same thing already enriched except by prescribing new conditions.

Cardinals can grant 200 days; a Metropolitan, also in the dioceses of suffragans, 100; a residential bishop, 50 days. In the article of death, a pastor or priest assisting the sick person can impart the Apostolic blessing with plenary indulgence.

The Supreme Pontiff is accustomed to grant indulgences through the Sacred Penitentiary, to which a special section is annexed. And those who have obtained indulgences from the Supreme Pontiff for all the faithful must, under penalty of nullity of the grace, bring an authentic exemplar of the concession to the Sacred Penitentiary.

III. The interpretation of indulgences is demanded as wide or broad. Yet a plenary indulgence cannot regularly be obtained several times in the day by repeating the work.

IV. A new indulgence granted to a church, altar, or group, unless it has been promulgated at Rome, cannot be made public without consulting the Ordinary.

V. An indulgence is distinguished as plenary, by which, from the intention of the Church, every temporal punishment is taken away; and partial, which, unless it is a plenary indulgence acquired incompletely, gives the same remission which canonical penance done for the same time would have given; perpetual or temporary according to its stability; personal, local, real; of ordinary form, and a jubilee, or a plenary indulgence with annexed privileges of dispensing, absolving, and special conditions which give greater hope of gaining the indulgence fully. An ordinary jubilee is now granted every twenty-fifth year; an extraordinary one, outside the time, for some grave cause. An indulgence in the form of a jubilee imitates a jubilee in some way in conditions and privileges; indulgences are applicable to the dead or only to the living who gain them. Now all indulgences granted by the Supreme Pontiff, except the indulgence in the article of death, are of themselves applicable, just as all indulgences are which are gained by one who by heroic vow has renounced all his satisfactions and suffrages after death in favor of the dead. The indulgence after the manner of the Portiuncula which is available on the commemoration of all the faithful departed cannot be obtained except for the dead.