INDULGENCE INDUS. 



deliverance of the holy sepulchre, should receive n 

 full remission of his sins. In later times, this indul- 

 gence was extended to those who were not able to go 

 themselves, and sent a champion in their stead. By 

 degrees, the exemption was extended still farther, 

 ana soon plenary and partial indulgences were granted 

 to those who gave alms for effecting some good work 

 (e. g. the restoration of a church, &c.), or performed 

 come prescribed labour of piety (the visiting of a 

 church, for instance) at the time of jubilee, which was 

 established by Boniface VIII., in 1300. This gave 

 the death-blow to the public penance of the church. 

 Considerable abuses, however, stole into the system 

 of indulgences, and the scandal became very great. 

 I'nder pretext of alms for the benefit of good works, 

 indulgences were made the means of indirectly tax- 

 ing the whole of Christendom. It was proposed 

 several times in the diets of the German empire (e.g. 

 at Nuremberg, in 1466), to make use of them for 

 supplying the expenses of the war against the Turks. 

 The popes, bishops, and civil rulers usually divided 

 the proceeds, though the latter sometimes appro- 

 priated them entirely ; as, for instance, in 1500, when 

 the government of the empire took possession of the 

 money collected for the pope on the occasion of the 

 jubilee, and allowed only a third part to the legate of 

 the pope, for his subsistence. Under such circum- 

 stances, when holy institutions were abused for vile 

 gain, it was natural that wrong notions respecting 

 indulgences and their power, should spring up among 

 the people, and be spread by the preachers employed 

 to distribute them. (See Telzel.) It is a well known 

 fact, that the indulgences proclaimed by Leo X., gave 

 the first spring to the reformation. It was the object 

 of the fathers assembled at Trent, to make a public 

 disavowal of the erroneous doctrines which had been 

 preached by individuals respecting indulgences, that 

 they might not appear to be sanctioned by the church. 

 The council first required (in sess. 24, cap. 8, De 

 Reformations}, the restoration of public penance, in 

 the following words : " The holy apostle (Paul to 

 Timothy) ordains, tliat those who sin publicly, should 

 be publicly rebuked. If, therefore, a crime has been 

 committed publicly, and in the sight of many, so as 

 not to leave any doubt of its giving a bad example to 

 others, a public penance is to be imposed on the 

 guilty person, suited to the crime, that the sight of 

 iris repentance may recall those to the right way, 

 whom his example has led astray. The bishop may, 

 however, substitute a private for the public penance, 

 if he thinks it more suitable. 7 ' Respecting absolution 

 itself, the church has established no dogma, because 

 such dogmas are expressed only in the canones, of 

 which there exist none on this subject. She has given 

 only a decree, and this in her last session, which 

 literally says : Since the power of conferring indul- 

 gences has been given to the church by Christ, and 

 she has exercised it from the earliest times, the holy 

 council teaches and ordains, that this usage, so bene- 

 ncial to Christians, and confirmed by the authority of 

 many holy councils, is to be retained in the church ; 

 and she inflicts the anathema upon such as either 

 declare indulgences unnecessary, or dispute the power 

 of the church to grant them. It is her wish, how- 

 ever, that in the grant of indulgences, according to 

 the custom long existing in the church, proper limits 

 should be observed, lest the discipline of the church 

 become injuriously relaxed. But as the church de- 

 sires that the abuses which have crept in, and have 

 given occasion to heretical preachers to heap reproach 

 upon this venerable usage, should be corrected, she 

 ordains by the present decree, that the shameful bar- 

 tering of indulgences for money, which has been so 

 fruitful a source of abuse, shall l*> entirely abolished. 

 As the corruptions which have sprang from supersti- 



tion, ignorance, irreverence, or from any other causes, 

 cannot here be enumerated and individually censured, 

 on account of the variety of the kinds prevailing in 

 different places and provinces, the synod commands 

 every bishop to search out with diligence the abuses 

 of his own church, and to lay them before the first 

 provincial synod, that they maybe branded as errors 

 by the judgment of the other bishops, and be sub- 

 mitted to the authority of the supreme bishop at 

 Rome, whose wisdom will provide for the universal 

 good of the church, that the sacred indulgences may 

 in future be distributed with purity and holiness. 

 The selling of indulgences has accordingly ceased. 

 In regard to the absolution still practised in the 

 church (continues the Catholic writer), the spirit of 

 the church is the same as in ancient times. The old 

 discipline of penance never has been formally 

 abolished. On the contrary, the principle has rather 

 been confirmed by the council of Trent, as has just 

 been shown. The church still commissions her ser- 

 vants to impose penances upon sinners, in proportion 

 to their guilt, even heavier penances than the ordi- 

 nary ones. Why, then (he asks), should she not l>e 

 authorized to remit part of the sentence, if the peni- 

 tent is found worthy of favour ? Whether such re- 

 mission be deserved by the penitent, is to be judged 

 by those ministers of the church who are in immediate 

 intercourse with them. To make absolution effectual, 

 Bellarmin requires that the end attained should be 

 more agreeable to God than the performance of the 

 penance remitted. The labour itself should be in 

 proportion to its aim. We have seen that there 

 exists no dogma on absolution ; it is therefore by no 

 means a doctrine of the church, but it is left to the 

 private views of the individuals, whether and how far 

 the absolution and the idea of purgatory (see Purga- 

 tory'), are connected with each other. It is falsely 

 believed by many Protestants, that absolution is 

 esteemed by the Catholic church equivalent to con- 

 version, and as effectual to remit the punishment of 

 sins. Every popular catechism proves the contrary. 

 INDUS, or S1NDH* ; a large river in the western 

 part of Hindoostan, rising on the north of the Hima- 

 laya mountains ; it flows first north-west, then west, 

 penetrates the chain of mountains in the thirty-sixth 

 parallel, then takes a winding course to the south, 

 and empties by several mouths into the sea of Arabia, 

 between lat. 23 20' and 24 4CC N. Its chief tribu- 

 taries are from the east ; they were known to the 

 Greeks. One of them is the Behat or Jelam (JHy- 

 daspes), from Cashmere ; it joins the Chenab, (Ace- 

 sines), which also receives the Ravy (Hydraotes) ; 

 below the confluence of the Chenab is that of the 

 Kirah (Hyphasis), formed by the junction of the Set- 

 ledje or Satadrou (Hcsidrus) and the Beyah. The 

 country traversed by the Indus and its tributaries is 

 called the Penjalt or Punjab. The water of the Indus 

 is wholesome, and resembles that of the Ganges. Its 

 course, including its windings, is estimated at 1700 

 miles, and is generally W. ot S. The Delta of the 

 Indus is about 150 miles in length along the coast, 

 and 1 15 in depth. The river is navigable, for vessels 

 of 200 tons, to the province of Lahore, a distance of 

 700 geographical miles. From Attack to the Delta, 

 a distance of about 800 miles, its breadth is generally 

 about a mile, and its depth from two to five fathoms. 

 The tide sets in with great violence. Owing to the 

 barbarous manners of the tribes which inhabit its 

 banks, little commerce takes place on this river. . 

 The bed of the Indus is sand, with a small quantity 

 of mud. 



* The name is very ancient. Indut it from the Greek, 

 wlmli borrowed it from the Persian. The FeniaitS sei m 

 to have derived it fiom the Indian Sind'hu, ocean. 



