By Canon Chr. Wordsworth. 17 



alleviation of pains and punishments due to sins. 1 A century 

 later Ithis was asserted as a dogma by Pope Clement VI. . From 

 some such a "Fund" it was held that the Church, through her 

 Bishops, was able, and had long since been wont, to distribute re- 

 missions to atone for the shortcomings of sinners. Leo IX. gave 

 a plenary indulgence 2 to Edward the Confessor in 1060, and 

 Urban II., in a council held at Clermont in 1095 issued a plenary 

 indulgence for those who took up arms to recover the Holy Land 

 from the infidel. Plenary indulgences are proclaimed at the Papal 

 jubilee, which was established, somewhat before 1300, and which, 

 under present arrangements, takes place every twenty-five years. 

 In the latter part of the 12th century it was usual for a bishop 

 to grant a few days' relaxation of penance enjoined, commonly 

 called a pardon, for those present and in a state of grace (contrite and 

 confessed) on such occasions as his consecration to the episcopate, 

 or his dedicating of a Church. St. Hugh of Lincoln had begun in 

 1186 with granting a pardon of thirteen days. Later on, in his 

 anxiety to encourage contributions to the fabric of his Cathedral, 



1 Indulgence is defined by Amort, quoted in Addis and Arnold's Catholic 

 Dictionary as " a remission of the punishment which is still due to sin after 

 sacramental absolution, this remission being valid in the court of conscience 

 and before God, and being made by an application of the treasure of the 

 Church on the part of a lawful superior. 



2 Plenary indulgences remit all, partial indulgences remit a portion, of the 

 temporal punishment due to sin : for example, an indulgence of forty days 

 remits as much temporal punishment as would have been atoned by forty 

 days of canonical penance. With some it has been held as a pious opinion 

 that a plenary indulgence remits also all the pains of purgatory. Indulgences 

 may be temporal — i.e., granted only for a time ; or they may be perpetual, 

 or indefinite, which last till they are revoked. The earliest known specimen 

 of small type used in printing is the indulgence of Pope Nicholas V. produced 

 at Mainz by Schoeffer in 1454 or 145o. It includes a provision for plenary 

 indulgence in mortis articulo, and contains the phrase " remittendo tibi 

 penas purgatorii" and contains a form of receipt or acknowledgment for a 

 contribution towards expenses of the war of 1451 against -the Turks and 

 Saracens. (Facsimile in the Times extra number, 10th Sept., 1912.) 



Personal indulgences are those granted to particular persons. Local 

 indulgences may be gained only in a particular place. Real indulgences are 

 those attached to crucifixes, medals, scapulars, &c. Catholic Diet., s.v. 

 "Indulgences." 



VOL. XXXVIII. — NO. CXIX. C 



