Popery: Its Character And Its Crimes – Chap. III Indulgences

Popery: Its Character And Its Crimes – Part II. Popery A Moral Pestilence. Chapter III. Indulgences — The Beginning of Indulgences: From Penance to Power

Table of Contents

Continued from Part II. Popery A Moral Pestilence. Chapter II. Purgatory

CHAPTER III.
INDULGENCES.

The indulgences of the Romish church, as at first practised, were the natural result of that unscriptural system of penance which had prevailed for many centuries throughout the whole visible church. Originally, works of penance consisted in certain public signs of repentance, which the church required before she received back those individuals who had been excluded for gross offences.

John the Faster, Archbishop of Constantinople, wrote a book in the sixth century, instructing the clergy of the Eastern church to proportion the penances which they imposed according to the nature of the crime, and the age and circumstances of the offenders. For example, he rates crimes committed before the age of thirty, except murder and incest, at two or three years of penance; a murder committed after that age, at four or five years; and adultery, at five or six years.

In the fragments which remain of this work, he condemns a fornicator and adulterer to fast—the former during two years, and the latter during three years—until evening, and not to eat anything then except dried things, and to make every day two hundred and fifty penitences (that is to say, to prostrate himself to the earth so many times), etc. (Morin. de Sacr. Penit. apud Chais.)

The Roman penitential was more rigorous in its punishments. If a layman has committed murder, it says, let him have seven years of penance, two on bread and water. If a subdeacon, six years; and a deacon, seven; a priest and a bishop, twelve. If a clerk has committed adultery, and a child is the result, let him pass seven years of penance; if no result has ensued, three years upon bread and water.

A layman, in the first case, is to have three years with abstinence from all food of a very nourishing nature, separation from his wife, and recompense to the injured husband. In the second instance, one year. For perjury, in a clerk, seven years of penance, of which three are to be on bread and water. In a layman, three years; a subdeacon, six; a deacon, seven; a priest, ten; a bishop, twelve. For having been at the chase, a clerk will pass in penance one year; a deacon, two; a priest, three. For fornication with a number of weeks of fasting. For a woman who marries a third time, eight weeks, etc. (Morin. ut. sup.)

It is manifest that in ages so corrupt as those in which these penitentials were in force, a discipline of this severe kind could not possibly be enforced. Hence we find that, so early as the seventh century, a discretionary power was entrusted to the bishops to mitigate or commute the penances imposed.

The Penitential of Theodore enjoins that “if any one is unable to fast a whole day on bread and water, he shall be allowed to release himself by singing fifty psalms in the church on his knees, or, in place of genuflexion, feeding a poor person that day; or, if they do not know the psalms, let them give to the poor (if rich, three deniers; if poor, one denier).

This mode of commuting the penance incurred was no source of gain to the church. The only persons who derived any benefit were the poor. It was not long, however, before the clergy found out a way of appropriating the money thus bestowed to their own use, and the most shameful abuse was made by the priests and monks of this source of wealth.

In those times, says Muratori, when a Christian wished to confess his sins to God and his ministers, he came to the tribunal of penitence. The priest produced his Penitential, then ink and paper, and set down by the side of every sin the punishment which, according to the rules of that book, ought to be inflicted. Then, adding up the whole, he saw how many days, months, or years the penances came to which the offender ought to endure.

One easily sees that when they brought to the priest a numerous list of sins and crimes—which must often happen in an age of greater corruption and less virtue than our own—one easily sees, I say, that the canonical punishment would amount to penances which would last a hundred, two hundred, three hundred years, or even more. What was to be done? Could they compel people of the world to pass the rest of their lives in fasting and other austerities which would be impracticable and insupportable even to the monks?

Men were made then as they are now. If any doubt is entertained, we have only to read what Peter Damian has written of his contemporaries of the eleventh century. The authority of the canons, which prescribe the penitential punishments, is entirely destroyed, says he, by the obstinacy with which almost all the penitents refuse to mortify the flesh. Where is the man of the world who will submit to a fast of even three days in a week?

But, pursues the learned writer, they had resources suited to the desires of the penitents. Country people and artisans they treated with much kindness, because they well knew that long and rigorous abstinence would be incompatible with their engagements. They had still greater regard for women, whom too frequent fasts would have laid open to suspicions of gallantry.

And as to persons either in wealthy or easy circumstances, these were able to redeem themselves. With twenty-six shillings or a little more, according to the laws, one might redeem oneself from a year of penance, so that by means of a sum of three hundred and ninety pounds, one might be freed from three hundred years of canonical penance. Three shillings for a year sufficed for those who possessed but little.

Those who had no money gave lands of which they retained the use and profit. And the ministers of the altar showed themselves not slow to procure by this means the greatest aid to the church, and to cause the pious liberality of the faithful to enrich their churches or their convents. You are not ignorant, writes Peter Damian to a bishop of his time, that when we receive lands from our penitents, we relax a portion of their penance according to the amount of their donation. (Muratori, apud Chais.)

The indulgences of the church of Rome, then, down to the end of the tenth century, were simple relaxations or commutations of the multiplied works of penance which the ecclesiastical canons imposed upon all offenders. About the close of this period, however, a new species of indulgence sprang up, which is thus described by the learned author of Letters on the Jubilees and Indulgences of the Romish Church.

The tenth century, says Mons. Chais, had seen the rise of a new kind of redemption from the penances of the church. This was the abridgment of the period of these punishments to such as contributed money to build churches, or even for the repair of bridges and roads, as being public works and for common advantage.[1] In proportion to the amount contributed, they granted the relaxation of the third or the fourth part of the satisfactory penances, or even the whole.

This last case was rare, but it was a common thing to hear announcements made, such as the following, in the name of the bishops: “Whoever will contribute money to build or repair this church or this oratory, we grant to them in the name of the Lord the third or the fourth part, etc., of the penitential punishments which would have been inflicted upon them.” In this manner, the penitents became, by their faults, the builders of the ecclesiastical edifices, and the church indemnified them by freeing them from the burden of the temporal punishments of their sins.

This is what they began to call by the name of indulgence, as well as relaxation or remission, towards the middle of the eleventh century. And as this commerce was all to the profit of the bishops, they possessed the liberty (in order to its promotion) even to give to offenders absolution, contrary to ancient usage, before they had fulfilled the conditions which they exacted from them.

They multiplied, without end and without ceasing, their indulgences for building churches, convents, hospitals, and other edifices for their own use. They granted them at the dedication of churches and altars; they bestowed them on many festival days to excite the devotion of the people; they gave them for a hundred years, for a thousand years, many thousand years and upwards;[2] in one word, they were so shamefully abused, both for the advantage of the bishops and for the benefit of the churches which they wished to gratify, that the Popes—at that time more moderate than they in this particular—thought themselves obliged to place limits to the exercise of their spiritual power.

This was under Innocent III., and by the mouth of the Council of Lateran, held in 1215. “Forasmuch as the keys of the church,” says the council, “are brought into contempt, and the satisfaction of penances weakened, by the excessive and indiscreet indulgences which certain prelates of the church do not scruple to bestow; we ordain that when a church is consecrated, the indulgences shall not exceed one year, and that at the anniversary of the dedication, they shall not remit more than forty days of the penances imposed. We will also that the same number of days should be adhered to in indulgences granted at other festivals, and on every other occasion; since the Roman Pontiff, who possesses the fulness of power, has ever preserved the same moderation at such times.” (Lett. Hist. et Dogm. etc. Lett. 22.)

The attempts thus made by Popes and councils to stop the growing evil were altogether ineffectual; the bishops and priests quickly devised ways of eluding the force of these decrees and continued long afterwards to carry on a most disgraceful traffic in indulgences with the deluded people. A striking proof of which is afforded by the following fact.

In the year 1196, Maurice, bishop of Paris, died after having filled the see about thirty-three years. Born of poor parents, his merit alone had elevated him to the episcopate of the capital of France. Nevertheless, without any possessions, he did what the monarch himself could not have done: he built the vast church of Notre Dame in Paris and founded besides four rich abbeys. But how? It was by pardoning so much, and by his care to promise the remission of sins in proportion to the amount every one contributed to the success of his plans; his indulgences surpassed his most sanguine expectations.

One day, dazzled with so much success, and remarking to Peter the Chanter, a famous theologian of that time, the magnificence of his buildings, “What do you think of them?” said he. “I think,” answered the doctor, “that you would do much better by diligently exhorting people to do penance.” But the prelate had already attained his end. A number of other bishops imitated his example, and there is reason to think that many sacred edifices, which were built in the twelfth and two following centuries, owed their origin to these pecuniary indulgences, so shamefully substituted for canonical penances. (Chais ut sup.)

Although the effects of these early indulgences upon an ignorant and superstitious people must have been extremely pernicious, they were immeasurably surpassed by the papal indulgences of the following ages. It is accordingly to this latter form of this fearful evil that we wish more particularly to direct the attention of the reader.

In entering upon this wide field of inquiry, we are naturally reminded of the exclamation of the learned Chemnitius: “Who is able to reckon the infinite forms of all those Romish impostures?” Instead, therefore, of pretending to treat of every form of indulgence granted by the Popes, we have adopted the following division as being most fitted to bring before the reader all the most important of them:

The indulgences connected with the Crusades.
The indulgences of the Romish Jubilee.
Those connected with visiting churches.
Those granted to the various orders of monks, etc., to dispose of to laymen.
Those annexed to certain prayers, beads, medals, etc.
Those sold outright for money.

I. THE INDULGENCES CONNECTED WITH THE CRUSADES

While the bishops, says Gieseler, continued the old traffic in indulgences, the Popes began it on a much larger scale, it being not uncommon for them from the time of Gregory VII. to promise a full forgiveness of sins as a reward for services rendered to the church, especially in the case of the Crusades. The pontiff referred to by Gieseler was the first who issued indulgences as a reward for martial services.

In the year 1084, he promised the entire remission of their sins to all who had espoused the cause of Henry IV., Emperor of Germany, on condition that they should desert his side and enlist themselves under the Pope’s banner. A few years afterwards, Victor III. sent a numerous army against the Saracens, and whilst giving his blessing to the standard of St. Peter, assured the troops that their sins should be all forgiven. And so powerfully did this promise work upon them, that it is said they put to flight one hundred thousand of the enemy and took possession of the town in which they were encamped. (Muratori Diss. Med. Ævi lxviii. col. 672. et Baron. ad an. 1087.)

But it was in the case of the Crusades for the recovery of the Holy Land that this form of indulgences produced the most extensive and lasting results. These Holy Wars, as they were blasphemously termed, the horrors of which are so well known, continued at intervals for two hundred years to convulse the world, and afford the most striking proof of the pernicious effects of papal indulgences upon the deluded votaries of the Man of Sin.

The ill treatment which the pilgrims in Palestine received from the Saracens had long excited the indignation of all Europe, when Peter the Hermit, empowered by Urban II. (A.D. 1094), blew the slumbering spark into a flame.

The rewards held out by the Pope and his prelates to induce men to assume the cross were no less than the unconditional pardon of their sins and the certain enjoyment of heaven;[3] and so powerfully did these promises act upon a corrupt and superstitious people, that according to Gibbon, no less than six millions of human beings at once responded to the call.

The entire moral fabric of Europe seemed to be convulsed to the very core. Persons of every age, rank, and degree assumed the cross. Monks threw aside their narrow vows and forsook the cloisters, without waiting for the sanction of their superiors, in order to join the throng of soldier-pilgrims. Even women severed the most sacred ties, and all the best characteristics of their sex, to follow the enthusiastic host; and the most abandoned characters quitted their infamous pursuits, that they might wash out the foul sins of a life-time in the blood of the infidel.

Of the millions who had taken the vow, numbers were prevented by poverty or cowardice or other causes from proceeding to the Holy Land; but after making every necessary deduction from the original calculation, the numbers still remain so vast as to baffle all imagination, and the history of their march to Palestine, and the subsequent conduct of the pilgrims of the cross, afford the best proof of the effects of papal indulgences on unrenewed men.

One of the principal divisions of this enormous body was led on by Peter the Hermit, the author and fomenter of the war, who was girded with a rope and continued to appear with all the marks of an austere solitary.

This first division, in their march through Hungary and Thrace, committed the most flagitious crimes, (flagitious /flə-jĭsh′əs/ adjective Characterized by extremely brutal or cruel crimes; vicious.) which so incensed the inhabitants of the countries through which they passed—particularly those of Hungary and Turcomania—that they rose up in arms and massacred the greatest part of them. A like fate attended several other divisions of the same army, who, under the conduct of weak and unskilful chiefs, wandered about like an undisciplined band of robbers, plundering the cities that lay in their way and spreading misery and desolation wherever they came. (Cent. xi.)

During the same century, a second and a third expedition to the Holy Land took place: the one consisting of about nine hundred thousand, and the other of about six hundred thousand soldiers of the cross. Four other crusades on a smaller scale followed these, in the course of the next century, all marked by the same character and attended with the same results as the first. The limits of this work forbid that we should dwell upon these expeditions.

Contemporary historians agree in representing the immorality of the Crusaders as extreme, even in an age of great corruption. “Both the priests and the people, during their abode in the Holy Land,” says one, “were guilty of all excesses, and the whole country was polluted by reason of the crimes and enormities which they committed.” (Raumer apud Gieseler.)

Another historian remarks, in reference to the same period, “In that land whence other countries received religion, thence do they derive an example of every kind of wickedness.” (Gul. de Nangis, in Chron. ad annum 1187.) Even the Pope, in his instructions to the new Patriarch of Jerusalem, is compelled to make mention of the horrid wickedness which reigned in the Holy Land. “We have heard of the enormities,” says His Holiness, “which are perpetrated beyond the seas.”[4]

That the extreme corruption of morals prevailing among the Crusaders is to be traced chiefly to the natural effect of indulgences operating upon unregenerated individuals is too obvious to require proof. “That confidence in their own merits which the principle of such expeditions inspired must have aggravated,” says Hallam, “the ferocity and dissoluteness of their ancient habits.” (Mid. Ages III. 357.)

What a vast amount of moral evil then, and temporal misery, lies at the door of the churchmen of the Middle Ages! How incalculable the crimes and foul licentiousness chargeable upon the Popes of that period and all who abetted them! What human mind can realize the amount of iniquity committed by these deluded men and women under the conviction that the papal absolution would wash all away!

Nor were the effects of these indulgences confined to the period of the Crusades. On the contrary, it is acknowledged that extreme corruption characterized the states formed out of the conquered nations. “Several historians,” says Hallam, “attest the depravity of morals which existed both among the Crusaders and in the states formed out of their conquests.” (Hallam. ut supra.)

About the middle of the thirteenth century, an attempt was made to justify the scandalous proceedings of the Roman Pontiff in thus offering pardon and salvation to whomsoever they chose. Alexander Hales and Albertus Magnys invented the doctrine of a thesaurus supererogationis perfectorum (treasure of superfluous merits of the saints).

The principal points in this new doctrine may be summed up in the following terms: “That there actually existed an immense treasure of merit, composed of the pious deeds and virtuous actions which the saints had performed beyond what was necessary for their own salvation, and which were therefore applicable to the benefit of others; that the guardian and dispenser of this sacred treasure was the Roman Pontiff; and that of consequence he was empowered to assign to such as he thought proper a portion of this inexhaustible source of merit, suitable to their respective guilt, and sufficient to deliver them from the punishment due to their crimes.”[5] (Mosh.)

This blasphemous fable—which is still openly avowed in the Romish church—encouraged the Popes to practise the innumerable and still more fearful impositions upon human credulity which we shall now proceed to describe.

II. THE INDULGENCES OF THE ROMISH JUBILEE

The universal Jubilee of the Church of Rome is the periodical return of a religious solemnity which commences on New Year’s Day and continues the whole year. During this period it is pretended that all the faithful in every part of the world may obtain at Rome the entire remission of their sins by performing certain acts of devotion at the tombs of the Apostles according to the prescribed form.[6]

The author of this celebrated institution was Boniface VIII., who occupied St. Peter’s chair at the close of the thirteenth century. Having urgent necessity for money to carry on the wars which he had provoked with several potentates, he published a bull in 1299 promising a plenary indulgence to all the faithful who should visit, during the following year for purposes of devotion, the churches of St. Peter and St. Paul.

In order to disguise, however, the real motive which actuated him and impart the sanction of antiquity, it was pretended that it was merely the return of a solemnity which had been held from time immemorial at the close of every successive century. No evidence, however, of the previous existence of the Jubilee has ever been produced by the advocates of this superstition, and the sole foundation on which this important institute rests is, to use their own words, “a doubtful and almost incredible report” that such a privilege had always been granted to the faithful.[7]

The success which attended this project exceeded the most sanguine expectations of Boniface. The welcome sound, says Gibbon, was propagated throughout Christendom, and at first from the nearest provinces of Italy, and at length from the remote kingdoms of Hungary and Britain, the highways were thronged with a swarm of pilgrims who sought to expiate their sins in a journey, however costly and laborious, which was exempt from the perils of military service.

All exceptions of rank or sex, of age or infirmity, were forgotten in the common transport; and in the streets and churches many were trampled to death by the eagerness of devotion. The calculation of their numbers could not be easy or accurate, and they have probably been magnified by a dextrous clergy well apprised of the contagious effect of example; yet we are assured by a judicious historian who assisted at the ceremony that Rome was never replenished with less than two hundred thousand strangers, and another spectator has fixed at two millions the total concourse of the year.

A trifling oblation from each individual would accumulate a royal treasure, and two priests stood day and night, with rakes in their hands, to collect, without counting, the heaps of gold and silver that were poured on the altars of St. Paul. (Decl. and Fall. c. 69.)

Whoever reflects on the complicated guilt of Boniface throughout this whole transaction will be prepared for the character given of him, even by papal writers. There is no Pope, says Mons. Chais, whose memory has been branded with greater disgrace, nor who has more generally been considered a wicked man.

Without admitting all which has been laid to his charge, it is impossible to deny that he was capable of the most daring acts for his own interest or glory, and for the elevation of the papal authority to such a pitch of power as would bring to his feet the greatest potentates of the earth. A man of spirit and understanding, but fierce, haughty, and despotic, he never showed himself scrupulous in the choice of means which he thought best calculated to attain the object of his ambition and his avarice.

The lofty insolence with which he dared to treat Philip the Fair and all orders in the kingdom of France has given occasion to bring against him the heaviest charges, of which authentic proofs are still extant. These proofs oblige the most zealous partisans of the papal see to acknowledge that Boniface placed no limits to his pride, and that there was nothing he would not do for the extension of his authority.

He sought rather to intimidate emperors, kings, princes, nations, and people, than to inculcate upon them the truths of religion. He attempted to give and to take away kingdoms, to drive away and to call back men, according to his own caprice, nor can anything express his avarice. This is what Platina says of him. Craconius, still less careful of his memory, represents him as “a man in whom dwelt a world of iniquity, of imposture, arrogance, and audacity, together with an ambition that knew no bounds, and a cruel avarice.” (Chais. pp. 73-5.)

The tragical end of Boniface can only be regarded as the judgment of that God whose anger, even in this life, often breaks forth against gross transgressors. Having been eventually taken captive in one of the contests which he had provoked with the civil powers, the indignation which he felt produced such a fit of anger that, though he was speedily released by the inhabitants of the town in which he had been confined, he never recovered the shock.

It is stated by some writers that he repeatedly attempted to break his head against the wood of his bedstead and that he devoured his own arms. But these facts are not sufficiently attested. It is, however, certain that he died in a violent paroxysm of madness, and this it was that led to the saying so often met with in the life of this Pope, that “he ascended the throne as a fox, reigned like a lion, and died like a dog.” (Baillet. p. 231.)

According to the original appointment of Boniface, the second Jubilee would have taken place in the year 1400. A hundred years, however, was a long period to wait for a solemnity which brought to Rome so much glory and so much wealth.

Accordingly, at the expiration of fifty years, a deputation of the nobles of Rome waited upon Clement VI. and requested the promulgation of an indulgence for the year 1350 of the same extent as that of the hundredth year. As the holy year was a still greater source of wealth to the Pope than it was to the Roman citizens, Clement quickly granted their request and fixed the Romish Jubilee at every fiftieth year, instead of every century.

A very different cause, however, is assigned for the abridgment of this period in the bull published by Clement for the celebration of the Jubilee. “Whilst hesitating,” says the pontiff, “whether I should abridge the period or not, a venerable person appeared to me in a dream, holding two keys, and saying, ‘Open the door, and it will kindle a fire which shall warm and enlighten the whole world.’ Astonished at this vision, I said mass to entreat God that if the vision was from him he would repeat it the next night, which grace he granted me; in consequence of which I was determined to abridge the period of the return of the indulgences, according to the desire of the Romans.” (Alberic a Rosate Dict. Leg. apud Chais.)

The second Jubilee accordingly took place in the year 1350. In the bull which summoned the pilgrims to Rome, Clement thus expressed himself: “If any of the faithful truly confessed should die on the road, we grant to him the full absolution and entire remission of his sins, commanding absolutely to the angels of paradise to introduce his soul into the glory of paradise, without once entering into purgatory.”[8]

Influenced by such ample promises, an incredible number of pilgrims from all parts of Europe flocked to Rome. The testimony of one of these assures us that nearly five thousand strangers entered and left the city every day.[9]

According to the evidence of the citizens themselves, it appears that there arrived from January to Easter ten or twelve hundred thousand; from Easter to Whitsuntide upwards of nine hundred thousand;[10] and that during the whole summer there had never been less than two hundred thousand foreigners in Rome. The immense sums contributed by the pilgrims we have no adequate means of estimating, but it is stated by Raynald[11] that the presents deposited upon the altar of St. Peter were of such value that it gave rise to an action at law between the prefect of the altar and the canons of the church as to the share of plunder, which was not decided till the time of Innocent VI.

The disorders and evils which accompanied the celebration of this Jubilee stand out in strange contrast to what we might have expected had this solemnity indeed been, as averred by Clement, the direct appointment of Heaven. It appears that the citizens of Rome had all become innkeepers, sold their provisions at the most exorbitant rate, and carried on the most abominable monopoly.

The wealth which they thus procured rendered them so insolent, that several seditions, during the Jubilee, broke out in the city. The writer, to whom we are indebted for this account, adds one fact which proves the extent to which the sedition arrived.

Annibal of Cecano, bishop of Tusculum, whom the Pope had sent to Rome as Legate in order to preserve the peace, observing that the people robbed the pilgrims, advised them to dispense with one part of the visits to the churches, that they might be able to return sooner. Some say that he made them pay well for this dispensation.

However this may be, no sooner were the Romans informed of the permission which Annibal had granted, than they attacked his mansion, his domestics, and his person, with sticks and stones. Annibal, taking flight, left Rome and retired into the country. When he arrived at Aquino, he was poisoned with some wine, along with most of his household.

“Thus,” adds Villani, “was celebrated in this year of Jubilee, the dispensation of the merits of Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Church, in the remission of the sins of faithful and good Christians.” (Villani, lib. 1. c. 54.) But the worst yet remains—not only were great numbers stifled or crushed to death in the churches on every great feast day, but the plague broke out in several parts of Italy [12] with so much violence that only one-twelfth part of the myriads who had visited Rome returned to their native land, the rest being carried off by that deadly scourge or else by the fatigue consequent upon so tedious a journey. (Villani ut supra.)

The immense wealth which this Jubilee poured into the papal coffers was a strong temptation to hasten its arrival. Accordingly, the period of its return was once more shortened by Urban VI., who ordained that it should be solemnized every 33 years, that being the period of the Saviour’s earthly existence.

The death of this pontiff, however, prevented him from witnessing the Jubilee. He was poisoned, or he poisoned himself, as others say, the very year in which this change was made (A.D. 1389).

Boniface IX., his successor, soon after his accession to the papal throne, began to put into execution the plans of Urban by publishing a Jubilee for the year 1390. The papal schism, however, which then raged, prevented some nations from responding to the call of Boniface; but great multitudes of pilgrims from Germany, Hungary, Bohemia, Poland, and England visited Rome and brought immense riches into the papal treasury.

Not content with this, however, Boniface sent quaestors everywhere to sell the Jubilee indulgences to all who were willing to pay for them the same amount which the journey to Rome would have cost.

This pontiff, who seems to have inherited the crimes with the name of the first author of the Holy Year, not satisfied with having celebrated one Jubilee in 1390, did not scruple to proclaim another at the close of the century, in accordance with the original institution of Boniface VIII. The amazing audacity of this act, however, seems to have had no effect in lessening the number of pilgrims.

Rome was filled with strangers from all parts of Christendom, and though Charles VI. of France used every effort to keep his subjects at home, all was to no purpose—Frenchmen and women of all ranks hastened to Rome, eager to obtain the promised absolution of their sins.

Once more, however, did the Judge of all the earth testify his displeasure at the superstitions and impostures of papal Rome. The most frightful calamities and the foulest crimes were the result of this grand solemnity.

“The chief part of the pilgrims,” says the historian of the Romish Jubilee, “never returned to their homes, being robbed or murdered, either by the soldiers of the Count of Fondi, who was at war with Boniface, or by the papal soldiers themselves, since they cared nothing for the Jubilee. They also violated the fairest of the females whom they succeeded in getting into their power. In the midst of these disorders, the plague carried off in Rome seven or eight hundred persons daily. Nor would the Pope open his coffers or touch any part of his immense treasures to assist the diseased pilgrims. So true is it that avarice renders cruel and insensible even to the common feelings of humanity the heart of which it has once taken possession.” (Chais. p. 185.) This last fact is related by Boninseigne and de Niem, who speak from their own actual knowledge.

The fifth Universal Jubilee was celebrated by Martin V. in the year 1428. Boniface IX., as we have seen, had celebrated this grand solemnity, first in 1390 and afterwards in 1400.

But Martin, seeing the return of the period of 33 years fixed by Urban VI., could not allow so fair an opportunity of filling his coffers to pass by. He accordingly confirmed anew the constitution of Urban and celebrated the Jubilee in the year 1423.[13] Thus was the disgraceful spectacle exhibited to the world of a solemnity, the period of which had been fixed at one hundred years, occurring three times in the short space of thirty-five years. The wars, however, which then desolated Italy frustrated the expectations of Martin, since few persons could be induced to hazard the dangers of such a pilgrimage.

The celebration of the sixth Jubilee affords another instance of the disgraceful manner in which the Popes shifted from one period to another, and from one constitution to another, in order to bring the occurrence of this grand solemnity within their own pontificate. Had the period last fixed—that of thirty-three years—been adhered to, the Jubilee would have returned in 1456.

But Nicholas V. found it would have been more to the glory of his pontificate had the old period of fifty years been adhered to. He accordingly resolved to return to this period, which—reckoning from some former celebration—expired in 1450. Thus the sixth Jubilee took place in 1450, and the personal character of that Pope, as well as the peculiar circumstances of his reign (the long-continued papal schism having just terminated by the resignation of the Anti-Pope Felix V.), rendered this Jubilee one of the most brilliant which had ever occurred.

Æneas Sylvius, afterwards Pope Pius II., states that a prodigious multitude of pilgrims resorted to Rome during this solemnity, and not less than forty thousand persons visited the churches every day. The sums of money which these multitudes poured into the papal treasury were almost incredible and served to beautify and multiply the palaces, churches, and monuments of Rome. Not satisfied, however, with this, Nicholas sent a cardinal the following year into Germany with power to grant the full remission of sins to whoever was willing to purchase it by contributing certain fixed sums according to their means.

We have already seen the Jubilee fixed, first at every hundred years, then at every fifty, and lastly at every thirty-three years, with different Popes adhering to whichever of these periods seemed likely to expire during his own pontificate. One more change, however, was yet to take place.

In the year 1470, Paul II., anxious that his reign should be adorned and his coffers enriched by the occurrence of this great spectacle, and probably fearing he might not live to see the period when it would have regularly happened, promulgated a bull in which he fixed the Jubilee at every twenty-five years! The hopes of this pontiff were, however, speedily destroyed by his death, which took place in 1471. The Jubilee, therefore—the seventh in order—was celebrated by his successor, Sixtus IV., at the period fixed by Paul, viz., 1475; nor has any further alteration taken place to the present period.

The eighth Jubilee, which is the last that deserves particular notice, was celebrated in the year 1500 by Alexander VI. This infamous pontiff neglected no means likely to draw to Rome the money of all Europe by promising pardons more ample and more easy of acquisition than ever. In the year 1499, he published two bulls on this subject.

In these he suspended all other indulgences and granted to all the faithful at a distance from Rome the privilege of obtaining the Jubilee indulgences without visiting Rome, on condition that they paid a certain sum toward, as he pretended, a crusade against the Turks. He prolonged the Jubilee to Twelfth-day for Rome and to Whitsuntide for Italy. As many of the pilgrims were anxious to expedite their devotions, he permitted the penitentiaries to reduce the number of days to five for foreigners and seven for the others, on directing them to give alms.

But where his character manifested itself most strikingly was in the power which he gave the faithful, by his bulls, to apply his indulgences, for a certain sum, to the souls in purgatory, and to deliver those of their parents, of their friends, or whatever other Christians they chose, from the torments of that terrible fire.

“The attraction was too strong to be resisted by an ignorant and superstitious people. They eagerly caught at the bait. An innumerable multitude of persons of every rank betook themselves to Rome from all parts of Christendom in order to gain indulgences so advantageous; and if you wish to know what was the result, whether in reference to their profit or to piety and manners, I will transcribe what the Jesuit Mariana states: “During this Jubilee,” says he, “licence and debauchery reigned at Rome more than at any other part of the world. Crime held there its throne, and there never perhaps was seen a more monstrous corruption of manners, especially among the ecclesiastics, who by the holiness of their character ought to have animated other Christians to the practice of virtue, and to have presented an example to them.”[14] (Chais. p. 212–15.)

The ninth Jubilee was celebrated in 1525 by Clement VII., but contained little worthy of notice. The dawn of the Reformation had opened men’s eyes to the folly and guilt of these papal impostures, and, besides this, the wars which then raged in France and Spain and the plague which had broken out in Rome deterred strangers from a journey attended with so much hazard.

Although, therefore, the Pope increased the pomp of this solemnity and imitated the recent example of Alexander VI. in opening and shutting with great ceremony the Holy Door—although he even offered his indulgences, for the first time, without requiring that alms should be deposited upon St. Peter’s altar[15]—yet the attempt proved a complete failure.

From this period the history of the Romish jubilees contains little to interest or instruct the reader. They succeeded one another with the greatest regularity from that time to the present; but though repeated and strenuous efforts were made by the Popes to restore this solemnity to its original importance, it rapidly sank into extreme insignificance.

The frequency of its occurrence—and the innumerable other indulgences which were to be gained without so costly and dangerous a pilgrimage—are among the causes which have contributed to this effect. But the Lutheran Reformation, which imposed a powerful check upon the traffic in indulgences generally, at the same time that it showed men the blasphemous impiety of those delusions, was doubtless the chief means of rendering the holy year, since the sixteenth century, the mere shadow of those in which Boniface and Urban were the chief actors.

III. INDULGENCES TO BE GAINED BY VISITING CERTAIN CHURCHES

Intimately connected with the pardons so profusely lavished upon the pilgrims during the celebration of the Jubilee were those to be gained by visiting the churches of Rome and of other great cities at other periods. The Crusades and the Romish Jubilees were of temporary duration and occasional occurrence. Here, however, was a source of indulgence always available to the faithful. Some of these permissions were of very short duration, extending only to forty days, while others reached to many thousands of years.

Some of them, too, were restricted to special days and seasons, whilst others were obtainable on all days alike. The best idea of the injurious character of these indulgences will be gained from the following list of the pardons belonging to the seven principal churches of Rome in the fourteenth century. The first extract is from an ancient manuscript of the fourteenth century published by W. Crawshay.[16]

“Amongst all these churches (of Rome) there be seven that be privileged with more holiness and greater grace and dignity, and be more royal than all the rest; of which seven, the first and principal is called the church of St. John the Lateran, which is the head. Also, this church of St. John is dedicated to the honor of St. Saviour and of St. John the Baptist, and St. John the Evangelist. In this church of St. John Lateran, there be daily, and every day, eight and forty years of pardon, and as many quaranteens; together with the remission of the third part of all a man’s sins.”

“And farther, Pope Sylvester and Pope Gregory, who consecrated the same church, gave and granted thereunto so many indulgences as none can number but God alone, as witnesseth Pope Boniface, who saith that ‘if men knew the indulgences belonging to the church of St. John, and how many they were, they would never go so far beyond the sea as to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, where they are absolved from the punishment and the fault, (a pena et culpa) for so also are they absolved in the church of St. John aforesaid.’ Likewise the same St. Boniface saith that he, coming devoutly to the said church to pray, upon the day of the consecration of St. Saviour, our Saviour appeared visibly to all the people of Rome, and this day was the ninth day of November, and there is there upon that day REMISSION OF ALL SINS.” (et est ibi remissio omnium peccatorum.)

“Moreover, Pope Boniface once said, ‘The indulgences that are to be had in the Church of Lateran, no man can number; yet I confirm them every one.’ (Fiscus Papalis, fol. 4.)”

Then follow lists of the indulgences belonging to the other principal churches of Rome. The fullest account, however, of these papal pardons with which we are acquainted occurs in an old book called The Customs of London, printed in the year 1517. It is as follows:

“In the city of Rome been four chirches, in which is masse daily don, but there been six of the same privileged, above all the oder, with great holinesse and pardon as is hereafter shewid.”

“The furst is called St. Peter’s chirch th’ Apostell, and is set upon the foot of an hill, and men go upward thereto a stair of XXIX steppys high, and as often as a man goeth up and doun that steyer, he is relesed of the seventh part of penaunce, injoined and grauntyd by Pope Alysander.”

“Item. As ye com before the chirch, ther the well ringeth; so ye may see above the dore an image of our Lord, and betwene his feete stondeth one of the Pence that God was sold for, and as oft as ye look on that Peny, ye have XIV hundred yeris of pardon.”

“Item. Upon our Lady Day in Lente, hangeth before the Qyer a cloth as our Lady made her-self, and it hangeth till our Lady Day Assumpcion, and as many times as one beholdith it he hath IV. hundred yere of pardon.”

“Also as many times as a man goothe throgh the Crowds of St. Peter’s Church, he hath IV. hundred yere of pardon.”

“And in the feste of St. Peter, a thousand yere of pardon, and a thousand Karyns, and the threddendell (third part) of penaunce enjoyned relesyd.”

“And upon the one syde of Seynt Peter’s Chirch, a churchyard lyeth, and that is called Goddy’s felde, and there be buryed pore pylgryms and none other; and it is the land that was bought with XXX pens that our Lord was sold for; as oft as one goeth upon that ground he hath XV. hundred yere of pardon.”

“Item. In the chirch of St. Poule, wythout the walls, ye have XLVII. thousand yere of pardon.”

“Allso, The Pope Pelagius graunted there (at St. Lawrence) at the four festes of the yere; at eche feste VII. hundred yere of pardon; and as many Karyns; and who that goethe thether every Wednesday, he delivereth a sole out of purgatory, and hymself quyt of all syns.”

“Item. Ther stondyth a cheir in which Pope Accensius was mastered, and too all theym as sit in that cheir, is grauntyd an 100 thousand yere of pardon, and as many karyns, and every Sonday a sole out of purgatory, and the treddendell of all syns relesyd.”

“Item. In the Chirch of St. Mary Major, ther stondyth on the hyh aulter the bed of St. Jheronimus, and ther ye have 14 thousand yere of pardon, and as many karyns.”

“At the hyh aulters granted XXVIII. hundred yeris of pardon and as many karyns: and whoso cometh to the furst aulter that stondith in the chirch, hath 14,000 yere of pardone. And there is a sellare, or a vaute, wherein lyeth beryed XLIX. Popes that deyed all martirs: whoso cometh furst into that place delyvereth VIII. soles out of purgatory, of soche as he most desyreth, and as moche pardon therto, that all the world cannot number ne reken, and every Sonday ye delyver a sole out of purgatory. And in that sellare stondyth a pytt; ther St. Peter and St. Paule wer hyd in 250 yere, and no man wyst were thei were becom, and whoo that puttyth hys hed into that pytt and taketh it oute agein, is clene of all synne.”

“Item. In the chirch of St. John Latryneus, the Pope Sylvester yaf therto, as many yeres pardon as there reyned drops of water the day that hallowyd the chirch; and that time it reyned so sore, that no man had seen a greter reyn before that day. And when he had grauntyd this, he thought in hymself: whedyr he had so mu: power or not. Then ther came a voice fro Hevyn, and said, ‘Sylvester, thou hast power enough to geve that pardon.’”

“At any time that a man cometh to St. John Latrynes, he is quytt of all synnes, and of all penaunce, with that, that he be penitent for his sinnes.”

“Blyssed is the moder that bereth the chylde that hereth masse on Saterdays, at St. John Latrynes, for he deliveryth all theim that he desyreth out of Purgatory, too the nombre of LXXVII soles.”

“Item. Upon the tour of the chirch stondyth a double crosse that was made of the swerde that St. John was beheded with; and at every time that a man beholdith that crosse he hath XIV thousand yere of pardon, and as many karyns of all penaunce.”

“And at the hyh aulter ye have remishyon of all synnes and of all penaunce, and innumerable pardon more than he needeth for hymself.”

“There is the grave that St. John layd himself in when he had said masse, and then came a grete light over the grave, and when that light was gone, then fund they nootyng ther but heavinly bred. In that grave cometh every good Friday in the night, the holy cream and oyl, and he that putteth therein his hed, hath one thousand one hundred yere of pardon, and as many karyns.”

“And behynd the hyh aulter stondith a cheyr that God sat in, and whoo sitteth therein has the thred part of all his syns relesyd.”

“And who that visiteth all the oder aulters hath at eche aulter forty-four hundred yere of pardon, and as many karyns, and on the one side of the chirch ther is a sacrifice that is at St. John Baptist’s aulter; and ther is the table that our Lord ete at, upon Maunday Thurresday. And also the Tables of Stone with the X Commandments, that our Lord gafe to Moyses, on the mount of Sinai. And ther is a IV square of the five barley lofes, and of the two fyshes; and allso ther is our Lady’s keverchef…”

“And thus may a man have at Rome (as he concludes) grete pardon and soul helth: Blessyd ben all thoose pepull, and in good tyme born, that resseveth all those graces, and well kepyth them. Of the which Pardone and grace, our Lord Jhesu Chrest mote graunt to all good men, Amen.” (The Customes of London. Lond. 1517.)

(The 16th English spelling in the text above in modern English spelling:)

“In the city of Rome are four churches in which mass is daily done, but there are six of the same privileged above all the others with great holiness and pardon, as is hereafter shown.”

“The first is called St. Peter’s church the Apostle, and is set upon the foot of a hill, and men go upward thereto a stair of 29 steps high; and as often as a man goeth up and down that stair, he is released of the seventh part of penance enjoined and granted by Pope Alexander.”

“Item. As you come before the church, where the bell ringeth, so you may see above the door an image of our Lord, and between his feet standeth one of the pence that God was sold for; and as oft as you look on that penny, you have 1,400 years of pardon.”

“Item. Upon Our Lady Day in Lent, there hangeth before the choir a cloth such as Our Lady made herself, and it hangeth until Our Lady Day Assumption; and as many times as one beholdeth it, he hath 400 years of pardon.”

“Also, as many times as a man goeth through the crypts (crowds) of St. Peter’s Church, he hath 400 years of pardon.”

“And on the feast of St. Peter, a thousand years of pardon, and a thousand carens (forty-day fasts), and the third part of penance enjoined released.”

“And upon the one side of Saint Peter’s Church, a churchyard lieth, and that is called God’s field, and there are buried poor pilgrims and none other; and it is the land that was bought with 30 pence that Our Lord was sold for; as oft as one goeth upon that ground, he hath 1,500 years of pardon.”

“Item. In the church of St. Paul, without the walls, you have 47,000 years of pardon.”

“Also, Pope Pelagius granted there (at St. Lawrence) at the four feasts of the year, at each feast, 700 years of pardon, and as many carens; and whoever goeth thither every Wednesday, he delivereth a soul out of purgatory, and himself quit of all sins.”

“Item. There standeth a chair in which Pope Anacletus (Accensius) was martyred, and to all those who sit in that chair, is granted 100,000 years of pardon, and as many carens, and every Sunday a soul out of purgatory, and the third part of all sins released.”

“Item. In the Church of St. Mary Major, there standeth on the high altar the bed of St. Jerome, and there you have 14,000 years of pardon, and as many carens.”

“At the high altars are granted 2,800 years of pardon and as many carens; and whoso cometh to the first altar that standeth in the church hath 14,000 years of pardon. And there is a cellar, or a vault, wherein lieth buried 49 Popes that died all martyrs: whoso cometh first into that place delivereth 8 souls out of purgatory, of such as he most desireth, and as much pardon thereto that all the world cannot number nor reckon; and every Sunday you deliver a soul out of purgatory. And in that cellar standeth a pit; there St. Peter and St. Paul were hidden for 250 years, and no man knew where they were become; and whoever putteth his head into that pit and taketh it out again is clean of all sin.”

“Item. In the church of St. John Lateran, Pope Sylvester gave thereto as many years’ pardon as there rained drops of water the day that hallowed the church; and that time it rained so sore that no man had seen a greater rain before that day. And when he had granted this, he thought in himself whether he had so much power or not. Then there came a voice from Heaven and said, ‘Sylvester, thou hast power enough to give that pardon.’”

“At any time that a man cometh to St. John Lateran, he is quit of all sins and of all penance, with that that he be penitent for his sins.”

“Blessed is the mother that beareth the child that heareth mass on Saturdays at St. John Lateran, for he delivereth all those that he desireth out of Purgatory, to the number of 77 souls.”

“Item. Upon the tower of the church standeth a double cross that was made of the sword that St. John was beheaded with; and at every time that a man beholdeth that cross, he hath 14,000 years of pardon, and as many carens of all penance.”

“And at the high altar you have remission of all sins and of all penance, and innumerable pardon more than he needeth for himself.”

“There is the grave that St. John laid himself in when he had said mass, and then came a great light over the grave; and when that light was gone, then found they nothing there but heavenly bread. Into that grave cometh every Good Friday in the night the holy chrism and oil; and he that putteth therein his head hath 1,100 years of pardon, and as many carens.”

“And behind the high altar standeth a chair that God sat in, and whoever sitteth therein has the third part of all his sins released.”

“And whoever visiteth all the other altars hath at each altar 4,400 years of pardon, and as many carens; and on the one side of the church there is a sanctuary that is at St. John the Baptist’s altar; and there is the table that Our Lord ate at upon Maundy Thursday. And also the Tables of Stone with the Ten Commandments that Our Lord gave to Moses on the mount of Sinai. And there is a four-square of the five barley loaves and of the two fishes; and also there is Our Lady’s kerchief…”

“And thus may a man have at Rome (as he concludes) great pardon and soul health: Blessed are all those people, and in good time born, that receive all those graces, and well keep them. Of the which pardon and grace, our Lord Jesus Christ might grant to all good men, Amen.” (The Customs of London, London, 1517)

Such were the numerous and lengthened indulgences granted by the Popes from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century. The principal churches in other places were also well provided with indulgences. The various stations in Jerusalem, too, were not forgotten, along with the shrines of the saints, such as that of “Our Lady of Loretto,” St. James of Compostela in Spain, and a countless variety of others.

Many of these continued in force after the period of the Reformation. Sir Edwin Sandys, who visited the continent at the end of the sixteenth century, says that “at the church of the Augustines, at Padua, there was a plenary indulgence from the day of baptism to the last confession, with 28,000 years more for time to come.” “All the Roman Catholic countries are full of the same riches,” says Chais, “but with less profusion than Italy.”

A very remarkable monumental inscription is still to be seen on the east wall of an oratory formerly belonging to the Earls Rivers, standing on one side of the parochial chapel of Macclesfield. It consists of several plates of brass jointed together with great exactness upon one stone, which measures exactly twenty-three inches in height by twenty-two in breadth. A facsimile of this ancient remain of antiquity is annexed, being about one-sixth the size of the original.

The Latin inscription at the bottom of the monument is on a brass plate twenty-one inches long. The letters, almost an inch in height, are cut out in old church characters. The following is a literal translation:

“Pray for the souls of Roger Legh, and Elizabeth his wife: which Roger indeed died the 4th day of November, in the year of our Lord 1506; but Elizabeth died the 5th day of October, in the year of our Lord 1489: to whose souls may God be propitious.”

The Latin words on the plate near the mouth of the male figure are, when Englished, “In the day of judgment deliver us, O Lord.” Those on the other side, near the female, denote “From perpetual damnation deliver us, O Lord.”

All this, however, was in Latin, and it was probable that the greatest number of spectators would be such as understood only the English language. To engage, therefore, both learned and unlearned to pray for the souls of Roger and Elizabeth Legh, the most observed part of the monument was contrived to be an English inscription, raised a considerable height above the Latin one.

The words of this inscription are: “The pardon for saying of five pater-nosters, five aves, and a crede, is TWENTY-SIX THOUSAND YEARS AND TWENTY-SIX DAYS OF PARDON.” (See Burrough’s View of Popery, etc. 2nd Edit. Lond. 1737.)

But the most remarkable indulgence belonging to this head is the celebrated indulgence of the Portiuncula. The Cardinal Bonifacius de Vitaliniis relates in his Comment. in Clementinas (A.D. 1388) that “the Franciscans maintained, that on every 1st of August, as many souls could be released from purgatory as any one would go in and out of the church of the Portiuncula. They have no apostolic bull for their authority; they merely declare that they have had, from time immemorial, this privilege by divine revelation.” (See Thiers, Traité des Sup. Tom. III. p. 259.)

IV. THOSE CONNECTED WITH THE VARIOUS MONKISH ORDERS AND CONFRATERNITIES

As a general rule, all the religious orders were amply provided by the liberality of the Popes with indulgences, which, in the form itself, generally if not universally included the privilege of choosing a confessor with almost unlimited powers, and particularly with that of conferring on the possessor remission of all his sins at the hour of death; and this he could demand on simple confession and declaration of his own contrition. An indulgence of this kind may be seen in the History of Pius V., by Rev. Jos. Mendham, A.M.

But it is with the indulgences granted to the people that we have chiefly to do in showing the demoralizing influence of popery upon mankind. As the monkish orders increased in numbers from time to time, and the monasteries were thus filled with inmates beyond the means of support, the superiors, among other plans for increasing their wealth and maintaining their dignity, adopted that of admitting lay persons into their fraternities, who were thus endowed with all the privileges possessed by themselves.

The right of choosing a confessor with the unlimited powers above alluded to was, of course, included. The form of adoption is shown in a manuscript given by the learned Weever in his Funeral Monuments (prelim. dis. p. 151). A very curious document is also to be seen in The Weekly Pacquet of Advice from Rome (Vol. II. p. 311). The extent to which this practice prevailed in former days may be inferred from a fact mentioned by Weever.

“Upwards of two thousand persons,” says he, “men, women, and children, lay persons of the nobility and gentry of this kingdom, were admitted thus into one monastery, that of St. Albans; all of whom gave either lands, goods, jewels, plate, copes, vestments, or some ornament or other to the church or convent.” (Weever ubi sup.)

But it was upon the numerous Confraternities of the Romish church that the Popes lavished most profusely these spiritual treasures. According to the definition of the Romanists, “a confraternity is an association of many persons, who unite themselves together, and agree at certain times to render some religious worship to God, to the Virgin, or to some other saint, in such a way as is not common to all.” Thus there was the Confraternity of the Rosary, that of the Scapular, that of the cord of St. Francis, the confraternity of Penitents, etc., etc.

These Confraternities, as we have already observed, were endowed by the Popes with certain peculiar privileges—some more ample and shameless than others, but all answering for the final salvation of the members. As an instance, we will simply furnish the reader with the account given in a very popular popish book of the seventeenth century of the indulgences belonging to the Society of the Rosary (Jesus, Maria, Joseph, Lond. 1657).

The Society of the Rosary was instituted by Father Jacob Spenger, Prior of the Dominican convent at Cologne, for the purpose of extending the use of the Rosary and enhancing its benefits to all who used it. The special advantage of belonging to this Confraternity is said to be “that whosoever is once admitted a member in any one place, is made partaker of the prayers and merits of all them that are of this confraternity throughout the whole universe.”

What is still more remarkable, “not only the living, but also the faithful departed (to wit, the souls in purgatory) may be received and enrolled in this confraternity, and made partakers of these spiritual benefits and privileges, if any of the living brethren and sisters (performing for their deceased friends such pious duties and devotions) desire and procure it.”

“And now let’s produce the promised treasures of the indulgences themselves. In the discovery whereof, first, we shall mention none but such as are expressly avouched by approved and authentical authors, and directly drawn out of the Pope’s bulls and indults.

Secondly, we shall purposely omit the multitude of less indulgences, which remit certain days, years, and quarantines of enjoined penances, and set down only the plenary indulgences which are abundantly numerous to satisfy the most covetous Christian’s devotion.”

V. INDULGENCES CONNECTED WITH THE CONFRATERNITY OF THE ROSARY

At Their First Admittance: Upon the day that any one is first received and enrolled into the sacred Confraternity of the Rosary, having confessed and communicated and recited a third part of the Rosary, and prayed for the peace and tranquillity of the church, he gains a plenary indulgence and remission of all his sins. (Pius V. in his Bull Consueverunt Rom. Pont.)
At Their Own Choice: Any member of the Rosary hath the liberty once in his life, and at the article of his death, to make use of any ghostly father, who is empowered to grant unto him a plenary indulgence. (Innocent VIII.)
At the Hour of Death: In the hour of agony and article of death:
(1) Being confessed and communicated, a plenary indulgence. (Pius V. Consueverunt)
(2) Or saying with mouth or heart, Jesus, Maria, a plenary.
(3) Or calling thrice (either by mouth or heart) upon the holy name of Jesus, a plenary. (Pius V., Gregory XIII., Clement VIII.)
(4) Or having a blessed candle of the Confraternity in their hand, in honor of the Virgin Mary, at the time of their departure, a plenary. (Adrian VI.)
Every First Sunday Within the Month:
(1) Having confessed and communicated, a plenary. (Gregory XIII.)
(2) Or visiting the altar of the Rosary, a plenary. (Gregory XIII.)
(3) Or being present at the procession of the Rosary, a plenary. (Gregory XIII.)
Upon the Seven Feasts of Our Blessed Lady: Which are the Purification, Annunciation, Visitation, Assumption, Nativity, Presentation, and Conception.
(1) Being confessed and communicated, or being contrite with a will to confess and communicate at fit time, a plenary.
(2) Or visiting the altar of the Rosary, a plenary.
(3) Or being present at the procession of the Rosary, a plenary.
For Saying or Hearing the Mass of the Rosary:
(1) They who (by virtue of their privileges) shall say the mass of the Rosary gain a plenary indulgence.
(2) Or shall cause it to be said, a plenary.
(3) Or hear it, gain all the indulgences which are granted to them who recite once the whole Rosary, which is plenary.
For Saying the Rosary: They who shall recite the whole Rosary gain, toties quoties, a plenary. (Julius II. and Leo X.)
For the Days in Which the Fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary Are Celebrated: They who, being truly penitent, confessed and communicated, shall devoutly visit the chapel of the Rosary upon the days in which the fifteen mysteries are celebrated, gain a plenary indulgence. (Gregory XIII.)
For Praying for the Dead:
(1) Every time they recite the whole Rosary for the departed, they gain the delivery of a soul out of purgatory. (Paul III.)
(2) As oft as they shall say, cause to be said, or are present at the mass of the Rosary celebrated for that intention, they free a soul out of purgatory.
(3) All the indulgences granted to the living may be applied to the dead, by communicating, saying mass of the Rosary, reciting the Rosary, etc., for them. (Paul III.)
For Them Who Cannot Be Present: Such brethren and sisters of the Rosary who, by reason of sickness or any other lawful impediment, cannot be present at the processions, nor visit the altar of the Rosary, may notwithstanding gain all the indulgences as if they were present:
(1) By confessing and communicating.
(2) Or by saying the Rosary.
(3) Or the seven penitential psalms, before some altar or devout picture. (Gregory XIII.)
All the indulgences of the stations of Rome are granted to the members of the Rosary by visiting upon these days five altars, or one only (if there be no more) and reciting before each altar five Paters and five Aves, or twenty-five before that one altar. (Leo X.) (pp. 94–103)

VI. INDULGENCES ATTACHED TO CERTAIN PRAYERS, BEADS, MEDALS, ETC.

We have not yet finished our account of Romish indulgences. Many prayers in the old popish books had prefixed to them the notice that such a Pope or Popes granted such and such indulgences to all who recited such a prayer.

In the Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary, printed for the use of the church at Salisbury in the reign of Henry VII., occur the following passages, word for word:

Domina Sancta Maria,

“Our holy Father Sixtus IV., Pope, has granted to all them that devoutly say this prayer before the image of our Lady in the sun, eleven thousand years of pardon.” (p. 42)

“Our holy Father Pope Sixtus hath granted at the instance of the highmost and excellent Princess Elizabeth, late Queen of England, and wife to our sovereign liege Lord King Henry the 7th (God have mercy on her sweet soul, and all Christian souls!) that every day, in the morning, after 8 tollings of the Ave bell, say 3 times the whole salutation of our Lady, Ave Maria gratia, that is to say at 6 of the clock in the morning, 3 Ave Marias; at 12 of the clock at noon, 4 Ave Marias; and at 6 of the clock at even, for every time so doing, is granted, of the spiritual treasure of holy Church, 3 hundred days of pardon, totiens quotiens.” (p. 45)

“These be the 15 O.s, the which the holy Virgin St. Bridget was wont to say daily, before the holy rood in St. Paul’s church at Rome; whoso says this a year, he shall deliver 15 souls out of purgatory of his next kindred; and convert other 15 sinners to good life; and other 15 righteous men of his kin shall persevere in good life. And what ye desire of God, ye shall have it, if it be to the salvation of your soul.” (p. 58) [This refers to fifteen prayers, each beginning with O.]

“To all them that before this image of pity, devoutly say 5 Paternosters and 5 Aves, and a Credo, piteously beholding these arms of Christ’s Passion, are granted thirty-two thousand, seven hundred, and fifty years of pardon.” (p. 64)

“Our holy Father Sixtus IV. granted to all them that, being in a state of grace, say this prayer following, penitently after the elevation of the body of our Saviour, clean remission of all their sins perpetually enduring.”

“Also John the 22nd, Pope of Rome, at the request of the Queen of England, hath granted unto all them that devoutly say this prayer before the image of our Lord crucified, as many days of pardon as there were wounds in the body of our Lord, in the time of his bitter passion, the which were 5,365.” (p. 61)

“These 3 prayers be written in the 1st Chapel of the Holy Crosse in Rome, otherwise called Sacellum sancte Crucis 7 Romanorum; whoso-that devoutly say them, shall obtain 90,000 years of pardon for deadly sins, granted by our holy Father John 22nd, Pope of Rome.” (p. 66)

“This most devoutly prayer, said the holy Father St. Bernardine, daily kneeling, in the worship of the most holy name of Jesus… and it is well to believe, that through the invocation of that most excellent name of Jesu, St. Bernard obtained a singular reward of perpetual consolation of our Lord Jesu Christ. And this prayer is written in a table that hangeth at Rome, in St. Peter’s Church, near in the high altar, there as our holy Father the Pope duly is wont to say the office of the mass. And he that devoutly with a contrite heart daily say this oryson, if he be that day in a state of eternal damnation, then this eternal pain shall be changed him in temporal pain of purgatory; then if he hath deserved the pain of purgatory, that shall be forgotten and forgiven through the infinite mercy of God.” (p. 72)

The above instances are amply sufficient to exhibit the character of these indulgences. Lest, however, it should be said that these belong to bygone ages, we give two or three instances of modern date.

In the Hortulus Animae, under the head of Suffragia Virginum (pp. 340–1), occurs the following rubric: “Pope Alexander VI. granted ten thousand years of indulgences for mortal sins, and twenty for venial sins, to him who should say this prayer before the image of St. Anne, and of the Blessed Virgin, and of her son.” Then follows the prayer.

Another example occurs in a Portuguese book of devotion, called Horas Portuguezas e Manuel de Oragoens, etc., printed with the King’s royal license at Lisbon (A.D. 1675), where we are told that “whoever shall say the following prayer of the merits of the passion of Jesus Christ our Lord, composed by the glorious Father St. Augustine, taken from the original, which is in the chapel of St. John of Lateran, in Rome, shall (provided he obtain that year the bull De sancta cruce) gain, the day in which he recites that prayer, eighty thousand years of indulgence.” (Burrough’s View of Popery)

Sir Edwyn Sandys, who travelled on the continent at the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries, says: “The pardon of Alexander VI. for thirty thousand years, to whosoever, before the altar of our Lady, with Christ and her mother, shall say a peculiar Ave, importing that our Lady was conceived without sin, is printed anew in Italy, and pictured in fairest sort, but these are for short times.”

He adds: “At the sepulchre of Christ in Venice, a stately representation, whereon is written Hic situm est Corpus Domini nostri Jesu Christi, with verses annexed of Conditur hoc tumulo, there is hanging in a printed table of prayer of St. Augustine… with indulgence for eighty-two thousand years, extracted from Boniface VIII., and confirmed by Benedict XII. to whosoever shall say it, and that for every day toties quoties, which yet is somewhat worth, that in a few days a man may provide for a million of worlds, if they did last no longer than this hath done hitherto.” (Europæ Speculum, p. 15, Lond. 1673.)

The beads used by papists to count their prayers to God and the Virgin were also sometimes specially blessed by the Popes, in which case the Paternosters and Aves recited with their help possessed extraordinary powers. A very remarkable account of the indulgences connected with certain blessed beads is contained in the works of Dr. Geddes, which we here give entire:

“Indulgences granted by Pope Adrian VI. of holy memory, to beads or grains which be blessed at the hands of the most illustrious Cardinal Laguinaves, Frigermano, Barbantino, in the year 1528; and have been confirmed by our most holy Father Gregory XIII., on the 26th of May, 1576; and confirmed by Clement VIII. in the year 1603; and now confirmed by our most holy Father Urban, in the 4th year of his pontificate.”

“First. Whosoever has one of these beads and says one Pater Noster and one Ave Mary, shall on any day release three souls out of the punishments of purgatory, and reciting them twice on a Sunday, or on any holiday, shall release six.”

“Also. Reciting five Pater Nosters and five Ave Marys upon a Friday, to the honor of the five wounds of Christ our Lord, shall gain a pardon of seventy thousand years and a remission of all his sins.”

“Also. Reciting on a Saturday seven Pater Nosters and five Ave Marys before the image of a crucifix, if he is not able to go to the stations, he shall gain all the stations within and without the walls of Rome.”

“Also. Having confessed and communicated, he shall gain a plenary indulgence, and remission of all his sins.”

“Also. The priest that hears his confession, and gives him the sacrament, shall gain a plenary indulgence, and remission of all his sins, and shall moreover gain all the indulgences, within and without Rome and Jerusalem.”

“Also. Having communicated, so many Pater Nosters and Ave Marys as he shall say, he shall release so many souls out of purgatory.”

“Also. His Holiness grants that the beads which His Holiness has blessed may touch other beads; which being touched by them, shall have all the same graces, but with this salvo: they that are touched cannot touch others.

“Given in Rome, on the 15th day of the month of Jan. 1607.

We, John Ambrozio, the Apostolical Referendary. To gain these graces, people must have the Bull of the Santa Cruzada.

With all the licences necessary; in Lisbon, by Antonio Alvarez, printer to our Lord the King.”[17]

A still more remarkable document was advertised for sale about twelve months since in the catalogue of a bookseller in Bristol. The following is a literal extract from the catalogue:

“Brigittine Beads. An explication of the indulgences granted to Brigittine Beads, faithfully translated, with permission, with extracts from the statutes of the ARCHCONFRATERNITY of the most Holy and Immaculate HEART of Mary. Manuscript written about 1841. Small 8vo., 28 pages, £3. 3s.”

The following are extracts from the work, with the perusal of which we have been favoured:

“Out of what has been said, you may easily understand what a vast treasure is hidden in St. Brigit’s beads, therefore every body should endeavour to have such beads, there being no indulgence easier to be gained, for you need not say all your beads at once, nor think of any mystery, but only say one Ave Maria, holding one of those beads between your fingers, and you gain five hundred years’ indulgence.” (p. 9)

“O great God! what a treasure of spiritual goods may one gain either for one’s self or the souls in purgatory! And how easily may we satisfy for the punishment of sin, only saying ten upon such beads. What joy do you not cause to the souls, seeing you merit for them, by one ten, five thousand years’ remission of the pain they had deserved. If you are in a state of grace, and do your best to say your beads well, be assured you gain the indulgence, and that upon each Pater Noster and Ave Maria, you gain five hundred years’ indulgence, and get so much lessened of the pain you deserved by your sins.” (p. 10)

At the end are translations of the Pope’s plenary indulgences to the Archconfraternity, one of which is dated 31 March, 1841.

VII. INDULGENCES SOLD OUTRIGHT FOR MONEY

The last class of papal pardons which we shall have occasion to bring before the reader’s notice consists of those which were granted on the payment of a specified sum of money. In the primitive age of the church, an individual who was still in nature’s darkness sought to purchase the grace of God from the Apostle Peter, but the memorable answer of the man of God instantly repelled this attempt: “Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God might be purchased with money.”

Such, however, was the fearful transformation which the visible church in the West had undergone that a writer of the fifteenth century, afterwards raised to the popedom under the name of Pius II., assures us that “the Court of Rome bestows nothing without payment. For the ordination of priests, etc., and the gifts of the Holy Spirit are sold! And even the pardon of sins can only be obtained by money!”[18]

From the very commencement of their history, papal indulgences were to a considerable extent venal in their character. Almost all the bulls of indulgences have attached to them the famous clause by which the Popes require the faithful “to render a helping hand”[19] in order to gain the promised indulgence. In some, certain sums are required, according as the papal officer may determine.

However, during the thirteenth and two following centuries, the Popes became more venal than ever in their indulgences, insomuch that the enormities which were committed were at length the principal occasion of the Reformation of the sixteenth century.

Gregory IX. was one of the earliest pontiffs who distinguished himself by gross venality in the practice of indulgences. In the year 1235, he published throughout England a crusade against the Saracens, with plenary indulgences, and engaged a countless number of individuals to take the vow of going to the Holy Land. Soon afterwards, however, he compelled them all to purchase from him a dispensation from their vow, at a certain sum fixed by himself.

Five years afterwards, he practised the same imposition upon the same people. (Rapin, vol. 2, Life of Hen. III., ad annum 1235 and 1240.) Boniface IX., in the middle of the fourteenth century, in extending the jubilee to all nations, attached this disgraceful condition: that those who obtained the indulgences should contribute so much money as the pilgrimage to Rome would have cost them.

This is acknowledged by a popish writer on the subject of indulgences. (Hist. des Indul. Paris 1702, apud Chais.) This gross act of venality, however, was far outdone by the same pontiff, at a later period of his pontificate.

“In the year 1361,” says the same author, “in the month of January, the indulgence being ended at Rome, and the people of Lombardy having been prevented from going thither, by reason of the war and the troubled state of the times; Pope Boniface IX., at the prayer of Count Jno. Galeazzo, granted to the city of Milan, this indulgence in the same form as at Rome; viz., that all the subjects of that Prince, ALTHOUGH THEY WERE NEITHER CONRITE NOR CONFESSED, should be absolved from all their sins in that city, provided they remained there ten successive days, and visited every day five churches; offering at the first of these churches, two thirds of the expense which the journey to Rome would have cost; of which donation two parts should go towards the fabric itself, and the other to the Pope.” (Thiers, Traité des Superst. Tom. iii. 215, apud Chais)

In the year 1500, the Romish jubilee was celebrated with more than usual éclat by Alexander VI. Not satisfied, however, with the immense sums derived from this solemnity, the Pope promulgated a bull to the effect that all Christians might gain the “heavenly grace” without coming to Rome, provided that they paid a certain sum for this favour.

He sent commissioners to all parts to receive the money, and the following account of the proceedings of Gaspar Pons, who visited England in that capacity, taken from an old roll, will enable us to judge what was done in other places.

The tax that every Man shall put into the Cheste that woll receyze the gret Grace of Jubeley.

Furst: Every man and woman what degree or condition or state soever they be, if he be Archebuschop, Duk, or oder Dignite, Spirituall or Temporal, having Londs to the yearly valour of 2,000l. or above, if thei will receive this gret Induljens and grase of this Jubiley for themselves and ther Wyfes and children not maryed, shall without Disseyt put into the cheste ordeined for that entent of trew and lawful moni, 3l. 7s. 8d.

Also, every Man and Woman that hath londs and rents to the yerely Valour of 1,000l. must pay for themselfs and wyfes 40s.

Also. All those that hath londs, etc. to the yerely value of 400l. must pay 26s. 8d.

Item. All those that hath londs, etc. to the yerely valour of 200l. must pay 18s. 4d.

Item. All those that hath londs, etc. to the yerely valour of 100l. must pay 6s. 8d.

Item. All those that hath londs, etc. to the yerely valour of 40l. must pay 2s. 6d.

Item. All those that hath londs, etc. to the yerely valour of 20l. must pay 16d.

Item. All men of religion having londs, etc. to the yerely valour of 1,000l. must pay for themselfs and their Covent 10l.

Item. Those that hath londs, etc. to the yerely valour of 500l. must pay for them and their Covent 5l. 4s.

Item. Thos that hath londs, etc. to the yerely valour of 300l. must pay for them and their Covent 3l. 6s. 8d.

Item. All thos that hath londs, etc. to the yerely valour of 250l. must pay for them and their Covent 20s.

Item. All thos that hath londs, etc. to the yerely valour of 40l. must pay for them and their Covent 10s.

Item. Secular Men and Women that hath londs, etc. to the yerely valour of 10l. whos movable goods extendeth to 1,000l. must pay for themselfs and wyfs 40s.

Item. Thos whos Goods movable extendyth to 400l. must pay for themselfs and Wyfs 6s. 8d.

Item. Thos whos Goods movable extendyth to 200l. must pay for themselfs and Wyfs 3s. 4d.

Item. Thos whos Goods movable be within 200l. and not undre 20l. must pay 12d.

Item. Thos whos Goods movable extendeth not to 20l. shall pay for themselfs their Wyfs and children as it shall please them of their devotion.

After this are certain articles of the Bull of dispensation, with simony, usury, and of goods to be wrongfully kept reserved to the commissary only. “Alway provyded that the seyd persons make a composycyon hereof with the seyd Comissary and seche moni as thei compound for effectnally to pay to the seyd Comissary.”[20]

Incredible as these things may appear, worse yet remain behind. The further the rye [age] of the Middle Ages rolled away, the more absurd did the superstitions and impostures of popery become, thus demonstrating to all the radical and incurable wickedness of that antichristian system. If popery appears changed now, it is simply because the counteracting influence of Protestantism is at present brought to bear upon the doctrines and practices of the man of sin.

The scenes of papal wickedness to which we now allude took place, as most of our readers know, in the pontificate of Leo X., one of the boasted ornaments of St. Peter’s See. Being greatly in want of money to provide for his immense expenditure, Leo published a bull in the year 1517 announcing a general indulgence, the proceeds of which were, he said, to be employed in the erection of the church of St. Peter, that monument of sacerdotal splendour.

The commissaries chosen by Leo for the collecting of the moneys were Tetzel for Germany; Archimbold for Denmark, Sweden, and the neighbouring states; and Samson for Switzerland. The course pursued by each of these indulgence-merchants was very similar; it will be sufficient here to follow the steps of one of these from the immortal work of D’Aubigné on the Reformation.

“The merchants,” says the historian, “travelled the country in a fine carriage, accompanied by three mounted attendants, journeying in grand style, and living at great expense. One would have said it was some High Mightiness with his suite and officers, and not a vulgar dealer or mendicant monk. When the cortège approached a town, a messenger was despatched to the magistrate to say, ‘The grace of God and of St. Peter is at your gates.’

Immediately the whole place was in motion. Clergy, priests, nuns, the council, schoolmasters and their scholars, the incorporations with their colours, men and women, old and young, went out to meet the merchant, with lighted tapers in their hands, amid the sound of music and the ringing of bells, ‘insomuch,’ says a historian, ‘that God himself could not have been received with greater honour.’

After the formalities were over, the whole body proceeded to the church. The bull of grace, by the pontiff, was carried in front, on a velvet cushion or cloth of gold. Next came the chief of the indulgence merchants, carrying a large wooden cross painted red. The whole procession moved forward amid hymns, prayers, and the smoke of incense. The merchant monk and his attendants were received at the church by the pealing organ and thrilling music.

The cross was placed in front of the altar, and over it the Pope’s arms were suspended. All the time it remained there, the clergy of the place, the penitentiaries and subcommissaries came each day after vespers, or before the salute, to do obeisance to it, with white wands in their hands. This grand affair produced a lively sensation in the quiet cities of Germany.

“At these sales one personage in particular drew the attention of the spectators. It was he who carried the red cross and played the principal character. He was clothed in the dress of a Dominican, and had an arrogant air. His voice was stentorian, and though in his sixty-third year, he seemed still in full vigour.

This man, the son of one Diez, a jeweller of Leipsic, was called John Diezel or Tetzel. He had studied in his native town—became bachelor in 1487, and two years after entered the Dominican order. Numerous honours had accumulated on his head: Bachelor in Theology, prior of the Dominicans, apostolic commissary, inquisitor; he had discharged the office of commissary of indulgences without intermission, from 1502.

The skill which he had acquired as subaltern soon raised him to the office of commissary-in-chief. He had eighty florins a month and all his expenses paid, together with a carriage and three horses; but his perquisites (it is easy to comprehend what they were) far exceeded his salary. In 1507, at Freiberg, he gained two thousand florins in two days. As he discharged the functions, he had also the manners of a quack. Convicted of adultery and shameful misconduct at Innsbruck, his vices had almost cost him his life. The Emperor Maximilian had ordered him to be put into a sack and thrown into the river; but the Elector Frederick, happening to arrive, obtained his pardon.

“After the cross was erected, and the arms of the Pope suspended over it, Tetzel ascended the pulpit, and with a tone of assurance began to extol the value of the indulgences in presence of the crowd, who had been attracted to the church by the ceremony. The people listened and stared, on hearing the wondrous virtues of which he told them. Let us listen to one of his harangues after setting up the cross.

There is no sin too great for an indulgence to remit, and even should any one (the thing no doubt is impossible) have done violence to the Holy Virgin Mary, mother of God, let him only pay well, and it will be forgiven him. Think then that for each mortal sin you must, after confession and contrition, do penance for seven years, either in this life or in Purgatory. Now, how many mortal sins are committed in one day, in one week? How many in a month, a year, a whole life? Ah! these sins are almost innumerable, and innumerable sufferings must be endured for them in Purgatory. And now by means of these letters of indulgence, you can at once for life, in all cases except four, which are reserved to the Apostolic See, and afterwards at the hour of death, obtain a full remission of all your pains, and all your sins.

“‘But more than this,’ said he, ‘indulgences not only save the living, but the dead. For this, repentance even is not necessary. Priest! noble! merchant! wife! young girls! young men! hear your departed parents, and your other friends, crying to you from the bottom of the abyss, “We are enduring horrible torments! A little alms would deliver us; you can give it, and yet will not!”’

“These words, uttered by the formidable voice of the charlatan monk, made his hearers shudder.

“‘O imbecile and brutish people! who perceive not the grace that is so richly offered to you. Now Heaven is everywhere open. Do you receive it this hour to enter? When then will you enter? Now you can ransom so many souls! Hard-hearted and thoughtless man, with twelve pence you can deliver your father out of purgatory, and you are ungrateful enough not to save him! It will be published in the day of judgment, but you will be punished the more severely for having neglected so great salvation. I declare to you, that though you had only a single coat, you would only be bound to take it off and sell it, in order to obtain this grace. The Lord our God is no longer God. He has committed all power to the Pope.’

“At the termination of the discourse, the indulgence was understood ‘to have established its throne in the place, in due form.’ Confessionals were set up, adorned with the Pope’s arms. The sub-commissaries and the confessors whom they selected were considered to represent the apostolical penitentiaries of Rome at the Jubilee; and on each of these confessionals were pasted, in large characters, their names, surnames, and designations.

“Then a crowd pressed forward to the confessor, each coming with a piece of money in his hand. Men, women, and children, the poor, even those who lived on alms, all found means of procuring money. The penitentiaries, after having explained anew the greatness of the indulgence to each individual, asked, ‘How much money can you afford to part with, in order to obtain so complete a forgiveness?’ ‘This question,’ says the instruction of the Archbishop of Mentz to the commissaries, ‘should be put at this moment, that the penitents may thereby be the better disposed to contribute.’

“Four valuable graces were promised to those who aided in building the basilica of St. Peter. ‘The first grace which we announce to you,’ said the commissaries, according to their Letter of Instruction, ‘is the complete pardon of all sins.’ After this came three other graces: first, the right of choosing a confessor who, whenever the hour of death should seem to be at hand, would give absolution from all sins, and even from the greatest crimes reserved for the Apostolic See; second, a participation in all the blessings, works, and merits of the Catholic church, in prayers, fastings, alms, and pilgrimages; and third, the redemption of the souls which are in purgatory.

“When the confession was over, and it did not last long, the faithful hastened towards the seller. One only had charge of the sale, and kept his counter near the cross. He carefully eyed those who approached him, examining their air, bearing, or dress, and asked a sum proportioned to the appearance which each presented. Kings, queens, archbishops, and bishops were, according to the regulation, to pay twenty-five ducats for an ordinary indulgence; abbots, counts, and barons paid ten. Others of the nobility, rectors, and all who had an income of five hundred florins paid six. Those who had two hundred florins a year paid one; others, only a half.

For particular sins, Tetzel had a particular tax. Polygamy paid six ducats; theft in a church, and perjury, nine ducats; murder, eight ducats; magic, two ducats.” (Hist. of Reform. Vol. 1. B. III. ch. 1.)

The above testimony is sufficient to prove the gross venality of Papal Rome. It still remains, however, to notice the “Tax-book of the Apostolic Chancery,” a work in which indulgences from all imaginable crimes are rated at a fixed price.

The origin of this infamous work is ascribed to John XXII., who occupied the Papal throne A.D. 1316–1334 [or 1340]. Such is the horrible character of the book that Papists, ever since the Reformation, have uniformly denied its authenticity, and even inserted it in their Index Expurgatorius as a prohibited book, written by Protestants to calumniate the Romish church!

The labours of modern scholars, however, have completely set at rest this important question. From an admirable work on the subject[21] by the Rev. Joseph Mendham, A.M., lately published, it appears that no less than seventeen editions of this abominable Tax-book are known, which were published by the church of Rome itself before the Reformation, from the year 1471 to the year 1516.

Independently of this, the testimony of Claude d’Espence, a celebrated Popish theologian of the sixteenth century, is amply sufficient to establish the authenticity of this work. In his “Commentary on Titus,” that writer says: “There is to be seen in Paris a printed book, which is sold in public, both now and for a long time past, called ‘The Taxes of the Apostolic Chancery,’ in which more enormities and crimes may be learnt than in all the books of the Summists. Of these crimes some may be committed on buying the permission, but of all, absolution may be bought after they have been committed!”

He then goes on to say that the work contains “absolutions, licences, impunities for adulterers, fornicators, perjurers, simonists, forgers, ravishers, usurers, &c.; for manslayers and murderers; nor are murderers of clergy, parricides, matricides, fratricides, murderers of wives, or mothers who slay or smother their infants, sorcerers, magicians, poisoners, those who keep concubines, incestuous persons, sodomites, &c., &c., excluded from these privileges.” (Cl. Espencæus ad. cap. 1. Epist. ad Tit. p. 67. Parisiis 1561/1698.) Such is the testimony of the celebrated Claude d’Espence, doctor of the Sorbonne and rector of the University of Paris, to the authenticity and horrible character of this work of Hell. In the present day, no intelligent Papist would venture to deny that it was a bona fide production of the church of Rome.

The following are some of the fees paid to the Pope for Absolutions, Dispensations, &c., as given in the celebrated Paris edition, in folio, published A.D. 1520:

ABSOLUTIONS

For him that reveals the confession of another — 10s. 6d.
For him who lies with a Woman in the Church and commits other enormities — 9s. 0d.
For him that has committed perjury — 9s. 0d.
For a Layman for the vice of Simony — 9s. 0d.
For a Priest for the vice of Simony — 10s. 6d.
For a Monk for the vice of Simony — 12s. 0d.
For a Layman for murdering a layman — 7s. 6d.
For him that has killed Father, Mother, or Wife — 10s. 6d.
For laying violent hands on a Clergyman or a religious man, if without effusion of blood — 10s. 6d.
For the crime of abortion — 7s. 6d.
For a Priest that keeps a concubine — 10s. 6d.
For a Layman that keeps a concubine — 10s. 6d.
For him that has defiled a virgin — 9s. 0d.
For the crime of Incest — 10s. 6d.
For him that possesses many benefices — 10s. 6d.

DISPENSATIONS

For a bastard to enter all Holy Orders — 18s. 0d.
To marry in the fourth degree of Consanguinity — 2l. 5s. 0d.
To marry in the third degree of Consanguinity — 3l. 10s. 0d.
To marry in the second degree of Consanguinity — 4l. 15s. 0d.
To marry in the first degree of Consanguinity — 1,000l. 0s. 0d.
For one that is found hanged, to have a Christian burial — 15s. 0d.
For one under age to enter holy orders — 7s. 6d.
To be ordained at any time of year — 1l. 1s. 0d.

LICENCES

For a man to change his vow — 15s. 0d.
To eat flesh and white meats in Lent, &c. — 10s. 6d.
For a king or queen to enjoy the same indulgences as if they went to Rome — 15l. 0s. 0d.
For a king or prince to exact contributions of the clergy — 3l. 0s. 0d.
If the contribution amount to 100,000 florins, then, for the first thousand — 4l. 0s. 0d.
And for every other — 1l. 10s. 0d.
For him that preaches before a king, to give indulgences to all who hear him — 15l. 0s. 0d.
To found a hospital or chapel — 15l. 0s. 0d.
For a city to coin money — 18l. 0s. 0d.
For a layman to choose his confessor — 10s. 6d.
To have a portable altar — 15s. 0d.
To go into a Nunnery alone — 10s. 6d.
For a town to take out of the church those who have taken sanctuary there — 15s. 0d.
For a bishop to take to himself a year’s profit of every vacant benefice for three years — 15l. 0s. 0d.
To exact a subsidy of his clergy — 3l. 0s. 0d.

Such is the celebrated Tax-book of the Apostolic Chancery, the publication of which stamps the church of Rome with eternal infamy.

“But we may, and have been told, that these works have been formally and publicly condemned by Papal authority in the Indices Prohibitorii. This is a matter worth inquiring into: it is both a literary and a Papal curiosity. By the year 1564, when the Trent Index was compiled and published (to say nothing of preceding Indexes), twenty-seven of the editions of the Taxæ had appeared, and there were probably more, now unknown—and yet no notice was taken of them, not of a single instance.

The first notice which was taken of them, or rather of something like one of them, was in the year 1570, just a century after the appearance of the first edition, and that not in a Roman Index, but in an appendix to the Roman one, published by the authority of the King of Spain. And in what terms does it there appear? Praxis et Taxa Officinæ Pœnitentiariæ, a work which, if it ever existed under that title, was probably never, and is certainly now, not known. It is, however, generally admitted to refer to the copy in the Centum Gravamina, as if this were the only edition, or none had proceeded from Rome and elsewhere, or were not known!

But let us follow the progress of this singular condemnation. With apparent misgiving, and possibly with some fear that, in its simple form, it might involve what the Papacy knew to be its own offspring, the next Index published by Papal authority in Rome, that of 1596 by Clement VIII., adds: ‘ab hæreticis depravata.’

In the edition by Pius VI. in 1786, it is still further slightly, probably with some intention, altered: ‘cum ab hæreticis sit depravata.’ It is the same in Pius VII.’s in 1806, and in 1819. By this specification the condemnation is limited, but it is a virtual admission that some copy or copies existed which were not so depraved. It would have been charitable to point out how they were depraved….

And this dilatory, ambiguous condemnation of a poor solitary nondescript is to be accepted as a proof of innocence or acquittal from the guilt of having issued or authorised the abominable works in question!

Further, how are we to account for the exemplary forbearance and deep silence of these organs of biblical condemnation respecting all the other editions of the Taxæ but the one which is noticed, that of Banck, by known heretics, by Du Pinet, by Wolfius, by S. du Mont, and other nameless editors at Paris and Amsterdam? The fact is, the Taxæ, admitted plainly to have been published, if not for the first time by a Pope, John XXII., stand very nearly upon the same ground as the Regulæ, Ordinationes, Constitutiones, &c., together with which they are often bound up, which have never been disputed as Papal productions, and with which in all their divisions they bear every mark and proof of strict alliance or fraternity.”[22]

The instances hitherto adduced may be called Venal Pardons granted by wholesale. But during this whole period it appears to have been the custom with the Popes to grant indulgences to individual persons on receiving a due consideration in money.

Numerous instances of this kind are to be found in various works on Popery. In digging up the foundations of St. Paul’s in London, an indulgence was met with, granted to Sir Gerard Braybrooke and his wife, Elizabeth, by Pope Boniface IX. in the year 1390. (See Hist. of Popery, where the original Latin may be seen, Vol. 1, p. 182.)

In an old and curious work by John Gee, A.M., of Exeter College, Oxford, under the title of “New Shreds of the Old Snare,” is a great deal about Popish Pardons. He mentions also several personal Indulgences similar to the above.

One was given to a Countess in 1607, enabling her to free a soul on a certain day out of Purgatory, and by virtue of masses obtain for her relatives the remission of the third part of their sins, and ‘if confessed and communicated’ the same day—a plenary indulgence; another to Sir John Markham, in 1608; another to the family of the Marfields, in 1668; another to Lord M., containing a plenary remission of all sins, both from the punishment and the guilt (a pœna et culpa) for a thousand Lents and sixty-five years, and power to free one of his friends out of Purgatory.

Another was granted by Paul V. in 1605 to a gentleman and his wife, containing the remission of all their sins, and freedom from Purgatory. A number of pardons of a general nature follow, which are a pœna et culpa, granted by Innocent VIII. and Clement VII.

But the most remarkable indulgence, perhaps, on record, is in a work which we have already often quoted, Lettres sur les Jubilés, &c., by Mons. Chais. This learned writer gives an account of an English Protestant gentleman who wished to obtain an Indulgence for himself and family. He succeeded in his desire, and procured from Benedict XIV. a plenary indulgence in the hour of death, for himself and his family to the third degree. The whole original document in Latin is given by Chais in a note (p. 806).

The principal forms in which Indulgences were granted by the Popes of Rome have thus been briefly considered; it now only remains to add a few observations on the GUILT and the EVIL RESULTS of these abominable impostures.

The subject we have been considering is one of those on which modern Papists feel very sore. In order to avoid the difficulties which press upon them, it is alleged that “nothing more is meant by Indulgences than the releasing, to such as are truly penitent, the debt of temporal punishment which remained due on account of those sins which, as to their eternal punishment, had already been remitted.” (Gother’s Papist Misrepresented, &c., Sect. 8.)

The most cursory glance, however, at the history of Indulgences is sufficient to show the falsehood of this statement. It is true, as we have already seen, that the early indulgences granted by the bishops in the tenth and eleventh centuries extended to the remission of canonical penances only.

But what has this to do with the indulgences so profusely scattered over all Europe by the Popes during the three centuries which preceded the Reformation? No honest mind, possessed of any acquaintance with the subject, can hesitate to admit that these impious productions remitted the eternal punishment, as well as the guilt, of all sins, however enormous!

Urban II., in his Bull of the first Crusade, promised an indulgence of all their sins to such as would go to the Holy Land, and expressly mentioned those which the Scripture says exclude from the kingdom of God, as murder, theft, etc.;[23] and assured them that an eternal reward should be their portion after death.[24]

The same indulgences were promised by Calixtus II. (1122), Eugenius III. (1145), and others after them. In reference to which, Morinus well observes, “these indulgences cannot be understood of mere canonical penances, because such a remission of all sins is granted upon which eternal life follows, and therefore respects God, and not the church.” (De Sacr. Pen. l. 10, c. 22.)

Many of the Jubilee Bulls, too, promise the remission of the guilt as well as the punishment, and offer to the people an entire remission of sins, without distinction; and although a charge that they are forged has been brought against them by Papists, it should be remembered that of many of these the authenticity has never been questioned.

Boniface VIII., the author of the Jubilee, promised in his Bull “not only full and larger, but also THE FULLEST PARDON OF ALL SINS.”[25] The meaning of which indulgence is said, by the gloss on the bull, to be, “that it effaces the guilt, as well as the punishment of sin.”[26] The same explanation is given by the gloss on the Jubilee Bull of Clement VI.

The plenary indulgences also which were so profusely distributed by the Popes, in various forms, during the 14th and 15th centuries, were unquestionably regarded by all as being full remissions both of the guilt and punishment.

The celebrated Antoninus confesses that “plenary indulgences are commonly termed Indulgences for the guilt as well as the punishment,” though he thinks it cannot be true “because God alone has the power to remit the guilt of sin.” [Apud Chais, p. 625.]

Pope Sylvester is quoted by Mons. Thiers, a modern Papist, as saying “that the plenary indulgence is commonly called de pena et culpa; that is, both from the guilt and punishment.”

And another eminent doctor is quoted by Foulis as saying, “when the Pope grants plenary absolution, it is understood that he absolves as well from the guilt as the punishment, as respects all sins however enormous.”[27]

And as to indulgences sold under the pontificate of Leo X. by Archimbold, Samson, and Tetzel, it is granted by all that the foulest iniquities were at once wiped away and the purchasers restored to the original purity possessed at baptism!

It is thus, we think, established upon indubitable evidence—the evidence of Papists themselves—that whatever indulgences mean in the present day, those which were issued from the 12th century to the Reformation remitted both the guilt and punishment of sins, however enormous.

Hence it is impossible to shut one’s eyes to the awful blasphemy and impiety which it involved, as one of the evils of this wicked system. In the practice of indulgences the Popes of Rome usurped the very throne of God. They professed, and were believed, to blot out the sins of men and open the gate of heaven at their sovereign pleasure.

At one time connecting the certain and eternal salvation of the people with military service or a pilgrimage; at another, with the repetition of a prayer, or the payment of a trifling sum of money—and this, in many cases, without the slightest mention of repentance.

As the usurpation of the mercy of God—the darling attribute, so to speak, of the Most High—this was the most hateful and impious thing which had ever roused divine wrath. In the bulls of indulgence, beyond all other things, the Popes truly “sat in the temple of God, showing that they were God”; and in admitting their claim, the people of Christendom (to change the figure) were made “drunk with the wine of the fornication of Babylon the Great, Mother of Harlots and abominations of the earth.”

But it is to the demoralizing effect of these indulgences upon mankind at large that we desire chiefly to direct the reader’s attention. Human nature being what it is, we can easily suppose what the operation of these wondrous pardons must have been upon the deluded victims of papal avarice.

Of one and all it may be confidently asserted that, since they absolved the wicked from all the guilt and consequences of their sins while their nature continued unchanged, the direct and necessary tendency of indulgences was to encourage sin.

They took away the only motive to a moral life of which unconverted men are susceptible, viz., the dread of future punishment; and henceforward nothing could be looked for but an immense increase of immorality and crime.

The indulgences of the Romish Church, then, from the twelfth century to the sixteenth, can only be regarded by the Christian as a wide-spreading pestilence, infecting all Europe with disease and death.

During two centuries, with short intervals, the Popes’ bulls were constantly inviting “the faithful” to join the crusades, and thus obtain the remission of all their sins, and we have already seen how many millions of human beings were brought under their soul-destroying influence.

Scarcely had these abominable wars ceased when the Jubilee was instituted, which offered, eventually every twenty-five years, plenary indulgence of their sins to the most notorious transgressors, provided they came to Rome to perform their devotions so many days.

Besides these, innumerable other opportunities were at all times presented, as the foregoing pages show, for the attainment of the same object. Eternal salvation was offered by him who held the place of God on earth to the vilest of the vile: at one time for visiting such a church, at another for reciting such a prayer, at another for joining such a society, at another for paying such a sum of money, etc., the repentance of the individuals being a matter of no account whatever in these exercises of papal arrogance.

Surely the slightest knowledge of human nature will suffice to convince every reader that the effect of the indulgences so profusely distributed by the Popes during this lengthened period for the increase of their wealth must have been pernicious in the extreme.

The testimony of contemporary writers might be adduced in order to substantiate this heavy accusation. Polydore Vergil tells us “that when indulgences had become common, many men abstained less from wicked actions.” (Polyd. Virg. de invent. rerum apud Still.)

The author of the work called The Burden of the Church says “they take men off from the fruits of repentance, and are profitable only to the idle and the wicked.” (Onus Eccles. c. 14, s. 28.)

Platina, the celebrated Popish historian, speaking of the time of Boniface IX., says “the sale of indulgences brought the ecclesiastical authority into contempt, AND GAVE ENCOURAGEMENT TO MANY INIQUITIES.”

Urspergensis also in his Chronicles (p. 322) complains that plenary indulgences brought more wickedness into the world; for men said, “Let me do what wickedness I will, I shall be delivered by indulgences from punishment, and free the souls of others in purgatory.”

Such were the opinions entertained by Papists themselves who lived in the earlier periods of this practice. What, then, must have been the effects of the later forms of indulgences upon the morals of mankind?

The indulgences circulated by the papal commissaries a little before the Reformation were “nothing less,” says Waddington, “when fairly interpreted, than AN UNCONDITIONAL PERMISSION TO SIN FOR THE REST OF LIFE” (chap. 28, sect. 2); “and as such,” he adds, “they were assuredly received by those classes of the people for whom they were chiefly intended.”

The same statement is made by the celebrated D’Aubigné. “The learned,” says he, “were not too well informed on the subject, whilst the only thing seen by the multitude was the fact that indulgences GAVE THEM PERMISSION TO SIN.” (Hist. of Ref. b. 1, c. 2.)

Nor can these testimonies be set aside as being mere Protestant calumnies, since in the Centum Gravamina of the German princes, presented to the Diet of Nuremberg long before the Reformation took place, the same testimony is given:

“But especially, the burden and grievance of the Pope’s indulgences and pardons are most insupportable; since the bishops of Rome under pretence of building some church there, or to fight against the Turks, issue their indulgences by Bulls, persuading and promising to the simple people strange and wonderful benefits of remission from the guilt and punishment of sins (a pena et culpa), and that not only in this life, but also afterwards to such as are dead and now suffering in the fire of Purgatory. Through the hope and occasion of which, true piety is almost extinct in all Germany; while every evil-disposed person promises to himself, for a little money, license and impunity to do what he pleases. Upon which ensue fornication, incest, adultery, perjury, murders, robbery, and spoiling, rapine, usury, with a whole flood of other evils.” (Cent. Grav. in Fox.)

Such was the fearful pestilence which raged with increasing violence during the three centuries which preceded the Reformation. Nor is its course yet arrested. In all the Popish kingdoms of Europe it still destroys its tens of thousands.

The Council of Trent decreed that “the power of granting indulgences has been bestowed by Christ upon his church”; and enjoins “that the use of them, so salutary to Christian people, and approved by the authority of venerable councils, shall be retained by the church.”

Accordingly, indulgences continue to the present day to form an important item in the papal revenue. The Jubilee bulls every 25 years invite the faithful to Rome by promising “a plenary indulgence, remission, and pardon of all their sins.” (See Bull of Indiction for the jubilee of 1826, in Laity’s Directory for that year.)

In Spain a lucrative traffic is driven in this article of papal merchandise. Four bulls containing special indulgences are annually sent there from Rome, which are bought by almost all the Spaniards at prices suited to the condition of the purchasers.

The first is the Bull of Cruzada, which contains several plenary indulgences, and enables the possessor to eat milk, eggs, and butter during Lent, which would otherwise constitute mortal sin. Another is termed the Flesh Bull, to enable them to eat meat on certain days.

The third is called the Compounding Bull, for the retention of property obtained by robbery or by fraud where it cannot be traced to the owner. The last is termed the Defunct Bull, and is purchased for the benefit of the deceased.

“The name of any dead person being entered on the bull, a plenary indulgence is, by this means, believed to be conveyed to his soul if suffering in purgatory. It is a common practice to bury these bulls with the corpses of those whom they are intended to benefit.” (Blanco White, Practical and Internal Evidence against Catholicism, p. 85.)

We have the testimony of a Papist himself to the demoralizing effects of indulgences in the present day. Speaking of the notoriously depraved state of morals in Italy, Mr. Eustace asks, “May it not be ascribed to the corruptions of the national religion, to the facility of absolution, and to the EASY PURCHASE OF INDULGENCES?”

On the evidence of one of the most enlightened of her sons, then, we do not hesitate to brand the Church of Rome as the subject of the prophecy of the fourth seal: “I looked, and behold a pale horse, and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth to kill with THE PESTILENCE.”

Footnotes

[1] Morinus de Penitentia, Bruxellis, 1685.

[2] Hist. des Indulg. Liv. ii. c. 16.

[3] “Whoever through devotion only, and not for the attainment of honour or money, shall proceed to Jerusalem to liberate the church of God, that journey shall be reckoned to him instead of all repentance.” (Quicunque pro sola devotione, non pro honoris vel pecuniae adeptione, ad liberandam ecclesiam Dei, Jerusalem profectus fuerit iter illud pro omni penitentia reputetur.) Can. Claromontanus II. in Gieseler. Comp. Urban’s address at Clermont, from the Chron. Cassauriense written about A.D. 1182. “If any one,” said he, “dies on the road or in battle for Christ, he shall be reckoned among the martyrs, and be absolved from all his sins.” (Si quisquam in via, sive in pugna, pro Christo moreretur, in numero Martyrum, absolutus ab omnibus peccatis suis, computetur.) Vide Giesl.

[4] Nosti—enormia quae in transmarinis partibus committuntur, etc.

[5] See the orignal extracts in Gieseler. Vol.2.p.358.

[6] The materials of this section are chiefly derived from the valuable work of Mons. Chais, a French Protestant minister at the Hague entitled “Lettres Historiques et Dogmatiques sur les Jubiles et les Indulgences.” la Haye. 1751. 3 vols. 12mo.

[7] “Anceps et pene extra opinionis fidem rumor,” is the language of the Cardinal St. George; from whom our original information is derived. (See Chais’s note p. 65.)

[8] “Et nihilominus prorsus mandamus Angelis paradisi, quatenus animam illius prorsus a Purgatorio penitus absolutam in Paradisi gloriam introducant.” The authenticity of this remarkable Bull is triumphantly established by Mons. Chais. (Lettres Hist. et Dogm. Tom. I. 157–160.) Consult also a valuable note in Mendham’s Venal Indulgences, etc. p. 48. Lond. 1839.

[9] Magnum Chron. Belg. apud. Rer. Germ. Script. apud Chais, Vol. 1.

[10] Matt. Villani lib. 1. c. 4. Apud Chais.

[11] Raynald ad an. 1350. n. 1.

[12] Meier apud Spond. ad. an. 1350.

[13] Craconius and Bzovius pretend that it took place in 1425. See however Bonani, Numism. Pontif. Rom. Vol. I. p. 25.

[14] Mariana De reb. Hisp. apud. Contin. de Flenry.

[15] The testimony of the Jesuit Raynaldi shews that this was done to avoid exciting Luther’s indignant reproofs—“ ob publicam scilicet offensionem, quod ejusmodi largitione, Lutherus oblaterandi occasionem sumpsisset.” (Ad an, 1535, n. 1. apud Chais.)

[16] Fiscus Papalis sive Catalogus indulgentiarum, etc. Lond. 1621.

[17] A view of some Papal Indulgences, &. Dr. Geddes’ Tracts on Popery. 4 vols. 8vo. London.

[18] Nihil est quod absque argento, Romana Curia dedat. Nam et ipse manus impositiones, et Spiritus Sancti dona venduntur. Nec peccatorum venia nisi nummatis, impenditur. Zn. Sylvii, Ep. lxvi. p. 549. opp. Basil. 1571.

[19] Porrigendis manus adjutrices,

[20] Weever’s Funeral Monuments, p. 165.

[21] The Spiritual Venality of the Church of Rome. Lond. 1886.

[22] Mendham’s Spiritual Venality of Rome. pp. 73-76.

[23] Gulielm. Tyrius, lib. 1. hist. orient.

[24] Will. Malm. lib. 4, c. 2.

[25] Non solum plenam et largiorem, imo plenissimam veniam peccatorum. (Bullar. Cherubini, Pii T. p. 20.)

[26] L. V. Extrav. Com. tit. de Pœn. et Remis. L. III. d. consid. c. 4.

[27] Domin. Card. Tasch apud Foulis, Rom. Usurp. pref.

(To be continued.)

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