INDULGENCES
568
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS
it was not for the saJce, nor according to the measure of that, that the merit of Christ and tlie saints was trans- ferred to him, but solely for the sake of some service performed by him for the Church, and this performance, again, is quite an external and isolated work. At the same time, as respects the merits of the saints, the the- ory of indulgence rests on the supposition that a man, who is still human, although a saint, may not only pos- sess a sufficiency of merit to answer his own need before (Jod, but may likewise do more than the divine law de- mands of him, and thus acquire a surplus of merit for the use of others. Even this is a monstrous supposi- tion, but still more monstrous perhaps is another, which invades the reUgious domain and the glory of God. In point of fact, the doctrine and practice of indidgences gives the Church a position as an absolutely unerring and omniscient judicial power. It itlentilies the tribu- nal of the Church with that of God, and the tribunal of the pope with that of the Church, thereby indirectly identifying the pope's with God's, so that the pope is raised to a position, in virtue of which, as the visible head of the mystical body of Christ, and as the dis- penser of all penalties and graces, he decides the high- est questions involving the salvation of the living and the dead, according to his mere pleasure. Granting, however, that the whole doctrine were well founded, the position assigned to the pope Avould be one ele- vated far above the reach of fancy, and could be desig- nated only as that of a terrestrial god. What an infinite amount of obligation would it impose upon the papacy, and with what conscientiousness sharpened to the ut- most ought the popes, if they were bold enough to be- lieve that such plenitude of power had actually been lodged in the hands of any child of the dust, to have dispensed the lofty blessings committed to their trust ! How carefidly ought they to have guarded them from perversion and debasement ! And yet what do we see ? Abuse upon abuse, and profanation upon profanation, in an ascending scale, for more than two centuries, until at last moral indignation bursts like a tempest upon their impiety" (Ullmann, Reformers before the Refor- mation, i, 246). "Either the pope has the power of bringing souls out of Purgatory, or he has not. If he has not, the question is decided. If he has, what cru- elty, then, for him to leave there whole millions of souls whom he might by a word bring out of it ! Without going so far, why this strange inequality in the distri- bution of a treasure which is deemed inexhaustible ? Why will a pater and an are in my parish church avail only for five or six days' indulgence, when they avail for forty days in another church, before another Madon- na or another cross ? Why is the performance of the works paid, in such or such a congregation, with a plen- ary indulgence, and in this or that other with a mere indulgence for a time? Wliy— but wc should never end with the contradictions with which this matter is beset. Yet let us give one— just one more. If plenary indulgence be not merely a lure, how comes it that masses continue to be said for the souLs of those who received it when dying V Why that solemn de profundis repeat- ed at Rome during the whole reign of a pope on the anniversary of the death of his predecessor? This is what Luther said in his theses, and the objection is not the less embarrassing for being old. The only means of getting out of the difficulty would be to accept the conseciueuces of the system. You have only to regard as well and didy entered into heaven all who left this world with that infallible passport, and to refuse, there- fore, to say a mass for them. And why is this not done? We have no need to explain. Between a mere act of inconsistency added to so many others and the drying up of the very best source of her revenues, could Rome ever hesitate ? But if there be ground to aslc, on the one hand, why the popes and the bishops have not, at least, tlie charity to grant everj'where, and to all, as many imlulgcnces as they liave a right to dispense, no less reason ha\'e we to be astonished at the lo>v price
they put upon them, and the incredible facilities offered to such as wish to acquire them. See, for instance, the statutes of the brotherhood {confrerie) well known un- der the name of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of Mary. By a brief of 1838, plenary indiUgence is ac- corded to those who shall worthily confess on the day of their reception into the brotherhood; which is as much as saying to people, ' Come in among us, and all your previous sins will be wiped out.' Plenary indul- gence, moreover, to such as shall confess themselves, and communicate at certain epochs of the year, and these are ten in number. Further, indulgence of five hundred days to whosoever shall devoutly be present at the mass of Saturday, and shall pray for the conversion of sinners. Though we should believe in indulgences, it strikes us that we could not but feel some scruples at seeing them lavished away in this manner. For a mass that shall have cost you half an hour, to be ex- empted from Purgatory for near a year and a half! For one confession, to be exempted from it altogether, al- though you may have deserved a thousand years of it ! If not stopped by shame, these bold traffickers in salva- tion ought at least, one would think, to dread lest their wares should suffer depreciation in consequence of being given away for so little. True, they do not cost them anything, and there is no limit to purchases. Nobody, well knowing to how many years of Purgatory he may be condemned, can reasonably stop in adding to the amount of indulgences with which he is to appear at the bar of judgment. By placing himself on the most favorable conditions, and taking care to let no occasion be lost, a man of sixty might without difficulty have amassed them for above a million of years, over and above the plenary ones, each one of which ought to suf- fice, and with which one does not well see what the rest can signify" (Bungener, Hist, of the Council of Trent, p. 520, 521).