THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
endowed with the greatest and most important and hitherto unheard-of faculties," " the sharing of all the treasures of the Church universal " in the way of merit, the plenary indulgence for the departed (" the liberation of the dead from the pains of purgatory "), but, even before these, " the first grace is the plenary remission of all sins, than which no greater grace could be bestowed, seeing that by it man, a sinner and deprived of divine grace, obtains perfect remission and the grace of God once more, and by this remission of sins the pains which would have to be suffered in purgatory on account of offenses against the divine majesty are most fully remitted and absolutely done away." Observing the practical effect of such proclamations, " that unhappy souls believe, if they have purchased letters of indulgence, that they are sure of their salvation, and also that by these indulgences
a man is freed from all penalty and guilt " (letter to Archbishop Albert, Oct. 31, 1517), Luther set himself to restore indulgences to their primitive form, that of the remission of canonical penance; and in so doing he struck at another outgrowth of the medieval indulgence, which the popes had legalized shortly before his time.
The possibility of extending the application of
indulgences from the Church militant to the souls
in purgatory seemed to follow logically
6. Appli- from the conception of their effect as cable to the the removal of the divine penalties of
Departed, sin. The effort to help these suffering souls in any conceivable way brought both the scholarly and the popular mind to the idea that this might be done by indulgences as early as the first half of the thirteenth century. But the theologians found difficulties in the way which greatly delayed an affirmative answer to the problem. Discussion of this point appears as early as Alexander of Hales. He decides, indeed, that the pope may, in virtue of the power of the keys, grant indulgences to those who have died in a state of grace; but since an element of the exercise of that power, judicial absolution, is here lacking, it can only be accomplished through prayer. He was followed by Bonaventura; and with the two Franciscans agreed the Dominicans Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, though the former limited himself to the statement that indulgences " are of much avail to those in purgatory," without attempting to define the manner of their operation. Thomas based his agreement on the assumption that the souls in purgatory are still " within the jurisdiction of the Church," but this was expressly denied by a prominent contemporary of his, Cardinal Henry of Ostia, in Surnma super titulis decretalium , and at the beginning of the fourteenth century he was supported by Franciscus Maronis. Their position influenced principally the canonists, but theologians were not lacking who took the same view, so that half, or even three-quarters, of the fifteenth century had passed before the difference of opinion gave way to the increasing feeling in favor of these indulgences. The popes were singularly slow to act upon it. It is true that both Albertus Magnus and Aquinas assume the existence of papal bulls granting such indulgences, but
no trace remains in authentic documents of anything more than an unscrupulous promise of such effects by certain eleemosynarum qucestores until well into the second half of the fifteenth century. Calixtus III. is said to have granted them; but the first extant bull of the kind is that of Sixtus IV in favor of St. Peter's Church at Saintes in 1476, which still asserts its application to the departed to be by prayer. The novel proceeding excited much attention and not a little protest, especially on the part of the friends of other churches. The papal commissary, Raymond Peraudi, had a defense drawn up by two French theologians, the wide circulation of which in France and Germany shows the general interest in the subject; but Sixtus himself was impelled to act in the matter. In his bull of Nov. 27, 1477, he authoritatively defines the phrase by prayer in quite a different sense from its original use, as meaning practically that the faithful on earth represent the departed and do for them what they are unable to do for themselves. The principal point is that the operation of the indulgence for the departed was held to be no less certain than of that for the living. This is shown by Raymond Peraudi's official exposition of the Saintes bull, as well as by the manner in which Gabriel Biel, having in his Canonis missa expositio declined to decide the question, when before the printing was ended in 1488 he became acquainted with the declaration of Sixtus, added an appendix in which he stated this interpretation as now authoritative, and opposed the view that anything was taken away from the efficacy of indulgences by the modus suffragii.
Tetzel has been said by some modern Ultramontanists to have followed "an uncertain schooldoctrine " in asserting the infallible operation of indulgences for the departed; but this view was strongly set forth in the instructions by which he was bound, and the papal bulls from Sixtus IV. to Leo X. betray no doubt of the efficacy of such indulgences. Moreover, nothing except the payment of the prescribed sum was required from the person who acquired such an indulgence. This is expressly stated in the instructions, e.g., of Albert of Main/.: " Nor is it necessary that those who pay into the treasury on behalf of the souls [in purgatory] shall be contrite in heart and make oral confession " (J. E. Kapp, Sammlung einiger zum pabstlichen Ablass gehorigen Schriften, p. 154, Leipsic,
1721). (T. Bhieger.)
Bibliography: Sources are: E. Amort, De origine, jrrogressu, valore etfructu indulgentiarum, Venice, 1738; J. E. Kapp, Schauplatz des tetzelischen Ablass-Krams, Leipsic. 1720; J. H. HottiDger, Hist. eccl. Novi Testamenti, vol. vii., Zurich, 1655; Decrela authentica sacrce congregations indulgentiis, Regensburg, 1883; Rescripta authentica sacra congregationis indulgentiis, ed. J. Schneider, ib. 1885. The chief modern work is H. C. Lea, Hist, of A uricular Confession and Indulgences in the Latin Church, 3 vols., Philadelphia, 1S96; L. Thomassin, Vetus el nova ecclesia discipline, II., iii. 24-25, Paris, 1728; Bingham, Origines, XVIII., iii. 8, XX., v. 6; N. Marshall, Penitential Discipline of the Primitive Church . downward to its Present State, in Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology, Oxford, 1844: E. Niese, in Jahrbucher der deutschen Theologie, xxii (18771, 599-660; P. Woker, Das Hrchliche Finanzwesen der Papste, Nordlingen, 1878; Documents Illustrating the Hist, of St. Paul's Cathedral, ed. W. S. Simpson for Camden Society, London, 1880; A. W Dieckhoff, Der Ablassstreit,