In the Name our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
1.Our Lord and Master Jesus
Christ, when He said Poenitentiam agite, willed that the whole life of
believers should be repentance.
2.This word cannot be understood
to mean sacramental penance, i.e., confession and satisfaction, which is
administered by the priests.
3.Yet it means not inward
repentance only; nay, there is no inward repentance which
does not outwardly work divers mortifications of the flesh.
4.The penalty [of sin],
therefore, continues so long as hatred of self continues; for this
is the true inward repentance, and continues until our entrance into the
kingdom of
heaven.
5.The pope does not intend
to remit, and cannot remit any penalties other than those
which he has imposed either by his own authority or by that of the Canons.
6.The pope cannot remit
any guilt, except by declaring that it has been remitted by God
and by assenting to God's remission; though, to be sure, he may grant remission
in
cases reserved to his judgment. If his right to grant remission in such
cases were
despised, the guilt would remain entirely unforgiven.
7.God remits guilt to no
one whom He does not, at the same time, humble in all things
and bring into subjection to His vicar, the priest.
8.The penitential canons
are imposed only on the living, and, according to them, nothing
should be imposed on the dying.
9.Therefore the Holy Spirit
in the pope is kind to us, because in his decrees he always
makes exception of the article of death and of necessity.
10.Ignorant and wicked are the doings of those
priests who, in the case of the dying,
reserve canonical penances for purgatory.
11.This changing of the canonical penalty
to the penalty of purgatory is quite evidently
one of the tares that were sown while the bishops slept.
12.In former times the canonical penalties
were imposed not after, but before
absolution, as tests of true contrition.
13.The dying are freed by death from all penalties;
they are already dead to canonical
rules, and have a right to be released from them.
14.The imperfect health [of soul], that is
to say, the imperfect love, of the dying brings
with it, of necessity, great fear; and the smaller the love, the greater
is the fear.
15.This fear and horror is sufficient of itself
alone (to say nothing of other things) to
constitute the penalty of purgatory, since it is very near to the horror
of despair.
16.Hell, purgatory, and heaven seem to differ
as do despair, almost-despair, and the
assurance of safety.
17.With souls in purgatory it seems necessary
that horror should grow less and love
increase.
18.It seems unproved, either by reason or
Scripture, that they are outside the state of
merit, that is to say, of increasing love.
19.Again, it seems unproved that they, or
at least that all of them, are certain or assured
of their own blessedness, though we may be quite certain of it.
20.Therefore by "full remission of all penalties"
the pope means not actually "of all,"
but only of those imposed by himself.
21.Therefore those preachers of indulgences
are in error, who say that by the pope's
indulgences a man is freed from every penalty, and saved;
22.Whereas he remits to souls in purgatory
no penalty which, according to the canons,
they would have had to pay in this life.
23.If it is at all possible to grant to any
one the remission of all penalties whatsoever, it
is certain that this remission can be granted only to the most perfect,
that is, to the
very fewest.
24.It must needs be, therefore, that the greater
part of the people are deceived by that
indiscriminate and highsounding promise of release from penalty.
25.The power which the pope has, in a general
way, over purgatory, is just like the
power which any bishop or curate has, in a special way, within his own
diocese or
parish.
26.The pope does well when he grants remission
to souls [in purgatory], not by the
power of the keys (which he does not possess), but by way of intercession.
27.They preach man who say that so soon as
the penny jingles into the money-box, the
soul flies out [of purgatory].
28.It is certain that when the penny jingles
into the money-box, gain and avarice can be
increased, but the result of the intercession of the Church is in the power
of God
alone.
29.Who knows whether all the souls in purgatory
wish to be bought out of it, as in the
legend of Sts. Severinus and Paschal.
30.No one is sure that his own contrition
is sincere; much less that he has attained full
remission.
31.Rare as is the man that is truly penitent,
so rare is also the man who truly buys
indulgences, i.e., such men are most rare.
32.They will be condemned eternally, together
with their teachers, who believe
themselves sure of their salvation because they have letters of pardon.
33.Men must be on their guard against those
who say that the pope's pardons are that
inestimable gift of God by which man is reconciled to Him;
34.For these "graces of pardon" concern only
the penalties of sacramental satisfaction,
and these are appointed by man.
35.They preach no Christian doctrine who teach
that contrition is not necessary in those
who intend to buy souls out of purgatory or to buy confessionalia.
36.Every truly repentant Christian has a right
to full remission of penalty and guilt,
even without letters of pardon.
37.Every true Christian, whether living or
dead, has part in all the blessings of Christ
and the Church; and this is granted him by God, even without letters of
pardon.
38.Nevertheless, the remission and participation
[in the blessings of the Church] which
are granted by the pope are in no way to be despised, for they are, as
I have said, the
declaration of divine remission.
39.It is most difficult, even for the very
keenest theologians, at one and the same time to
commend to the people the abundance of pardons and [the need of] true contrition.
40.True contrition seeks and loves penalties,
but liberal pardons only relax penalties
and cause them to be hated, or at least, furnish an occasion [for hating
them].
41.Apostolic pardons are to be preached with
caution, lest the people may falsely think
them preferable to other good works of love.
42.Christians are to be taught that the pope
does not intend the buying of pardons to be
compared in any way to works of mercy.
43.Christians are to be taught that he who
gives to the poor or lends to the needy does a
better work than buying pardons;
44.Because love grows by works of love, and
man becomes better; but by pardons man
does not grow better, only more free from penalty.
45.Christians are to be taught that he who
sees a man in need, and passes him by, and
gives [his money] for pardons, purchases not the indulgences of the pope,
but the
indignation of God.
46.Christians are to be taught that unless
they have more than they need, they are bound
to keep back what is necessary for their own families, and by no means
to squander it
on pardons.
47.Christians are to be taught that the buying
of pardons is a matter of free will, and not
of commandment.
48.Christians are to be taught that the pope,
in granting pardons, needs, and therefore
desires, their devout prayer for him more than the money they bring.
49.Christians are to be taught that the pope's
pardons are useful, if they do not put their
trust in them; but altogether harmful, if through them they lose their
fear of God.
50.Christians are to be taught that if the
pope knew the exactions of the
pardon-preachers, he would rather that St. Peter's church should go to
ashes, than
that it should be built up with the skin, flesh and bones of his sheep.
51.Christians are to be taught that it would
be the pope's wish, as it is his duty, to give
of his own money to very many of those from whom certain hawkers of pardons
cajole
money, even though the church of St. Peter might have to be sold.
52.The assurance of salvation by letters of
pardon is vain, even though the commissary,
nay, even though the pope himself, were to stake his soul upon it.
53.They are enemies of Christ and of the pope,
who bid the Word of God be altogether
silent in some Churches, in order that pardons may be preached in others.
54.Injury is done the Word of God when, in
the same sermon, an equal or a longer time is
spent on pardons than on this Word.
55.It must be the intention of the pope that
if pardons, which are a very small thing, are
celebrated with one bell, with single processions and ceremonies, then
the Gospel,
which is the very greatest thing, should be preached with a hundred bells,
a hundred
processions, a hundred ceremonies.
56.The "treasures of the Church," out of which
the pope grants indulgences, are not
sufficiently named or known among the people of Christ.
57.That they are not temporal treasures is
certainly evident, for many of the vendors do
not pour out such treasures so easily, but only gather them.
58.Nor are they the merits of Christ and the
Saints, for even without the pope, these
always work grace for the inner man, and the cross, death, and hell for
the outward
man.
59.St. Lawrence said that the treasures of
the Church were the Church's poor, but he
spoke according to the usage of the word in his own time.
60.Without rashness we say that the keys of
the Church, given by Christ's merit, are
that treasure;
61.For it is clear that for the remission
of penalties and of reserved cases, the power of
the pope is of itself sufficient.
62.The true treasure of the Church is the
Most Holy Gospel of the glory and the grace of
God.
63.But this treasure is naturally most odious,
for it makes the first to be last.
64.On the other hand, the treasure of indulgences
is naturally most acceptable, for it
makes the last to be first.
65.Therefore the treasures of the Gospel are
nets with which they formerly were wont to
fish for men of riches.
66.The treasures of the indulgences are nets
with which they now fish for the riches of
men.
67.The indulgences which the preachers cry
as the "greatest graces" are known to be
truly such, in so far as they promote gain.
68.Yet they are in truth the very smallest
graces compared with the grace of God and the
piety of the Cross.
69.Bishops and curates are bound to admit
the commissaries of apostolic pardons, with
all reverence.
70.But still more are they bound to strain
all their eyes and attend with all their ears,
lest these men preach their own dreams instead of the commission of the
pope.
71.He who speaks against the truth of apostolic
pardons, let him be anathema and
accursed!
72.But he who guards against the lust and
license of the pardon-preachers, let him be
blessed!
73.The pope justly thunders against those
who, by any art, contrive the injury of the
traffic in pardons.
74.But much more does he intend to thunder
against those who use the pretext of pardons
to contrive the injury of holy love and truth.
75.To think the papal pardons so great that
they could absolve a man even if he had
committed an impossible sin and violated the Mother of God - this is madness.
76.We say, on the contrary, that the papal
pardons are not able to remove the very least
of venial sins, so far as its guilt is concerned.
77.It is said that even St. Peter, if he were
now Pope, could not bestow greater graces;
this is blasphemy against St. Peter and against the pope.
78.We say, on the contrary, that even the
present pope, and any pope at all, has greater
graces at his disposal; to wit, the Gospel, powers, gifts of healing, etc.,
as it is
written in I. Corinthians xii.
79.To say that the cross, emblazoned with
the papal arms, which is set up [by the
preachers of indulgences], is of equal worth with the Cross of Christ,
is blasphemy.
80.The bishops, curates and theologians who
allow such talk to be spread among the
people, will have an account to render.
81.This unbridled preaching of pardons makes
it no easy matter, even for learned men, to
rescue the reverence due to the pope from slander, or even from the shrewd
questionings of the laity.
82.To wit: - "Why does not the pope empty
purgatory, for the sake of holy love and of the
dire need of the souls that are there, if he redeems an infinite number
of souls for the
sake of miserable money with which to build a Church? The former reasons
would be
most just; the latter is most trivial."
83.Again: - "Why are mortuary and anniversary
masses for the dead continued, and why
does he not return or permit the withdrawal of the endowments founded on
their
behalf, since it is wrong to pray for the redeemed?"
84.Again: - "What is this new piety of God
and the pope, that for money they allow a man
who is impious and their enemy, to buy out of purgatory the pious soul
of a friend of
God, and do not rather, because of that pious and beloved soul's own need,
free it for
pure love's sake?"
85.Again: - "Why are the penitential canons
long since in actual fact and through disuse
abrogated and dead, now satisfied by the granting of indulgences, as though
they were
still alive and in force?"
86.Again: - "Why does not the pope, whose
wealth is to-day greater than the riches of the
richest, build just this one church of St. Peter with his own money, rather
than with
the money of poor believers?"
87.Again: - "What is it that the pope remits,
and what participation does he grant to
those who, by perfect contrition, have a right to full remission and participation?"
88.Again: - "What greater blessing could come
to the Church than if the pope were to do a
hundred times a day what he now does once, and bestow on every believer
these
remissions and participations?"
89."Since the pope, by his pardons, seeks
the salvation of souls rather than money, why
does he suspend the indulgences and pardons granted heretofore, since these
have
equal efficacy?"
90.To repress these arguments and scruples
of the laity by force alone, and not to
resolve them by giving reasons, is to expose the Church and the pope to
the ridicule of
their enemies, and to make Christians unhappy.
91.If, therefore, pardons were preached according
to the spirit and mind of the pope, all
these doubts would be readily resolved; nay, they would not exist.
92.Away, then, with all those prophets who
say to the people of Christ, "Peace, peace,"
and there is no peace!
93.Blessed be all those prophets who say to
the people of Christ, "Cross, cross," and
there is no cross!
94.Christians are to be exhorted that they
be diligent in following Christ, their Head,
through penalties, deaths, and hell;
95.And thus be confident of entering into
heaven rather through many tribulations, than
through the assurance of peace.
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