Indulgences

INDULGENCES. - Indulgentia, indulgere, in its proper sense indicates condescension, and to condescend, in the various shades of the idea. The imperial-Roman historiographers use the word in the technical sense of remissio tributi or remissio poenae, concessions that the emperors were accustomed to make on certain occasions. It also served to indicate abolitio, a kind of amnesty, decreed on the occasion of happy public events. In the Carolingian era "i." was still used as a technical term to indicate the remission of penalties or of taxes (thus in the Capitularia). In the Theodosian Code (l. IX, tit. 38, De indulgentiis criminum) it designates the remissions granted by the Christian emperors especially at Easter; so much so that Palm Sunday, in many texts of the early Middle Ages (calendars, sacramentaries, various Comes [ceremonials], etc.), is called dominica indulgentia. As for the matter of the remission of penalties, one encounters various terms that can also indicate the "i." in the strict current sense, but that can indicate and in fact do indicate also other similar or related ideas, in those times in which the true "i." began to develop. From this imprecision of terms has arisen so much confusion among scholars less cautious in their research. For example, the words: absolutio, relaxatio, remissio, venia, condonatio and indulgentia, can indicate, in the 11th-13th centuries, either the "i." properly so called, or, and more often, the various forms of remission, sacramental and penitential, and also extrasacramental. The latter is the true "i." as it is understood today.

According to Catholic doctrine, an "i." is « the remission before God of the temporal punishment due for sins, already forgiven as regards the guilt, which the ecclesiastical authority grants from the treasury of the Church by way of absolution for the living and by way of suffrage for the dead » (can. 911).

I. HISTORY

In every historical case belonging to the centuries indicated above, whenever anyone speaks of indulgences, one must carefully examine whether it is a properly and strictly extrasacramental act, in order to decide whether one is dealing with an indulgence in the strict sense, or with another form of penitential remission.

1. Prodromes

Thus, for example, the readmission of the man anathematized by St. Paul (I Cor. 5:3; II Cor. 2:5) into the Christian community is not an indulgence in the strict sense, but a reconciliation. Such reconciliation flourished in the 2nd-4th centuries in the Church, and took place especially through the intercession of martyrs or confessors of the faith, or even those in danger of death; but it is essentially a matter of the readmission of penitents into the Church and to its spiritual goods. Even the relaxatio that is sometimes encountered, as, for example, in the Council of Epaon (a. 517, can. 29), is the substitution of a new and more benign measure of penance, abolishing the previous, more severe one. Such temperings of the penitential discipline were necessary with the changes of the times and of the social conditions of Christians. From the 7th century onward there came into vogue, taking its origin from Ireland and England, the redemptio, a kind of commutation of penance, often too heavy and unbearable, into less burdensome works, such as prayers, alms, fasts, and even the payment of sums of money fixed according to the various kinds of crimes (tariffed penance). But all this was applied in the sacrament of Penance to the penitent. A commutation also gave origin to the later true indulgences (in the strict sense), that one operated at the time of the Crusades (v. below), inasmuch as the confessor could impose on the penitent the undertaking of the Crusade, in substitution for the penances otherwise necessary, for sacramental absolution. A true diminution of penance, but always on the occasion of the sacrament of Penance, appears already in the 10th century, on the occasion of pious donations, pilgrimages and similar meritorious works; they are always diminutions of personal and individual penance. Above all, the pilgrimage to Rome was considered a very meritorious work, and therefore one was more benign in imposing penances on a Roman pilgrim. Benedict III (853-58), at the request of Bishop Solomon of Constance, imposed on a fratricidal pilgrim a penance lesser than usual, intuitu peregrinationis. Such examples are known under Nicholas I, John VI, Stephen V and others. Bishops too were accustomed to impose on pilgrims, to sanctuaries or churches in respect of the pilgrimage itself, a penance lesser than the one that would otherwise have fallen to them. From the 11th century onward there then appear similar indulgences, but general ones, applicable to all who fulfill the prescribed conditions. The rigor of public and tariffed sacramental penance had become unbearable under the radically changed conditions of Christian society, and a means had to be found to temper such rigor. Moreover, the possibility of assisting the many pious works, so dear to the Middle Ages, by linking them with the imposition of a contribution, as a condition of a remission of penalties, even outside the Sacrament, opened the way to the indulgence, as a means of the remission of penalties, outside the Sacrament, independently of sacramental penance.

2. Absolutio

Moreover, in the 11th-12th centuries the use of the absolutio flourished in the West. Toward the end of the Carolingian era and afterward there spread in the medieval world a kind of fear of sin, and a veritable mania for seeking everywhere and on every occasion, and before every work, an absolution, that is, of submitting oneself to a formula, deprecative and also indicative, of prayer, so that God might forgive sins. Absolutions entered the liturgy (the Confiteor!), the Mass, the Office, and were used on various other occasions, not only for the living, but also for the dead, as prayer for them. Countless concessions, individual and general, of these absolutions are known. They were used in convents, on certain days, in case of death (cf. Absolutio super tumbam, still today!); popes, bishops, abbots grant it, and, many times, a remission of sins is promised for good works: it is a matter of the application of the biblical doctrine that good works merit grace. Absolutions of this type are rather solemn blessings, with an authoritative declaration of the merit to be obtained. Synods and councils were closed with a solemn absolution and the sermon (even today in many places the custom holds of the people reciting the Confiteor after the sermon, with the following absolution): general absolution was given on the days of Ash Wednesday, of Holy Thursday; it was granted for meritorious works, for the observance of the "Truce of God", etc. All this contributed to making the institution of the indulgence in the proper, strict sense ever more concrete. At times it is difficult to decide whether, in the specific case, one is already dealing with a true and proper indulgence, or still with an advanced mode of remission, linked to Confession.

3. First true indulgences

It is certain that true indulgences, granted for alms or for devotional visits to churches, altars, etc., begin, though few, in the 11th century, and then multiply in the 12th century and afterward. Paulus (op. cit., v. bibl., I, p. 138 ff.) gives a chronological list of such indulgences up to the Fourth Lateran Council, a. 1215. The origin of this practice is found in northern Spain and in France; there is remitted, for example, one day of fasting per week (for those who would have had to do three, four); it is the bishops who proceed in such concessions, often also linked to pilgrimages and other works. From the second half of the 11th century the popes too follow the example; it seems the first papal concession of this kind is that of Nicholas II (a. 1060), for Farfa, on the occasion of the consecration of the altars. Urban II granted the remission of a fourth or a seventh of the penance imposed in the Sacrament, in exchange for the performance of certain good works. It is therefore a matter of a true partial remission, in the beginnings indicated as a part (1/2, 1/3, 1/5, 1/7, etc.); then in measure of the time that would have had to be employed to perform the public penance, such as 1 day, 2, 3, 10, 20, 40 days; finally 1, 2, 3, and more years. The characteristic indulgence of 1 year and a quarantine is encountered during the 12th century. It is a matter of the penance, whether public or also private, imposed in the sacrament of Penance.

An important kind of indulgence are those called "of the Crusades", because they open widely the way to the plenary indulgence. Paulus (op. cit., I, p. 195 ff.) weaves the complete list, quite instructive. Alexander II (1063) granted a remission of penalties for those who fought the Moors; Urban II, at Clermont (1095), to stir Christians to the First Crusade, declared that participation in the Crusade was equivalent to a complete penance! Eugenius III (1145) repeats the same, while Gregory VIII introduced the novelty that the complete (plenary) indulgence could also be acquired by one who has himself replaced by another or who bears the expenses for a crusader. These indulgences were then granted also for the "crusades" directed against the Moors, the pagan Slavic peoples, the Albigensians, etc.

The plenary, crusade indulgence led to the idea of the plenary jubilee indulgence (v. GIUBILEO).

4. Letters of indulgence

The practice of granting indulgences is reflected in a multitude of documents by which these are granted. The letters used by the Apostolic Chancery are very numerous, but alongside them, at least from the 12th century onward, there are found letters of episcopal and cardinalitial concessions, given especially on the occasion of the dedication of churches, and later, as will be said, to encourage participation in pious works.

The letters of i. [indulgences] of bishops are divided into two great categories: simple letters and collective letters. The former are granted in the name of a single bishop, the latter in the name of several prelates who join together to give the concession a greater extension. The latter are called collective letters. Delehaye, who made them the subject of a study of his, compiled a rich regestum of collective letters (cf. H. Delehaye, Les lettres d'indulgences collectives, Brussels 1928, pp. 53-67, 71-89, 91-98). Like bishops, cardinals had the right to grant i. and used it within the limits of their power.

Here too one finds oneself faced with two types of letters: simple and collective. Among the simple letters, a special place is occupied by the letters of nuncios and cardinal legates, because of the historical interest they have in relation to the missions carried out by those same men.

Meanwhile, while the practice of i. was already very advanced, theology and canonical doctrine also began to take an interest in it. Abelard, for example, is clearly opposed to the institution of i. The first scholastics are discordant and do not yet formulate a satisfactory doctrine of the i. Further developments were needed.

5. Plenary i. in danger of death and for the deceased

For individuals: the election of a priest as confessor in danger of death is granted, with the faculty of applying the plenary i.

But the faithful had already begun to apply the i. granted to them also to the souls of the deceased. One can ascertain that around 1350 the use of applying the jubilee i., those of the Crusades, and those of the "Porziuncola," to the deceased was very widespread. The ecclesiastical authorities, on the other hand, did not yet grant such i.; there was, however, the practice of granting an i. to the living in the event that they prayed for the deceased. Only in 1457 did Callistus IV grant to King Henry IV of Castile a plenary i. for the living, and, for those who paid 200 maravedis for the Crusade against the Moors, an i. for the deceased. But the bull remained unknown outside Spain, where, moreover, it aroused no little astonishment. Sixtus IV (1476) granted for the cathedral of Saintes (France) a bull, valid for 10 years, with a plenary i. for the living, and, "in modum suffragii," also for the deceased, a bull that provoked long disputes concerning the pope's faculty of being able to exercise a jurisdiction beyond the grave; but common doctrine took the direction toward the explanation through an act of suffrage, offered to God, and not through an act of jurisdiction as for the living. A difficulty was also found in the measure of the application of i. to the deceased, namely whether the application followed with certainty, or only according to God's benign acceptance; the latter thesis prevailed.

As for the general doctrine concerning i., the principal difficulty was in finding the reason why an i. could be granted. This was sought in the mercy of God, in the value of the prayers of the Church, in the merits of the saints. Some believed rather that they could speak of a kind of supplementation in the works of the Church militant, that is, a kind of compensation; but Hugh of Saint-Cher O. P. (ca. 1230) proposed instead the idea of a treasury of merits at the disposal of the Church, constituted by the immense merits of Christ and by the incommensurable accumulation of the merits of the saints: a thesis that then prevailed and was solidly demonstrated by the great scholastics, Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas, and which still constitutes the fulcrum of the explanation of i.

6. Estimation of i

One aspect of i. in the Middle Ages deserves special mention. The piety of the faithful knew how to estimate the value of i., all the more so the rarer they still were. On the other hand, medieval piety expressed itself in an innumerable quantity of particular devotions, of confraternities and trade associations, and all this gave occasion to ask for ever new i. in order to embalm, so to speak, the whole of religious life with i. The singing of the Salve Regina, the reciting of the Angelus (first concession for the evening: John XXII in 1318, in 1327 for Rome), praying for the deceased in cemeteries, the visit to certain sacred images or relics, listening to the sermon, the accompaniment of the Blessed Sacrament to the sick, on the feast of Corpus Domini, and on so many other occasions, attendance at Mass, at the celebration of patrons, of church dedications, of anniversaries, the visit of certain churches, altars, chapels, sanctuaries, the gatherings of confraternities: so many things were embellished by i. and the piety of the faithful went in search of ever new and richer i. Hence the origin of the many falsifications. But there is more. The i. were annexed to many works not simply good, but of public utility, religious and civil. There is almost no church that was not built in part with the revenues of i., granted for its construction or restoration; the grandiose architectural and artistic activity of the Middle Ages is explained, in no small part, from this. But hospitals too, leper houses, hospices, schools were built with the help of the revenues of special i. Famous and well known is the construction of many bridges, also by confraternities, of roads and communications. At times the i. was even granted for land-reclamation works. This aspect of i., as an effective vehicle of culture and civilization, deserves every praise.

7. Abuses

But the concession of the i. in connection with an alms unfortunately also gave rise to most deplorable abuses. Once an i. was tied to a contribution for a certain work, the quaestores were sent to collect the alms. Unfortunately the preaching of many quaestors greatly exceeded (through carelessness, or through cunning) the dogmatic truth; some dared to promise even the liberation of damned souls from hell. But there was another aspect of the i., tied to revenues of alms. Kings and Catholic princes began to be permitted, first on the occasion of the Crusades, to be able to make use of a more or less notable part of the revenues gained with the alms due for enjoying the i. Similar permissions were then largely granted for many other undertakings, and the princes were not always too scrupulous. Noteworthy is the i. for the construction of the new St. Peter's in Rome. The prince of Saxony-Wittenberg, later a great supporter of Luther, collected relics as much as he could, in order to make use of the rich alms paid in the visit to them in order to have the i. No one denies the existence of abuses and, moreover, grave ones. But on the other hand the ecclesiastical authority attempted, perhaps not always with the due energy, to curb the evil. Unfortunately, only after the fierce Protestant struggle against i., did the Council of Trent suppress forever the questing of i.

Already the Fourth Lateran Council (1251) repressed certain abuses concerning i. and specified the measure of the concessions, establishing for the consecration of churches and the anniversary no more than a year, for other occurrences no more than 40 days. But very soon these limits were exceeded. And still in the Middle Ages there appear, in an extraordinary way, documents falsified with i. beyond all measure, not only of hundreds, but of thousands of years.

8. Tridentine and post-Tridentine legislation

The Council of Trent, after those of Lyon and Vienne, again took up the matter of indulgences, especially in view of the merciless war waged against them by the reformers. In sess. 21, chap. 9, it suppressed the institution of the "quaestors," that is, of the collectors of money for indulgences, which did so much harm because of the abuses that crept into it, and reserved the publication of indulgences to the Ordinaries alone; these may also, if need be, collect any alms, without any compensation whatsoever. Finally, in the 25th session, the celebrated decree de indulgentiis was issued, in which, after defining that the Church has the right to grant indulgences from Christ the Lord, the use of indulgences is once more approved as christiano populo maxime salutarem, again abolishing every kind of begging for the sake of indulgences, and it orders that the bishops watch seriously in their own dioceses over every possible abuse, denouncing it in the provincial synods, and to the Supreme Pontiff.

After the Council of Trent, Clement VIII erected a cardinalitial commission to deal with indulgences according to the mind of the Council, which continued its work under Paul V, preparing various bulls and decrees on the matter. But only Clement IX created a true Congregation for Indulgences (and Relics), with a brief of 6 July 1669; in Apr. 1668 the first decrees of the same appeared. Pius X, with a motu proprio of 28 Jan. 1904, united the Congregation of Indulgences with that of Rites, but in 1908, with the new organization of the Curia, the whole matter of indulgences passed to the Holy Office. Benedict XV, however, with a motu proprio of 25 March 1915, transferred the section of indulgences from the Holy Office to the Apostolic Penitentiary, referring back to the Holy Office everything that concerns the doctrine on indulgences. Thus it was confirmed by the Code, can. 258 § 2.

Another scholar, B. Poschmann, building on the historical material of Paulus, continued the investigation especially from the point of view of Catholic penance and its practice through the centuries, in order to clarify still further the nature of the indulgence and its, so to speak, legitimacy, demonstrating that it was not born from elements extraneous to the Church's practice and doctrine on penance, but that it is in conformity with it, even if in appearance it departed from certain forms usual in its time. His principal works are cited at once: Die abendländische Kirchenbusse am Ausgang des christlichen Altertums, Bonn 1928; Die abendländische Kirchenbusse im frühen Mittelalter, ibid. 1930; Poenitentia secunda, ibid. 1940; Der Ablass im Lichte der Bussgeschichte, ibid. 1948. In the treatment of the subject, J. A. Jungmann inserted himself in 1932, with his powerful work: Die lateinischen Bussriten in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung, Paderborn 1932. Other interesting works of a certain importance are: A. Gottlob, Kreuzablass und Almosenablass. Eine Studie über die Frühzeit des Ablasswesens, Stuttgart 1906; E. Göller, Der Ausbruch der Reformation und die spätmittelalterliche Ablasspraxis, Freiburg 1917; H. Delehaye, op. cit. (5 articles extracted from the Anal. Boll., 44 [1926], 45 [1927], 46 [1928]). The fundamental practical work on indulgences is: Die Ablässe, ihr Wesen und Gebrauch, published for the first time by Fr. F. Beringer, Paderborn 1860, continued by J. Hilgers and finally by P. A. Steinen (15th ed., 2 vols., ibid. 1921-22). Hilgers had also published a study of his own: Die katholische Lehre von den Ablässen und deren geschichtliche Entwicklung, ibid. 1914, in which he wished to trace the origin of indulgences as far back as possible, but was strongly opposed by Paulus. In the great French encyclopedias: E. Magnin, Indulgenzen, in DThC, VII, coll. 1594-1636; P. Galtier, Indulgenzen, in DFC, II, coll. 718-52; H. Leclercq, Indulgenzen, in DACL, VII, coll. 535-40; the same authors candidly confess to having drawn the material for their expositions from the works and articles of N. Paulus.

2. Official literature concerning indulgences: one of the officials of the S. Congregation of Indulgences, the priest Telesforo Galli, published in 1807 a Raccolta di alcune orazioni e più opere indulgenziate by the popes. After his death, another official, Luigi Prinzivalle, continued the publication, much esteemed. In 1854 the 13th ed. was declared authentic. But only in 1877 did the Congregation itself publish as its own work the Raccolta, which received the direct approval of the Supreme Pontiff. The 2nd and 3rd ed. appeared in 1886 and 1898. Some appendix followed. Finally in 1928 a new collection appeared, entitled: Preces et pia opera..., repeated in 1938, an official work of the S. Penitentiary. The last edition, 1950, took the subtitle: Enchiridion indulgentiarum. Then in 1883 the Congregation of Indulgences published, after careful preparation, a volume of the Decreta authentica S. Congregationis Indulgentiis Sacrique Reliquiis praepositae, Ratisbon 1883, a documentary work of the first rank. A kind of supplement, but not official, was the collection Rescripta authentica S. Congr. Indulgentiis... praepositae by Fr. J. Schneider, S.J., ibid. 1883.

Giuseppe Law

II. NATURE

According to the teaching of the Church, every sin, even venial, leaves in the soul not only the state of guilt but also the state of punishment. Now the faithful who confesses his sins or makes a perfect act of contrition with the intention of confessing, certainly obtains the remission of guilt and the pardon of eternal punishment, which follows every grave sin, but does not always, or at least not entirely, obtain the remission of temporal punishment, which can be remitted in this life by means of works of satisfaction and indulgences, or else must be remitted in the next life, in Purgatory. The indulgence, therefore, is not a remission of eternal punishment, which is pardoned together with the guilt, nor a remission of guilt, whether mortal or venial. Nor, still less, can it be said that the indulgence is the remission of future sins, as some Protestants have taught: Pope Eugene IV expressly declared this in a grant of indulgence in favor of the Congregation of St. Justina (E. Amort, De origine indulgentiarum, Augsburg 1735, p. 136). The indulgence, on the other hand, is an act of jurisdiction, which presupposes the state of Grace and which is exercised, though in different ways, over the living faithful and over the dead. For the living the indulgence is granted by way of absolution, that is, of remission through an act of judicial power, which carries with it a payment, that is, a payment made with the common goods of the Christian family (v. COMUNIONE DEI SANTI). To the dead the indulgence is applied by way of suffrage: the dead are no longer subject to the jurisdiction of the Church, therefore one cannot speak of judicial absolution, but only of suffrage, in the sense that the faithful who are pilgrims on this earth (homines viziores) perform a good work and through the authority of the Church offer the satisfactory merits of Jesus Christ to the Lord, praying that He may accept them in remission of the punishments that the souls in Purgatory must still expiate. Such remission of punishment operates not only in the external forum, before the Church, but also in the internal forum, before God. The ecclesiastical authority, in granting indulgences, draws upon the treasury of the Church, constituted by the satisfactory merits of Jesus Christ, to which are added those of the Virgin and of the saints. Every good work, done in the state of Grace, besides the meritorious part, which is inalienable and which gives a right to the just reward, carries with it the satisfactory part, by means of which one can expiate the temporal debt contracted with sin and which can also be transferred to others. This treasury is applied through the Communion of saints, by virtue of which the Church triumphant, the Church suffering and the Church militant do not constitute three societies, but form a single body, of which Christ is the head and the faithful are the members, which are so united by the bond of love that the goods of the community are as it were each one's own and go to the benefit of individuals (I Cor. 12, 12-26).

III. POWER TO GRANT INDULGENCES

It resides in the Church, in those to whom the power of the keys has been entrusted and who therefore by divine right have the governance of the Church. This truth, defined by the Council of Trent (Denz-U, 989), is deduced from the words of Jesus Christ addressed to St. Peter: "I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven... Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven" (Mt. 19, 19). If the Church can, in the Sacrament of Penance, wash the soul from the stain of guilt, it can certainly free it also from a lighter evil, that is, from the state of punishment.

IV. DIVISION

Indulgences are divided into: a) plenary and partial. Plenary is the one that, according to the mind of the grantor, remits the entire temporal punishment: it can, however, be plenary totaliter or relative according to the dispositions of the one who acquires it (can. 926). A plenary indulgence, unless the contrary is expressly stated, can be acquired only once a day, even if the prescribed works are performed several times (can. 928 § 1); if it can be acquired several times a day it is called toties quoties. Among the plenary toties quoties indulgences, the one of the Portiuncula, granted for August 2, is well known. The daily plenary indulgence, which is usually granted for a visit to a church, is to be understood in the sense that it can be gained on any day, but only once in the year (can. 921 § 3). The Jubilee (v.) is a plenary indulgence enriched with special privileges by the Roman Pontiff, and differs from the other plenary indulgences by the solemnities with which it is granted and by the privileges that accompany it. These extrinsic circumstances are ordered to render the dispositions of the faithful more profound and for that very reason more certain, subjectively, the remission of all temporal punishments. It must therefore be held that the Jubilee is not superior to the other plenary indulgences quod effectum, but only quod effectum (cf. F. L. Ferraris, Prompta bibliotheca canonica, IV, Montecassino 1848, p. 280). Partial is the indulgence that remits only a part of the temporal punishment: unless the contrary is expressly stated, it can be gained as many times a day as the prescribed work is performed (can. 928 § 2); b) personal, real and local, according as they are granted directly to persons or a class of persons, e.g., to religious; or are attached to the use of particular sacred objects, e.g., medals, rosaries, or are granted for the visit to a determined sacred place; c) perpetual or temporary, according as they are granted without restriction of time or are limited to a certain number of years; d) indulgences for the living or for the dead or for both the living and the dead. For certain personal indulgences, attached to membership in Catholic Action, the Confraternities and the Third Orders, v. under the respective entries. Likewise for certain principal local indulgences (e.g., Way of the Cross, privileged altar, Portiuncula, etc.), and real ones (e.g., those attached to the various Rosaries, v. CORONA; to the Scapulars, v. SCAPOLARE; to medals or similar, v. AGNUS DEI; MEDAGLIA, etc.).

V. REQUIREMENTS FOR THE GRANT AND ACQUISITION OF INDULGENCES

On the part of the grantor it is required that he have legitimate power: indeed, to distribute the goods of a society, such as indulgences are with respect to the Christian family, belongs to those who preside over that society. A just and legitimate cause is further required: for he who is charged with granting indulgences is not a squanderer but a dispenser of the treasury of the Church.

On the part of the acquirer it is required (can. 925): a) that he be baptized. Only those who are members of a society can share in its goods: one becomes a member of the Church through Baptism; b) that he be in a state of Grace, at least when he performs the last work enjoined: as long as guilt remains, there can be no remission of penalty whatsoever; c) that he be a subject of the grantor (but if the grantor is the bishop of a diocese, all those who are within his territory may also gain the indulgence: can. 927); d) that he have the intention, at least general, of gaining the indulgence; it is not necessary that this intention be actual or virtual: the habitual one suffices; e) that he fulfill all the conditions. Those which are commonly wont to be imposed for the acquisition of plenary indulgences are: Confession, Communion, the recitation of some prayer according to the intention of the Supreme Pontiff, and the visit to a church or a public oratory, or, for those who legitimately use it, a semi-public oratory.

When Confession is prescribed, it must be made even by those who are not conscious of any mortal sin; it may, however, be made within the eight days immediately preceding that to which the indulgence is attached, or within the eight days following. When, moreover, it is a question of indulgences attached to several exercises (tridua, septenaries, novenas), the Confession may also be made within the eight days immediately following the completion of the exercise. Furthermore: in the latter case Confession is not obligatory for one who communicates almost every day with a right intention, even if he abstained from it once or twice a week; nor for one who confesses habitually at least twice a month. Excepted from this privilege is the Confession prescribed for the acquisition of the Jubilee or of indulgences granted in the manner of a Jubilee (can. 931). Communion must be sacramental, and spiritual communion does not suffice; that received as Viaticum is valid, and so is the Easter communion (except in the case of the Jubilee or of indulgences in the manner of a Jubilee). It is enough that it be made on the vigil of the day to which the indulgence is attached, or within the octave that follows. In the case of indulgences granted for tridua, etc., what was said for Confession holds for Communion. It is not necessary that Communion be made in the church whose visit is prescribed for the acquisition of the indulgence. With a single Communion one may gain several plenary indulgences granted for the same day, provided that the other conditions prescribed for each of the indulgences one wishes to acquire are fulfilled (can. 931). The visit to a church, when it is prescribed, may be made from noon of the vigil until midnight of the day established for the indulgence (can. 923). One is required to go to the prescribed place with the general or implicit intention of honoring God. If the place of the visits is not prescribed in a determinate manner, persons living in a religious house, colleges, boarding schools, hospitals, etc., and persons assigned to their assistance or service, may gain the indulgences by visiting the chapel of the Institute, in which they satisfy the precept of holy days (decree of the Sacred Apostolic Penitentiary of Sept. 20, 1933, AAS, 25 [1933], p. 446). The prayer must be vocal at least in part and not merely mental (can. 934 § 1), and it is freely chosen, unless there are special prescriptions. To satisfy the clause "according to the intention of the Supreme Pontiff" it is enough to recite one Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be (decree cited, ibid., p. 446); however, in the case of the indulgence of the "Pardon of Assisi" or of toties quoties indulgences, for which the visit to a church is required, one must recite 6 Our Fathers, Hail Marys and Glory Be's, without being able to substitute another prayer, even a longer one (decree of the Sacred Apostolic Penitentiary of July 5, 1930, AAS, 22 [1930], p. 363). It should be noted that prayers may be recited alternately with a companion, or followed mentally when they are recited by another (can. 934 § 2); the mute may acquire indulgences by joining with the faithful who pray and raising their hearts to God; and they may recite the prayers mentally, expressed with their own gestures or read on the book with their eyes (can. 936). Finally, the indulgences attached to invocations and ejaculations may be acquired by all with mental recitation alone (decree of the Sacred Penitentiary of Dec. 7, 1933; AAS, 26 [1934], p. 35). When for a reasonable cause one cannot hold in one's hand the indulgenced Rosary or Crucifix, one may acquire the indulgences if one carries the indulgenced object on one's person (decree of the Sacred Penitentiary of Nov. 9, 1933; AAS, 25 [1933], pp. 502-13).

For the jubilee indulgence, v. GIUBILEO. For various other apostolic and non-apostolic indulgences, v. the respective entries: ATTO EROICO DI CARITÀ; BENEDIZIONE; CROCE, V. Il segno della C.

Serafino De Angelis