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.
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.
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. 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.
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;
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.
95. And thus be confident of entering into
heaven rather through many tribulations, than
through the assurance of peace.