Absolution.
Absolution.
§ 117. Absolution corresponds correlatively to confession, and the Romanists do not treat its doctrine and practice purely and earnestly [in the following ways]. (1) They turn the power of the Keys into a judiciary, independent authority.
(2) They tie the efficacy of absolution to the quantity of contrition, the quality of confession, and the works of satisfaction. In this way they take away the certainty of faith, which is the primary end purpose of absolution.
** Here Zwingli’s error must be mentioned when he says (De vera et falsa relig.): “It is audacity on the part of those who claim that by the Keys a person becomes certain, when through faith within he is [already] certain. You will tell him in vain: ‘You are free.’ You can no more make him certain with your word than you can make a fly an elephant by saying, ‘You are an elephant.’ ” (But this is a preposterous contrast between faith and absolution, since absolution principally relates to and confirms this faith of the penitent.) **
(3) They reserve the forgiveness of some of the fallen to the Roman pontiff alone, the successor of Peter. In fact, they even declare that “the absolution which the priest gives to one over whom he has neither ordinary nor subdelegated jurisdiction is null and void” (Council of Trent, session 14, canon 7), despite the fact that all the disciples were told equally: “Whosesoever sins you forgive” and “Whatever you release” [John 20:23; Matt. 16:19], etc. Ambrose (De poen., 1, ch. 2): “No distinction is made by God, who has promised His mercy to all and has granted the license to pardon to His priests without any exception.”
(4) Most often they pronounce the absolution in Latin, a language unknown to the people. Thus Johannes Gastius (in his Memorab.) tells of a priest who absolved a noble who did not know Latin, was unrepentant, and was unwilling to abstain from sins in the future with the following form in order to get a gold coin from him: “May the Lord Jesus Christ absolve you if He wills; and may He forgive you your sins, something I do not believe will happen; and may He bring you to eternal life, which is impossible.”
(5) In some formulas of absolution they add the works of the saints and their own works to Christ’s merit. Of course, Bellarmine (De poenit., bk. 1, ch. 4) calls this a shameless lie of Heshusius, but he quickly concedes that some people used such formulas after absolution as a devout prayer. But some distinct formulas are extant, such as that of Archbishop Antoninus of Florence (in his book De confess.): “May the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the merits of the blessed Virgin Mary, and the merits of all the priests and saints, and all the good you do and intend to do, and the evils which you will bear be to you,” etc. Bartholomaeus de Chaymis: “May the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, and all the good things which you have done and are going to do, and the adversities you have endured and will endure be yours for repentance, for remission of sins, and for the increase of divine grace.” Luther (Jena Latin edition, vol. 4, fol. 51, on Galatians 2) quotes this formula for monastic absolution: “May the Lord spare you, brother. May the merit of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that of blessed Mary ever-virgin, and of all the saints, the merit of the order, the difficulty of religion, the humility of confession, the contrition of the heart, the good works which you have done and will do for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ produce for you the remission of your sins, to the increase of merit and grace, and to the reward of eternal life.”16 (See Urbanus Rhegius who illustrates this with his notes [notis].)
The book Cerem. pontif. (f. 231b): “Because of the prayers and merits of blessed Mary ever-virgin, of blessed Michael the archangel, of blessed John the Baptist, of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and of all the saints—may God Almighty have mercy on you, forgive your sins, and bring you to eternal life.”
In the Dillingen edition of the Hortulus animae (published in 1599), the following form is set forth: “By the prayers and merits of the blessed Virgin Mary and of all the saints, may the Lord lead us to the kingdom of heaven.” (See the “Benediction Book” of the church and the diocese of Regensburg [Benedictionale ecclesiae et dioecesis Ratisbonensis], published at Nuremberg in 1491, and the Breviarium praedicatorum, published at Venice in 1503, in which very similar formulas of absolution are found.)