Of Bulls, or Indulgences. 145
sovereign, and indetermined power of the pope, it was first of all approved and granted in the 2nd Council of Lateran, in the time of Leo X, within these 100 years, namely, about the year 1516.
Of Bulls, or Indulgences 1. These indulgential bulls of the Roman bishop, wherein is given absolution from the guilt of temporal punishment, by application of the merits of Christ and of the saints, were not known to the catholic church for 1000 years and more after Christ. Alexander III, who began to sit at Rome about the year 1159, in an epistle to the Archbishop of Canterbury, thus writes, as is yet extant to be seen in the pope's own decretals, lib. 5, tit. 38, c. 4: "And for the point wherein you demanded my counsel, whether the remissions which are wont to be made at dedications of churches, or to such as contribute to the building of bridges, be available to any other than those who be of the parish and diocese of those that grant them, we would have your brotherhood to know thus much, that seeing no man can either be bound or absolved by him that is not his proper judge, we therefore are of opinion that the foresaid remissions are profitable only to those to whom and whose good their own proper judges that granted them did specially intend them." These be his words. And hence I gather these conclusions: 1. That it then pertained to all bishops to give and grant indulgences or remissions.
2. That these indulgences were scarce known in those days of Pope Alexander, which appears thus, in that the Archbishop of Canterbury held it a matter so rare and difficult that he sent to Rome to know the virtue and valor of them, and to whom they were especially available.
Whereupon it is clear that even the great masters and prelates of England were but little or not acquainted with them, although some
60 years before, Pope Urban II granted to them that undertook a
pilgrimage to the holy land, about the year 1095, releasement of all penances for their sins, as Nauclerus has it, gen. 37; or as Mat. Paris, in Willielmo II, says, "He granted them pardon of all their sins, and in the retribution of the just at the last day, he promised them an increase of glory." Out of the Council of Laterane under Innocent III, can. 62, it appears that all bishops had authority to give indulgences.
And as for the great indulgences of the year of jubilee, they came in practice some 300 years ago, viz., about the year 1300 as Platina reports in the life of Bonif. VIII. And that these kinds of indulgences were not known in the primitive church, Roff. himself (that is, our own countryman, Fisher, the bishop of Rochester) confesses in his book against Luther, art. 18: "I answer," says he, "that it is not sufficiently manifest, by whom these indulgences were first given out." And concerning purgatory he says, "There is very little or no mention at all among the ancient fathers of it. But after the same purgatory began to fear the world, and men trembled at the torments thereof, then indulgences began to be in request." Durandus also thus says concerning indulgences, in his commentaries on the sentences, libr. 4, d. 20, q. 3: "Little can be said of them, with any certainty, forasmuch as the Scripture speaks nothing at all expressly of them. As for the holy fathers, namely, Ambrose, Hilary, Augustine,
Jerome, there is not a word to be found in them that touches indulgences." Alphonsus de Castro upon this matter, lib. 8, says,
"Among all the questions or points which we dispute of in this book, there is none at all which has so little footing in the Holy Scriptures, and whereof the ancient fathers have spoken less."
2. For the space of a thousand years after Christ, the indulgences (that were) were relaxations or releasements of canonical satisfaction, that is, of the discipline or correction of the church. But they were not ordained, nor used as satisfactions before God for temporal punishment; and the fathers and councils speaking thereof
are thus to be understood, as namely, the I Nicene, c. 11, the II at Arles, c. 10, that at Ancyra, c. 2. Sometimes also they be declarations of the forgiveness or remission of sins, and in this sense the word indulgences is often taken. For in the letters of indulgences, we may read that absolution is granted, sometimes from the fault and punishment both together, and pardon of all sin, sometimes the half, sometimes the third part of their sins. Such were the indulgences granted within 1000 years after Christ, by Gregory I, Leo III, Sergius
II. And it is worth observing that in the writings of Burchardus and Gratianus, there is nothing to be found concerning indulgences. No, nor in Peter Lombard, who lived about the year 1150.
3. In ancient times, the indulgences remitted 3, or 7, or more years of penance, because so many or more years were set down, wherein the penitents were to give full satisfaction to the church of the sincerity of their repentance. Now after the same manner, indulgences are granted for certain years, but in the other point they are fallen far from the just severity of the ancient church, for penances are not enjoined for certain years.
4. The ancient fathers do not teach that indulgences were profitable to the dead. And no less is both avouched and taught by Biel, lect. 57, upon the Canon of the mass, and by Hostiensis, in his sum, lib. 5, tit. de remis., nu. 6, two famous papists.
5. The power of loosing and binding in the church, or which the church has, is not proper, but is exercised only by declaring or publishing that it is so. So says Jerome (l. 3, Commen. in Mat., on these words: "to thee will I give the keys," etc.): "Priests have no power of binding or loosing, but to show and declare that sinners be bound or loosed." Radulphus Ardens, about the year 1050, in Dominio 1. post. Pasc., says, "In what authority must priests absolve?
Not in their own, but in God's. For the power to remit or release sins, is only God's. But the ministry of it (which also we sometimes improperly call a power) He has granted to His vicars or deputies on earth, who after their manner, or in a sort do bind and loose, that is, show and declare them bound or absolved." Hugo the cardinal on the same place of Saint Matthew, says, "As for the bond of sin or guilt and due penance, the priest neither can bind a man in it, nor loose a man from it, but only show and declare that a man is bound or loosed; as the Levitical priest, neither made a man a leper, nor healed him being a leper, but only pronounced that he was polluted or healed." Durandus upon the Sentences says that, "The power of the keys works nothing to the forgiveness or taking away of the fault or blot of mortal sin."
6. The treasure of the church, supposed to consist in the merits of Christ and the saints, the disposing and dispensing whereof is committed to the pope, was altogether unknown in the church of God for many ages after Christ. For the ancient fathers never said nor signified, wrote, nor imagined that indulgences were given out of the treasure of satisfaction. Franciscus de Mayrone (in 4. d. 19, q. 2) and Durandus (in 4 d. 20, q. 3) do both of them teach that the treasure of the church does not consist upon the merits of saints.
Angelus, the great lawyer, has these words upon the matter of indulgences, part. 9: "The common opinion that is holden both by divines and canonists, is that indulgences arise from the abundance of merits which Christ and the saints have performed beyond the measures of their own demerits. But I hold for my part with Franciscus de Mayrone, that whereas the merits of saints are already rewarded of God beyond their desert, and thereby are exhausted, therefore they come from the merits of Christ alone and His passion."