Page:Delineation of Roman Catholicism.djvu/412

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divine poMenion, the distribution of which is intrusted to the �hurub. Fr?n ? ? fh?s O'ea?ury coveted ? In the first place it is collected t�om the .uperabundaut satisfactions of Christ, next from the superfluous satisfactions of the blessed Virgin Mary and of the other saints. This treasury is the foundation or matter of indulgences, and is that h?tmi?e treasury made up in part from the satisfactions of Christ, so as never to be exhausted; and it daily receives the superabundant satisfactions of pious men."** Indulgences are divided, according to the same author, (No. 237,) into/eta/, tea/, and persona/; into/,/mary, mm-p/esary, mor? and mo?t p/enary; and into per/?ua/and temporal. 3. The pope, as the sovereign dispenser of the church's treasury, hath the plenitude of power in the whole church; and the power is derived to bishops in their diocesses from the pope. Whence it pears that the pope hatIt the power of granting plenary indulgences to all Christians; but a bishop hath the power of granting indulgences only in his own diocese. The pope has the power by d/t,/se r/gAt; but the bishop only by eac/es/?t/c. al r/gAt; but the French deuy this distinction, and consider all bishops in possession of this power. Aqui- nas says this power is one ofjtu4sdicgion, and not of order. 4. The conditions and dispositions required of those who receive in- dulgences are principally the following, according to Dens and their chief theological writers: That the receiver be baptized, has the use of reason, is in a state of grace, says certain prayers, visits churches, receives the communion, fasts, gives alms, confesses, ?r,c. They dif- fer, however, in regard to the state of grace necessary in order to re- ceive an indulgence. Dens says, "that according to the more com- mon and true opinion, it is su?cient that the last act of what is required be done in a state of grace, unless it is otherwise expressed in the diploma." Biluart teaches, "that though all requisite works need not be done in a state of grace, they ought to be done with a disposi- tion to forsake mortal sin."$ 5. The following declarations of Leo. X. will give to the reader .some idea of indulgences: "The Roman pontiff, the successor of Peter in regard to the keys, and the vicar of Jesus Christ npou earth, possessing the power of the keys, by which power all hindermtces are removed out of the way- of the faithful--that is to say, the guilt of actual sius--by the sacrament of penance, and the temporal punishment due for those sins, according to the divine justice, by ecclesiastical dulgence; that the Roman pontitF may, for reasonable eausea, by his apostolical authority, grant indulgences out of the superabundant merits of Christ and the saints, to the faithful who are united to Christ by charity, as well for the living as for the dead; and that in thus ? pensing the treasure of the merits of Jesus Christ and the saints, he either confers the indulgence by the method of abeolution? or transfers it by the method o1? suffrage. Whereibre all persons, whether li ' or dead, who really obtain any indulgences of this kind, are deliv? l?om so much temporal punishment, due according to divine justice for No. 23?, vol. vi, p. . See Dens, de Indulg., No. 241. 1 Digitized by GO02I(?