4? nr?LOS?clO. [Boo?II. refer the curious reader, whome patience ? time will allow him to .turn his attention particularly to this point, to the various antho? who have treated this.subject in form. ? 3. The last jubilee was in 1825, and was styled by Leo XII., in his bull of 1824, announcing the jubilee, "The year of expiation and par- don, of r. edemption and grace, of redemption and indulgence.'* He pro* fanely asserts: "During this year of jubilee, by the authority of AL mighty God, we mercifully, in the Lord, grant and impart the most plenary and complete indulgence, remission, and pardon of all their sins to all the faithful in Christ, of both sexes, who are truly penitent, and have confessed, and who have likewise refreshed themselves with the holy communion.** The condition8 were, visiting the churches specified, and "pouring forth pious prayers to God for the exaltation of holy church, the extirpation of heresics, the concord of Catholic princes, and the salvation and tranquillity of Christendom." The bene- fits of this jubilee wore extended to other countries in the following year, and continued six months after the publication of the bull in each diocese. To the priests it was a jubilee indeed. How many confes. siena were to be heard, ;?nd absolutions granted, often, doubtless, with mt}ch affected difficult; and penances to be imposed, entirely at the discretion of the confessor ! The whole church lay prostrate at the feet af the priesthood, receiving at their hands "the grace of their absolu- tion and pardon, the grace of their reinstatement in the fayour of God, and of their restoration to their lost title to the kingdom of heaven.*? VI. E,?i/co??es of indulge:. 1. The coad?t? on which indulgences are ?anted is a strong argu- meat against them. To visit a church, say a prayer, or the like, are the usual conditions on. which indulgences are granted. It must occur to every reader of the Bible that to forsake sin, follow alter holiness, and do good, are the great injunctions of the Scripture; therefore the trivial, or comparatively useless performances of papal indulgences, are very different from what is enjoined in Scripture. But were they to stop at what was useless, trivial, or superstitious, the thing were tolerable. They often grant indulgences on the conditions of doing evil: for instance, they have granted indulgences in abundance to tho?e who would fight against the Mohammedans. F. ven worse yet; for in* dulgences have been granted in wholesale and retail to those who would szti?t?ats ]?re.s?j or Protestantism. And what is this but to promise men heaven, because they murder and persecute their fellow-creatures ? 2. Unc?rtaint?t, daa?r, and d?c?pt/on connected with the remission of sin by indulgences. Were the pretensions of the Church of Rome true, the many mil- lions o� indulgences, the many other ways of releasing souls out of purgatory, the innumerable maases said daily, the power of the keys so largely employed, would, in a short time, have emptied purgatory of its inhabitants, or very few would go there, and they who did go, �See Dens, Theel. Tract. de Pmnitent., No?. 249, 250, vol. vii, laP. 1183-393. Bailly, Theoio?a Dogmafica et Morali. De Pmnitantis, caput tert/um de ?bilmo, tom. iv, 388-398, Lul/duni, 18t5. L. Ferraris, ht velum jubilmum, who devot? sixty ,luarto to its d/scussion, and give? jubilee bulls, in great abundance. Willet, pp. 1184- ! 194. $ See Cramp, p. 344, note 4, for alw, cimene of the inetruct/one and direct/one od' the vicar apootol/cal of the Lon?om d/strict.
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