Indulgence (Global)

Indulgence 🌍
Location: Global
Definition: A monetary or in-kind payment in exchange for a full or partial remission of the punishment for sin in the Roman Catholic Church
Keywords: Global – Religion – Christianity – Scheme – Payment – Cash
Clusters: Market – Gaming the system – Camouflage – Creating facades
Author: Elena Denisova and Sibylle Krause
Affiliation: University of St. Gallen (HSG), Switzerland and Protestant Church, Jestetten, Germany

By Elena Denisova-Schmidt, University of St. Gallen (HSG), Switzerland and Sibylle Krause, Protestant Church, Jestetten, Germany

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, indulgence is a ‘feature of the penitential system of the Western medieval and the Roman Catholic Church that grants full or partial remission of the punishment of sin’ (Duggan 2020). It is a buy-out-of-sin option that secures the preferential treatment from God and eventually a place in Paradise. The Catholics believe that only a few people are sinful enough to descent to hell or virtuous enough to ascent to heaven immediately. The majority find themselves in a grey zone, an ‘intermediate place’, the Purgatory. The Church developed the idea for indulgence in the 12th century, during a period of emergence of cities and a solvent bourgeois class (Duggan 2020). It is based on the power and ‘righteousness of God’ not to leave a sin unpunished. Man must atone or face the punishment – in this world or thereafter but the punishment for sins in the afterlife is decided in Purgatory, upon the balance of sins and good deeds. With a letter of indulgence, the time spent in Purgatory can be shortened. This letter may be acquired for (a) sins already committed, (b) sins only planned in the future, or (c) the deceased.

In the Middle Ages, the initial idea of indulgence as spiritual support for the faithful was appropriated to ‘camouflage’ a stable source of income for several stakeholders. ‘The donation of money with good intentions, which was only ancillary, often turned out to be the primary concern. […T]he indulgence was pulled down from its ideal height and degraded to a financial operation. It was no longer the attainment of spiritual grace but the need for money that […] became the real reason why indulgences were requested and conferred’ (Pastor IV 1: 231 cited in Paulus 1923: 450).

The price for a typical indulgence letter issued by the Apostolic Chancery was calculated as follows on the basis of four different taxes: a tax for the original copy (taxa scriptorum), for the concept (taxa abbreviatorum), for the registration (taxa registri) and for the affixing of the bull or lead seal (taxa plumbai) (Paulus 1923). While the revenue form the first two taxes went to the Colleges of Scribes and Abbreviators, the bull tax and, in part, the registration tax was channeled toward the Papal Treasury, which used this income to pay civil servants and benefitting the Roman Curia directly. Initially, the total price for a letter was low, but the price rose over time. In the mid-fifteenth century, a letter that granted indulgences to the addressee for seven years cost about 200 Groschen or 20 ducats. In the early sixteenth century, an indulgence letter that cost 20 ducats would only be valied for two years. Moreover, the price for indulgence depended on the status and wealth of the individual. According to the 1517 set of indulgence instructions from the city of Mainz, the prices ranged from around 1 gulden for ordinary citizens to more than 6 guldens for those with annual income of 200 guldens, and as much as 25 Rhenish gulden for kings, queens, princes and archbishops. People without income were able to acquire indulgence by praying or fasting. Over time, the non-monetary commutations came to include various services, obligations or goods equivalent to a monetary value (ibid.).

Although abuses of indulgence such as letters granting indulgence for an unusual duration (for example, a period of hundred or thousand years) and fake indulgences were strongly criticized, the money collected with the letters became a common way of raising revenue. According to Paulus, ‘the Papal Treasury receive[d] a considerable amount of money from the bestowal of indulgences, [hence] it is easy to understand why […] those very Popes who struggled with great financial difficulties […] evinced a special generosity in the bestowal of indulgences ’ (457). Yet the Church representatives allowed – and the Popes even encouraged – commutations at different levels, including donations to the build a hospital or a cathedral. But whether indulgences could be ‘sold’ was always a point of contention. The Church began to shift its views on the sale from 14th-15th century when local secular governments began to demand a substantial share of the revenue from any bestowed indulgence, sometimes even up to two-thirds of the total yield, and weakening the papacy as a result. In 1567, Pope Pius V formally abolished the sale of indulgences. However, its theological underpinnings remained largely intact until 1967 – four hundred years later – when Pope Paul VI moved the emphasis away from the fulfillment of punishment to the promotion of good works. This significantly reduced the number of plenary indulgences and eliminated the ancient system of partial indulgences. The indulgence could be interpreted as a scheme or an example of window dressing, were the church not so central to the ethical upbringing and judgement. Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther (1483−1546) established Protestantism after starting to doubt the practice of indulgences. Luther argued that forgiveness could not be purchased; God granted it for free. The only ‘preconditions’ were the act of salvation of Jesus Christ, the faith of the sinner, and the awareness of sin. The practice of indulgence letters corrupted this awareness as they granted forgiveness of sins and the remission of guilt in exchange for money, making a sincere repentance and intention for improvement no longer necessary. The latter were essential in order to share God’s forgiveness. In his argumentation against indulgences, Martin Luther issues a call to start questioning and reflecting on one’s own unethical behavior:

Why does not the pope liberate everyone from Purgatory for the sake of love (a most holy thing) and because of the supreme necessity of their souls? This would be morally the best of reasons. Meanwhile he redeems innumerable souls for money, a most perishable thing, with which to build St. Peter’s church, a very minor purpose (cited in Duggan 2020).

From a contemporary perspective, indulgences are a fraud against believers, even from the viewpoint of the modern Catholic Church (Katholisch 2014). Yet indulgences are still sold in the Catholic world in both monetary and non-monetary forms, including praying at home, the church, the cemetery, or on pilgrimages. ‘Every believer may gain partial indulgences or plenary indulgences for himself or on behalf of the deceased (cited in Direktorium, 2019: 259).

References

Direktorium, 2019. Direktorium Erzbischöfe Freiburg

Duggan, L. 2020. Indulgence. In Encyclopædia Britannica, https://academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/indulgence/4235

Katholisch 2014. ʻEin Mann des klaren Wortesʼ. Katholisch, https://www.katholisch.de/aktuelles/aktuelle-artikel/kardinal-brandmuller-martin-luther-war-haretiker

Paulus, N. 1923. Geschichte des Ablasses im Mittelalter vom Ursprunge bis zur Mitte des 14. Jahrhunderts, 3 vol. Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag