C
Contarini
Guest
They originate with the penitential system of the early Middle Ages. The early Church practiced public penance–people who committed serious sins would confess their sins publicly and be required to do penance publicly for a certain period of time. As private penance became more common for laypeople in the early Middle Ages, penitential manuals developed that assigned a certain number of days of penance to certain sins. Over time (in part, I think, because of the Western Church’s requirement from the 13th century on that everyone go to confession at least once a year), penances became lighter–more of a token of repentance than a serious “repayment” for the sin committed. Thus, even if you did the penance the priest asked of you, you might still have a “debt” that needed to be paid in Purgatory. That is why you would go on pilgrimages, etc., to try to get the debt paid off in this life. Indulgences were ways of helping with this–they officially declared a certain number of days of the old canonical penance to be remitted if you did certain actions, like venerating a relic or saying a prayer, etc. Certain actions came with “plenary indulgences,” which however had other conditions attached (sacramental confession, reception of the Eucharist, and an internal disposition “free from attachment to sin,” which you’d think would be enough for a plenary indulgence all by itself). Indulgences were expressions of grace and mercy within the framework of the penitential system–they were seen as “applying” the merits of Christ and the saints to the repentant sinner.
The entire system rested on a distinction among three consequences of serious sin:
- Guilt, which was forgiven when the person repented
- Eternal punishment, which went along with guilt;
- Temporal punishment, which still needed to be worked out after repentance and forgiveness.
Modern Catholics generally seem to put indulgences into a less legalistic framework. I have no problem with indulgences as KatherineGee, for instance, explains them. However, it is important for Catholics to recognize that medieval Catholics used this legalistic language and that this was the concept of indulgences Luther dealt with.
Protestants, in return, need to recognize two things:
- Indulgences only applied to people who had repented and been forgiven. They had nothing to do with going to heaven as opposed to hell. Hence, many of the accusations about “works righteousness” are vastly overblown.
- Luther and other Reformers developed their own doctrine of salvation within the same legalistic parameters. I see Lutheran theology as an attempt to get all the legalistic paraphernalia out of the way by declaring that all our sins were imputed to Christ and Christ’s righteousness was imputed to us. But unfortunately, many conservative Protestants continue to think about salvation in these highly legalistic terms.
