Origins of the Church's treasury

[reccanboy]

Paul VI, quoting Clement VI, states:

For "the only-begotten son of God…has won a treasure for the militant Church and has entrusted it to blessed Peter, the keybearer of heaven, and to his successors, Christ’s vicars on earth, that they may distribute it to the faithful for their salvation, applying it mercifully for reasonable causes to all who are repentant and have confessed their sins, at times remitting completely and at times partially the temporal punishment due sin in a general as well as in special ways insofar as they judge it to be fitting in the eyes of the Lord. It is known that the merits of the Blessed Mother of God and of all the elect…add further to this treasure.

Indulgentiarum Doctrina

The earliest I’ve been able to trace this is from Alexander of Hales, the medieval theologian who formulated the doctrine of this treasury, and it is mentioned also by Thomas Aquinas in the Summa.

Why do Catholics believe that the merits of saints that have passed on, remit the temporal punishment of those who gain indulgences? Does this have an Apostolic origin?

 

[eucharisteo]

Yes. Look at the Old Testament…deuterocanon…Macabees. They prayerd for the dead as they did penance. Then throughout the New Testament they prayed for other by fasting and penance. Which is strange that Protestants don’t typically practice. For that matter, neither to Catholics…cafateria type… But it goes all the way back even before Christ. THe New Testament writer Paul talks about joining in Christ’s suffering with their [thus ours as well] suffering. Nothing new under the sun. That’s just a sketch I know.