Proof that indulgences were practiced in Early Church?

[Anne31415]

I have been looking everywhere for Early Church documents that show indulgences were a practice then. I can’t seem to find any. Per a Jimmy Akin article, they WERE practiced. I just can’t find references for it. The earliest date I’ve found on them is 1095.

 

[YourNameHere]

Welcome to the community.

 

[DaveBj]

Here is some information (but not a lot):

Indulgence - Wikipedia

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[Wesrock]

I am not going to be much help, but let me add something. Doctrines on indulgences and purgatory developed over time. I expect the formalized processes of indulgences emerged later. I would broaden your search to look more into the root concepts of temporal punishment, atonement (probably by penance and prayer), etc… The ancient Church often prescribed long penances for sin and forgiveness, for example. Why the Church has the authority to prescribe it, applying the infinite merits of Christ and the finite merits of the saints, the treasury of merit… these were theological developments in understanding why and how the ancient Church (and the Church in general) did do what it did, to defend the ancient and then-current practice against those who tried to object to it.

 

[Todd_Easton]

The Catholic Encyclopedia article, Indulgences, in the section entitled, “The power to grant indulgences,” quotes from some early Christian writers.

 

[Anne31415]

Thank you to everybody! I will continue my research tonight

 

[Francis]

@Anne31415

I have been looking everywhere for Early Church documents that show indulgences were a practice then. I can’t seem to find any.

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P4G.HTM

Obtaining indulgence from God through the Church

1478 An indulgence is obtained through the Church who, by virtue of the power of binding and loosing granted her by Christ Jesus, intervenes in favor of individual Christians and opens for them the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints to obtain from the Father of mercies the remission of the temporal punishments due for their sins. Thus the Church does not want simply to come to the aid of these Christians, but also to spur them to works of devotion, penance, and charity.[89]

1479 Since the faithful departed now being purified are also members of the same communion of saints, one way we can help them is to obtain indulgences for them, so that the temporal punishments due for their sins may be remitted.

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s1c2a2.htm

76 In keeping with the Lord’s command, the Gospel was handed on in two ways:

• orally "by the apostles who handed on, by the spoken word of their preaching, by the example they gave, by the institutions they established, what they themselves had received - whether from the lips of Christ, from his way of life and his works, or whether they had learned it at the prompting of the Holy Spirit;

John 21:25 But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

2 Maccabees 12: 44 For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. 45 But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Therefore he made atonement for the dead, so that they might be delivered from their

 

[BartholomewB]

Eusebius Amort, an eighteenth-century German theologian, wrote a history of indulgences, published in Augsburg in 1735 under the short, snappy title, De origine, progressu, valore et fructu indulgentiarum accurata notitia historica, dogmatica, critica. He wrote it in Latin. Has it ever been translated into any other language? Sadly, I have not yet found the answer to that question.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01434a.htm

 

[po18guy]

It is founded, as are many Catholic things, on the power of binding and loosing given to the Church by Christ.

 

[Wesrock]

Eusebius Amort, an eighteenth-century German theologian, wrote a history of indulgences, published in Augsburg in 1735 under the short, snappy title, De origine, progressu, valore et fructu indulgentiarum accurata notitia historica, dogmatica, critica. He wrote it in Latin. Has it ever been translated into any other language? Sadly, I have not yet found the answer to that question.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01434a.htm

As a complete aside, it’s easy to forget the language of the Church is not English. There are many writings and resources out there which have never been translated into English, including Patristics. Sometimes I find brief snippets which have been translated, but not the whole document. English, up to a few hundred years ago, was just the language of a small island on the far fringes of Christendom.

 

[Anne31415]

I wish all Catholics were taught Latin as well as the Jewish teach their children Hebrew…

 

[Tis_Bearself]

It used to be the case that anyone pursuing a serious college education, Catholic or Protestant, learned both Latin and Greek as part of their normal studies.

One can still certainly learn Latin if one wishes. I learned enough of it in four years of high school Latin to be able to muddle along , though I am not an expert.

 

[Genesis315]

The manner of granting indulgences over time has varied. In the early Church it would simply be a bishop remitting a canonical penance that had been imposed before it had been completed. Since the point of such penances were to make satisfaction, and since satisfaction not completed in this life is made in the next (what Purgatory is), then naturally the indulgence would have to extend there too (it would be cruel to make someone think their satisfaction was remitted in this life, only to have to face it in the next). The focus nowadays is much more on the afterlife part.

For more detail, including Biblical examples, see my two successive posts here:

Indulgences Explained Liturgy and Sacraments

The doctrine of indulgences is linked with the doctrine of the communion Saints. The elements of this doctrine are all biblical and were present in the early Church East and West–it is more obvious in the penitential practice of the early Church, but it still applicable today of course. First, it bears pointing out that there are three parts to repentance–contrition, confession, and bringing forth fruits worthy of repentance (this last part is often called “satisfaction.”) It is the third part …