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Learned Discussions of Indulgences for the Dead in the Middle Ages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Robert W. Shaffern
Robert W. Shaffern
Affiliation:
adjunct assistant professor of arts and letters in the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana.
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Extract

By the thirteenth century, Latin Christians had been dispensing and collecting indulgences for two centuries. Though indulgentia was a relatively late term, and first the favorite of thirteenth-century Dominican theologians, remissions of temporal penalty for sin had been granted since the eleventh century, whether they were known as remissiones or relaxationes, the two most popular terms of eleventh- and twelfth-century ecclesiastics. Bishops granted partial indulgences for visitations of holy places. Partial indulgences remitted a fraction of all penalty incurred through sin. Contributions to pious works, such as church, hospital, or bridge constructions, were also rewarded with indulgences. Other prelates granted indulgences until Lateran IV. The popes granted both partial and plenary indulgences (those which remitted all penalty for having sinned). They granted partial indulgences for much the same reasons as other bishops. Plenary indulgences were almost exclusively granted to crusaders or contributors to crusades.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 61 , Issue 4 , December 1992 , pp. 367 - 381
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1992

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References

1. For accounts of the origins and forerunners of indulgences, see Paulus, Nikolaus, “Die ältesten Ablässe für Almosen und Kirchenbesuch,” Zeitschnft für katholische Theologie 33 (1909): 1–40;Google Scholarby the same author, “Die Anfange des Ablässes,” Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie 39 (1915): 193–230;Google Scholarand Poschmann, Bernhard, Der Ablaβ in Licht der Buβgeschichte (Bonn, 1948), pp. 43–62.Google ScholarPaulus's, much longer work, Geschichte des Ablässes im Mittelaller, 3 vols. (Paderborn, 1922–1923) is the point of departure for all serious studies of indulgences.Google ScholarFor a clear, short introduction in English to the subject of indulgences see Vodola, Elisabeth, “Indulgences,” Dictionary of the Middle Ages, 13 vols., ed. Strayer, Joseph R. (New York, 1982–1989), 6:446–450.Google Scholar

2. The change in terminology is illuminating.Google ScholarTwelfth-century prelates called their dispensations relaxationes or remissiones.Google ScholarThe word indulgentia first came into common usage in the theological commentaries of thirteenth-century Dominican theologians who insisted that indulgences efficacy came primarily from the authority of bishops.Google ScholarFor instance, Bonaventure, who called them relaxationes (Commentaria in IV libros sententiarum, Bk. 4, dist. 20, art. 1, q. 2), argued that the disposition of pentitents and the rigor of enjoined works could vastly increase the worth of indulgences.Google ScholarThomas Aquinas, who stated that only the will of prelates determined the worth of indulgences, called them indulgentiae (Commentum in IV libros sententiarum, Bk. 4, dist. 20, quaestio 1, art. 3, quaestiuncula 3).Google ScholarAlbert the Great shared Thomas's tendency to understand indulgences in juridical terms, but he also wrote his commentary about ten years before Thomas, which explains why he used both the early term relaxatio and the later term indulgentia (Commentarii in IV sententiarum, Bk. 4, dist. 20, art. 16).Google Scholar

3. Innocent III prohibited abbots from dispensing indulgences in the decree Accedentibus, Decretals, Bk. 5, tit. 38, ch. 4, Corpus iuris canonici, ed. Friedberg, A.Leipzig, 1879), vol. 2, pp. 840–841.Google Scholar

4. Although they lacked systematic methods, twelfth- and early thirteenth-century discussions identified most of the important issues raised by the dispensation of indulgences.Google ScholarFor representative treatments, see Peter, of Poitiers, Sententiarum libri quinque, PL 211: 1076;Google ScholarCantor, Peter, Summa de sacramentis et animae consiliis, 11, 110 in Analecta mediaevalia Namurcensia (Louvain, 1957–1967), 7:190–195;Google ScholarWilliam of Auxerre, Summa aurea (Paris, 1980–1985), 4, 14, 2, 2 (vol. 4, pp. 349–360),Google Scholarand William of Auvergne, Opera omnia (Paris, 1674), 1, 550a–551b;Google ScholarHuguccio, Summa decretorum, De poenitentia, D. 1, c. 88, cited in Gillman, Franz, “Zur Ablaβlehre der Frühscholastik,” Der Katholik 93.1 (1913): 365–376;Google ScholarTeutonicus, Johannes, Glossa ordinaria, contained in Gratian, Decretum Gratiam emendatum et notationibus illustratum una cum glossis (Venice, 1584), pp. 1387–1388, 2252;Google Scholarand for the thoughts of the English canonist Alanus, whose work remains unprinted, see Paulus, , Geschichte des Ablässes im Mittelalter, 1:224–227.Google Scholar

5. Paulus, , Geschichte des Ablässes im Mittelalter, 2:168.Google Scholar

6. “Dixit ei legatus quod auctoritate dei et pape et ecclesie concedebat patri suo defuncto indulgenciam, et ipse pro eo per aliam quadragesimam sustineret laborem ibi.” de la Marche, A. Lecoy, ed., Anecdotes historiques, légendes el apologues tirés du recueil d'Élienne de Bourbon (Paris, 1877), p. 37.Google Scholar

7. “Non attendunt quid predicent, dummodo multos capiant. Tales sunt hodie quidam predicatores crucis, qui signari volentibus, quotquot vel quas animas requirunt, de purgatorio vel, quod maioris vesanie est, de inferno repromittunt, ac si illas in suo reti conclusas teneant. Cum non sint de foro viventium anime corporibus solute, qua fronte viventes illas presumunt vendere?” Caesarius of Heisterbach, Fasciculus moralitatis, Bk. 3, p. 46.Google ScholarCited by Paulus, , Geschichte des Ablässes im Mittelalter, 2:168.Google Scholar

8. “Ecclesia praedicat crucem, et facit praedicari pro se et duabus vel tribus vel quandoque decem animabus tarn vivorum, quam mortuorum, ad electionem cruce signati. Sed illae animae sunt quandoque in inferno, quandoque in purgatorio, quandoque autem sunt adhuc vivorum. Ergo videtur, quod indulgentia crucis valeat omnibus illis qui dictae sunt animabus.” Albert, , Commentarii in IV sententiarum, Opera omnia (Paris, 1894), 4, 20, 18 (vol. 29, p. 853).Google ScholarThomas, referred to the same crusade indulgences, in almost the same language, in Commenlum in IV libros sententiarum, 4, 45, 2, 3, 2 (vol. 7, p. 1127).Google Scholar

9. “Indulgentiae dierum quae a pastoribus ecclesiae in sanctorum festivitatibus vel alias ob caritatis opera fiunt, non solum vivis, verum etiam mortuis fidelibus prosunt, et gratiam sibi indultae solutionis percipiunt, si tales sunt qui vivorum beneficiis a poenarum suppliciis valeant liberari.”Google ScholarLucas of Tuy, Lucae Tudensis episropi de altera vita fideique controversies adversus Albigensium errores libri III (Ingolstadt, 1612), p. 13.Google Scholar

10. “Dico igitur, quod quia bona et thesaurus ecclesiae est summi pontificis potestate, et illi qui sunt in purgatorio, ratione caritatis idonei sunt spiritualia beneficia recipere; quod papa potest eis bona ecclesiae communicare. Quantum autem ad auctoritatem iudicandi, cum illi iam exierint forum ecclesiae et ecclesiastkum iudicium, videtur, quod eis non possit fieri absolutio nisi per modum deprecationis; et ita, proprie loquendo, non fit eis relaxatio; sed si large dicatur relaxatio cuiuscumque auxilii impensio et bonorum ecclesiae communicatio, sic potest eis relaxatio fieri; sed hoc non tenet modum iudicii, sed potius suffragii.”Google ScholarBonaventure, Commentaria in IV libros sententiarum, 4, 20, 1, 5;Google ScholarOpera omma (Quaracchi, 1882–1902), vol. 4, p. 538.Google Scholar

11. “… relaxatio proprie dicta non tantum dicit iudiciariam absolutionem, verum etiam dicit aliquam commutationem in poenam aliquam voluntarie assumtam et cum devotione; et hoc videmus in omnibus indulgentiis; hoc autem non potest esse quantum ad eos qui sunt in purgatorio, quia sunt extra statum ilium, in quo posset eis persuaderi alicuius poenae devota et voluntario assumtio: et ideo non competit eis relaxatio nisi forte per medium sive per accidens. Si quis enim vellet crucem pro mortuo patre assumere, non est aliquatenus negandum, quodsi voluntas sit summi pontificis, quin indulgentia illi possit.” Bonaventure, Commentaria in IVlibros sententiarum, 4, 20, 1, 5 (vol. 4, p. 538).Google Scholar

12. “… existentibus in inferno nihil prosunt indulgentiae; sed existentibus in purgatorio prosunt multum.” Albert, , Commentarii in IV sententiarum, 4, 20, 18 (vol. 29, p. 855).Google Scholar

13. “Purgatorium enim quodammodo via et quodammodo terminus est: quantum enim ad confirmationem, quia peccare amplius non possunt, sunt in termino: sed quantum ad non pervenisse adhuc ad emendationem qua emendantur, sunt adhuc in via et in transitu ad patriam.” Albert, , Commentarii in IV sententiarum, 4, 20, 18 (vol. 29, p. 855).Google Scholar

14. “Semper adjungitur: ‘Confessis et poenitentiam suscipientibus, vel qui confessi sunt et poenitentiam susceperunt….’ Illi autem omnes vel sunt in via adhuc poenitentes, vel in purgatorio satisfacientes luendo in poenis quod fecerunt. Et ideo tantum illis valet.” Albert, , Commentarii in IV sententiarum, 4, 20, 18 (vol. 29, p. 855).Google Scholar

15. “…ab omnibus conceditur indulgentias aliquid valere: quia impium esset dicere, quod ecclesia aliquid vane faceret.” Aquinas, Thomas, Commentum in IV libros sententiarum, 4, 20, 1,3, 1;Google ScholarOpera omnia (Parma, 1852–1873), vol. 7, p. 843.Google Scholar

16. “…indulgentia dupliciter alicui prodesse potest: uno modo principaliter; alio modo secundario. Principaliter quidem prodest ei qui indulgentiam accipit, scilicet qui facit hoc pro quo indulgentia datur, ut qui visitat limina alicuius sancti. Unde cum mortui non possint facere eorum pro quibus indulgentiae dantur, eis indulgentiae directe valere non possunt. Secundario autem et indirecte prosunt ei pro quo aliquis facit illud quod est indulgentiae causa, quod quandoque contingere potest, quandoque autem non potest, secundum diversam indulgentiae formam. Si enim sit talis indulgentiae forma: quicumque facit hoc vel illud, habebit tantum de indulgentia; ille qui hoc facit, non potest fructum indulgentiae in alium transferre quia eius non est applicare ad aliquid intentionem ecclesiae, per quam communicantur communia suffragia ex quibus indulgentiae valent, ut iam supra dictum est [in Commeyitum in IV libros sententiarum, 4, 20, 1, 3, 3]. Si autem indulgentia sub hac forma fiat: quicumque fecerit hoc vel illud, ipse et pater eius, vel quicumque ei adjunctus, in purgatorio detentus, tantum de indulgentia habebit, talis indulgentia non solum vivo, sed etiam mortuo proderit. Non enim est aliqua ratio quare ecclesia possit transferre merita communia, quibus indulgentiae innituntur, in vivos, et non in mortuos.” Aquinas, Thomas, Commenlum in IV libros sententiarum, 4, 45, 2, 3, 2 (vol. 7, p. 1127).Google Scholar

17. John of Freiburg, Summa confessorum (Augsburg, 1476), Bk. 3, p. 188.Google Scholar

18. Ibid., Bk. 3, p. 191.

19. “Sed nee mortuis prosunt remissiones huiusmodi, licet alia suffragia ecclesie prosint, quia hec charitas sola prodest in purgatorio, cum secundum prosperum fit in omnibus fidelibus operosa, De poenitentia, distinctione ii. Charitas est ut mihi videtur in fine sed potestas clavium non habet ibi locum, nec obstat quod ecclesia solvit et Hgat post mortem.” Hostiensis, , Summa aurea (Lyon, 1537), 5, 66 (fol. 288ra).Google Scholar

20. “Quia ibi fit absolutio ad consolationem vivorum fidelium et absolvitur mortuus, id est, antequam moreretur absolutus fuisse per contritionem monstratur … sed in veritate quo ad alios qui iam mortui sunt nihil operatur.” Hostiensis, , Summa aurea, 5, 66 (fol. 288ra).Google Scholar

21. “Suo iudice, per hoc videtur, quod indulgence, non valeant illis, qui sunt in purgatorio, quia iam non habent iudicem in terra, sed dei iudicio relicti sunt, 34 quaestio, 2 causa, 1, Nee est contra; 13 quaestio, 2, Tempus; et capitulo Animae, et De poenitentia, dist. 6, paragrapho 1, ubi dicitur, quod orationes et eleemosynae sacrificia et ieiunia eis valeant, quia ilia non fiunt ratione fori vel iurisdictionis, sed secus est in indulgentia. Et hie videtur tamen quod si aliquis facit ecclesiam, vel peregrinatur pro defuncto in loco electo a praelato, quod plus valet defuncto, quam si alias faceret. Si tamen papa facit, non negemus, quin valeant in defunctis.” Innocent IV, Commentaria super libros V decretalium (Frankfurt, 1570), Bk. 5, tit. 38, ch. 4 (fol. 544 ra).Google Scholar

22. “Dicendum quod ego numquam vidi talem formam in aliquo authentico emanare a curia.” Albert, , Commentani in IV sententiarum, 4, 20, 18 (vol. 29, p. 855).Google Scholar

23. Monumenta Germaniae Historiae (MGH), Scriptorum, ed. Pertz, G. (Hanover, 1874), 23:379.Google Scholar

24. “… qui eleemosynas eis conferunt, de purgatorio (ut asserunt mendaciter), extrahant.” Clementines, Bk. 5, tit. 9, ch. 2; Friedberg, 2:1190.Google Scholar

25. Fredericq, Paul, ed., Codex documentorum sacratissimarum indulgentiarum neerlandicarum (Gravenhage, 1922), p. 2.Google Scholar

26. “Indulgence, cum iam gratia abundante, sint per ecclesiam multiplicate diversis ex causis, et quam plurimi sola proprie estimationis fantasia ducti circa eas frequenter decipiantur, et ahos in caude loquendo sue docendo decipiantur utile iudicavi aliqua hic de hac materia secundum maiorum sententias annotare.” John of Freiburg, Summa confessorum, Bk. 3, introduction to quaestiones 180–194.Google Scholar

27. When Gregory IX required preachers for a crusade against the Stedinger peasants of the northwestern empire, he immediately sought out the preaching expertise of the Dominicans. MGH, Epistolae seculi XIII, 1:394.Google ScholarSee also Freed, John B., The Friars and German Society in the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge, Mass., 1977), p. 147.Google Scholar

28. “Quod esset deceptio nisi mortuis prodessent.” Aquinas, Thomas, Commentum in IV libros sententiarum, 4, 20, 1, 3, 1 (vol. 7, p. 845).Google Scholar

29. The secular canonists Guido of Baysio and Johannes Monachus said nothing about indulgences for the dead. The lay canonist Johannes Andreae was likewise silent, as was the late thirteenth-century secular master Henry of Ghent.Google Scholar

30. “Est namque duplex meritum. Unum est emenale absolutum quo quis meritur vitam eternam propria operatione per radicem charitatis. Et de tali merito verum est quod illi qui sunt in purgatorio non sunt in statu merendi quia iam meruerunt vitam eternam per caritatem cum qua decesserunt. Tale namque meritum non dependet ab opere alterius sed ab opere proprio. Alius est meritum conditionale quo quis meretur pene etiam missionem vel accelerationem dummodo alii pro eis faciant ilia que instituta sunt ab ecclesia ad pene remissionem consequendam. Talis autem merito conditionali quod dependet ab opera alterius. Illi qui sunt in purgatorio mereri possunt. Et quantum ad tale meritum cum non dum sint comprehensores adhuc sunt viatores, et de foro pape, quia possunt stipendiari thesauro ecclesie per communicationem indulgentie, ex quo alii faciunt pro eis ilia propter quod indulgentie sunt ordinate.” Augustine of Ancona, Summa de potestate ecclesiastica (Rome, 1479), quaestio 29.Google Scholar

31. “Anime defunctorum liberantur indulgentiis prelatorum, sicut enim prelatus potest dispensare thesaurum ecclesie, sicut privatus bona propria, unde sicut bona mea possum communicare indifferenter vivo et mortuo, sic prelatus merita sanctorum et supererogationes eorum, dum tamen illud pro quo mortuo datur fiat a vivo.” Paludanus, Peter, Scriptum in IV sententiarum (Venice, 1493), Bk. 4, dist. 45, q. 1 (p. 217).Google Scholar

32. “Nam indulgentie sacramentales sunt cum fiant virtute clavium,” Augustine of Ancona, Summa de potestate ecclesiastica, quaestio 30;Google Scholarand “Sicut verum sacramentum confert peccando, sic etiam veram indulgentie,” Paludanus, Peter, Scriptum in IV sententiarum, 4,20, 4 (p. 110).Google Scholar

33. John of Dambach, De Quantitate indulgenciarum, Basel Universitätsbibliothek MS CV 18, fols. 59ra, 62ra, 62rb.Google Scholar

34. Paulus, , Geschuhte des Ablässes im Mittelalter, 2:179.Google Scholar

35. Francis Mayron's argument is representative: “Nota de illo qui dicebat se habere indulgentias pro illis qui sunt in purgatorio, ita quod pro uno denario una dies eis remittebatur et pro duabus plus, etc. Sed hoc non est verum, ex quo enim aliquis exit limites ecclesie et forum istud non potest sibi ecclesia dare indulgentias nisi pro quando sunt hoc lucrati. Non sic autem est de suffragiis que impetrantur per modum obsecrationis. Indulgentie autem dantur per modum auctoritatis et jurisditionis. Non autem habet ecclesia iurisdictione in purgatorio. Ideo error esse dicere hoc dare, nee unquam talis indulgentia fuit data.” In libros sententiarum (Frankfurt, 1966; repr. of Venice, 1520 ed.) Bk. 4, dist. 21, art. 1 (p. 209).Google Scholar

36. “Nec illis qui sunt in purgatorio prosunt, quia cum fiant et procedant ex virtute clavium, et clavis non liget nee absolvat mortuos qui relicti sunt iudicio divino.?” William of Montlaudun, Sacramentale, De indulgentiis, quaestio 9, Munich Staatsbibliothek MS Clm 23947, fol. 175, cited in Paulus, Geschichte des Ablasses im Mittelalter, 1:391.Google Scholar

37. “Per idem patet quod indulgentiae non valent existentibus in purgatorio directe, quamvis ipsi sint in charitate: quia ipsi non possunt facere id pro quo datur indulgentia, et iterum non sunt de foro ecclesie. Et quia potestas data Petro est absolvere et ligare super terrain, sicut dictum est ei: Tibi dabo claves regni celorum, et quodcunque hgaveris super terram, etc. Unde potestas papae per se directe extendit se solum ad statum presentis vitae: possunt tamen in eis indirecte valere per modum suffragii, quatenus aliquis quod indulgentiam recipit faciendo id pro quo datur indulgentia ex intentione transfert earn in satisfactionem eius quod est in purgatorio.” Durand of St. Pourcain, In Petri Lombardi sententias theologicas commentariorum libn IV (Venice, 1571), Bk. 4, dist. 20, art. 3 (vol. 2, p. 345).Google Scholar

38. “Omnibus … unius anni et 40 dierum tarn pro mortuis quam pro vivis indulgentiam concedimus.” Perini, L., Istoria delle monache di S. Silveslro di Verone (Padua, 1720), 2:77.Google Scholar

39. Lea, Henry C., A History of Auricular Confession and Indulgences in the Middle Ages, 3 vols. (New York, 1968; repr. of 1896 ed.), 3:346.Google Scholar

40. See Paulus, , Geschichte des Abldsses im Mittelalter, 3:94–100.Google Scholar