dered by one work it may be supplied by another: v. g. if on some day, he should be hindered from hearing daily mass, let him supply it by alms or some other work," &c.

It is therefore not expedient to impose a penance of seven years for adultery, according to the ancient penitential canons. S. Carol. Borr. admonishes confessors that they enjoin heavy and difficult penances upon blasphemers. (No. 179.)

The following causes will justify the occasional application of smaller penances. Inability, arising from sickness, weakness, labour, &c. Indulgences earned by the penitent; spiritual infirmity; and the pusillanimity of the penitent, lest he be too much dejected. It is not lawful to impose a greater penance than is justly due, if the relation be made with respect to all the three purposes of penance; (viz. as chastisement, medicine, and as a preservative;) but it is lawful if done with reference to only one object. Thus, v. g. rigid restitution is imposed upon boys at first for slight theft, and a severe and longer penance as a preservative and restraint against relapse; although the purpose of expiating the temporal punishment would not require so great a one for a venial sin. From this it appears, how sometimes a severe penance may be imposed for venial sin, and a greater than for mortal sin. (No. 180.)

The most convenient time of enjoining penance is before absolution. (No. 181.)

The obligation of sacramental satisfaction ceases, when the sacrament is not valid; when the penance enjoined is impossible; when the penitent entirely forgets it; in the latter case Suarez, Neesen and others, liberate him entirely on account of inability; but others maintain that he is bound to perform some other penance. (No. 183.)

The confessor may change the sacramental satisfaction for something else. (No. 184.)

OF CANONICAL PENANCE. (No. 186.)

"Which penance is called canonical? ANS. That which was performed according to the canons, or laws, or statutes of councils, bishops, or churches; v. g., wearing a sack sprinkled with ashes, standing before the church doors, fasting on bread and water, &c. The penitential canons took their origin in the third century, on occasion of the heresy of the

Montanists and Novatians, who denied penance: at which time also, the four grades of penitents were instituted; the weeping, the hearing, the prostrate, and the standing. The observance and practice of these penances, sensibly declined from the ninth century, in consequence of admitting their redemption by alms, flagellations, psalteries, &c. Subsequently, still more on the occasion of the Jerusalem expedition, for the recovery of the Holy Land. Afterwards, in the twelfth century, and finally in the thirteenth, the obligation ceased through the use of indulgences; which were granted for the sake of munificent alms, or some other work, from which, at that time, magnificent temples were constructed and built."

These canonical penances were imposed only on account of the more enormous sins; though, sometimes people assumed them without obligation, from a voluntary humility. These public penances pertained to the external discipline of the Church, and were not sacramental, as they might be remitted by a deacon.

CHAPTER XL.

TREATISE CONCERNING INDULGENCES.

"What is an indulgence? ANS. It is the remission of temporal punishment due to sins remitted as to their guilt, made by the power of the keys, apart from the sacrament, by the application of satisfactions which are contained in the treasury of the Church. What is meant by the treasury of the Church? It is an accumulation of spiritual blessings remaining in divine acceptance, and whose disposition is entrusted to the Church.

"From what does this treasury coalesce? It coalesces primarily from the superabundant satisfaction of Christ, then from the supereffluent satisfactions of the blessed Virgin Mary, and the other saints. This treasury is the foundation, or the matter of indulgences, and these resources are infinite, by reason of the satisfactions of Christ, and therefore

never will be exhausted; besides the superabundant satisfactions of pious men are daily added.”

The objection that all the good works of the saints are abundantly remunerated by God in heaven, and that therefore there can be no superabundant satisfactions from them, is thus answered: "All the good works of the saints are rewarded, in so far as they are meritorious, but not inasmuch as they are satisfactory; for many saints had not so great a debt of temporal punishments, as the price of their satis factions: for, v. g., the blessed Virgin Mary never contracted any debt of punishment, and yet she underwent the most grievous anguish: John the Baptist sanctified in the womb, led an austere life, which he crowned with martyrdom: thus the apostles, martyrs, anchorites, and other innumerable saints and saintesses, suffered more than their sins required, according to the manner which God observes, in exacting punishments. But the satisfactions of the saints concur, not only by way of impetration, as some pretend, but also by way of payment; as appears from the proposition condemned in the case of Bajus, No. 60. By the sufferings of the saints communicated in indulgences, our faults are not properly redeemed, but through the communion of love, their sufferings are shared by us, that we may be worthy, who are delivered by the price of Christ's blood, from the punishments due for sins. It is plain from these remarks, that the effect of indulgences is the remission of the temporal punishment, remaining after the remission of sin as to its guilt; but the guilt itself of the sin, is not directly remitted through indulgences.

"OBJ. Popes sometimes say in bulls, that they grant indulgences of sins: therefore, &c. ANS. The cause is put for the effect, and an indulgence of the punishment from the sin is signified in which sense it is said, 2 Macc. xii. 46. 'It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought, to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.' Also, when an indulgence from the guilt and penalty is said to be granted, the power of absolving from any fault whatever, in the sacrament of penance, and of relaxing temporal punishments is meant; as Lezana teaches, together with others. But indulgences avail not only in the court of the Church, but also in the court of God; that is, they not only liberate

from punishments, inasmuch as they would otherwise be enjoined by the Church; but also, inasmuch as they are due to God, and would otherwise have to be expiated, either here or in purgatory, as will be shown more at length hereafter." (No. 236.)

THE DIVISION OF INDULGENCES is as follows: (No. 237.) "1. Into local, real, and personal. 2. Into plenary, and not plenary: some also are more full; others are most full. 3. Into perpetual and temporal.

“Perpetual are those which are granted for ever, without limitation of time. Temporal, are those which are conceded only for a limited period, say for seven years, which having elapsed, they cease. Local indulgences are such as are appointed for some place, say a temple, altar, &c. Real, are those which are annexed to any material thing, v. g., a rosary, a coin, an image, &c.: very often, however, such are carried about, which do not in truth subsist." (Beware of counterfeits!)

"Personal, are those which are directly granted to a person, without limitation to a thing or place. "What indulgences are plenary? Those which are granted for the remission of all the temporal punishment which the person owes: those are called more full, which in addition to this, give the power of absolving from cases and censures reserved to the pontiff: and those are called the most full, to which is added, besides the aforesaid things, according to Collet, the power of commuting vows, or of dispensing in certain irregularities. Observe, that although plenary indulgences are sometimes given under this expression: Indulgences in the form of a jubilee, they never have privilege to the extent of absolution, from reserved cases, &c., unless it is formally and expressly contained in the bull. For these words are not added, in order that the more ample effect of the indulgence may be expressed, but that the greater desire and abundance of the cause may be implied, and that anxiety may be excited in the faithful, of earning the indulgence." So Suarez and others.

"What indulgences are called not plenary? Those which are not conceded for the remission of the entire temporal punishment, but are usually limited through certain days or years, according to the mode in which the canonical

penances were formerly prescribed; after these were abrogated, the use of indulgences began to be more common, and as it were, succeeded in their place: and thus the mode was introduced of measuring, or determining indulgences, not according to months or weeks, but by days and years, as the canonical penances prescribed.

"What, therefore, is signified by an indulgence, v. g., of a hundred days? ANs. It is not meant, that by this indulgence a person is liberated from a punishment in purgatory, that will last precisely one hundred days, as the common people suppose; but that he, who obtains this indulgence of a hundred days, may obtain so great a remission of temporal punishments in this life, or of those which are to be expiated in purgatory, as he would have obtained, if he had really performed a penance of a hundred days, such as was wont to be imposed, according to the canons, regarding it indeed, merely inasmuch as it is satisfactory: but the remission of how much temporal punishment, or of how many days to be expiated in purgatory, may correspond to this penance or indulgence of one hundred days, is not altogether known; perhaps not even ten days.

"Hence also, is understood what is meant by an indulgence of one or more quadragena, which is sometimes granted: a quadragena, according to the canons, was a fast to be continued through forty days; but when it was performed on bread and water, it was called carena, from wanting other food. (Carendo aliis cibis.)"

"But what is to be said of indulgences of a thousand or even more years, which are recorded as having sometimes been granted? I answer with Steyaert: the same as of plenary indulgences, which are still more copious; for some one might have been a debtor of so many years of penance, if he had sinned to such an extent, that so great a penance was due to him. Neither ought it to appear wonderful, that so many years of punishment were due to the sins of any one, according to the canons, although he could not live so long because this length of time, says Boudart, might be diminished by the earnestness and fervour of charity, by which the works enjoined, and other works of virtues might be produced hence, some persons have unjustly inveighed against these indulgences of many years, as though framed